ttbe

VOL. XV. FEBRUARY, 1904 NO. 2.

A NEW INFLUENCE IN THE ARCHITECTURE OF

PHILADELPHIA.

is notoriously an affair of
in Philadelphia
/ARCHITECTURE
-/-*-
extremes. One
rather surprised to find this the case in
is

a city of homes, where, according to the current legend, innova-

tions are born hard. A
priori, one would not suppose that the
atmosphere of Philadelphia would be favorable to the production
of sharp architectual contracts, certainly not to the fantastical,
or the bizarre. Rather it is to the West that one would most
readily turn for the flamboyant, or, for the profligate, to New York.
Yet, if one desires to hunt the truly wild and erratic, or to find
thf. most extraordinary juxtapositions of the good with the bad,
it is not to St. Louis or Kansas City or Oshkosh one should go.
One cannot be so successful anywhere as in Philadelphia.

Possibly the reason for this is to be found in the fact that in

Philadelphia as soon as architecture ises above a certain very
1

humble plane, it is in an extraordinary degree a personal expres-

sion. The local tradition the demure respectable local tradi-
tion runs very smoothly and very well so long as it is confined
to the small two or three story red brick domicile with white
stone trimmings, which one of the civic glories of Philadelphia.
is

The local tradition also works well, (only less well, for demure-
ness easily passes into dullness) somewhat higher up the scale when
the problem touches upon a more expensive class of residence ;

nor does it cease to be effective in a limited way in the case of

small commercial buildings, factories and warehouses, or out in
the suburbs into which the Philadelphia!! can carry a quiet, home-
ly and colonial mode. Up to this point, there is apparently a
sufficiently strong local consensus to operate powerfully upon
the Philadelphian expression but bevond that point
;
well !

Philadelphia plunges, and the student of architecture finds

Copyright 1903, by "The Architectural Record Company." All rights reserved.

Entered May 22, 1902, as second-class matter, Post Office at New York, N. Y., Act of
Congress, of March 3d, 1879.
 94 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

that he has passed into a region of unrestricted design wherein

the only limitations imposed upon the architect are those of his
own temperament and training. Theone of the most
result is

unmitigated spots, architecturally, world, where the note of

in the

originality, personality, individuality is as prominent in build-

ings of good design as it is in
buildings of wildly bad design.
Architecture there resembles the young lady of the rhyme :

ENTRANCE GATES TO THE ESTATE OF P. A. B. WIDBNER.

Elkins Park, Pa. Horace Trumbauer, Architect.

"When it is good, it is very, very good, and when it is bad, it

is horrid."
To verify these assertions one has only to recall the long and
highly admirable series of strongly individualistic designs turned
out in recent years by men like Wilson Eyre, Cope & Stewardson,
Frank Miles Day & Brother, and then, with those clearly in mind
recur for a moment to the extraordinary freaks which front the
business part of Chestnut and other streets reminding one more of
the grotesques of operatic scenery than structures soberly erected
by respectable and influential financial concerns. In other cities
even "the aberration" itself maintains some relationship with the
traditional and ordinary methods of design, but in Philadelphia
WORKS OF HORACE T RUM BAUER. 95
 96 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

one quite at a loss for prototypes and is forced in the end to

is

explain the buildings he sees by some abnormality of the Phila-

delphian mind operating under some undiscoverable local stimulus.
Probably it must always remain a psychological problem how
a city that possesses a building like Independence Hall could pro-
duce and tolerate a monstrosity like the City Hall, or how the
same community could have raised to eminence a designer like
Furniss, and trained artists of such high personal distinction as
Cope & Stewardson, the Days and Eyre; so that we have on the

RESIDENCE OF P. A. B. VVIDENER EAST VIEW.

Elkins Park, Pa. Horace Trumbauer, Architect.

one hand, buildings like the Record Building and on the other,
buildings like the Art Club. An acute architectural observer has
endeavored to explain the anomaly. His statement is worth quot-
ing: "In truth it is evident from the look of Philadelphia that there
is no constraint upon the architects, either from the professional

opinion, which elsewhere keeps designers out of the maddest ex-

cesses, or from a lay opinion that betokens an interest in the sub-
ject and, though ignorant, is willing to be enlightened. What the
aspect of commercial Philadelphia does indicate is a complete arch-
itectural apathy on the part of the public and a settled determin-
WORKS OF HORACE T RUM BAUER. 97
 98 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

ation on the part of the architects to break in upon the apathy at

any cost."
If this phenomenon be correct, it may be in-
explanation of the
ferred, safely, that Philadelphia's salvation is to be wrought most
speedily by the addition to the professional ranks of a number of
well schooled architects, trained in the accepted traditions of the
art men whose education, taste, temperament and energy can
be bent to the work of annexing Philadelphia to the general prac-
tice of the country at large. In this way, the city on the Schuyl-

RESIDENCE OF P. A. B. WIDENER PICTURE GALLERY.

Elkins Park, Pa. Horace Trumbauer, Architect.

killmay in time cease to be an outlandish province where genius

and eccentricity equally flourish.
In presenting to our readers as an accompaniment to these re-
marks, the designs of Mr. Horace Trumbauer, it is hardly necess-
ary to point out that they furnish proof that the very conditions
which we have set forth above as necessary for the production in
Philadelphia of a better state of things architecturally have, as a
matter of fact, arrived. The "arrival," however, is recent.* It

The new era, moreover, is reinforced by recent enlistments in the professional

ranks of a number of well-trained younger architects, who will no doubt achieve prom-
inence later.
 WORKS OF HORACE TRUMBAUER. 99

would have been utterly impossible a few years ago to have made
such an exhibition of sane architectural work deriving from Phil-
adelhpia as Mr. Trumbauer's designs provide. Anyone glancing
at our illustrations without any knowledge of the origin of the col-
lection would not be tempted for a moment by any mark or
sign
to differentiate the work from good metropolitan work proceed-
ing from the office of any of the larger architectural firms located
in New York, Boston or Chicago. Thus to miss the stamp of local-

ity iu the better architecture of any of our larger cities is not a very

COURT-YARD OF BREEDING STABLES OF P. A. B. WIDENER.

Ogontz, Pa. Horace Trumbauer, Architect.
The building contains nine single and twenty-one box-stalls; also house quarters for
the stud groom and twelve bedrooms for assistants. The ring stable within is 100 ft.
square, and the building over all 175 x 250 ft.

unusual omission, but it is, as we have

in the case of Philadelphia

seen, notable. It is all more remarkable and significant be-

the
cause these designs represent the work of a young practitioner,
and, as can be seen, his activity has not been confined to any one
class of work or to a few clients with unlimited taste and limited

opportunities. It shows, moreover, that in Philadelphia as else-

where there is a large clientele ready to accept the standard, met-

ropolitan and authoritative thing people who have no desire "to
break in upon apathy at any cost." That Mr. Trumbauer has been
 IOO THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

able to secure this public for himself or a large part of it and satisfy
that public without "doing the Philadelphian," good or bad, is dem-
onstrated clearly by his undoubted success, which has already over-
passed local limits and, as is usually the case with architectural firms
that obtain a national position, brings him commissions from other

parts of the country. To say that this success is based in some

measure, or even greater measure uoon business ability than
in

upon purely artistical merit is to state what is probably true of

most architectural firms that are working in a large way, or if we

COACH STABLE RESIDENCE OF P. A. B. WIDENER.

Elkins Park, Pa. Horace Trurabauer, Architect.

may so put it, working on a metropolitan basis. Standardization is

almost as necessary here under modern conditions as it is in other
departments of production where the output is perforce large and
the pressure for time necessarily high. In this environment the
artist is inevitably limited, being forbidden all those sources of in-

spiration, which depend upon reflection and study. Under these

circumstances recourse is most likely to be to the formula, to tradi-
tionand to the standard. Facility becomes a prime requisite. Com-
mon sense and its equivalent in art good taste are indispensable.
These qualifications with a positive capacity for management, pro-
duce the successful architect. Clearly Mr. Trumbauer possesses
WORKS OF HORACE TRUMBAUER. IOI
 IO2 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

THE RESIDENCE OF THE LATE W. L. ELKINS THE MAIN STAIRWAY.

