H.
H. Richardson in the news: Brookline home saved from demolition
In May 1874, Henry Hobson Richardson moved to Brookline, Mass., to supervise
construction of Trinity Church. He rented the Samuel Gardner Perkins house
(built 1803) at 25 Cottage Street from a friend and Harvard classmate.
Although he never owned the home, he redesigned much of the interior.
As his practice grew, he also constructed a series of additions onto the
southeast corner of the house, containing numerous drafting rooms and
office space. This office wing also included Richardson’s study,
a 25 by 30 foot space with built-in bookshelves and a large fireplace
at one end. That room served as a model for the library in the Glessner
house. The wing was demolished in the years following Richardson’s
death.
The Committee to Save the H. H. Richardson House was formed in 2004 to
find a preservation-minded buyer for the property. In June 2007, the National
Trust for Historic Preservation named Richardson’s home on their
annual list, America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
In January 2008, a buyer paid
$2.2 million for the property and has agreed to the deed estrictions requiring
him to preserve and restore significant portions of the house. These include
the front and side elevations, Richardson’s bedroom and the staircase
leading to it, and stained glass windows by John La Farge.
The Glessners Visit Richardon at his Brookline Home
John and Frances Glessner made two visits to Richardson’s home in
Brookline during the time they were working on the design of their home.
The first visit occurred on September 27, 1885. Frances Glessner wrote
her impression of Richardson’s house in her journal: “The
house is an old rambling house of frame and very interesting. Mr. R. soon
appeared and took us through his house and large office and into the ‘end
room’ - his own beautiful private office—an extremely interesting
room.” The second and final visit took place on February 11, 1886.
Richardson was ill, so they lunched with him in his bedroom. It was the
last time the Glessners would see Richardson alive—he died on March
27, 1886.
(February 2008)
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H. H. Richardson in Chicago, Part I: Luxurious
Imprisonment: Richardson’s MacVeagh House by Mary Alice Molloy
While John and Frances Glessner were building their dream house on South
Prairie Avenue, their friends Franklin and Emily MacVeagh were also erecting
a Richardson designed home directly facing Lake Michigan on a newly opened
stretch of North Lake Shore Drive.
The house at 1400 N. Lake Shore
Drive (just north of Potter Palmer’s castle) stood three stories
high on a battered basement. Its stalwart main block facing the drive
featured two unmatched corner towers flanking a balanced central portion
with loggias that opened onto the lake on all floors. All of the elevations
were finished in a creamy rough-cut Ohio sandstone called Buff Amherst.
The blocks were put up in alternating wide and narrow courses and were
virtually devoid of carved ornamentation. In the fashion of Richardson’s
later designs, the walls were carried seamlessly around corners, as if
it were possible to stretch a stone skin over a frame. A steeply pitched
red tile roof was set down cap-like above the walls.
Interior spaces were lavishly outfitted. The library walls were lined
in antique French tapestries, the dining room, decorated in an Italian
fashion, opened into a conservatory through marble arches, and in 1893,
the third floor was finished as a music room with walls painted in the
manner of Fontainebleau. The Tribune labeled its stout stone facades and
lavish interiors “luxurious imprisonment.”
Sic Transit Gloria
By the early 20th century, architectural journals had come to regard the
MacVeagh house as the quintessential Richardson residence, the embodiment
in a house of the qualities that distinguished the architect’s Marshall
Field Wholesale Store, such as the unadorned elevations of carefully laid
stonework and the consistent arched openings. After it was demolished
in 1922, however, no one gave the MacVeagh house any more thought, and
gradually Richardson’s far more important accomplishments on the
Glessner house - the masterful variations within its stone coursing, the
allusions to the American Colonial home on its main façade - gained
for it a respect far outweighing anything the MacVeagh house had garnered.
