Architects.pdf
Media
Part of Marist Brothers in Esopus: Architects of the Payne Estate
content
Architects of the Payne Estate
Carrere
Hasting§.
Carrere & Hasting§.
Burroughs
Ahlers Walker & Gillette
Jallarde
Knofo & Lloyd
Stanford
White
Wiltwyck renovations
emP-loyee cottages
New York Public
Library_
Payne P-rOP-erty in ESOP-US
Beaux-Arts P-rinciP-les
Guastavino
The architects of record were John Merven Carrere and Thomas
Hastings of the firm Carrere & Hastings
,
New York City
.
Elizabeth Burroughs
in her memoirs indicates that her father
,
Julian Burroughs was the architect for
all the bluestone buildings
,
especially the English Village
.
This discrepancy
may be cleared up if somebody is able to view Thomas Hastings' drawings
,
some located at the New York Public Library
,
but more probably at the Avery
Architecture Library at Columbia University
.
A possibility is that Hastings drew
up the sketches
,
and the working drawings and construction was performed by
Burroughs
.
John Merven Carrere (b
.
9 November 1858
;
d
.
1 March 1911) was born
in Rio di Janeiro
,
the son of a prosperous American coffee trader whose
ancestry reached back to a French family that had come to America during the
French Revolution and had settled in Baltimore
.
.
After attending public
secondary school in Lausanne
,
Switzerland and the Institute of Briedenstein
,
John gained admission to the preeminent design academy of the era
,
the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris
,
in 1878
.
In 1881 Carrere sought out American
Thomas Hastings as a partner in a student design project. (later
,
Hastings
noted that John both looked and spoke like a Frenchman
,
despite his U
.
S
.
citizenship) Carrere left the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1882. He moved to New
York City
,
and by October 1883
,
he was a draftsman for the prestigious firm of
McKim
,
Mead and White
.
Here Carrere continued to learn from Charles Fallen
McKim (1847 - 1909)
,
who also had studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts
.
While at this firm
,
he again encountered Thomas Hastings
.
They worked
together on a project in Baltimore
,
liked each other
,
and decided to break away
from McKim
,
Mead and White in 1885. Carrere married Marion Dell in 1886
;
they had two daughters
.
Carrere's personality was not naturally endowed with diplomatic skills
.
According to family tradition his difficult personality and his entrance into the
dubious profession of architecture separated the man from his relatives
.
One
descendant termed him "temperamental and impulsive by nature
,
" and
extremely sincere and forthright. "He did not pose
.
" Hastings noted his
"seriousness and absolute fearlessness in speaking the truth under all
conditions and at all times
.
" Carrere's lack of charm and humor was softened
by what Walter Cook called "that buoyant manner
,
that enthusiasm and that
sincere and friendly smile" It is a little surprising that Carrere had such
success in dealing with headstrong robber barons, opinionated trustees and
officials, inefficient bureaucracies, and laggard contractors.
Carrere sought recognition for his efforts, particularly the ribbon of the
Legion of Honor, and complained in a letter to Elliott Woods, Architect of the
Capitol, bitterly that others, Whitney Warren and S.B.P
.
Trowbridge in
particular, had received that recognition. In the end, Carrere failed in his
quest. Some writers indicate that Carrere hoped to be named ambassador to
France -- highly unlikely in view of his apolitical activity.
In the 1906-1908 period, Carrere designed his own residence in White
Plains, NY "Red Oak"
.
As country homes go, this was very modest, especially
in comparison to Thomas Hastings' country home in Long Island. The
geographical separation indicated that Carrere and Hastings did not socialize
frequently outside of their business milieu
.
Carrere labored tirelessly for the advancement of his profession. He
was an active member of the American Institute of Architects, a founding
member of the Beaux-Arts Society of Architects. He also worked in less
conspicuous ways to help others
.
According to Hastings, he was "generous to
a fault," and always willing to aid students and struggling artists. "if a young
man in the office wanted to go to Paris to study, Carrere would arrange to give
him extra work to help him save up for it, and after getting him there, he would
employ him at generous terms to make a measured drawing of some
monument or give him some commission to help support him there"
On his death in a taxicab accident in New York City, the trustees of the
New York Public Library permitted his body to lie in state in the building so
closely associated with his name
.
Thomas Hastings (b. 11 March 1860; d. 22 October 1929) was born in
New York City, the son of Thomas Samuel Hastings, a prominent clergyman,
and Fanny de Groot, whose ancestors were of Dutch and Huguenot descent.
Thomas was the sixth male descendent to bear this name, the first having
arrived at the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634.His father was pastor of the
West Presbyterian Church and the president of the Union Theological
Seminary
.
His paternal grandfather, also named Thomas Hastings, was a
distinguished composer of sacred music, his most famous song being "Rock of
Ages." His maternal grandfather, Henry de Groot, was a merchant and writer
on law
.
The family academic background may have helped his academic
approach to the discipline and practice of architecture, but Hastings was
compelled neither to "accepts the tenets of his father's faith nor join any
church."
The future architect sprang from a well born, unostentatious,
comfortably set New York Protestant family, the type that chose Oceanic, New
Jersey rather than Newport, Lenox or Saratoga for a summer vacation.
Hastings was endowed with a respectable social position and a familiarity with
the city that Carrere lacked
.
Considered to be a sensitive and nervous child, Thomas was home
schooled by his father. Later he attended private school in preparation for
college; but at age 17 he abandoned it to enter the offices of Herter Brothers,
New York cabinetmakers and decorators, and worked under the chief designer
Charles Atwood. At 19, while continuing his job, he began to prepare for the
Beaux-Arts by taking instruction for half a day in mathematics, history and
French. his successes in the first class concours occurred in January and
February 1883. Back in New York he continued to live at the family home on
West 46th Street until he married in 1900.
Charles McKim, whom he asked to be best man at his wedding, was
the architect he admired most. Hastings' choice of McKim rather than of
White, with whom he was equally friendly, is significant. In character McKim
and Hastings both possessed ironclad integrity, serious purpose, exacting
thoroughness, and a measure of personal dullness
.
Hastings seems to have
enjoyed life, his practice, and his fame much more than did McKim.
Among his friends and clients, Hastings numbered powerful, self-made
bankers, industrialists and railroad moguls who usually avoided the more
spectacularly publicized events of the decade. Like these men, he preferred
the steady office routine and the respectable domesticity of New Jersey and
Long Island residential communities. Helen B. Benedict or Greenwich,
Connecticut, a handsome daughter of E. C. Benedict, sprang from this milieu.
She was the only woman in his life. They married in 1900 after a friendship of
ten years, but never had children. Helen erected a stable home life around
him, providing warmth, encouragement and practical necessities
.
Hastings
built "Bagatelle" in Westbury, LI, in 1908.
Like Carrere he wanted simplicity;
but living on Long Island where the principal interest of the residents was
horses, he placed a low stable with four box stalls at one end of the entrance
court
.
After Carrere's death, Hastings joined with a number of collaborators.
He died at the Nassau Hospital, Mineola, Long Island following an operation
for appendicitis. At articulate writer, Hastings advanced the cause of Beaux-
Arts architecture in America.
The firm, Carrere & Hastings. When Carrere and Hastings found they
worked well together on the Baltimore project, they decided to branch out on
their own and left McKim, Mead and White
.
Their first major project was the
result of connections: Henry Flagler was a parishioner of the West
Presbyterian Church and a friend of pastor Hastings, but his business interests
had moved on from Standard Oil to railroads, and he believed that the railroad
would open up Florida to development. He
asked Hastings to sketch plans for a hotel for St.
Augustine, Florida, intending to use local Florida
architects to develop the working drawings and
supervise the construction
.
However, the
architects made a case for developing the entire
project: design, working drawings, and
supervision of construction, and Flagler agreed
.
The progressive construction
methods for the Ponce de Leon Hotel (1885 - 1888) employed concrete with
an aggregate of a local shell and coral stone called coquina
.
The success of
the hotel prompted Flagler to commission other
buildings in St. Augustine
:
the Alcazar Hotel (1887-
1888), Grace Methodist Church (1887) and the
Flagler Presbyterian Church ( 1889-1900).
Hastings' social contacts quickly attracted
many clients for private and business projects
.
Often a single client would commission a town house, a country home, and
also a business building -- not always in that sequence. The era 1890-1917 is
often termed Edwardian, in deference to the mentality of the men who had
made their wealth during and after the Civil War. They looked to the British
pattern of respectability, and copied the notion of townhouse and country
estate. Since trustees of public agencies and government officials were
tightly intertwined with the baronial set, the firm was able to receive several
public building commissions -- often via competition. Carrere himself had
suggested the ground rules for competition juries, which were accepted almost
universally.
The two men worked well together. Hastings usually did the design
work, with Carrere developing the working drawings, dealing with the patrons
and also the contractors
.
Both Hastings and Carrere exhibited great sensitivity
to placement of buildings within a larger landscaping design. In some cases,
Carrere alone handled some major park designs, including Hamilton Fish Park
on E
.
Houston Street in New York City
.
Guiding Beaux-Arts principles.
While McKim, Mead and White
designed projects from the outside in, Hastings insisted on designing the
projects from the inside out. Hastings also felt that the last great advances in
architectural design were at the time of the Renaissance, which is why he
designed in the Italian, French and Spanish Renaissance styles. Hastings
considered later architectural embellishments to be perversions, and generally
insisted on returning to the earlier Renaissance models.
However, Hastings preached that architects ought to make use of
modern engineering achievements, notably in steel, reinforced concrete, but
also including electricity and other conveniences, all integrated into a
Renaissance design. They often used local materials, such as the on-site
quarry in the Esopus property for bluestone, and the use of coquina in St.
Augustine.
Hastings' designs for country houses incorporated several new
features. His main halls were general placed perpendicular to the entrance
axis, staircases were banned from prominent positions, and hallways were
designed to lead to all the functions of the building
.
The New York Public Library.
This is the firm's most famous project,
and was won through a competition, to the surprise of many other architects
.
Samuel J. Tilden, a governor of New York State, had left $3
.
5 million in his will
for support of libraries. At the time there were two major libraries in New York
City, both losing money: the Astor and the Lenox. Someone suggested that
the three groups merge their efforts -- a proposal that made sense. The site
chosen was then a reservoir for the Croton water supply system, along Fifth
Avenue between 40th and 42nd street.