Elkins Park, Pa. Horace Trumbauer, Architect.
 WORKS OF HORACE TRUM BAUER. 103

RESIDENCE OF THE LATE W. L. ELKINS THE GREAT HALL.

Elkins Park, Pa. Horace Trumbauer, Architect.
IO4 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

*5 3
ll'ORKS 01' HORACE TRUMBAUER.
 io6 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

RESIDENCE OF JAMES W. PAUL,

Radnor, Pa.

These buildings are 178 x 164 ft. on plan, and contain

twelve single and nine box-stalls, as well as Coachman's
and Groom's Quarters, Tool House, Carriage House, Cart
Shed, Machinery Room, etc. They are built of Con-
shohocken stone.
 WORl-'S OF HORACE T RUM BAUER.
107

BW OF THE STABLES.
Horace Trumbauer, Architect.
io8 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
WORKS OF HORACE TRUMBAUER. 109

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 no THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

ST. CATHERINE'S CHAPEL.

Spring Lake, N. J. Horace Trumbauer, Architect.
Not far away from Mr. Maloney's house is St. Catharine's Chapel which has been
donated by Mr. Maloney to the Diocese as a memorial to his youngest daughter.
 WORKS OF HORACE TRUM BAUER. Ill

ST. CATHERINE'S CHAPEL INTERIOR.

Spring Lake, N. J. Horace Trumbauer, Architect.
112 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

RESIDENCE OF E. C. KNIGHT, JR.

No. 1(121) Locust Street, Philadelphia. Horace Trumbauer, Architect.

This residence is 20 x 100 ft. on plan, with a stair hall 20 ft, square, two stories
high. The dining-room is 18 x 26 ft. The saloon meas ures 18 x 30 ft. The principal
suite is situated on the second loor. The first floor contains the servants rooms and a
reception room adjoining the entrance. The front is of limestone.
 WORKS OF HORACE TRUMBAUER.

RESIDENCE OF GEORGE A. HUHN.

10th and Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa. Horace Trumbauer, Architect.
This building30 x 93 ft. The principal suite is on the second floor, consisting of
is

drawing-room library, dining-room and stair hall, occupying the entire floor.
The house
is constructed of limestone.
114 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
 WORKS OF HORACE TRUMBAVER.

RESIDENCE OF JOHN GRIBBEL.

Wyncote, Pa. Horace Trumbauer, Architect.

STABLE ON ESTATE OP GEORGE ELKINS.

Elkins Park, Pa. Horace Trumbauer, Architect.
This stable is built around two courts 162 x 110 ft. It contains ten single and two-
box-stalls,, a carriage house, cart shed, carriage shed, harness and cleaning room, cow
stable, machinery and tool houses and living quarters for coachman and groom.
THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
WORKS OF HORACE T'RUM BAUER.

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THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
 WORKS OF HORACE TRUMBAUER. 119

RESIDENCE OF E. J. BERWIND THE TERRACE.

Newport, R. I. Horace Trumbauer, Architect.
120 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

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 WORKS OF HORACE TRUMBAUER. 121

these qualifications. If his work lacks the very decided individual-

ity which has hitherto marked the better class of work in Philadel-

phia, it is at the same time free from all eccentricity. It is never

crude. It conforms successfully to the prevalent standards of edu-
cated architects. His work exhibits the eclectic facility which is one
of the characteristics of the modern American architect. Indeed,
perhaps, it
response to the current mode as much at
is this facile
home with the "classic" as with the Elizabethan or the Old Colonial
that is responsible for the absence of any very strong personal quali-
The note of any leaning or predilection
ties. is almost wholly absent

from the mass of the work we present. It is extremely difficult in

itto catch the designer, so to speak, "at" any of his preferences.

That this impersonality, accompanied by the good qualities of so-
briety, accuracy and good taste, should have come out of Philadel-
phia, is not only a matter for astonishment, but for congratulation.

RESIDENCE OF W. STORRS WELLS.

Newport, R. I. Horace Trumbauer, Architect.
This house is 120 ft.square on plan, with a hall 32 x 72 ft., a morning room, library,
dining-room, etc. It was built of Indiana limestone, in 19CO.
 FIG. 10. WAREHOUSE OF I. T. WILLIAMS & SONS.
25th Street and llth Avenue, New York City.
THE WAREHOUSE AND FACTORY IN ARCHITECTURE. II.

the first part of this article (See the Architectural Record

IN for January, 1903) allusion was made to the evident influence
of such great achievements as the De Vinne building and the Hanan
building on the design of much less costly and more commonplace
warehouses, at least in the city of New York. Such simpler build-
ings are scattered along the West Side, near the river and above
West 26th street, and there are others on the sea-front of Brooklyn
and some in different parts of the town, situated here and there.
Of the group on the West Side, the most successful is undoubtedly
that shown in Fig 10. Of this building, the front with the flat
gable, seen on the extreme right of the picture, is evidently a later
addition. It is far more in the spirit of those admirable buildings
which are shown in our first article, Figs. I, 2 and 5, and has what
they have not, a surprisingly ingenious and attractive management
of the gable. It is the best assertion known of the presence behind
the walls of a roof of very low double pitch and is as genuine an ;

architectural effort as the pediment of the Greek temple. Then, too,

this front is consistent in a way to gratify the most close-reasoning
architectural student for there is no alternation here of square-
;

head and round-head windows, but a series of segmental arches

varied only by the obviously needed great semi-circles of the ground
story, and the excusably modified openings of the tier below the
gable itself. The deep reveals, too, though not comparable to
those of the Lafayette Place building or the other at .Centre and
White streets, are still sufficiently marked to emphasize the char-
acter of the whole front.
As to the older part, the building on the corner, one could wish

away the suggested rustication of the two lower stories, not under-
standing why a good wall of dark red brick should be broken up
in that is but a poor device even in stone work,
Rustication
way.
a wretched way of making a flat, dull wall interesting. But in
brickwork it seems not to have that excuse which we willingly
make for a man who is chiseling the edges of his great blocks of
ashlar. The recessed lines are, however, used as part of the color
pattern and they are repeated in the recessed and radiating bands
of the great archivolts, and again echoed in larger masses by the
horizontal lintels, sills and string courses of light stone. It is not
a very daring way of giving polychromatic interest to the front,
but these attempts should be made as often as occasion serves,
until a more brilliant thought occurs to someone and a method
of design in red and buff be discovered.
124 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

The
best thing about the building, after all, its salvation as a
design, is in the treatment of the corners with massive and un-
broken piers, so broad that the window-pierced wall between does
not look too much a thing which modern
like a lantern. It is

designers are too shy strengthening of their corners, and

of, this

costly uptown clubhouses suffer from the unnecessary weakening

of a wall near the angle. It does not in any way break in upon

this system that the farther corner pier, on the right, is pierced
\\ith small windows. The necessity of those windows is so obvious,
there, in that part of the
building which is farthest
from the abundant light of
the avenue front; and they
are so simply treated, that
this pier is felt to be at one
with those at the other end
of the structure. More-
over, the middle pier, wider
than the others, helps
greatly in this general ef-
fect of massiveness.