(May 2008)
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H. H. Richardson in Chicago, Part II:
Richardson’s forgotten Chicago commission: The American Merchants
Union Express Company building
The firm of Gambrill & Richardson was commissioned to design a new
building for the American Merchants Union Express Company in September
1872, just three months after receiving the commission for Trinity Church
in Boston. Located on a 90 x 190 foot lot on the south side of Monroe
Street, mid-way between State and Dearborn, the American Express building
featured a Chateauesque-style façade that did not display Richardson’s
later trademark Romanesque style. A 30-foot wide light court, which cut
through the building about halfway along its depth, provided illumination
into the back sections of the building. The building was designed less
than a year after the Chicago Fire, so it is not surprising that its design
addressed the hazard of fire, with a 4,000 gallon water tank concealed
beneath the mansard roof. A pipe direct from a fire plug outside brought
water up to each floor, and a steam pump in the basement could throw a
stream of water 50 feet above the roof.
In addition to the American
Express offices, the building housed lodge rooms for the Knights Templar,
offices of the Elgin Watch Company, and rooms for the Apollo Music Club
and the Chicago Literary Club. Interior spaces are generally attributed
to Peter B. Wight, who was working for the firm at the time.
Ironically, the building was
destroyed in a spectacular fire on June 7, 1930. A large office tower
known as 33 W. Monroe, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in 1980
now stands on the site.
Charles Dexter Gambrill
Boston native Charles Dexter Gambrill was born in 1834, and graduated
from Harvard in 1854, just one year before Richardson enrolled there.
In 1861, he formed the partnership of Gambrill & Post with George
B. Post, with whom he became acquainted while working in the office of
Richard Morris Hunt. In 1867, Post began an independent practice and the
partnership of Gambrill & Richardson was created with Henry Hobson
Richardson. During the eleven years that the partnership lasted, Gambrill
served as the business manager, and Richardson as the designer. The partnership
was dissolved in October 1878. Just two years later, at the age of 46,
Gambrill “died by his own hand from overwork and temporary insanity.”
(August 2008)
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H. H. Richardson in Chicago, Part III:
The Marshall Field Wholesale Store
In April 1885, Marshall Field hired H. H. Richardson to design a new structure
for his rapidly growing wholesale division (its business was nearly five
times that of the retail store). When Richardson came to Chicago that
October to present his final plans and sign the contract, the Chicago
Tribune reported that “Beauty will be one of the objects aimed at
in the plans, but it will be the beauty of material and symmetry rather
than of mere superficial ornamentation. The structure will be a distinct
advance in the architecture of buildings devoted to commercial purposes
in this country.”
Unfortunately, Richardson never
saw the building even begin to approach completion before his death in
April 1886. On his deathbed, however, he stated that what he wanted most
was to live two years to see the Pittsburgh courthouse and the Field wholesale
store complete, for these, he felt, were the works he would be judged
by in the future.
The store opened on June 20, 1887 after nearly 18 months of construction,
at a final cost of $888,007. It covered the entire block bounded by Adams,
Franklin, Quincy, and Wells. The first two levels were covered with rock-faced
Missouri red granite, with East Longmeadow red sandstone used above. Floors
were tied together in groups under massive arches that decreased in size
as the elevation rose 130 feet. The interior contained nearly twelve acres
of floor space that accommodated 1800 employees.
The Glessner house and the Wholesale Store
Plans for the Glessner house and the Wholesale Store were developing simultaneously
in Richardson’s studio. When Richardson came to Chicago in October
1885 to sign the contract with Field, the Glessners took the opportunity
to entertain him in their home. “John met Mr. Richardson on the
street and invited him to dinner today. After dinner, we took him in the
stable to see the horses, then for a drive to see some bricks in a house.
I showed him some precious stones. Then John and George took him to the
hotel.” (Journal, October 11, 1885) Just one month later, Richardson
sent along the ground plans for the house, and the Glessners were “delighted
with them” in every respect.
(November 2008)
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H. H. Richardson in Chicago, Part IV:
The Marshall Field Wholesale Store, concluded
In the last issue of the Journal, we were introduced to Richardson’s
monumental wholesale store for Marshall Field and Company, completed in
June 1887. Architectural critics from the late 1880s through today have
praised its contribution to the “modern movement.” Richardson
biographer Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer went so far as to say that
“no cathedral, however magnificent in scheme would be worth so much
to us as the great simple Field building . . .no building could more frankly
express its purpose or be more self-denying in the use of ornament.”