John S
.
Billings was appointed Director of the New York Public Library
on January 15, 1896, and this appointment determined to a very large extent
the character of the eventual building
.
One library authority, Charles Soule in
1902 wrote "Plan always from the inside outward
.
Do not consider any feature
of the exterior or of construction until the problems of administration and
growth for Libraries generally, and the particular library in hand, have been
thoroughly examined and understood." This accorded completely with
Hastings approach to projects
.
Eighty -eight proposals were submitted in the first competition, but the
Executive Committee of the library feared that the large number of proposals
had led major firms to prescind from entering the competition. So the
Committee polled itself as to who were the major firms, and selected the top
six, including McKim, Mead and White and Carrere & Hastings
.
From his
vacation spot, McKim cabled the committee protesting the circular's insistence
that the Billings plan be followed; his prestige led the committee to soften its
insistence.
The competition closed November 1, 1897. On the following day, the
jury deliberated at the Astor Library. Carrere & Hastings received four votes, it
nearest competitor three, and McKim, Mead and White placed third, probably
because it had changed the interior arrangements to adjust to their exterior
design. On November 10, 1897, the Trustees approved the jury
recommendation, and Carrere & Hastings were commissioned the architects.
The jury affirmed that "the Carrere and Hastings entry presents a consistent,
skillful and artistic solution of practical and structural problem" They
considered it "direct and dignified in treatment" and predicted it would give the
City of New York a "beautiful, noble and monumental building
.
"
The design and construction took twelve years, but the result is
magnificent. It exemplifies some of Hastings ideas
.
The staircases are almost
hidden from view, at the extreme left and right of the entrance hall. (Note that
busts of Carrere and Hastings are in alcoves on the staircase; Oliver Hazard
Payne is listed in the main entry hall as a contributor
.
)
The Lennox library was located at Fifth Avenue and 70th street. Later
this became the site of the Frick mansion, designed by Carrere & Hastings
(probably after Carrere's death). The library and the Frick mansion
construction sandwiched that of the Payne mansion, and the similarities of
exterior treatment with limestone and flat surfaces are extraordinary.
The most prominent period of the firm was between 1890 and 1917.
The list at the end of this section shows some of the 600 known projects. I
tried to concentrate on the period just before the Payne commission and
shortly thereafter.
The country houses were a part of their practice in which Carrere and
Hastings attained a dominant position, achieving great success and influence,
primarily in their insistence on integrating the house into the natural
surroundings and creating a multi-faceted country existence for their wealthy
clients.
The Payne property in Esopus
.
Oliver Hazard Payne put together his
486+ acre estate in 1908 and 1909 through the intermediary of William S.
Fuller, probably a lawyer in Payne's attorneys' firm, who purchased the
properties to cloak the identity of the actual purchaser. Curtis Channing Blake
indicates that Carrere & Hastings did prior work for Payne, location unknown,
but probably a town house in New York City. There is also work for William H
Payne, grain merchant, on 40th Street as early as 1895. This Payne was not
a brother, but may have been a relative from either Cleveland or Hamilton,
NY. However, there is substantial work for Henry Flagler who was a close
partner of Payne from 1872 through 1884, and who continued to involve
Payne in investments after the latter year. In 1899 there is work in Aiken,
South Carolina for William Clifford Whitney, Payne's brother-in-law. Oliver built
and donated a New York city house for William Whitney and Flora Payne, and
occupied quarters on the second floor for many years. Since Oliver contributed
heavily to Grover Cleveland's campaign for the presidency, it would not be
beyond belief that Oliver contributed or commissioned Cleveland's headstone
in 1909. However, Cleveland's best friend was E. C. Benedict, Hastings'
father-in-law, and William C Whitney was a close associate of Cleveland.
Apart from family or business connections, Payne would move in the circle of
industrialists who favored Carrere & Hastings. Note also that the firm had
done substantial work in design of country homes in the first decade of the
20th century.
The Esopus mansion exhibits many of Hastings' favorite concepts.
The main entrance is from the east, and leads into a hall perpendicular to the
entrance axis. The stairway, though elegant, is hidden from first view, and
does not contribute to the visitor's initial impression. The major portion of the
mansion is U-shaped, with the hallways facing the patio and leading to all the
important rooms on the first floor. One variation in the Hastings design was
closing off the U-shape to make the building rectangular, with servant quarters
and utility rooms in the fourth wing.
Hastings incorporated new technology into the building. It was wired for
electricity, and there was a central vacuum system servicing all the main
rooms on the first and second floors. Naturally he used steel and reinforced
concrete
.
The exterior surface was imported limestone, while the gatehouse
and greenhouse buildings are of Indiana limestone. For the New York Public
Library the firm considered limestone from Dover, New York and Vermont,
opting for Vermont when Dover was unable to produce enough similar quality
limestone
.
The use of imported limestone may have been ordered by
Colonel Payne himself. Legend has it that Payne noticed a building on the
Italian coast during one of his summer trips to the Mediterranean, and told the
architects he wanted a similar building. When they pointed out that the lifetime
of the imported limestone might not be longer than 20 years, he answered that
he himself wouldn't last 20 years, so import the limestone!
Another of Hastings' contributions to architecture was to separate the
exterior surface of a building from the basic construction
.
It was Hastings who
coined the term "curtain wall"; the building would stand on its own, with the
curtain wall, be it brick or limestone, not part of the structural entity
.
In their design of country houses, Carrere and Hastings took great
pains to make the buildings blend in with the landscaping. In the Esopus
project, they added the wall on the eastern view to mute the stark elevation of
the building and fold it more gently into the hill.
Hastings disliked the trend toward skyscrapers, and argued that
buildings constructed for business profits ought to be restricted in height, so as
to maintain a certain look to the entire city. His arguments were modified to
demand setbacks of tall buildings, but he thought this a perversion. In this, he
was a throwback to Beaux-Arts thought. Even today, Paris has only a single
skyscraper (Eiffel Tower excepted), built shortly after World War II, and the city
fathers immediately realized it was a mistake. Now all tall buildings are exiled
to la Defense, across the Seine
.
This certainly gives a beautiful look and feel
to Paris, even if the casual observer doesn't identify why.
l'Envoi Carrere & Hastings were a firm entirely consistent with the
Edwardian era or the Gilded Age, which came to an end by 1929. The next
generation of the rich did not feel the need to imitate the British model, and
began to choose younger architects with fresher vision than either McKim,
Mead and White or Carrere and Hastings
.
.
When the personal income tax
legislation was enacted, it became difficult to justify country estates which
required six persons minimum inside and six persons minimum outside
.
(In its
heyday, Payne's estate employed over 60 people
.
). The final blow was the
depression of 1929, when the number of fortunes shrank precipitously
because so much of the wealth was in the form of stock.
Newer concepts came into vogue. The Beaux-Arts period faded
quickly, and had its critics especially after 1900. One, J. Steward Barney, a
proponent of Gothic style architecture expressed annoyance at the
development of highly rewarded drafting skills at the expense of real
architecture. In 1909 he wrote
" When I get the money, I intend to have a silk rug made, on which I intend to use the
beautiful pattern manufactured by Messers. Carrere and Hastings, and entered by them
as the plan for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. I am going to give that rug to Tom as
a prayer rug, upon which to pray for forgiveness for the things he has done"
"it is clear that the leaders of modern architecture, Sullivan, Wright, Le
Corbusier, Mies, and Gropius did not define their architectural vision with
such narrow social and economic limits as Carrere and Hastings
..
.
. The
more progressive individuals of this century had eyes that moved over
the whole human landscape, minds that embraced large social
problems, and consciences that were founded upon more democratic
ideals. Their sensibilities were attuned not to a nostalgic re-evocation of
historic images and periods, but to the realities of the years in which they
lived
.
For their patronage they relied not upon a delicate financial and
social structure that collapsed resoundingly in 1929, but upon the rising
level of social consciousness that preceded and then accelerated that
important date. In the most general terms, the moderns negotiated, and
in some cases stimulated the large shift in architectural activity from the
private to the public domain. They anticipated and made history. What
can be said about Carrere and Hastings and their output is that they
stayed exactly even with and brilliantly reflected their times. They seem
as remote to us as the builders of the Pantheon; but by the same token,
as enjoyable in their great works." Curtis Channing Blake, The
Architecture of Carrere and Hasting§, 1976, pp. 37 4-275
.
Many Carrere & Hastings plans were destroyed when the firm
split into two units around 1920, so to this date no plans for the mansion,
gatehouse or greenhouse area have been found. Some plans were
donated from one section of the split to the Avery Library of Architecture
at Columbia University
.
We also searched the documents and plans
given to the library by the Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company,
which probably was a subcontractor on the Esopus project for the main
staircase and the vaulting over the larger rooms
.
Rafael Guastavino (1842-1908) was an architect and a builder
.
Born in Valencia, he studied architecture in Barcelona and built his first
house in 1866. For the next 14 years, he established his reputation for
fireproof construction and built factories, warehouses, and apartment
houses in the Barcelona area
.
In 1881
,
he emigrated to the US with his
son
,
Rafael Jr (1872 - 1950)
.
They settled in New York City, and gained
success as contractor and builder with their patented vaulting system
.
The Guastavinos held 24 patents on their vaulting processes. At the
time of his father's death in 1903
,
Rafael assumed control of the
Company. At the height of its expansion
,
the firm maintained offices in
New York
,
Boston
,
Providence
,
Chicago and Milwaukee
.
The company's
last project was in 1962. During its existence
,
their unique vaulting
system was used in more than 1
,
000 buildings
.
The list of architects
who hired Guastavino include McKim
,
Mead & White
;
John Russell
Pope
;
Carrere & Hastings
;
Warren & Wetmore
;
Cass Gilbert
;
and Heins
and Lafarge
.
The drawings in the Avery Library include plans
,
elevations, sections and details of 700 projects and technical records
.
One of the projects is the staircase for
PaY.ne WhitneY.'s house at 972
Fifth Avenue
.
Other projects of note are St. Paul Chapel on the
Columbia University campus
,
the shrine of the Immaculate Conception in
Washington DC
,
Church of St. Jean BaRtiste
at 76th St & Lexington Ave
in New York City
,
and the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer at 68th St and
Lexington Ave in New York City
.