Fig. 1 1 ,
the front, Xo. 549
west 26th street, depends
much more for its effective-
ness upon its color combin-
ations. The voussoirs are
alternatingly of dark red
brick and gray limestone,
and the broad band is of
the paler material. The
openings are fairly com-
bined; but the great groups
of windows suffer terribly
from having an insufficient
FIG. 11. NO. 549 W. 26TH STREET.
reveal how should
for
New York C. H. Caldwell, Architect.
City.
such a window recess, 14 ft.
wide or more, pass with only 4 inches break above, and only 8
inches below, where they are the deepest. This thinness of the
ostensible wall tends also to destroy the good effect produced by
the large, wide end piers. They are pierced with small windows ;

and this by itself might pass, for we found it to be of no hurt

whatever in the warehouse building Fig. 10 but the fact that these ;

windows have 8-inch jambs only, which width again is invaded by

the wooden moldings of the frame, deprives the piers of their
appearance of solidity.
 WAREHOUSE AND FACTORY ARCHITECTURE. 125

There is -on West 2/th street another front almost exactly like
this one, and it is clear that the factory and warehouse complete
iscarried through the block 200 ft. long. The reserved space seen
on the right of the building in Fig. n, is closed at this end with
what seems a very cleverly designed gateway wall but this wall ;

appears to front a low structure, a sort of lean-to attached to the

larger warehouse.
No. 547 West 2/th street,
Fig. 12, is interesting when studied in
comparison with the building shown in Fig. n. In fact, one of the
most attractive things
about this examination
which we are conducting
is the necessary compari-
son to be drawn between
buildings so like in char-
acter and in the general
principleof their design,
while they are yet varied
so much in distribution in
the larger details. That is
the way. in which a style of
architecture has always de-
veloped itself not in bold
attempts to break away
from all preceding prac-
tice, but in slow modifica-
tion, each man- trying to do
a little better, than his pre-
decessor. . No doubt the
appearance, now and then,
of an innovating genius is

necessary. to healthy prog-

ress, and so it will be found
to have been in this matter
FIG. 12. .
NO. 549 W. 27TH STREET.
New York of the round arched, red
City.
brick warehouse, for some
one of these interesting buildings must have been a very bold en-
terprise on the part of the architect who devised it. But the modi-
fications seen here as Figs. 10, n, 12 and those to follow, and

compared together illustrate the growth of the new style we are

considering as well as does the study of twelfth century, proto-
Gothic churches help toward a comprehension of Chartres Cathe-
dral.

Fig. 13 is a less attractive building because of the broad surfaces

of yellow brick which surround and enclose the groups of windows.
When will designers in what is meant for polychromy realize that
126 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

they must not use their two colors (when there are only two) in
masses so nearly alike in size? The chainages treated pilasterwise
and dividing the building into three great panels are excellent ;

in them the due relations of lighter color with darker surroundings

are preserved. The larger and the smaller quoins, all having a
certain decided projection from the wall, leading up, as a vertical
member, to the corbelled overhang above the fourth tier of arched
windows,- form a capital motive and are almost enough to make a
design of the building in spite of other less fortunate features.
Evidently the two
uppermost stories
are an addition, and
a badly conceived
one, not to be con-
sidered as part of
the design.
Fig. 4, a building
on Seventh avenue
at the corner of
West Sixteenth
street, eschews col-
or and brings us
back to a gravity
of design not to be
surpassed by any-
thing that we have
consulted in this

study. The two

show-windows, of

course, mar the ef-

fect,and this is
what the artist lost
when he placed his
building in a quar-
ter not quite so in- FIG. 13. NO. 500 WEST .'50TH STREET.
New York City. Romeyn & Stever, Architects.
accessible to the
shopping world as the buildings we have been considering in this
number Figs. 10-13. It is odd how such a blot will hurt a whole
building, even one as grave and dignified as the present one. Let
the reader cover those two show-windows with a bit of dark paper
and see how the building gains in charm immediately. There is
not, however, much novelty of design in the building, as it is. Prob-
ably the old abandonment, in what may be called the attic, of the
system of eight openings on one front and sixteen on the other
divided into two uneven masses, and the substitution for that of a
 WAREHOUSE AND FACTORY ARCHITECTURE. 127

FIG. 14. FACTORY AT S. E. COR: OF 16TH ST. AND 7TH AVE.

New York City. Clinton & Russell, Architects.
128 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

continuous belt of smaller arches is the best thing about the design,
grave and restrained as it is in all its parts.
And now we come to some buildings of the plainest sort, build-

ings as completely devoid of architectural treatment in the common

sense as we found last month the Terminal Warehouse on the
North River. The great factory building shown in Fig. 15 is in
Long Island City on the Brooklyn side of the East River; and in
the immediate neighborhood of this are other towering masses of
brickwork of very similar design. One cannot but care for these,
because every great surface of hard, rough, well-burned bricks of
dusky red color is attractive and there is nowhere in the world
;

more perfect and beautiful material in this way than we use in and
about New York city. It has always been excellent, this New
York brickwork its conditions being admitted. The old-fashioned
12-inch party wall was a good brickwall or it would not have carried
the floors and roofs of two adjoining 20 ft. houses. When the
wall was to be 24 in: thick it was always better built, even in
proportion, than when the wall was thinner nor did the New York
;

bricklayer ever consent readilv to the dreadful tricks of country

masons in leaving great hollow places in the heart of the rising
mass of masonry. The present writer has known well-esteemed
contractors in the smaller towns anywhere within the five hundred
miles radius who defended the practice of leaving those dreadful
gaps in their structure from no matter what
fantastic reason; but
he never has known a New, York builder, boss or foreman, to
suggest anything of the kind. Always, if the smooth pressed
brick could be got rid of when a facade was in consideration, that
same common brick was as effective in appearance as it was solid
in reality. Those who cared for rational design thirty years ago
used to fight with their employers for the privilege of building the
front wall of the same materials as the back thus in a corner house
;

one would beg for permission to use throughout for the flank and
the front as well, the common hard brick, that thought good enough
for a wall facing the back yard, and thus to bring the three
visible wall surfaces into harmony with one another and everywhere
more effective than any one of them would have been if faced up
with Philadelphia pressed brick.
So it is that the huge mass seen in Fig. 15 with its buttress-piers
dividing the external surface of its walls and suggesting extreme
stiffness of construction, and with plain round arched window-

openings, level brick cornices marked by a very slight corbelling

out in a somewhat ornamental pattern, is extremely effective even
in theabsence of deep reveals to the windows. The walls must be
thick one is sure that they are thick; and the thought occurs at
once that the deep jambs have been given to the interior because
WAREHOUSE AND FACTORY ARCHITECTURE. 129
 130 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

that additional floor-space was useful, and the panel below the
window-sill could also be utilized in each of the working lofts.
With Fig. 16 we reach a factory building in which a wholly dif-
ferent programme has been carried out. This is in Chicago at
the corner of East Harrison street and South Franklin street. It
is as obviously a brick building as any of the dignified factories
that we have been treating in these two articles, but here the spirit
of Graeco-Roman art has been strong with the artist, and we have

FIG. 1. CLOW BUILDING.

Chicago, 111. Holablrd & Roche, Architects.

a building of as purely classical type as the circumstances could

have been made to allow. There are tombs still standing, in ruin,
here and there in the Campagna, in which the same effect is pro-
duced, the effect of pilasters and entablatures carried out in brick-
work; but in those Roman instances there can be no doubt that
the whole was to have been covered with that splendid hard and
smooth stucco of which the Roman builders had the secret. So that
they must have been intended to look as much like monoliths as an
Italo-Greek temple must have appeared when it was coated with its
 WAREHOUSE AND FACTORY ARCHITECTURE. 131

thin film of plastering and elaborately painted in bright colors.

Here, however, the brickwork, square and simple or molded into
delicate forms, had to be left to tell its own story. The necessity of
making the overhanging cornice of something else than brick is,
of course, a weakness of this sort of design. The attic wall seen
above the cornice is, again, good solid brickwork with a molded
cap or surbase and very properly and skillfully adapted to the pur-
poses of a solid parapet, but the overhanging cornice which the
style calls for, and which must perforce project so many feet and
inches, is a thing which brick building does not allow of. A bold

FIG. 17. THE BUTLER BROS.' WAREHOUSES.

