History

Founded in 1962 by the Peninsula Arts Association (PAA) in honor of Francis Howe Hardy, the Hardy Gallery has initiatives that address the needs of the local artist community and the creative enrichment of local youth, and is more focused than ever on educating the public and promoting the visual arts and artists of the Door County Peninsula.

Francis Howe Hardy was a businessman, an amateur painter, and a summer resident in Ephraim from 1930 until his death in 1960. It was his ambition to create in Door County a climate of understanding and appreciation of the arts, which would attract both artists and art lovers to the area.

Aslag Anderson, who immigrated to the United States from Norway, and his friend Peter Peterson purchased 166 acres of shorefront property with the agreement that they would build a large deepwater dock for community use. This would ensure that goods such as cedar posts, shingles, salted fish, and cordwood could be exported from Ephraim. The first Anderson Warehouse was constructed on the edge of the Dock to house these exportable goods in 1858.