The job log book from Carrere & Hastings office
between 1910 and its close 1929 which I viewed at the
Avery Library contains the following entries relating to
Oliver Payne, together with sequential job numbers
which
,
while undated, give some idea of the sequence of
the work.
job
log description
editor's comments
number
probably included
112
0
H
Payne (Estate at
mansion and
Esopus NY)
grounds utilities
design
222
0
H
Payne
Greenhouses
232
0
H
Payne Gate Lodge
1
1
233
0
H
Payne Stable
the English
landscaping in front
241
0
H
Payne terraces
of mansion to frame
the yacht Aphrodite
242
0
H
Payne Ice Houses
once thought to be
by Julian Burroughs
296
0
H
Payne six cottages
employee cottages
along Black Creek road
328
0
H
Payne Boat house
may never have
and temple
been implemented
.
Julian Burroughs
tells of his plans
following directives
I
I
I
I
of the captain of the
lot.
G
Col OH Payne, Esopus one or both elevators in
NY ( elevator)
the mansion
=►for
a fuller description of the mansion, see
Brother Francis Xavier's
two P-art essay_,_
Representative sample of 600 works by Carrere & Hastings
during the period 1890 - 1917 as listed in Curtis Channing
Blake's "The Architecture of Carrere and Hastings" The
sample concentrates on the period 1901 - 1912 during which
time the architects worked on Oliver Payne's Esopus
property
.
date
I
I
sponsor
II
location
1885
I
I
Ponce de Leon Hotel
1
1
st Augustine
,
Florida
1887
II
Alcazar Hotel
1
1
st Augustine, Florida
1887
I
I
Borden stable
l
l
oceanic
,
N J
1889
I
Flagler Presbyterian
Church
St Augustine
,
Florida
1891
II
Flagler,
H
M
-
Kirkwood
1
1
st Augustine, Florida
I
1892
l
i
e N Bliss - house & stable
l
l
oceanic, NJ
I
1893 &
!
Flagler
,
H M - Whitehall
I
Palm Beach
,
Florida
1901
1
1890
I
Laurel-in-the-Pines
:
C
.
H
.
Kimball
,
President
I
Lakewood, N J
I
1
1892
I
Miller
,
Wm Starr - country
home
!
Rhinebeck, NY
I
1
1895
I
Payne
,
William
H -
grain
merchant
1
40th Street
,
NYC
I
§]
Benedict,
E
C - country
house & stables n
.
b
.
Greenwich, Ct
Hastings married
6
Benedict's daughter
1896 -
Giraud Foster - country
1898
house
Lenox, Mass
1904
alterations
1911
stables & outbuildings
EJ
William C Whitney -
Aiken, South
country house Oliver
Carolina
Payne's brother-in-law
1
1901
I
Carrere
,
J M - his own
town house
I
Park Ave & 65th St
I
1
1901
I
Metropolitan Museum of
Art - alterations
I
New York City
I
1
1901
I
Bicentennial Building, Yale
University
I
New Haven, CT
I
1
1901
I
Guggenheim, Daniel -
country house
!
Elberon, NJ
I
1
1902 -
1911
I
New York Public Library
I
New York City
I
EJ
Blair Building
n.b. other architects
24 Broad Street
considered this C & H's
best business building
1902
I
Cornell University
Campus Plan
I
Ithaca, New York
I
1903 -
I
Metropolitan Opera House
I
New York City
I
1907
1903
II
Hamilton Fish Park
I
E
.
Houston Street,
NYC
1903
I
Metropolitan Museum -
Jade Room
I
New York City
I
1903
I
I
F A Bell - stable
II
Madison
,
NJ
I
1903
Empire Theatre (now
Broadway & 40th St,
demolished)
NYC
1903 -
12 Carnegie libraries
ll
various cities
1905
1904 -
Manhattan Bridge
I
Manhattan
1912
Roadway
1904
Staten Island Ferry
1
st George, S I
terminal
1904
WK Vanderbilt - poultry
I
Great Neck
,
LI
cottage
1904
I
U S Capitol East Facade
Project
l
washington
,
DC
1905
I
I
E R Squibb
l
l
~~~eekman St
,
1905 -
II
House Office Building
l
l
washington
,
DC
1908
1905 -
ll
senate Office Building
l
l
washington, DC
1909
1905
I
Carrere, J M - country
house
l
white Plains, NY
D
James Stillman, banker
7, 9, 15
,
and 17 East
founder of National City
72nd Street
Bank
EJ
Flagler Mausoleum at
Flagler Memorial
St Augustine, Florida
Presbyterian Church
1
1906 -
1909
II
New Theatre
1
8th Ave & 62nd St
,
NYC
1
1906
II
Royal Bank of Canada
I
I
Toronto, Canada
I
1
1907
I
I
Carnegie Institute
I
I
Washington DC
I
1
1907
I
I
Chubb Building
1
5 S William Street,
NYC
1908
I
I
Percy Chubb
I
I
New York City
1909 -
I
I
Percy Chubb
I
I
Glen Cove, LI
1909
1908
I
James Todd - country
house & stable
!
Louisville, Ky
1908
l
l
s H Valentine
1
1
5 East 67th St, NYC
1908
II
Arthur Scribner
I
I
Mt Kisco, NY
1908
Dr
.
William Baltzell
I
I
Wellesley, Mass
1908
Blair
,
James A - country
Oyster Bay, Long
house
Island
1908
Bailey, Dr Pierce - country
I
Katonah, NY
I
house
1908
Thomas Hastings - country
I
Old Westbury, NY
I
house
Oliver Hazard Payne
,
city
I
New York City
I
home
President Cleveland
headstone
n
.
b
.
Cleveland's best
friend was E
.
C
.
Benedict
,
1909
Hastings' father-in law
.
O
.
H
.
Payne had financed
his presidential campaign,
and William Clifford
Whitney was his secretary
of the Navy
.
1
1909
I
I
Globe Theater
I
Broadway & 46th
Street
1909
II
Alfred I duPont
I
Wilmington
,
Delaware
1909
II
Edwin Gould
l
l
936 Fifth Avenue
I
1910
II
Thomas Fortune Ryan
l
l
858 Fifth Avenue
I
1910
I
Stanley Walker - country
Great Barrington,
Mass
house
1910
I
E H Harriman - country
house
I
Arden
,
NY
I
1
1910
II
Mrs. Robert Winthrop
1
27 East 37th Street
,
NYC
1
1910
I
Norman Peck - house &
stable
I
Hartsdale, NY
I
1
1910
I
I
John Jacob Astor
l
l
842 Fifth Avenue
I
1
1910
II
Bryant Park
I
behind NY Public
Library
1
1910-1912
1
W. B Thompson,
Greenhouse, house,
stables and outbuildings
1
1910 -
1912
l
l
u S Rubber Building
1
1911
I
Oliver Hazard Payne
six cottages !!! ???
1911
:
house, poultry, garage
I
G L Winthrop - country
1911
I
RS Lovett
:
stable and outbuildings
1911
II
Transportation Building
1911
II
Knoedler Building
1911
I
I
Bank of Toronto
1911
I
Manhattan Bridge
approaches
1911
II
Exposition Building
1912
I
St Ambrose Chapel
Whiting Chapel
1912 -
I
I
H
.
C
.
Frick - city home
1914
1913
I
Webb-Horton Presbyterian
Church
1914
I
I
Bedford Country Club
1915 -
I
Amphitheater behind tomb
1920
of the unknown soldier
1915
II
Greenwich Hospital
1
1918
II
Bronx Parkway bridges
1
1920
l
l
u S Capital - alteration
I
1921-1924
l
l
standard Oil Building
1
1924
I
I
Gimbel - Saks bridge
Stanford White was
murdered in 1906, so had no direct
influence on the Esopus project.
However
,
he was a favorite of Oliver
Payne
.
The records of White's
correspondence in the Avery Library
contain several hundred short notes
to Payne
.
White joined the
partnership of McKim
,
Mead & White
in 1880, and the firm became the
most prominent firm in the USA,
catering to the leaders of the Gilded
Age until well after 1910
.
Greystone, NY
I
Broadway & 58th St,
NYC
I
Esopus, New York
l
lenox, Mass
!
Matinecock, L
.
I.
II
Montreal, Canada
1
1
14 East 57 St, NYC
II
Toronto
,
Canada
I
Manhattan
I
I
Rome, Italy
Cathedral of St John
the Divine
I
Fifth Ave & 70th
Street
!
Middletown, NY
I
I
I
Mt Kisco, NY
I
Alexandria, Virginia
II
Greenwich, CT
I
I
Bronx &
:
Westchester
,
NY
l
l
washington
,
DC
I
l
l
26 Broadway, NYC
I
I
I
New York City
I
It is not clear who did the renovation designs for the
Stevens mansion at 57th and Fifth Avenue which Payne gave to
William and Flora Whitney
.
We know that Payne moved into his
own townhouse at 852 Fifth Avenue in 1903
.
While Curtis
Channing Blake indicates Carrere & Hastings did work for Payne
in New York City
,
we have no other record of this work. Stanford
White specialized in the interior design of projects
,
while McKim
concentrated on externals
.
It is know that White designed the
staterooms and Payne's private rooms on the yacht Aphrodite
built in 1898. Payne gave White great freedom of design and
also of decoration
.
My best guess is that McKim
,
Mead &
White designed Payne's townhouse at 852 Fifth Avenue
,
and
White worked closely with Payne on the interior design and
decoration
.
By 1902 McKim
,
Mead & White were awarded the
design of the house Oliver Payne wanted to give
Pay:ne and
Helen Whitney_
as a wedding gift. The construction began in
1904 and lasted five or six years
.
I don't know why Payne
turned away from McKim
,
Mead & White and employed Carrere
& Hastings for the Esopus estate
;
perhaps he did not have the
same confidence in McKim and Mead
;
perhaps Carrere &
Hastings' reputation had grown substantially by 1909.
Among important works attributed to Stanford White is the
Washington Arch at the bottom of Fifth Avenue
,
the second
Madison Square Garden
,
and the Boston Public Library
.
Julian Burroughs was the son of John Burroughs
,
the famous
naturalist who lived in West Park
.
Julian attended Harvard University for his
bachelor's degree
,
and had artistic talent. When Andrew Mason
,
Payne's
first superintendent died in December 1912
,
Julian was picked to become
the new superintendent. He moved his family into the Pratt Mansion
.