Chicago, 111. Jarvis Hunt, Architect.

composition in terra-cotta indeed but that does not

seem to have
been admitted or admissable in this case.
With Fig. 17 we are still in Chicago and the twin warehouses
treat-
of Butler Brothers are made exactly alike in their external
under-
ment, in order that their close connection may be perfectly
stood. This, and the placing of the signs at the corners most
to such an
nearly approaching one another, point just attempt
to claim between two great buildings, each of which may
kinship
neighbor, as we note in that custom
be supposed to help its so
familiar to students of Venice of springing an arch with a richly
across the narrow calle
sculptured gable or wall-piece above it,
1.32
THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

which divides two case held by the same family. It is to be noted

that here the buildings can be seen from a very considerable dis-
tance, namely, across the Chicago river, and from several different
points of view; and therefore the use of elaborate patterns of
brickwork near the top of the building is in every way justifiable.
It isinteresting to note that the small squared window-openings
suggestion, as in the case of the Garvin Building, illustrated in the
January number of this magazine, the idea of great lofts used
only for storage, has allowed of great irregularity of arrangement.
The windows being once for all set in firm horizontal bands, which
bands are emphasized by moulded courses at sill and lintel, it has
been thought that their spacing along these horizontal lines was
comparatively indifferent and so it is. One could wish for even
a freer use of that obvious plan of securing light where it is wanted.
The windows looking on the narrow street dividing the two ware-
houses are much larger, and are filled with sash of the usual kind,
as befits that part of such a building which is in close connection
with the business office. But, when it was decided to break the
undue height of the building by very strongly marked horizontal
bands, it was also an obvious resolve to put these bands near the
top, where their effect would be in the not doubtful appeal to per-
sons viewing the whole group of buildings from a distance of six
hundred or a thousand feet. It is just within the limits of proper
criticism to ask whether it would not have been better to have
started the very effective arcade of arches on corbelled-out piers
\\hich form the cornice proper from a more solid looking wall than
that produced by the two stories which are wrought into a diaper

pattern of lozenges with a rosette in the middle of each. It does

not do much harm to a wall so evidently massive as this; and yet
one wishes the pattern other than that it is one wishes it a mosaic
of horizontals and verticals rather than of interlacing diagonals,
which 'look as if they might slip, each joint rotating on its rivet.
For this reason we find the charm" of the warehouse of Kelley,
Maus& Company greater than twin buildings just named,
that, of the
and in fact, it is not disagreeable to close this inquiry, for the pres-
ent, with most interesting structure. Brick of three colors
this
used with singular judgement has been so employed in a bold mo-
saic that the small windows, which -were all that the warehouse

needs, help to make up 'the mosaic: itself; their shadows and their
darker surfaces opening into the interior telling as at least two addi-
tional terms In the .proportion -of varying colors. In fact, if
one we're! to ".ask permission to change this design in any part it
would be only 'to be allowed to block up the furthermost vertical
row of windows" on the left in Fig. 18 and enlarge by two feet the
solid pier -at the'. right -hand of the same front. The need of a
 WAREHOUSE AND FACTORY ARCHITECTURE. 133

massive corner pier is one that has not been thought of at the
right time though indeed when one looks at the building as it is
;

seen in Fig. 17, this pier seems massive enough for anything, as it
is at least two feet wide on one side of the angle, if but narrow on
the other side.
With this we must close the present inquiry ;
but there is much
to be said about the designs in simple brickwork which are not

strictly warehouses nor yet factories, and to these we may be able

to give attention at another time. There is something to be

FIG. 18. THE KELLEY MAUS^BUILDING. '

Chicago, 111. Jarvis Hunt, Architect.

said for the theory broached now and then by the persons not enam-
ored of our present architecture of mere prete'nce, that the 'de-
signers should be restrained to square masses -arid .sharp .corners
and plain windows for twenty years to come with sculpture denied
them and all the bad architectural forms /a&M.^J^hen;' it is thought
:

by some, a chance for design rightly so-called, might be iound'in.

the very inability to misuse the old forms. At all events, there is
great delight in watching the attempts of those who willingly take
up that course of thought and push it in a sensible way and with
energy.
Russell Sturgis.
 134 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

THE NEW YORK LIFE BUILDING.

Kansas City, Mo. McKim, Mead & White, Architects.
 RESIDENCE OP A. R. MEYER.
Kansas City, Mo. Van Brunt & Howe, Architects.

THE DEVELOPMENT OE ARCHITECTURE IN KANSAS CIIY,

MISSOURI.

^K T is and commercial growth of a

said that the moral, social
J- people may be traced from a study of its architectural monu-
ments. If this is true, then the progress of events, which in
scarcely more than fifty years has raised the community of Kansas
City, Missouri, from an insignificant landing-place on the Missouri
river to a city of the first class, will be found to have left an in-
delible imprint on its buildings, both public and private.
In older communities, which have had the good fortune to in-
herit through a long succession of years the traditions of their for-
bears, the transitions are less violentand less marked. In the cities
along the Atlantic seaboard the story is told which had its beginning
a couple of hundred years ago and whose end is not yet, and the
architectural development in these cases is often marked by epochs
some of which will number as many years of duration as Kansas
City can number years of existence. What the latter has done has all
been worked out within the lifetime of men who are yet comparatively
young, and there are many living within its limits to-day who can
easily look back to the time when the site of every business building
now standing within the commercial heart of the city was but
prairie, swamp or woodland.
The famous and historic Santa Fe trail passed from the old levee
at the riverside up the bluff and southward through a ravine now
filled with tall brick and stone buildings, and daily crowded with the
 i3 6 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

busy people of a great commercial center. The old prairie schooner

has given place to the cable and electric car, and the water course of
the old trail is buried by the grader's cart thirty feet below the level
on which these cars run and on which these buildings stand.
In the early days, when there was no Kansas City, and when
Westport Landing was all that indicated a difference between this and
any other point on the Missouri River, the architecture of the settle-
ment was naturally of a primitive type, and buildings were con-
structed, barring a few exceptions, with the one idea of strict utility.
Perhaps the more important exceptions were the homesteads of the
earlier and most prosperous of the inland settlers, who placed their

RESIDENCE OF E. W. SMITH.
Kansas City, Mo. Van Brunt & Sons, Architects.

homes further back from the river and who built after the fashion of
the Southern planter. These houses were low, rambling buildings,
one or two stories high, with wide vejandas, and were flanked by
straggling out-buildings none were beautiful save in that they sug-
;

gested the idea of home and comfort. These landmarks are rapidly
disappearing, driven out by the march of commercia.) progress and
giving way to the "addition" of the real estate operator and to the
growth of the smart suburban village.
It is not. generally to holders of these properties that Kansas City

owes its architectural development, although in some cases these

men kept fully apace with the march of the city's progress, and in-
deed were largely instrumental in directing its course. The con-
stantly increasing volume of the business of Kansas City as the
 ARCHITECTURE IN KANSAS CITY. 137

BOARD OF TRADE BUILDING.

Kansas City, Mo.
Burnham & Root, Architects.
138 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

Southwest became more settled, and as the commerce of Mexico and

the remote Western States and Territories became more active and
assured, brought many energetic and enterprising men to this gate-
way of the Southwest. That which was but a mere steamboat landing
became in an incredibly short time a bustling but raw-edged city.
The prosperity which came to the citizens reached its architectural
expression in a style, if so it may be called, which finds its prototype
even in the earlier and Eastern cities, and which has been called the
"American Vernacular." This architecture was almost absolutely
free from the limitations of academic tradition, and was mainly the
work of the enterprising carpenter, who had not hesitated to add the
word "architect" to his shop sign. Vainglorious and pretentious,
often very elaborate and costly both in its interior and exterior,
styles and "motifs" were mingled in a manner to drive to despair
the purist or scholar. Wooden towers of grotesque type, broad

overhanging cornices with brackets of the most elaborate of jig-

sawed patterns, window-heads, balustrades, porches, balconies,
everthing was there that the ingenuity of the carpenter-architect
could devise or the most exacting client demand. Examples of the
work of this period are scattered through the older portions of the

city, and are repeated in every neighboring city along the river.
\Yhat is written of Kansas City is equally true of St. Joseph, Mo.,
and of Atchison, Leaven worth and Lawrence, Kansas.
The early topographical conditions of Kansas City, with its ragged
bluffs, deep ravines and high ridges, offered about as unpromising a
site for a large city as could be imagined. But the enterprise and
perseverance of the people have largely surmounted all such diffi-

culties. The process of leveling the hills and the ravines has
filling
often led to most romantic results, and at one time it was no unusual

thing to see a building of the old school perched on top of an em-

bankment 25 or 30 feet above the street level and apparently as in-
accessible as though on top of the Rocky Mountains.