Perhaps the most surprising admiration for the building came from architect
Louis Sullivan, not typically known for his praise of others’ work.
His dramatic revisions to the design for the Auditorium building were
a direct result of studying the Field store. Carl Condit stated that “Sullivan
abandoned his propensity for elaborate exterior ornament and concentrated
on the architectonic effect of mass, texture, and the proportioning and
scaling of large and simple elements.” Sullivan, in his Kindergarten
Chats said in part, “Stone and mortar here spring into life, and
are no more material and sordid things, but become the very diapason of
a mind rich-stored with harmony. . . Four square and brown, it stands,
in physical fact, a monument to trade, to the organized commercial spirit,
to the power and progress of the age, to the strength and resource of
individuality and force of character; artistically, it stands as the oration
of one who knows well how to choose his words, who has something to say
and says it - as the outpouring of a copious, direct, large and simple
mind.”
The Demise of the Wholesale Store
By the early 1920s, the wholesale division was in serious trouble, as
changes in society altered people’s shopping patterns. In an effort
to breathe new life into the division, Fields announced plans in 1927
for a huge new facility, covering two city blocks and containing 4,000,000
square feet. The new building, known as the Merchandise Mart, opened in
1930, and by July of that year Richardson’s building was reduced
to rubble to make way for a parking lot. Machinery and equipment were
salvaged, but most of the stone was used as fill in the basements to create
a level surface for the asphalt lot. Two carved sandstone pilaster capitals
survive today and can be seen at the Art Institute of Chicago and the
Graham Foundation.
(February 2009)
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H. H. Richardson and his impact: The Prairie
Avenue Houses of Henry Ives Cobb
Although Glessner House is the only surviving work by Richardson in Chicago,
his influence can be seen in the work of numerous other architects of
the late 19th century. Henry Ives Cobb is generally considered one of
the finest interpreters of the Richardsonian Romanesque style in Chicago.
In partnership with Charles Frost, he designed three houses in the style
along Prairie Avenue, two of which survive today. The Coleman House and
Keith House, both of 1886, were built at the same time as the Glessner
House, and feature rusticated stone, clustered columns, and the use of
the arch. The Rees House, designed just two years later, shows Cobb shift
away from the rusticated stone, in favor of a smooth wall surface, similar
to Louis Sullivan’s adaption of Richardson’s style.
Henry Ives Cobb
Henry Ives Cobb was born in 1859, and studied architecture at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. He worked in the firm of Peabody & Stearns
in Boston, but moved to Chicago after receiving the commission for the
Union Club in 1882. Soon after, he formed a partnership with Charles Sumner
Frost. Their commissions included the Potter Palmer mansion, Lake Forest
Presbyterian Church, and several buildings for Lake Forest College. In
independent practice after 1889, Cobb designed the old Chicago Historical
Society and the Newberry Library, both heavily influenced by Richardson,
and the Gothic inspired buildings for the University of Chicago. Cobb
moved to New York City in 1898, where he practiced until his death in
1931.
(May 2009)
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H.H. Richardson’s Stonehurst: The
Robert Treat Paine House, Waltham, Massachusetts
Paine first met H. H. Richardson while serving as a member of the building
committee for Trinity Church in Boston. In 1883, he engaged the services
of Richardson and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to greatly
enlarge his summer estate, The Vale. Construction, which was largely complete
by the time of Richardson’s death in April 1886, cost just over
$36,000. The Paine family retained ownership of the property until 1974,
when a grandson donated the house and grounds to the town of Waltham,
which has worked to restore and maintain the house ever since. Stonehurst
is regarded as one of the great proto-modern houses of America. The architecture
and landscape of the estate were expertly integrated by the two masters,
setting lasting precedents for future American design. Uncut glacial boulders
are used for the first story, the three rounded towers and the curved
terrace. On the monumental east façade (shown below), Richardson,
a father of the Shingle Style, experimented with the decorative qualities
of shingles. He applied courses of saw-tooth and fish-scale shingles and
created the graceful, organic form of the flared gable over his signature
arch. Described as the “pinnacle achievement of Shingle Style architects
and craftsmen,” its interiors, including a magnificent stair hall
(shown at right), anticipate the flowing spaces, open planning and multi-functional
living areas of twentieth-century architecture. The house is the most
intact example of Richardson’s innovative approach to country house
design.