Besides supervising the general operation
,
he was responsible for many of
the buildings on the estate
,
notably the boathouse and dock
,
the ice house
(although Carrere & Hastings list the ice house as a project on their job log)
,
the bridge over Black Creek along Black Creek Road
,
the peacock trellis in
the boathouse
,
the iron gates at the front entrance
.
It is debatable whether
he was involved in the design of the English Village. In 1952 I spoke with
Joseph Ahlers as we toured the Village
;
he marveled at the consistent and
coherent design of the buildings
.
It is more likely that the design was by
Carrere and Hastings
.
Julian also did the original design for the dairy barn and horse barn
west of route 9-W
.
Colonel Payne died as these buildings were under
construction
,
and the new owner
,
Colonel Harry Payne Bingham dismissed
Julian and engaged Walker & Gillette of 125 East 37th Street
,
NYC to
complete the structures
.
Some of the Walker & Gillette blueprints dated 10-
5-1917 still exist and are stored in the Marist Brothers' files
.
Evidently the
horse barn was intended to be used for the breeding of horses
.
The
northern part of the L structure shows a design for six birthing stalls
;
the
eastern section shows stalls for horses
.
The upper floors are marked for
storage and carriages
.
It is unknown if this ever happened
.
John Allan Ahlers (1895 - 1983) was born in Oberhausen Germany
on 3 Nov 1895
.
His family moved to Baltimore in 1904
.
John came to St.
Anne's Hermitage
,
Poughkeepsie NY in 1910
,
probably via the advice of
the Redemptorist Fathers who staffed his Baltimore parish
.
The
Redemptorist Fathers and Marist Brothers had communicated earlier when
the Brothers considered the purchase of the vacant Esopus properties
.
John became a Marist Brother in 1913
,
and spent the next few years in
Marist Brother houses
,
including a two year stint as a teacher at Ecole St.
Hyacinth
,
in Manitoba
,
Canada
.
The school serviced the French speaking
section of Winnipeg
.
John spoke fluent English
,
French and German
,
and
was proficient in Latin
.
In 1917 John was stationed at St. Ann's Academy
in New York City and registered for the World War I draft. He spent several
years at Saint Ann's
,
as the scholasticate was located there
,
and he may
have taught there 1916 - 1918
.
Brother Francis Xavier studied
,
lived and
taught there in the same years
.
John left the Brothers in July 1918 and
returned to live with his widowed mother
,
brother and sister in Baltimore
.
He is listed in the 1920 census as a clerk in a contractor's office
.
The 1930
census classifies him as an architect with his own practice
.
John qualified
via the apprentice route rather than formal architectural school.
Within the Brothers
,
John was a year behind Brother Francis Xavier
Benoit and the two maintained a close friendship
.
While teaching at
Marian College in Poughkeepsie
,
Brother Francis acted as project manager
and general contractor for a small gymnasium with wings providing
additional space for carpenter shop
,
print shop
,
laundry and garage
.
Brother Francis used professional labor for the skilled trades
,
especially
masons
,
plumbers
,
and electricians
,
but the remaining work was done by
Marist Brother teachers on summer vacations and by student Brothers
during the remainder of the year. This was a continuation of a tradition
dating back to the 1830s
.
Father
,
now Saint
,
Champagnat built the main
headquarters at Notre Dame de !'Hermitage near Lyons in the same
manner
.
In 1949 Brother Francis was commissioned to manage the
construction of the 1950-1953 additions to the English Village and the new
garages near the Holy Rosary cottages
.
He chose Ahlers as architect
because Ahlers understood the training system for the Brothers and was
comfortable with the practice of do-it-yourself which John had experienced
during his stay in Poughkeepsie
..
In the two previous decades
,
Ahlers did
substantial work for churches and schools in Baltimore MD
.
Despite learning his trade sans formal architectural learning
,
John
had a good grasp of architectural styles
.
He correctly identified the design
of what we call the English Village as French Renaissance
,
and told me
how each of the buildings designed by Carrere & Hastings was from a
different period of French or Italian Renaissance
.
Finances prohibited
carrying out the additions entirely in field stone. The new construction was
in red brick
,
located just north of the original English Village but hidden from
view as the observer entered the Village
,
save for the top of the
gymnasium
.
To renovate the original English Village itself
,
John used dark
wood and stucco to close the two open archways leading to the north and
west as well as several bays
.
The only deviations were his use of glass
brick to close the entrance to the carriage house -a 1950s favorite- and
the sheds outside the original garage bays were roofed with shingle rather
than the slate called for in Ahler's original design
,
a concession to limited
finances
.
He also designed an alcove in honor of Blessed Champagnat
which jutted out from the large opening in what had been the electric
generating shop
.
When John designed the chapel
,
he showed his love of and
expertise in ecclesiastical architecture. The finishes were of light wood. At
one side was a small alcove honoring Blessed Champagnat
,
the only place
where John splurged on cut stone
.
The alcove was built out from the large
opening in what had been the main door to the electric generating shop
.
Wiltwyck renovations
.
Sometime around 1932 Colonel Harry Payne
Bingham decided to donate the entire property to the Protestant Episcopal
Mission Society of New York City
.
The estate took the name Wiltwyck
,
the
original name of the city of Kingston
.
The section between route 9-W and
the river was planned as a sanitarium
,
and the section across 9-W was
planned as a school for troubled black youngsters
.
Architects developed a
series of grandiose plans
.
Given the precarious funding of the entire project
and the depression era
,
none of these plans were carried out
,
but they
show the direction Wiltwyck wished to take
.
Knofo & Lloyd
,
34 West 13 Street NYC
,
developed plans for a free-
standing of Mid Hudson Children's Respite Center
.
There are sketches of hospital quarters in the mansion located in
the servants rooms on the west section of the quadrilateral
,
by Starrett &
VanVleek
,
267 Fifth Ave
,
NYC
. .
The servants' rooms were to be patients'
rooms
.
The doctor's room and office was to be in the southwest corner of
the non-servant area (curiously enough
,
this was the room of Brother
Joseph Cadroes
,
teacher and infirmarian
,
in 1942-1945
;
the next room
down was an infirmary for four students
.
I never got to stay there
.
) The
nurse's quarters were in the northwest corner of the non-servant area
(where Brother Victor Eugene's sewing rooms were located in 1942-1945 )
.
When the mansion was converted for use as Marist Preparatory
,
the
servants' rooms were demolished and three classrooms were formed in the
space
,
with folding doors so that the three rooms could be supervised by a
single teacher during study periods
.
(Prior to completion of these
classrooms
,
the three classes were held in two bedrooms at the northeast
section of the east wing and another classroom in the south wing
.
The
biology and physics labs were also located in the south wing
.
)
In 1932
,
Louis E Jallarde
,
597 Fifth Ave
,
NYC
,
submitted a design
for two free standing buildings to be sited between the Pratt House (Holy
Rosary) and the English Village
;
one would be a dining room
,
the other
classrooms
.
Lack of funds forced an alternate solution
.
The Pratt House
had an addition at the eastern side
,
and the porte-cochere was filled in
.
The eastern addition became the dining room
.
The Juniors used this
kitchen and dining room facility for several months in 1942 until the facilities
in the mansion were completed
.
Starrett & VanV/eek
,
267 Fifth Avenue
,
NYC
,
submitted a
comprehensive design for a complete school to be located between the
Black Creek and the railroad right of way
.
This was too expensive
,
and
Wiltwyck decided to use existing buildings
.
A dormitory for counselors was
added to the chicken farm
,
and parts of the dairy and horse barns were
converted for classroom use
.
Employee cottages.
Curtis Channing Blake lists 'employee
cottages' among the Carrere & Hastings projects, and they appear in the
job log of the firm now held at the Avery Library. These were originally
contiguous to the Hudson River part of the estate, as route 9-W followed
the Black Creek Road until land was taken from Payne by eminent domain
in 1915
.
When Wiltwyck gave up hope for the Starrett & VanVleek
proposal, it opened up the upper floors with dormers as sleeping quarters,
and added a brick building at the east as a kitchen and dining room
.
The
dining room was also used for boxing, considered a manly sport in those
days. Floyd Patterson began his boxing career in that room
.
In 1968, the
area around the cottages was separated and sold in hopes of making it a
separate school, which failed
.
Finally in 1972, it was purchased by
contractors and converted into rental apartments. When Fred Latko sold
the area to JAF partners, John McClelland added a wing to the brick
kitchen, built a wood frame building at the western ledge, and drilled
artesian wells to create an independent water supply.
References
:
Curtis Channing Blake, The Architecture of Carrere and Hasting.§., submitted in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy,
Columbia University, 1976, 547 pp, contains best listing of at least 600
projects undertaken by Carrere and Hastings from 1883 through 1929
.
(Available at Avery Library of Columbia University)
.
Biographies of Thomas Hastings and John Mervyn Carr.e.re in DictionarY. of
American BiograRhy_and American National BiograRhy_ (Chappaqua library)
Several internet biographies of Hastings
,
Carrere, McKim, Mead and White.
Jean-Pierre lsbouts, Carrere and Hasting.§., architects to an era, Doctoral
Dissertation, Leiden, Netherlands, 1980. (Available in New York Public
Library)
Thomas Hastings, Thomas Hasting.§., architect
;
collected writing.§.,_ with a
short biography by David Gray
.
Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company
,
1933, 254
pp
.
(Available in New York Public Library)
.
Thomas Hastings, ScraRbooks of Architecture, (Available in New York Public
Library)
Avery Drawings and Archives, Columbia University Libraries
.
most recent
contact was with Janet Parks, curator at
j~Rl@columbia.edu
and her assistant
curator, Lou DiGennaro (15 Jan 2004)
.
We looked at plans attributed to
Carrere & Hastings
;
materials relating to Guastavino Fireproof Constructions
Company
;
correspondence between Stanford White and Oliver Payne
;
and the
office job log of Carrere & Hastings office from 1910 to its close in 1929
.
Private communication from John McClelland
Various blueprints and sketches in possession of the Marist Brothers
.
Current
location is a trunk stored in the former choir loft of the English Village chapel.
contact is Brother Donald Nugent.
Recent communications (March 2006) from Dean Wagner and Stefan
Goodwin who are working on the biography of John Allan Ahlers.
most recent revision
15 April 2006
return to
tOP- Of P-ag§
home P-ag§
Carrere
Hasting§.