Up to about the year 1860 Kansas City was strictly a steamboat

town, and it was not until about that time that the first railroad made
its entry, bringing with it the conditions for a speedy and radical
change in all departments of the city's progress changes as impor-
;

ant in its architecture as in its commerce, though perhaps less rapid

in the former. It was not, city had secured an ad-
however, until the
vanced position as a railroad center, and had been well advertised
as such, that the architect "in propria persona" made his first
ap-
It was at about this time that the
pearance. people realized that
something better could be done than had been so far accomplished,
and soon some excellent work was completed. The First Congre-
gational Church is an example one of the first really good build-
ings which up to that time had been built. The building was very
 ARCHITECTURE IN KANSAS CITY. 139

AMERICAN BANK BUILDING.

Kansas City, Mo.
Burnham & Root, Architects.
 140 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

carefully studied by its architect, Mr. Adriance Van Brunt, and is

to-day one of the best church buildings in Kansas City.

The great commercial prosperity which was found in the South-
west for the ten years prior to 1885 culminated in Kansas City, as it
did in most other cities of the West, in a building "boom," which

began about that time and lasted four years or more. During this
period much of the best architectural work was done in this city and
its vicinity. New men had come into the field, many of them better
trained and better equipped than most of those in practice there;

COATES HOUSE.
Kansas City, Mo. Van Brunt & Howe, Architects.

money was plentiful, and Eastern capital already seeking permanent

investment in the bricks and mortar of Kansas City.
Kansas City needed nearly everything which marks the archi-
tecture of a modern city. There was no first-class hotel or office
building, no large mercantile houses, only one or two good
churches, and not one first-class retail store building. Now her
people feel that they are at least as well equipped in all of these par-
ticulars as any city of its size in the country.
In 1886 the Board of Trade determined to erect a new building
for its own use and for rental purposes. A limited competition of
 ARCHITECTURE IN KANSAS CITY. 141

NEW ENGLAND LIFE BUILDING.

Kansas City, Mo. Winslow & Wetherell, Architects
142 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

was organized, all, with one exception, from outside the

architects
Kansas City, and the choice of plans fell to that of Messrs.
limits of
Burnham and Root, of Chicago. From the plans and under the
superintendence of these gentlemen the present building of the
Board of Trade was built. This was the first fire-proofed building
erected in Kansas City, and its progress was watched with great
interest by many to whom "fire-proof construction" was but a
name. At the time of the conception of this building the Romanesque
wave, whose impulse had been given so vigorously by Mr. Richard-
son, was at its height, and Messrs. Burnham and Root designed
their building in that style, adapting it to the exactions of some-
times unsympathetic requirements and to the possibilities of steel
and iron. The building is of red brick and red terra cotta, and con-
tains the hall and offices of the Board of Trade, the rooms of the
Commercial Club, and much other rental space.
The erection of this first large building by a Chicago firm appears
to have called the attention of capitalists of that city to the possi-
bilities ofKansas City, and two companies were organized, one to
build the American Bank Building, the other to erect and equip the
Midland Hotel. Both of these works were placed by their projectors
in the hands of the same firm of architects as were engaged on the

Board of Trade, and both were of fire-proofed construction. They

are built in local and pressed brick with terra cotta and brown-
stone trimmings. It was a rather curious coincidence that the first
three of the large important and fire-proof buildings should have
fallen all at once into the hands of one firm.
While Chicago capital was engaged in these enterprises,
other money centers were active. The New England Life Insurance
Co. decided to build a fire-proofed office building, and erected it on
the northeast corner of Ninth and Wyandotte streets. It is seven
stories high, and besides the offices of the company it contains the
rooms of the New England National Bank, the New England
Safety Deposit and Trust Co. and much other rental space. Loyal to
its New England associations, the companyfrom Massachusetts
built

stone, using throughout the Longmeadow The architects were

stone.
Messrs. Winslow and Wetherell, of Boston, who chose a free treat-
ment of Italian Renaissance for the style in which to work. The
New York Life Insurance Company also determined to build, and
after a competition of Eastern and Western architects gave the work
to Messrs. McKim, Mead and White, of New York, who erected at
the head of Baltimore avenue on Ninth street the present building.
It is ten full stories high, the highest office building in Kansas City,

built in fire-proof material throughout, with an exterior of local

pressed brick, granite and sandstone. It contains 375 rooms besides

the great banking rooms on the main floor, cost in the vicinity of
 ARCHITECTURE IN KANSAS CITY. 143

BRYANT BUILDING.
Kansas City, Mo. Van Brunt & Howe, Architects.
 144 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

$2,000,000, and is the largest and best equipped office building in

Kansas City.
The Gibraltar Building, the Bayard Building and the Bryant
Building, of which Messrs. Van Brunt and Howe, of Kansas City,
were the architects, are good examples of the best office buildings
not strictly fire-proofed. The first two were built with Longmeadow
stone fronts, and the Gibraltar is in slow-burning construction. The
Postal Telegraph Building, Messrs. Root and Siemens, architects,
of Kansas City, is a good example of office building dealing
principally with a north light where a large amount of glass is

THE HOWE RESIDENCE.

Kansas City, Mo. Van Brunt & Howe, Architects.

essential. The Massachusetts Building, by the same architects as

were employed on the New England Life Insurance Building, is an
excellent building in slow-burning construction. It is owned in
Boston and is built in local bricks and Longmeadow stone.
The Bryant Building was completed this spring ;
it is said to be
one of the best lighted and ventilated office buildings in Kansas
City.
The extensive additions to the old Federal Building, which was
purchased by the Fidelity Trust Company, of Kansas City, for
its own use, gives to Kansas City another absolutely fire-proofed
ARCHITECTURE IN KANSAS CITY. 145
 146 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

thoroughly equipped office building, of most substantial character.

Its principal interest centers in the great banking room, which is
one hundred and ten feet long, fifty feet wide, and twenty-six feet
high, finished in marble, bronze, and mahogany. The architects
are Messrs. Van Brunt & Howe.
The new steel and masonry office building on Baltimore avenue,
known as the Dwight Building, by C. A. Smith, architect, is a seven-
story fire-proofed building, built more nearly from the modern
methods of steel construction than any building in the city.

Among the mercantile buildings one of the largest and most im-

portant is the great retail house of the Emery, Bird, Thayer Dry

HOUSE OF R. L. TAYLOR.
Kansas City, Mo. Root & Siemens, Architects.

Goods Co., Van Brunt & Howe, architects. It has a full frontage on
three streets, and runs back to an alley in the rear, making it an
isolated building, 125 by 250 feet, six stories high, and is built in
local bricksand Lake Superior red sandstone. While not a fire-
proofed building, it is protected by all the devices known in "fire-
proofed" work. It was one of the first buildings in Kansas City
built, its lower stories are concerned, in pier construction,
so far as
with actual and theoretical loads carefully adjusted to the soil on
its

which they rest. This soil is generally a fine, hard, yellow clay,
very tough and dense and capable of great resistance, but most
of the earlier building foundations were laid without much calcula-
tion as to loads, the idea being that stonework was cheap and it
was only necessary to be sure to get enough of it. A novel feature
ARCHITECTURE IN KANSAS CITY.
148 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
 ARCHITECTURE IN KANSAS CITY. 149

of this buildingis its open arcade on the three streets, with the show

windows back
set some six or eight feet from the building line,
making a covered promenade where in bad weather passers may ex-
amine the displays while well sheltered. So far as I know this is the
only large example of its kind in this country, and while there is ap-
parently a waste of room the owners consider the advertisement an
ample compensation.
Kansas City has some very excellent examples of wholesale and
jobbing houses, among the best of which, perhaps, may be men-

RESIDENCE OF COL. WILLIAM R. NELSON.

Kansas City, Mo. Architects, F. E. Hill, and Gunn & Curtis.

tioned the building of Swofford Bros, and that of Burnham, Hanna,

Munger Dry Goods Company the former, by Shepard & Farrar
; ;

the latter by the late Mr. George Matthews.