(August 2009)
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H. H. Richardson in Cincinnati: The Chamber
of Commerce Building
Richardson designed only one building in the Glessners’ native state
of Ohio, and the dates of its planning and construction coincide exactly
with those of the Glessners’ home. In December 1884, the Chamber
of Commerce sent out a circular inviting architects to submit plans for
their new structure. Six architects and firms were selected to compete
and each was paid $500 for their drawings: H. H. Richardson of Boston;
George B. Post of New York; Burnham and Root of Chicago; and three Cincinnati
architects. Richardson’s design was accepted in June 1885 and the
plans and specifications were approved and sent to bidders in January
1886, with Norcross Brothers (the builder of the Glessner house) receiving
the contract. The building was dedicated in January 1889 at a cost of
$596,414.
The structure was carefully planned to provide for “served”
and “servant” zones, as is the case with the Glessner house.
A rectangular area at the rear of the building contained all the vertical
circulation and utilities, the rest of each floor was usable space. On
the second level was the exchange hall, with 48 foot ceilings. Above the
hall were three stories of offices and clubrooms which hung from fourteen
iron trusses at the roof level, allowing the exchange hall to be completely
column free. The exterior, with its trademark “Richardsonian”
features including corner towers with tall conical roofs and arched windows
was clad in Milford granite. On January 10, 1911 a fire which started
in the kitchen completely destroyed the building.
A few months after the building was destroyed, architect Cass Gilbert
suggested that the stone details might be used in new buildings for the
local college, but nothing came of the proposal. In 1927, the Cincinnati
Astronomical Society proposed using the stone to build an observatory,
but that plan was also abandoned. Finally, in 1968, students at the University
of Cincinnati held a design competition to erect a monument using 84 tons
of the granite fragments. The winning design was constructed in 1972 on
a knoll in Burnet Woods on the outskirts of Cincinnati where it can be
seen today.
(November 2009)
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H. H. Richardson in Michigan: The Bagley
Memorial Fountain
John J. Bagley was the 16th governor of Michigan, serving from 1873 to
1877. When he died in 1881, he left $5,000 in his will for the construction
of a drinking fountain for the people of Detroit, having “water
cold and pure as the coldest mountain stream.” In 1885, his heirs
selected Richardson to design the structure, which was executed by Norcross
Brothers at a final cost of $7,339. It was unveiled on May 30, 1887 on
a site near Detroit City Hall. The inscription read “TESTAMENTARY
GIFT FOR THE PEOPLE FROM JOHN JUDSON BAGLEY A.D. MDCCCLXXXVII.”
The fountain stands 18 feet high and is constructed entirely of white
Worcester granite. Richardson modeled the structure on a ciborium in St.
Mark’s Cathedral in Venice. Beautiful foliate carving (see detail
at right) decorates the structure, which is approached by a series of
shallow steps. Four lion heads in the center discharge water. Originally
there were two spigots for ice-chilled water and two for normal temperature
water. It was moved to Campus Martius in 1926 to protect it from increased
automobile traffic at its original site. In 2000, the fountain was disassembled
and put into storage and in 2007 it was rebuilt and installed at its current
location in Cadillac Square. Unfortunately, during the time the pieces
of the fountain were in storage, the lion fountainhead was stolen, so
it had to be recreated.
The fountain was listed on the National Register in November 1971.
Bagley Memorial Armory
Richardson’s only other Michigan commission was for the heirs of
the J. J. Bagley estate. The Armory, located at 132 Congress Street, was
completed in 1887 at a cost of $34,000. It featured a brick and brownstone
façade with unusually large window openings grouped under three
broad arches to compensate for the windowless party walls on either side.
The building was destroyed by fire in 1946.
(February 2010)
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