Carrere & Hasting§.
Burroughs
Ahlers Walker & Gillette
Jallarde
Knofo & Lloyd
Stanford
White
Wiltwyck renovations
emP-loyee cottages
New York Public
Library_
Payne P-rOP-erty in ESOP-US
Beaux-Arts P-rinciP-les
Guastavino
The architects of record were John Merven Carrere and Thomas
Hastings of the firm Carrere & Hastings
,
New York City
.
Elizabeth Burroughs
in her memoirs indicates that her father
,
Julian Burroughs was the architect for
all the bluestone buildings
,
especially the English Village
.
This discrepancy
may be cleared up if somebody is able to view Thomas Hastings' drawings
,
some located at the New York Public Library
,
but more probably at the Avery
Architecture Library at Columbia University
.
A possibility is that Hastings drew
up the sketches
,
and the working drawings and construction was performed by
Burroughs
.
John Merven Carrere (b
.
9 November 1858
;
d
.
1 March 1911) was born
in Rio di Janeiro
,
the son of a prosperous American coffee trader whose
ancestry reached back to a French family that had come to America during the
French Revolution and had settled in Baltimore
.
.
After attending public
secondary school in Lausanne
,
Switzerland and the Institute of Briedenstein
,
John gained admission to the preeminent design academy of the era
,
the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris
,
in 1878
.
In 1881 Carrere sought out American
Thomas Hastings as a partner in a student design project. (later
,
Hastings
noted that John both looked and spoke like a Frenchman
,
despite his U
.
S
.
citizenship) Carrere left the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1882. He moved to New
York City
,
and by October 1883
,
he was a draftsman for the prestigious firm of
McKim
,
Mead and White
.
Here Carrere continued to learn from Charles Fallen
McKim (1847 - 1909)
,
who also had studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts
.
While at this firm
,
he again encountered Thomas Hastings
.
They worked
together on a project in Baltimore
,
liked each other
,
and decided to break away
from McKim
,
Mead and White in 1885. Carrere married Marion Dell in 1886
;
they had two daughters
.
Carrere's personality was not naturally endowed with diplomatic skills
.
According to family tradition his difficult personality and his entrance into the
dubious profession of architecture separated the man from his relatives
.
One
descendant termed him "temperamental and impulsive by nature
,
" and
extremely sincere and forthright. "He did not pose
.
" Hastings noted his
"seriousness and absolute fearlessness in speaking the truth under all
conditions and at all times
.
" Carrere's lack of charm and humor was softened
by what Walter Cook called "that buoyant manner
,
that enthusiasm and that
sincere and friendly smile" It is a little surprising that Carrere had such
success in dealing with headstrong robber barons, opinionated trustees and
officials, inefficient bureaucracies, and laggard contractors.
Carrere sought recognition for his efforts, particularly the ribbon of the
Legion of Honor, and complained in a letter to Elliott Woods, Architect of the
Capitol, bitterly that others, Whitney Warren and S.B.P
.
Trowbridge in
particular, had received that recognition. In the end, Carrere failed in his
quest. Some writers indicate that Carrere hoped to be named ambassador to
France -- highly unlikely in view of his apolitical activity.
In the 1906-1908 period, Carrere designed his own residence in White
Plains, NY "Red Oak"
.
As country homes go, this was very modest, especially
in comparison to Thomas Hastings' country home in Long Island. The
geographical separation indicated that Carrere and Hastings did not socialize
frequently outside of their business milieu
.
Carrere labored tirelessly for the advancement of his profession. He
was an active member of the American Institute of Architects, a founding
member of the Beaux-Arts Society of Architects. He also worked in less
conspicuous ways to help others
.
According to Hastings, he was "generous to
a fault," and always willing to aid students and struggling artists. "if a young
man in the office wanted to go to Paris to study, Carrere would arrange to give
him extra work to help him save up for it, and after getting him there, he would
employ him at generous terms to make a measured drawing of some
monument or give him some commission to help support him there"
On his death in a taxicab accident in New York City, the trustees of the
New York Public Library permitted his body to lie in state in the building so
closely associated with his name
.
Thomas Hastings (b. 11 March 1860; d. 22 October 1929) was born in
New York City, the son of Thomas Samuel Hastings, a prominent clergyman,
and Fanny de Groot, whose ancestors were of Dutch and Huguenot descent.
Thomas was the sixth male descendent to bear this name, the first having
arrived at the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634.His father was pastor of the
West Presbyterian Church and the president of the Union Theological
Seminary
.
His paternal grandfather, also named Thomas Hastings, was a
distinguished composer of sacred music, his most famous song being "Rock of
Ages." His maternal grandfather, Henry de Groot, was a merchant and writer
on law
.
The family academic background may have helped his academic
approach to the discipline and practice of architecture, but Hastings was
compelled neither to "accepts the tenets of his father's faith nor join any
church."
The future architect sprang from a well born, unostentatious,
comfortably set New York Protestant family, the type that chose Oceanic, New
Jersey rather than Newport, Lenox or Saratoga for a summer vacation.
Hastings was endowed with a respectable social position and a familiarity with
the city that Carrere lacked
.
Considered to be a sensitive and nervous child, Thomas was home
schooled by his father. Later he attended private school in preparation for
college; but at age 17 he abandoned it to enter the offices of Herter Brothers,
New York cabinetmakers and decorators, and worked under the chief designer
Charles Atwood. At 19, while continuing his job, he began to prepare for the
Beaux-Arts by taking instruction for half a day in mathematics, history and
French. his successes in the first class concours occurred in January and
February 1883. Back in New York he continued to live at the family home on
West 46th Street until he married in 1900.
Charles McKim, whom he asked to be best man at his wedding, was
the architect he admired most. Hastings' choice of McKim rather than of
White, with whom he was equally friendly, is significant. In character McKim
and Hastings both possessed ironclad integrity, serious purpose, exacting
thoroughness, and a measure of personal dullness
.
Hastings seems to have
enjoyed life, his practice, and his fame much more than did McKim.
Among his friends and clients, Hastings numbered powerful, self-made
bankers, industrialists and railroad moguls who usually avoided the more
spectacularly publicized events of the decade. Like these men, he preferred
the steady office routine and the respectable domesticity of New Jersey and
Long Island residential communities. Helen B. Benedict or Greenwich,
Connecticut, a handsome daughter of E. C. Benedict, sprang from this milieu.
She was the only woman in his life. They married in 1900 after a friendship of
ten years, but never had children. Helen erected a stable home life around
him, providing warmth, encouragement and practical necessities
.
Hastings
built "Bagatelle" in Westbury, LI, in 1908.
Like Carrere he wanted simplicity;
but living on Long Island where the principal interest of the residents was
horses, he placed a low stable with four box stalls at one end of the entrance
court
.
After Carrere's death, Hastings joined with a number of collaborators.
He died at the Nassau Hospital, Mineola, Long Island following an operation
for appendicitis. At articulate writer, Hastings advanced the cause of Beaux-
Arts architecture in America.
The firm, Carrere & Hastings. When Carrere and Hastings found they
worked well together on the Baltimore project, they decided to branch out on
their own and left McKim, Mead and White
.
Their first major project was the
result of connections: Henry Flagler was a parishioner of the West
Presbyterian Church and a friend of pastor Hastings, but his business interests
had moved on from Standard Oil to railroads, and he believed that the railroad
would open up Florida to development. He
asked Hastings to sketch plans for a hotel for St.
Augustine, Florida, intending to use local Florida
architects to develop the working drawings and
supervise the construction
.
However, the
architects made a case for developing the entire
project: design, working drawings, and
supervision of construction, and Flagler agreed
.
The progressive construction
methods for the Ponce de Leon Hotel (1885 - 1888) employed concrete with
an aggregate of a local shell and coral stone called coquina
.
The success of
the hotel prompted Flagler to commission other
buildings in St. Augustine
:
the Alcazar Hotel (1887-
1888), Grace Methodist Church (1887) and the
Flagler Presbyterian Church ( 1889-1900).
Hastings' social contacts quickly attracted
many clients for private and business projects
.
Often a single client would commission a town house, a country home, and
also a business building -- not always in that sequence. The era 1890-1917 is
often termed Edwardian, in deference to the mentality of the men who had
made their wealth during and after the Civil War. They looked to the British
pattern of respectability, and copied the notion of townhouse and country
estate. Since trustees of public agencies and government officials were
tightly intertwined with the baronial set, the firm was able to receive several
public building commissions -- often via competition. Carrere himself had
suggested the ground rules for competition juries, which were accepted almost
universally.
The two men worked well together. Hastings usually did the design
work, with Carrere developing the working drawings, dealing with the patrons
and also the contractors
.
Both Hastings and Carrere exhibited great sensitivity
to placement of buildings within a larger landscaping design. In some cases,
Carrere alone handled some major park designs, including Hamilton Fish Park
on E
.
Houston Street in New York City
.
Guiding Beaux-Arts principles.
While McKim, Mead and White
designed projects from the outside in, Hastings insisted on designing the
projects from the inside out. Hastings also felt that the last great advances in
architectural design were at the time of the Renaissance, which is why he
designed in the Italian, French and Spanish Renaissance styles. Hastings
considered later architectural embellishments to be perversions, and generally
insisted on returning to the earlier Renaissance models.
However, Hastings preached that architects ought to make use of
modern engineering achievements, notably in steel, reinforced concrete, but
also including electricity and other conveniences, all integrated into a
Renaissance design. They often used local materials, such as the on-site
quarry in the Esopus property for bluestone, and the use of coquina in St.
Augustine.
Hastings' designs for country houses incorporated several new
features. His main halls were general placed perpendicular to the entrance
axis, staircases were banned from prominent positions, and hallways were
designed to lead to all the functions of the building
.
The New York Public Library.
This is the firm's most famous project,
and was won through a competition, to the surprise of many other architects
.
Samuel J. Tilden, a governor of New York State, had left $3
.
5 million in his will
for support of libraries. At the time there were two major libraries in New York
City, both losing money: the Astor and the Lenox. Someone suggested that
the three groups merge their efforts -- a proposal that made sense. The site
chosen was then a reservoir for the Croton water supply system, along Fifth
Avenue between 40th and 42nd street.
John S
.