The great wagon and carriage house and wareroom of the Stude-
baker Brothers, by Messrs. Root & Siemens, is one of the largest
and most complete buildings of its kind in the western country.
The "New Baltimore" is a fire-proofed hotel of 225 rooms just
completed from the plans of Louis Curtis, of Kansas City.
Its floors and partitions are built in expanded metal construction.
THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
 ARCHITECTURE IN KANSAS CITY.
I5I

The exterior is of red pressed brick with

gray brick corners and cor-
nices, and terra cotta trimmings.
The new Coates House is an hotel of 350 rooms, finished a few
years ago, Van Brunt &
Howe, architects. It was built in sections
on the site of the old hotel of the same name, which was one of the
landmarks of Kansas City for many years. The south wing was built
as an addition to the old
building, which was afterwards torn down
and replaced by a new fire-proofed structure. This hotel is consid-

RESIDENCE OF A. R. MEYER.
Kansas City, Mo. Van Brunt & Howe, Architects.

ered one of the most popular and attractive in the West, and has
some unusual features in its interior planning.
Kansas City is not rich in ecclesiastical architecture. The First

Congregational Church, already mentioned, the Calvary Baptist

Church, the First Christian Science Church, the Second Presby-
terian Church (A. Van Brunt, architect), and perhaps one of two
others would complete the list of those worthy of special mention.
The Calvary Baptist Church is a Romanesque building of somewhat
florid type, ingray stone, and was designed, after a competition of
architects, by Messrs. Edbrooke and Burnham, of Chicago. The
 552 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

Scientist Church, in the English style, is an interesting but modest

building by Mr. Matthews. It is a most excellent interior. The

Cathedral is remarkable as one of the buildings which one would
not like to have done, and it is the product of the period to which
reference was made in the early pages
of this article ;
a fagade and tower
absolutely without architectural pre-
cedent in form or detail,and an in-
terior, with its great columns of wood
and plaster sup- porting nothing but
the plaster ceiling, giving the lie di-
rect to all the ex- terior.

At the
present moment there are
under construction several new and

FIRST CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH.

Kansas City, Mo. Geo. Mathews, Architect.

and costly churches among these, the Second Christian Science

;

Church, Frederick R. Comstock, of New York, architect, and the

Prospect Avenue Christian Church, Van Brunt & Howe, architects.
Both of these buildings are of stone, and both designed in purely
academic style.
 ARCHITECTURE IN KANSAS CITY. 153

Of its domestic architecture Kansas City may well be proud, and

few cities of even larger growth, wealth and population can make
a better showing. The people love and appreciate their homes, and
make much of their home life. Small, attractive dwellings in good
architectural style are numerous, many of them beautiful with-
out and within. Among the later homes of a more important and
striking character, which perhaps illustrate best the archi-
growth in these lines, may be mentioned the homes of Mrs.
tectural
A. H. Armour, Mr. Kirkland B. Armour, Mr. E. W. Smith and Mr.

FIRST CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH INTERIOR.

Kansas City, Mo. Geo. Mathews, Architect.

August R. Meyer, all in the suburb known as Hyde Park, and all by
Messrs. Van Brunt & Howe the John Perry home, by Mr. F. E.
;

Hill, architect, of Kansas City; the George Jones and L. B. Price

homes, both by Messrs. Shepard and Farrar, architects, of Kansas
City the homes of Mr. Langston Bacon and Mr. Robert Taylor, by
;

Messrs. Root and Siemens. The house of Mrs. Armour is a careful

study in Italian, while that of her son, Mr. K. B. Armour, is in the
late French Gothic. In both cases as much study was bestowed on the
interior as on the exterior, that they might be grammatical and con-
sistent. The Smith house is reminiscent of Cambridge, Salem or
 154 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

Portsmouth, and its details have been carefully modeled from the
examples of these old New England towns.
Oak Hall, the home of Col. W. R. Nelson, is a building or group
of buildings of no particular style, but full,- both within and without,
of interesting details and appointments. It is built of yellow native

limestone, and seems to have grown by a

process of nature out its rural surround-
ings. It is the joint work of Mr. F. E. Hill
and Messrs. Gunn and Curtis.
The school build- ings of Kansas City
illustrate all the phases of the city's
architectural growth, but the late ones are
equal to the best in the country. Most of
them are the work of the late William F.
Hackney, who, in conjunction with Mr.
Aclriance Van
Brunt, designed the new
Public Library. This is built in a more or
less academic style of classic architecture,

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL, CHURCH.

Kansas City, Mo. Adriance Van Brunt, Architect.

and is equipped with fire-proof book-stacks and all the require-

ments of a modern library. Its material is a Missouri white lime-
stone and Texas granite.
The public buildings of Kansas City offer the usual examples of
good and bad architecture to be found in every new community of
 ARCHITECTURE IN KANSAS CITY. 155

such a scale as this. The City Hall and Court House are
expensive
buildings, but not well planned for the purposes for which they were
built. The County Jail, near the Court House, is a pleasing
excep-
tion. It was designed by Mr. Adriance Van Brunt, and is one of the

best works from this gentleman's hand. Of the new Government

building only a word need be said. It is of the kind of building
which for many years the architects of the country have been com-
bating, and it is unfortunate that this new building could not have

SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

Kansas City, Mo. Adriance Van Brunt, Architect.

been built under the recent laws created for the improvement of Gov-
ernment architecture.
One of the public buildings of which Kansas City is justly proud
is the Convention Hall. The present building occupies the site of
the former building of the same general dimensions, which was de-
stroyed by fire on April 4, 1900. The Democratic National Con-
vention was to meet in this building on July 4 of the same year, and
this now seemed almost an impossibility. Before the flames were
extinguished on the old building, however, a new one had been
pledged, contracts made, and in less than ninety days from the date
oi the fire the new Convention Hall stood on the site of the old one ;
 156 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

a fire-proofed building, 198x314 feet, with a seating capacity of

more than 20,000 persons, under a steel roof which spanned the
whole without a column, and at a cost of $350,000.
The Democratic Convention was opened on the Fourth of July,
same class as the Madison
1900, in a building belonging to the
Square Garden in New York, and which lacked very little of com-
pletion. Its exterior is cut stone and brick; its interior fireproofed

throughout, and its floor area larger than that of Madison Square
Garden. The architect of the original building was F. E.

THE OLD CONVENTION HALL.

Kansas City, Mo. F. E. Hill, Architect.

Hill, who made the plans for the second building, with the assist-
ance of an advisory board of architects. The achievement, from
purely a constructional point of view, was one of the most remark-
able which has ever been brought to my notice.
Among the most important of the later buildings is the new
Willis Wood Theatre, designed by Mr. Louis Curtis, after the
modern French school. Its front is entirely in gray terra cotta.
An unfortunate impediment to a more rapid and permanently suc-
cessful development in architectural lines is the desire on the part of
many of those practising their profession here to be original. These
 ARCHITECTURE IN KANSAS CITY. 157

men lose sight of the fact that originality without method, and in-

vention without temperance and a proper and wholesome respect

may often lead to what is merely grotesque. Kansas
for traditions,

City has some startling examples of this disorder, to which space will
not admit a fuller reference.
It may be that we are near the beginning of a new building era.
We have yet to point to our firstsky-scraper, and it is to be hoped
that before the time comes we shall have learned the lessons of pro-
fessional self-control. It is somewhat appalling to think what might
happen were it otherwise.
Frank Maynard Howe.

THE NEW CONVENTION HALL.

Kansas City, Mo. F. E. Hill, Architect.
 FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST.
Central Park West and 96th Street, New York City. Carrfere & Hastings, Architects.

Copyright, 1904, by Joel W. Thome.

 THE ARCHITECTURE OF A CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH.