Billings was appointed Director of the New York Public Library
on January 15, 1896, and this appointment determined to a very large extent
the character of the eventual building
.
One library authority, Charles Soule in
1902 wrote "Plan always from the inside outward
.
Do not consider any feature
of the exterior or of construction until the problems of administration and
growth for Libraries generally, and the particular library in hand, have been
thoroughly examined and understood." This accorded completely with
Hastings approach to projects
.
Eighty -eight proposals were submitted in the first competition, but the
Executive Committee of the library feared that the large number of proposals
had led major firms to prescind from entering the competition. So the
Committee polled itself as to who were the major firms, and selected the top
six, including McKim, Mead and White and Carrere & Hastings
.
From his
vacation spot, McKim cabled the committee protesting the circular's insistence
that the Billings plan be followed; his prestige led the committee to soften its
insistence.
The competition closed November 1, 1897. On the following day, the
jury deliberated at the Astor Library. Carrere & Hastings received four votes, it
nearest competitor three, and McKim, Mead and White placed third, probably
because it had changed the interior arrangements to adjust to their exterior
design. On November 10, 1897, the Trustees approved the jury
recommendation, and Carrere & Hastings were commissioned the architects.
The jury affirmed that "the Carrere and Hastings entry presents a consistent,
skillful and artistic solution of practical and structural problem" They
considered it "direct and dignified in treatment" and predicted it would give the
City of New York a "beautiful, noble and monumental building
.
"
The design and construction took twelve years, but the result is
magnificent. It exemplifies some of Hastings ideas
.
The staircases are almost
hidden from view, at the extreme left and right of the entrance hall. (Note that
busts of Carrere and Hastings are in alcoves on the staircase; Oliver Hazard
Payne is listed in the main entry hall as a contributor
.
)
The Lennox library was located at Fifth Avenue and 70th street. Later
this became the site of the Frick mansion, designed by Carrere & Hastings
(probably after Carrere's death). The library and the Frick mansion
construction sandwiched that of the Payne mansion, and the similarities of
exterior treatment with limestone and flat surfaces are extraordinary.
The most prominent period of the firm was between 1890 and 1917.
The list at the end of this section shows some of the 600 known projects. I
tried to concentrate on the period just before the Payne commission and
shortly thereafter.
The country houses were a part of their practice in which Carrere and
Hastings attained a dominant position, achieving great success and influence,
primarily in their insistence on integrating the house into the natural
surroundings and creating a multi-faceted country existence for their wealthy
clients.
The Payne property in Esopus
.
Oliver Hazard Payne put together his
486+ acre estate in 1908 and 1909 through the intermediary of William S.
Fuller, probably a lawyer in Payne's attorneys' firm, who purchased the
properties to cloak the identity of the actual purchaser. Curtis Channing Blake
indicates that Carrere & Hastings did prior work for Payne, location unknown,
but probably a town house in New York City. There is also work for William H
Payne, grain merchant, on 40th Street as early as 1895. This Payne was not
a brother, but may have been a relative from either Cleveland or Hamilton,
NY. However, there is substantial work for Henry Flagler who was a close
partner of Payne from 1872 through 1884, and who continued to involve
Payne in investments after the latter year. In 1899 there is work in Aiken,
South Carolina for William Clifford Whitney, Payne's brother-in-law. Oliver built
and donated a New York city house for William Whitney and Flora Payne, and
occupied quarters on the second floor for many years. Since Oliver contributed
heavily to Grover Cleveland's campaign for the presidency, it would not be
beyond belief that Oliver contributed or commissioned Cleveland's headstone
in 1909. However, Cleveland's best friend was E. C. Benedict, Hastings'
father-in-law, and William C Whitney was a close associate of Cleveland.
Apart from family or business connections, Payne would move in the circle of
industrialists who favored Carrere & Hastings. Note also that the firm had
done substantial work in design of country homes in the first decade of the
20th century.
The Esopus mansion exhibits many of Hastings' favorite concepts.
The main entrance is from the east, and leads into a hall perpendicular to the
entrance axis. The stairway, though elegant, is hidden from first view, and
does not contribute to the visitor's initial impression. The major portion of the
mansion is U-shaped, with the hallways facing the patio and leading to all the
important rooms on the first floor. One variation in the Hastings design was
closing off the U-shape to make the building rectangular, with servant quarters
and utility rooms in the fourth wing.
Hastings incorporated new technology into the building. It was wired for
electricity, and there was a central vacuum system servicing all the main
rooms on the first and second floors. Naturally he used steel and reinforced
concrete
.
The exterior surface was imported limestone, while the gatehouse
and greenhouse buildings are of Indiana limestone. For the New York Public
Library the firm considered limestone from Dover, New York and Vermont,
opting for Vermont when Dover was unable to produce enough similar quality
limestone
.
The use of imported limestone may have been ordered by
Colonel Payne himself. Legend has it that Payne noticed a building on the
Italian coast during one of his summer trips to the Mediterranean, and told the
architects he wanted a similar building. When they pointed out that the lifetime
of the imported limestone might not be longer than 20 years, he answered that
he himself wouldn't last 20 years, so import the limestone!
Another of Hastings' contributions to architecture was to separate the
exterior surface of a building from the basic construction
.
It was Hastings who
coined the term "curtain wall"; the building would stand on its own, with the
curtain wall, be it brick or limestone, not part of the structural entity
.
In their design of country houses, Carrere and Hastings took great
pains to make the buildings blend in with the landscaping. In the Esopus
project, they added the wall on the eastern view to mute the stark elevation of
the building and fold it more gently into the hill.
Hastings disliked the trend toward skyscrapers, and argued that
buildings constructed for business profits ought to be restricted in height, so as
to maintain a certain look to the entire city. His arguments were modified to
demand setbacks of tall buildings, but he thought this a perversion. In this, he
was a throwback to Beaux-Arts thought. Even today, Paris has only a single
skyscraper (Eiffel Tower excepted), built shortly after World War II, and the city
fathers immediately realized it was a mistake. Now all tall buildings are exiled
to la Defense, across the Seine
.
This certainly gives a beautiful look and feel
to Paris, even if the casual observer doesn't identify why.
l'Envoi Carrere & Hastings were a firm entirely consistent with the
Edwardian era or the Gilded Age, which came to an end by 1929. The next
generation of the rich did not feel the need to imitate the British model, and
began to choose younger architects with fresher vision than either McKim,
Mead and White or Carrere and Hastings
.
.
When the personal income tax
legislation was enacted, it became difficult to justify country estates which
required six persons minimum inside and six persons minimum outside
.
(In its
heyday, Payne's estate employed over 60 people
.
). The final blow was the
depression of 1929, when the number of fortunes shrank precipitously
because so much of the wealth was in the form of stock.
Newer concepts came into vogue. The Beaux-Arts period faded
quickly, and had its critics especially after 1900. One, J. Steward Barney, a
proponent of Gothic style architecture expressed annoyance at the
development of highly rewarded drafting skills at the expense of real
architecture. In 1909 he wrote
" When I get the money, I intend to have a silk rug made, on which I intend to use the
beautiful pattern manufactured by Messers. Carrere and Hastings, and entered by them
as the plan for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. I am going to give that rug to Tom as
a prayer rug, upon which to pray for forgiveness for the things he has done"
"it is clear that the leaders of modern architecture, Sullivan, Wright, Le
Corbusier, Mies, and Gropius did not define their architectural vision with
such narrow social and economic limits as Carrere and Hastings
..
.
. The
more progressive individuals of this century had eyes that moved over
the whole human landscape, minds that embraced large social
problems, and consciences that were founded upon more democratic
ideals. Their sensibilities were attuned not to a nostalgic re-evocation of
historic images and periods, but to the realities of the years in which they
lived
.
For their patronage they relied not upon a delicate financial and
social structure that collapsed resoundingly in 1929, but upon the rising
level of social consciousness that preceded and then accelerated that
important date. In the most general terms, the moderns negotiated, and
in some cases stimulated the large shift in architectural activity from the
private to the public domain. They anticipated and made history. What
can be said about Carrere and Hastings and their output is that they
stayed exactly even with and brilliantly reflected their times. They seem
as remote to us as the builders of the Pantheon; but by the same token,
as enjoyable in their great works." Curtis Channing Blake, The
Architecture of Carrere and Hasting§, 1976, pp. 37 4-275
.
Many Carrere & Hastings plans were destroyed when the firm
split into two units around 1920, so to this date no plans for the mansion,
gatehouse or greenhouse area have been found. Some plans were
donated from one section of the split to the Avery Library of Architecture
at Columbia University
.
We also searched the documents and plans
given to the library by the Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company,
which probably was a subcontractor on the Esopus project for the main
staircase and the vaulting over the larger rooms
.
Rafael Guastavino (1842-1908) was an architect and a builder
.
Born in Valencia, he studied architecture in Barcelona and built his first
house in 1866. For the next 14 years, he established his reputation for
fireproof construction and built factories, warehouses, and apartment
houses in the Barcelona area
.
In 1881
,
he emigrated to the US with his
son
,
Rafael Jr (1872 - 1950)
.
They settled in New York City, and gained
success as contractor and builder with their patented vaulting system
.
The Guastavinos held 24 patents on their vaulting processes. At the
time of his father's death in 1903
,
Rafael assumed control of the
Company. At the height of its expansion
,
the firm maintained offices in
New York
,
Boston
,
Providence
,
Chicago and Milwaukee
.
The company's
last project was in 1962. During its existence
,
their unique vaulting
system was used in more than 1
,
000 buildings
.
The list of architects
who hired Guastavino include McKim
,
Mead & White
;
John Russell
Pope
;
Carrere & Hastings
;
Warren & Wetmore
;
Cass Gilbert
;
and Heins
and Lafarge
.
The drawings in the Avery Library include plans
,
elevations, sections and details of 700 projects and technical records
.
One of the projects is the staircase for
PaY.ne WhitneY.'s house at 972
Fifth Avenue
.
Other projects of note are St. Paul Chapel on the
Columbia University campus
,
the shrine of the Immaculate Conception in
Washington DC
,
Church of St. Jean BaRtiste
at 76th St & Lexington Ave
in New York City
,
and the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer at 68th St and
Lexington Ave in New York City
.
The job log book from Carrere & Hastings office
between 1910 and its close 1929 which I viewed at the
Avery Library contains the following entries relating to
Oliver Payne, together with sequential job numbers
which
,
while undated, give some idea of the sequence of
the work.
job
log description
editor's comments
number
probably included
112
0
H
Payne (Estate at
mansion and
Esopus NY)
grounds utilities
design
222
0
H
Payne
Greenhouses
232
0
H
Payne Gate Lodge
1
1
233
0
H
Payne Stable
the English
landscaping in front
241
0
H
Payne terraces
of mansion to frame
the yacht Aphrodite
242
0
H
Payne Ice Houses
once thought to be
by Julian Burroughs
296
0
H
Payne six cottages
employee cottages
along Black Creek road
328
0
H
Payne Boat house
may never have
and temple
been implemented
.
Julian Burroughs
tells of his plans
following directives
I
I
I
I
of the captain of the
lot.
G
Col OH Payne, Esopus one or both elevators in
NY ( elevator)
the mansion
=►for
a fuller description of the mansion, see
Brother Francis Xavier's
two P-art essay_,_
Representative sample of 600 works by Carrere & Hastings
during the period 1890 - 1917 as listed in Curtis Channing
Blake's "The Architecture of Carrere and Hastings" The
sample concentrates on the period 1901 - 1912 during which
time the architects worked on Oliver Payne's Esopus
property
.
date
I
I
sponsor
II
location
1885
I
I
Ponce de Leon Hotel
1
1
st Augustine
,
Florida
1887
II
Alcazar Hotel
1
1
st Augustine, Florida
1887
I
I
Borden stable
l
l
oceanic
,
N J
1889
I
Flagler Presbyterian
Church
St Augustine
,
Florida
1891
II
Flagler,
H
M
-
Kirkwood
1
1
st Augustine, Florida
I
1892
l
i
e N Bliss - house & stable
l
l
oceanic, NJ
I
1893 &
!
Flagler
,
H M - Whitehall
I
Palm Beach
,
Florida
1901
1
1890
I
Laurel-in-the-Pines
:
C
.
H
.
Kimball
,
President
I
Lakewood, N J
I
1
1892
I
Miller
,
Wm Starr - country
home
!
Rhinebeck, NY
I
1
1895
I
Payne
,
William
H -
grain
merchant
1
40th Street
,
NYC
I
§]
Benedict,
E
C - country
house & stables n
.
b
.
Greenwich, Ct
Hastings married
6
Benedict's daughter
1896 -
Giraud Foster - country
1898
house
Lenox, Mass
1904
alterations
1911
stables & outbuildings
EJ
William C Whitney -
Aiken, South
country house Oliver
Carolina
Payne's brother-in-law
1
1901
I
Carrere
,
J M - his own
town house
I
Park Ave & 65th St
I
1
1901
I
Metropolitan Museum of
Art - alterations
I
New York City
I
1
1901
I
Bicentennial Building, Yale
University
I
New Haven, CT
I
1
1901
I
Guggenheim, Daniel -
country house
!
Elberon, NJ
I
1
1902 -
1911
I
New York Public Library
I
New York City
I
EJ
Blair Building
n.b. other architects
24 Broad Street
considered this C & H's
best business building
1902
I
Cornell University
Campus Plan
I
Ithaca, New York
I
1903 -
I
Metropolitan Opera House
I
New York City
I
1907
1903
II
Hamilton Fish Park
I
E
.
Houston Street,
NYC
1903
I
Metropolitan Museum -
Jade Room
I
New York City
I
1903
I
I
F A Bell - stable
II
Madison
,
NJ
I
1903
Empire Theatre (now
Broadway & 40th St,
demolished)
NYC
1903 -
12 Carnegie libraries
ll
various cities
1905
1904 -
Manhattan Bridge
I
Manhattan
1912
Roadway
1904
Staten Island Ferry
1
st George, S I
terminal
1904
WK Vanderbilt - poultry
I
Great Neck
,
LI
cottage
1904
I
U S Capitol East Facade
Project
l
washington
,
DC
1905
I
I
E R Squibb
l
l
~~~eekman St
,
1905 -
II
House Office Building
l
l
washington
,
DC
1908
1905 -
ll
senate Office Building
l
l
washington, DC
1909
1905
I
Carrere, J M - country
house
l
white Plains, NY
D
James Stillman, banker
7, 9, 15
,
and 17 East
founder of National City
72nd Street
Bank
EJ
Flagler Mausoleum at
Flagler Memorial
St Augustine, Florida
Presbyterian Church
1
1906 -
1909
II
New Theatre
1
8th Ave & 62nd St
,
NYC
1
1906
II
Royal Bank of Canada
I
I
Toronto, Canada
I
1
1907
I
I
Carnegie Institute
I
I
Washington DC
I
1
1907
I
I
Chubb Building
1
5 S William Street,
NYC
1908
I
I
Percy Chubb
I
I
New York City
1909 -
I
I
Percy Chubb
I
I
Glen Cove, LI
1909
1908
I
James Todd - country
house & stable
!
Louisville, Ky
1908
l
l
s H Valentine
1
1
5 East 67th St, NYC
1908
II
Arthur Scribner
I
I
Mt Kisco, NY
1908
Dr
.
William Baltzell
I
I
Wellesley, Mass
1908
Blair
,
James A - country
Oyster Bay, Long
house
Island
1908
Bailey, Dr Pierce - country
I
Katonah, NY
I
house
1908
Thomas Hastings - country
I
Old Westbury, NY
I
house
Oliver Hazard Payne
,
city
I
New York City
I
home
President Cleveland
headstone
n
.
b
.
Cleveland's best
friend was E
.
C
.
Benedict
,
1909
Hastings' father-in law
.
O
.
H
.
Payne had financed
his presidential campaign,
and William Clifford
Whitney was his secretary
of the Navy
.
1
1909
I
I
Globe Theater
I
Broadway & 46th
Street
1909
II
Alfred I duPont
I
Wilmington
,
Delaware
1909
II
Edwin Gould
l
l
936 Fifth Avenue
I
1910
II
Thomas Fortune Ryan
l
l
858 Fifth Avenue
I
1910
I
Stanley Walker - country
Great Barrington,
Mass
house
1910
I
E H Harriman - country
house
I
Arden
,
NY
I
1
1910
II
Mrs. Robert Winthrop
1
27 East 37th Street
,
NYC
1
1910
I
Norman Peck - house &
stable
I
Hartsdale, NY
I
1
1910
I
I
John Jacob Astor
l
l
842 Fifth Avenue
I
1
1910
II
Bryant Park
I
behind NY Public
Library
1
1910-1912
1
W. B Thompson,
Greenhouse, house,
stables and outbuildings
1
1910 -
1912
l
l
u S Rubber Building
1
1911
I
Oliver Hazard Payne
six cottages !!! ???
1911
:
house, poultry, garage
I
G L Winthrop - country
1911
I
RS Lovett
:
stable and outbuildings
1911
II
Transportation Building
1911
II
Knoedler Building
1911
I
I
Bank of Toronto
1911
I
Manhattan Bridge
approaches
1911
II
Exposition Building
1912
I
St Ambrose Chapel
Whiting Chapel
1912 -
I
I
H
.
C
.
Frick - city home
1914
1913
I
Webb-Horton Presbyterian
Church
1914
I
I
Bedford Country Club
1915 -
I
Amphitheater behind tomb
1920
of the unknown soldier
1915
II
Greenwich Hospital
1
1918
II
Bronx Parkway bridges
1
1920
l
l
u S Capital - alteration
I
1921-1924
l
l
standard Oil Building
1
1924
I
I
Gimbel - Saks bridge
Stanford White was
murdered in 1906, so had no direct
influence on the Esopus project.
However
,
he was a favorite of Oliver
Payne
.
The records of White's
correspondence in the Avery Library
contain several hundred short notes
to Payne
.
White joined the
partnership of McKim
,
Mead & White
in 1880, and the firm became the
most prominent firm in the USA,
catering to the leaders of the Gilded
Age until well after 1910
.
Greystone, NY
I
Broadway & 58th St,
NYC
I
Esopus, New York
l
lenox, Mass
!
Matinecock, L
.
I.
II
Montreal, Canada
1
1
14 East 57 St, NYC
II
Toronto
,
Canada
I
Manhattan
I
I
Rome, Italy
Cathedral of St John
the Divine
I
Fifth Ave & 70th
Street
!
Middletown, NY
I
I
I
Mt Kisco, NY
I
Alexandria, Virginia
II
Greenwich, CT
I
I
Bronx &
:
Westchester
,
NY
l
l
washington
,
DC
I
l
l
26 Broadway, NYC
I
I
I
New York City
I
It is not clear who did the renovation designs for the
Stevens mansion at 57th and Fifth Avenue which Payne gave to
William and Flora Whitney
.
We know that Payne moved into his
own townhouse at 852 Fifth Avenue in 1903
.
While Curtis
Channing Blake indicates Carrere & Hastings did work for Payne
in New York City
,
we have no other record of this work. Stanford
White specialized in the interior design of projects
,
while McKim
concentrated on externals
.
It is know that White designed the
staterooms and Payne's private rooms on the yacht Aphrodite
built in 1898. Payne gave White great freedom of design and
also of decoration
.
My best guess is that McKim
,
Mead &
White designed Payne's townhouse at 852 Fifth Avenue
,
and
White worked closely with Payne on the interior design and
decoration
.
By 1902 McKim
,
Mead & White were awarded the
design of the house Oliver Payne wanted to give
Pay:ne and
Helen Whitney_
as a wedding gift. The construction began in
1904 and lasted five or six years
.
I don't know why Payne
turned away from McKim
,
Mead & White and employed Carrere
& Hastings for the Esopus estate
;
perhaps he did not have the
same confidence in McKim and Mead
;
perhaps Carrere &
Hastings' reputation had grown substantially by 1909.
Among important works attributed to Stanford White is the
Washington Arch at the bottom of Fifth Avenue
,
the second
Madison Square Garden
,
and the Boston Public Library
.
Julian Burroughs was the son of John Burroughs
,
the famous
naturalist who lived in West Park
.
Julian attended Harvard University for his
bachelor's degree
,
and had artistic talent. When Andrew Mason
,
Payne's
first superintendent died in December 1912
,
Julian was picked to become
the new superintendent. He moved his family into the Pratt Mansion
.