<g1CIENCE and the industrial arts are calledupon frequently to

K-) invent new terms for new discoveries and inventions. The
growing corpulency of our dictionaries attests the energy of the
demand. "Ions," "Coherer," "Radium," "Polonium" to men-
tion the products of the last few days only evince the rapidity
of the collaterial movement of language and knowledge.
It is, however, a rare occasion that demands a new expression
from Art, and still more seldom arrives a necessity that produces

a specific call upon Architecture to embody in its own particular

terms, a new social fact. And yet, pondering on the phenomenal
increase of the Christian Science sect within recent years, the
question may well have occurred to many: "When this persuasion
commences to erect places of worship, what shall we find to be the
architectural expression for a Christian Science Church ?"
"Something synonymous, if not identical, with the Protestant
Congregational meeting-house" is, of course, the obvious answer,
all the more obvious, indeed, because in so many cases the fol-

lowers of Mrs. Eddy established themselves at first in buildings

originally consecrated to some one of the many forms of "the dis-
sidence of Dissent." And yet, clearly, provided architecture may
rightly be expected to suggest if not positively indicate some-
thing of the spirit of the faith it houses, it might well be called
upon for some utterance more explicit than a mere reiteration of
a Baptist or Presbyterian building to express a creed that ap-
parently concerns itself so immediately with the terrestial wel-
fare of man, rather than, as in the case of other religions, only

proximately, and as a mere inconsequential detail of a salvation

consummated essentially beyond the grave. Nearly all rituals, it
is have prayers for the sick and the dying, but the health
true,
of the bodyis not one of their chief concerns, hardly one of their

interests at all, and a doctrine that addresses itself in no small

measure to the constitutional well-being of the individual and not
exclusively "ad majorem dei gloriam" with a "fearful looking for-
ward to judgment and fiery indignation," contains a novel element
that the architect cannot ignore.
Designs, so to speak, fresh from the source are not to be ex-
pected in these days, least of all in the case of a religious body
whose John the Baptist even, had not uplifted his voice in the
wilderness a decade or so ago. Such an architectural expression
as the Catholic faith found in Gothic architecture is, of course,
not within the range of contemplation. The opportunity in the
present case is insufficient even if the state of architecture to-day
did not preclude it. Still, all limitations admitted, there re-
 i6o THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

mained room for legitimate expectation that the design of a. Chris-

tian Science Church should contain much that is architecturally
novel and expressive. It is the reasonableness of this expectation
that gives interest in the pages of this magazine to the experiment
recently finished on Central Park West and 96th street in New
York City. The building is not the first erected for a Christian
Science congregation, but within our knowledge it is the first
capital enterprise of the kind undertaken on a scale so large and
with means so abundant that the architectural problem was as-

FIRST CHURCH OP CHRIST, SCIENTIST INTERIOR.

Central Park West and 9Gth Street, New York City. Carrgre & Hastings, Architects.
Decorations by Charles H. Cottrell.

sured of all the conditions necessary for adequate solution. The

site selected was of ample dimensions and excellently located for
its purpose. The expenditures permitted were large and suffi-
cient. The
exterior design and plan were committed to a firm
of architects that is in the opinion of many at the top of the pro-
fession,and the interior arrangements, decorations and equipment
were placed in the hands of a decorator who is both a competent
artist and an active and intelligent member of the church organi-
zation. The result is a building of the highest import at least to
Christian Scientists. Ifwe may not speak of a cathedral, in this
 A CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH. 161

case, we
certainly possess the metropolitan church. have We
already discussed in these pages the architectural merits of the
design. Our remaining task is to illustrate the now completed
edifice and describe its apartments, so many of which will appear
unecclesiastical to old notions.

The History of the Church.

The building recently erected by the First Church of Christ,
Scientist, at Central Park West and 96th street, is a material
representation of that which the church that built it stands for in
the realm of ideals. Of enduring material, built for daily service as
well as weekly meetings, beautiful within and without, it shadows
forth to a degree the thought which created it.
The Christian Scientists of New York connected with the First
Church have wandered long in the wilderness of leased and pur-
chased temporary meeting places, but at last they have found for
themselves a habitation after the pattern of the vision they have
ever been trying to make real.
In the bringing forth of their church home they have spared
nothing material that was required to make the spiritual effective
among men. Painting and carving and architectural work have
been conceived with little reference to financial limitations and
the result has justified the effort. Taking council of utility and
grace rather than of the traditions of the ecclesiastical elders, many
new expedients have been used and the completed work marks a
radical departure from other church buildings. To arrive at this
end, the growing congregation had followed a long course of self-
denial and avoided debt and its limitations by accepting unsatis-

factory halls and churches until it could complete the demonstra-

tion of the power of right thought over material restrictions.
Sixteen years ago the church was chartered with Mrs. Augusta
E. Stetson as pastor, and it is mainly due to her continued faith,
understanding and energy that the present building has been made
possible. The church was housed the first year in a small hall at
the corner of 47th street and Fifth avenue. From this the grow-
ing congregation moved to a hall at 138 Fifth avenue; from there
is was obliged by growth to move to Hardman Hall at Fifth ave-

nue and iQth street. Later it again removed and "occupied what
was once the Rutger Presbyterian Church on Madison avenue
and 29th street, and there found rest for three years. In January,

1896, All Souls' Church on 48th street was acquired and radically
changed in structure, only the walls being left undisturbed. For
seven years this building sufficed, but the growing attendance and
membership made another change necessary and the land on the
corner of Central Park West and 96th street was purchased four
 1 62 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST ENTRANCE DOORWAY.

Central Park West and 96th Street, New York City. Carrfere & Hastings, Architects.
 A CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH. 163

years ago. Carrere & Hastings were asked to prepare plans for
a building to seat twenty-two hundred.
The building finally produced has been to a remarkable degree
a development rather than the fulfilment of a formulated plan. It
was thought at that time that $300,000 would be ample to build
what was required. When the plans and estimates were furnished,
however, it was seen that they would not meet the ideals of those
who wished the work done. Not content with brick and Indiana
stone, Concord granite was ordered, though the cost of this mate-
rial in itself, when set and under roof would be $400,000.

It was then found that even at a cost of $550,000 the reading

room, Sunday-school rooms and offices for the practitioners and

church officials must be provided for in the basement. This did
not accord with Christian Science ideas, and though the cost was
raised to $750,000 the change was made and the rooms placed
above the auditorium and three elevators arranged to meet the
needs occasioned by the change.
It was then discovered that a tower of a more expensive de-

sign would add to the beauty of the structure and this was also
ordered. Finally, all limitations were ignored, new features were
added as they were required to make the church more perfect in
beauty and utility. Money came in steadily to meet every demand
promptly, the twelve hundred members of the church, including
the students of the New York City Christian Science Institute
contributing all was necessary without special exhortation
that
other than expressed in a simple request from the platform from
time to time for the amount needed to meet the expenses incurred.
Each contributor had been healed of some moral or. physical de-
fect and all desired to make the church a fitting expression of the

thought which Christian Scier$fe inspires.

When the dedication too'fi:' place, the total cost had reached
$1,185,000, and there was no debt. Above the cornerstone there is
this inscription :

FIRST CHURCH
OF
CHRIST, SCIENTIST,
NEW YORK CITY.
ERECTED
ANNO DOMINI MVIIICXCIX.
A TRIBUTE
OF
LOVE AND GRATITUDE
TO OUR
LEADER AND TEACHER,
THE REVEREND MARY BAKER EDDY,
DISCOVERE'R AND FOUNDER
OF
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
AND AUTHOR
OF ITS TEXT-BOOK.
SCIENCE AND HEALTH,
WITH KEY TO THE
SCRIPTURES.
104 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

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 A CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH. 165

When the structure was planned, it was thought by many that it

would be large enough to provide room for all who would attend
the church services for years to come, but already the seats are
well filled and there is reason to believe that its capacity will soon
be taxed to the uttermost.
The church is as large as is convenient and every part has been
made as perfect and as permanent as possible. It will stand as a
model of modern ideas in church building, and be valuable to those
who study church architecture. There has been much discussion as
*'

to what, type the really American church would be found finally

to be, and it is possible that this building, with its elevator service,
reading room and offices for the work of helping the sick, the dis-
couraged and the sinning, may have an important effect upon eccle-
siastical architectufe in this country.
Omen R. Washburn.

Description of the New Building.