Besides supervising the general operation
,
he was responsible for many of
the buildings on the estate
,
notably the boathouse and dock
,
the ice house
(although Carrere & Hastings list the ice house as a project on their job log)
,
the bridge over Black Creek along Black Creek Road
,
the peacock trellis in
the boathouse
,
the iron gates at the front entrance
.
It is debatable whether
he was involved in the design of the English Village. In 1952 I spoke with
Joseph Ahlers as we toured the Village
;
he marveled at the consistent and
coherent design of the buildings
.
It is more likely that the design was by
Carrere and Hastings
.
Julian also did the original design for the dairy barn and horse barn
west of route 9-W
.
Colonel Payne died as these buildings were under
construction
,
and the new owner
,
Colonel Harry Payne Bingham dismissed
Julian and engaged Walker & Gillette of 125 East 37th Street
,
NYC to
complete the structures
.
Some of the Walker & Gillette blueprints dated 10-
5-1917 still exist and are stored in the Marist Brothers' files
.
Evidently the
horse barn was intended to be used for the breeding of horses
.
The
northern part of the L structure shows a design for six birthing stalls
;
the
eastern section shows stalls for horses
.
The upper floors are marked for
storage and carriages
.
It is unknown if this ever happened
.
John Allan Ahlers (1895 - 1983) was born in Oberhausen Germany
on 3 Nov 1895
.
His family moved to Baltimore in 1904
.
John came to St.
Anne's Hermitage
,
Poughkeepsie NY in 1910
,
probably via the advice of
the Redemptorist Fathers who staffed his Baltimore parish
.
The
Redemptorist Fathers and Marist Brothers had communicated earlier when
the Brothers considered the purchase of the vacant Esopus properties
.
John became a Marist Brother in 1913
,
and spent the next few years in
Marist Brother houses
,
including a two year stint as a teacher at Ecole St.
Hyacinth
,
in Manitoba
,
Canada
.
The school serviced the French speaking
section of Winnipeg
.
John spoke fluent English
,
French and German
,
and
was proficient in Latin
.
In 1917 John was stationed at St. Ann's Academy
in New York City and registered for the World War I draft. He spent several
years at Saint Ann's
,
as the scholasticate was located there
,
and he may
have taught there 1916 - 1918
.
Brother Francis Xavier studied
,
lived and
taught there in the same years
.
John left the Brothers in July 1918 and
returned to live with his widowed mother
,
brother and sister in Baltimore
.
He is listed in the 1920 census as a clerk in a contractor's office
.
The 1930
census classifies him as an architect with his own practice
.
John qualified
via the apprentice route rather than formal architectural school.
Within the Brothers
,
John was a year behind Brother Francis Xavier
Benoit and the two maintained a close friendship
.
While teaching at
Marian College in Poughkeepsie
,
Brother Francis acted as project manager
and general contractor for a small gymnasium with wings providing
additional space for carpenter shop
,
print shop
,
laundry and garage
.
Brother Francis used professional labor for the skilled trades
,
especially
masons
,
plumbers
,
and electricians
,
but the remaining work was done by
Marist Brother teachers on summer vacations and by student Brothers
during the remainder of the year. This was a continuation of a tradition
dating back to the 1830s
.
Father
,
now Saint
,
Champagnat built the main
headquarters at Notre Dame de !'Hermitage near Lyons in the same
manner
.
In 1949 Brother Francis was commissioned to manage the
construction of the 1950-1953 additions to the English Village and the new
garages near the Holy Rosary cottages
.
He chose Ahlers as architect
because Ahlers understood the training system for the Brothers and was
comfortable with the practice of do-it-yourself which John had experienced
during his stay in Poughkeepsie
..
In the two previous decades
,
Ahlers did
substantial work for churches and schools in Baltimore MD
.
Despite learning his trade sans formal architectural learning
,
John
had a good grasp of architectural styles
.
He correctly identified the design
of what we call the English Village as French Renaissance
,
and told me
how each of the buildings designed by Carrere & Hastings was from a
different period of French or Italian Renaissance
.
Finances prohibited
carrying out the additions entirely in field stone. The new construction was
in red brick
,
located just north of the original English Village but hidden from
view as the observer entered the Village
,
save for the top of the
gymnasium
.
To renovate the original English Village itself
,
John used dark
wood and stucco to close the two open archways leading to the north and
west as well as several bays
.
The only deviations were his use of glass
brick to close the entrance to the carriage house -a 1950s favorite- and
the sheds outside the original garage bays were roofed with shingle rather
than the slate called for in Ahler's original design
,
a concession to limited
finances
.
He also designed an alcove in honor of Blessed Champagnat
which jutted out from the large opening in what had been the electric
generating shop
.
When John designed the chapel
,
he showed his love of and
expertise in ecclesiastical architecture. The finishes were of light wood. At
one side was a small alcove honoring Blessed Champagnat
,
the only place
where John splurged on cut stone
.
The alcove was built out from the large
opening in what had been the main door to the electric generating shop
.
Wiltwyck renovations
.
Sometime around 1932 Colonel Harry Payne
Bingham decided to donate the entire property to the Protestant Episcopal
Mission Society of New York City
.
The estate took the name Wiltwyck
,
the
original name of the city of Kingston
.
The section between route 9-W and
the river was planned as a sanitarium
,
and the section across 9-W was
planned as a school for troubled black youngsters
.
Architects developed a
series of grandiose plans
.
Given the precarious funding of the entire project
and the depression era
,
none of these plans were carried out
,
but they
show the direction Wiltwyck wished to take
.
Knofo & Lloyd
,
34 West 13 Street NYC
,
developed plans for a free-
standing of Mid Hudson Children's Respite Center
.
There are sketches of hospital quarters in the mansion located in
the servants rooms on the west section of the quadrilateral
,
by Starrett &
VanVleek
,
267 Fifth Ave
,
NYC
. .
The servants' rooms were to be patients'
rooms
.
The doctor's room and office was to be in the southwest corner of
the non-servant area (curiously enough
,
this was the room of Brother
Joseph Cadroes
,
teacher and infirmarian
,
in 1942-1945
;
the next room
down was an infirmary for four students
.
I never got to stay there
.
) The
nurse's quarters were in the northwest corner of the non-servant area
(where Brother Victor Eugene's sewing rooms were located in 1942-1945 )
.
When the mansion was converted for use as Marist Preparatory
,
the
servants' rooms were demolished and three classrooms were formed in the
space
,
with folding doors so that the three rooms could be supervised by a
single teacher during study periods
.
(Prior to completion of these
classrooms
,
the three classes were held in two bedrooms at the northeast
section of the east wing and another classroom in the south wing
.
The
biology and physics labs were also located in the south wing
.
)
In 1932
,
Louis E Jallarde
,
597 Fifth Ave
,
NYC
,
submitted a design
for two free standing buildings to be sited between the Pratt House (Holy
Rosary) and the English Village
;
one would be a dining room
,
the other
classrooms
.
Lack of funds forced an alternate solution
.
The Pratt House
had an addition at the eastern side
,
and the porte-cochere was filled in
.
The eastern addition became the dining room
.
The Juniors used this
kitchen and dining room facility for several months in 1942 until the facilities
in the mansion were completed
.
Starrett & VanV/eek
,
267 Fifth Avenue
,
NYC
,
submitted a
comprehensive design for a complete school to be located between the
Black Creek and the railroad right of way
.
This was too expensive
,
and
Wiltwyck decided to use existing buildings
.
A dormitory for counselors was
added to the chicken farm
,
and parts of the dairy and horse barns were
converted for classroom use
.
Employee cottages.
Curtis Channing Blake lists 'employee
cottages' among the Carrere & Hastings projects, and they appear in the
job log of the firm now held at the Avery Library. These were originally
contiguous to the Hudson River part of the estate, as route 9-W followed
the Black Creek Road until land was taken from Payne by eminent domain
in 1915
.
When Wiltwyck gave up hope for the Starrett & VanVleek
proposal, it opened up the upper floors with dormers as sleeping quarters,
and added a brick building at the east as a kitchen and dining room
.
The
dining room was also used for boxing, considered a manly sport in those
days. Floyd Patterson began his boxing career in that room
.
In 1968, the
area around the cottages was separated and sold in hopes of making it a
separate school, which failed
.
Finally in 1972, it was purchased by
contractors and converted into rental apartments. When Fred Latko sold
the area to JAF partners, John McClelland added a wing to the brick
kitchen, built a wood frame building at the western ledge, and drilled
artesian wells to create an independent water supply.
References
:
Curtis Channing Blake, The Architecture of Carrere and Hasting.§., submitted in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy,
Columbia University, 1976, 547 pp, contains best listing of at least 600
projects undertaken by Carrere and Hastings from 1883 through 1929
.
(Available at Avery Library of Columbia University)
.
Biographies of Thomas Hastings and John Mervyn Carr.e.re in DictionarY. of
American BiograRhy_and American National BiograRhy_ (Chappaqua library)
Several internet biographies of Hastings
,
Carrere, McKim, Mead and White.
Jean-Pierre lsbouts, Carrere and Hasting.§., architects to an era, Doctoral
Dissertation, Leiden, Netherlands, 1980. (Available in New York Public
Library)
Thomas Hastings, Thomas Hasting.§., architect
;
collected writing.§.,_ with a
short biography by David Gray
.
Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company
,
1933, 254
pp
.
(Available in New York Public Library)
.
Thomas Hastings, ScraRbooks of Architecture, (Available in New York Public
Library)
Avery Drawings and Archives, Columbia University Libraries
.
most recent
contact was with Janet Parks, curator at
j~Rl@columbia.edu
and her assistant
curator, Lou DiGennaro (15 Jan 2004)
.
We looked at plans attributed to
Carrere & Hastings
;
materials relating to Guastavino Fireproof Constructions
Company
;
correspondence between Stanford White and Oliver Payne
;
and the
office job log of Carrere & Hastings office from 1910 to its close in 1929
.
Private communication from John McClelland
Various blueprints and sketches in possession of the Marist Brothers
.
Current
location is a trunk stored in the former choir loft of the English Village chapel.
contact is Brother Donald Nugent.
Recent communications (March 2006) from Dean Wagner and Stefan
Goodwin who are working on the biography of John Allan Ahlers.
most recent revision
15 April 2006
return to
tOP- Of P-ag§
home P-ag§