New York's newest and most imposing church edifice now

greets the eye* of one walking or driving in Central Park
West in the vicinity of 96th street. Towering some two
hundred feet above the curb, it
striking forms a most and
beautiful picture in glistening silvery white granite stone, so uni- ;

form in color and quality as at once to give one the impresion

that the whole must have been cut from one huge perfect block.
It is,perhaps, largely due to this granite that the more than ordi-
nary solidity of appearance is obtained. However that may be,
this particular stone and the architecture of the building form a

most perfect and harmonious composition. The corner cornice

stones are 12 feet long, 8 feet wide and 3 feet 6Jnches thick,
weighing eighteen tons each. Being at the corner of the building
and over fifty feet high, where it was nearly impossible to either
brace or guy the derricks, the setting of these blocks involved a
very pretty piece of engineering.
It may be well at this point to mention the quarries from" which
this stone was taken, as well as the"method of quarrying. The
quariiy' is situated"' in Concord, N. H.
;
It is one of the few white

granite quarries in the United States, the product of which, does

not'jdrscolorby exposure to the air, the tendency being- rather to
grpw,,more white with age. The quarry is furnishing granite for the
First Church of* Christ, Scientist, of Concord,' N. H., a gift'fronvithe
1

Rev. Mary Baker G. ''Eddy. It is the most difficult stone jin) this
country to work because of its extreme hardness. Its ^peculiar
characteristics make
it impossible to cut by saw or machinery,

thereby necessitating the use of hand labor for the cutting, which
1(56 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
 A CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH. 167

is performed by the slow process of chipping until a smooth sur-

face is obtained, thus making the ruin of an entire block through

a mis-stroke of frequent occurrence. The stone is quarried in un-

usually large blocks. The writer witnessed the effect of a single
blast in the quarry which sheared a piece of granite 125 feet long,
from 55 feet to 100 feet high and from 10 feet to 20 feet thick, al-
most as clean as though cut with a saw. From this massive block
the smaller ones are cut by means of round wedges hardly larger
than a man's finger and only about 6 inches long. The wedges

FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST THE GALLERY.

Central Park West and 96th Street, New York City. Carrgre & Hastings, Architects.
Decorations by Charles H. Cottrell.

are spaced in the stone at intervals of about 6 inches and are gently
tapped with a hammer until the stone is cleft. This can only be
done in the direction of the natural clevity of the stone, which,
however, always runs at approximately right angles with the bed
of the stone.
To go backto our subject, the building. On closer examination
one isimpressed by the numerous small windows in the two
upper stories, which at once suggest a large number of rooms
above the main auditorium not common in ordinary church con-
struction, and shows the honesty of the architectural treatment.
 J68 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST EAST GLASS WINDOW.

Central Park West and 9Gth Street, New York City. CarrSre & Hastings, Architects.
Jesus and Mary in the Garden after the Resurrection.
 A CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH. 169

The building really accommodates perfectly 'what might be classed

as two independent organizations as to requirements, having sep-
arate entrances and plants complete, as well as connecting doors,
making it possible to throw the entire building into one when re-
quired.
At either side of the main entrance are two large electrically con-
trolled and direct connected elevators of themodern type, capable
of carrying twenty people each. No other instance is recorded of
the installation of elevators in a church. Flanking the elevators are

FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST RECEPTION ROOM.

Central Park West and 96th Street, New York City. Carrere & Hastings, Architects.
Decorations by Charles H. Cottrell.

two rather remarkable elliptical staircases. There is no iron used,

although the stairs are 5 feet 6 inches in width. The method
adopted is stronger, less expensive and less bulky. It also permits
of quicker construction, than do other methods in common usage.

Passing through to the auditorium by one of the side entrances,

you are under a large overhanging gallery, which extends around
three sides of the church and is supported by two large marble
piers on either side connected by marble arches to the marble side
walls and together by marble beams running longitudinally. These
piers and beams coming only half way between the side walls and
front of the gallery give the impression of a series of niches along
 170 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

the sides. This effect is heightened by the fact that the main barrel
vault of the auditorium ceiling issprung from the face of the piers
instead of from the side walls, and the sides of the piers with the
transverse arches connecting with the side walls develop into three
transverse barrel vaults penetrating the main vault of the ceiling.
By this method a very massive appearance is obtained, the piers
appearing to attach themselves to the outside walls. The centre
"motif" of each niche is a large stained glass window running in-
terruptedly from 6 feet above the ground floor up back of the
gallery, finishing in a semi-circular lead on axis of the niche above.

FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST THE SCHOOL, ROOM.

Central Park West and 96th Street, New York City. Carr&re & Hastings, Architects.
Decorations by Charles H. Cottrell.

These windows are very charming in their simplicity, having a warm

gray field with a foliage border of soft greens and autumn color-
ings. In the centre of each of the upper sections is a medallion
executed in quiet monotone effect of green and brown framed
fittingly in green and amber. The whole effect is heightened by the
tone of the woodwork, which is of a most uncommon rich gray
brown which effect is obtained by the use of a Circassian, Italian
and French walnut, bleached up in such a manner as to pr6duce
a very light tone, while at the same time preserving the grain. The
delicate fawn color of the Istrian marble is recalled in the color-

ing of the ceiling, which is used to accentuate the architectural de-

sign and modeling rather than as a bit of color decoration.
 A CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH. 171

The organ and reader's platform is placed in the centre of a large

perforated plaster niche which is treated in the same colors as the
ceiling. The walnut woodwork with its dull ivory and gold mounts,
and the organ pipes of Etruscan gold form a most pleasing climax.
It may be interesting to note that the modeling of the organ above

the keyboard is all done in plaster and toned to the color of walnut
to match the wood. The lighting is worthy of note as well as the
fixtures, especially the six large chandeliers, weighing over half a
ton each and carrying seventy-eight lights each. These fixtures

FIRST CHURCH OP CHRIST, SCIENTIST THE READING ROOM.

Central Park West and 96th Street, New York City. Carr^re & Hastings, Architects.
Decorated by Charles H. Cottrell.
Copyright, 1904, by Joel W. Thome.

are probably the finest example of a public chandelier work in

America.
On the way to the reading rooms above, one is surprised to find
a series of rooms worked into the haunches of the arch of the main
auditorium. This would have been a comparatively easy problem
had not been for the clerestory windows, which feed light to
it

the perforated sunbursts in the ceiling of the main auditorium.

The problem was, however, solved by building light walls over each
of the perforations and locating the passages and rooms around
the walls, with bay windows into the same. On the top or reading
room and Sunday-school floor, a large room has been arranged
withdome light thereover. This room is surrounded by smaller
rooms for church officials and practitioners.
Charles H. Cottrell.
 172 THE ARCHITECTURAL. RECORD..

RESIDENCE OF MR. CHARLES DANA GIBSON.

New York City.
No. 127 East 73d Street, , , McKim, Mead & White, Architects.
RESIDENCE OF CHARLES DANA GIBSON. 173

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 TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT.
SAND-LIME BRICK.
T~N IMPORTANT factor in the building trades market is the sand-lime
r~\ brick, a comparatively recent importation from Germany. The claims
cf the originators of this industry in America only three years ago were
received with suspicion, but in this short time it has been demonstrated that a
better and a cheap-
er face or finishing
brick can be made
from sand and a
small percentage of
lime than from clay.
The entire process
of manufacture re-
quires but twelve
hours. A number
of prominent public
and private build-
ings have been
erected throughout
the United States
from the sand and
lime bricks, which
not only present a handsome exterior, but recent experiments have shown
that the material, instead of showing signs of disintegration, as predicted by
some of its enemies, is gradually growing stronger and harder. One great
advantage over other material is that the sand and lime product can be made in
any color or com-
bination of colors
desired, which gives
to the architect an

opportunity to se-
cure striking effects
not- possible with
clay bricks.
The natural color
of the sand and lime
brick is a soft grey.
By using lime-proof
pigments in the

manufacturing pro-
cess, these bricks
are colored as desired. The quality of the brick depends to some extent on the pur-
ity of the lime, the silica properties of the sand and the process of manufacture.
This product is no longer an experiment, and the time is past for neglecting
so strong a factor in the structural market.
Wepublish cuts of the new High School building at Bennetsville, N.C., built
from " Huennekes System" sand-lime bricks, which certainly indicate the high
quality of the product.
The fact that the promoters of the enterprise, H. Huennekes Company, New
York, have erected over twenty factories in various sections of the country during
the past year, demonstrates the remarkable growth of the industry.