Tag: Victorian architecture

Culver & Rogers: Victorian Philadelphia Architects

October 26, 2024 / / 0 Comments

The Philadelphia Chapter Society of Architectural Historians presents
Culver & Rogers: Victorian Philadelphia Architects
by Greg Prichard
Wednesday, November 6 at 6:00 p.m.
Online via Zoom at this link:
https://Jefferson.zoom.us/j/94537050102
Free and open to all.

Some of the most notable Victorian landmarks of suburban Philadelphia came from the drawing boards of a firm barely remembered today. The partnership of Culver & Rogers produced a variety of public buildings, businesses, and homes for newly blossoming towns including Wayne, Devon, Berwyn, and Langhorne. Further afield, controversy still follows some of their restorations of historic structures, including Independence Hall.

Greg Prichard, Historic Preservation Planner for Lower Merion Township and board member of the Radnor Historical Society, has compiled numerous scattered references relating to the firm to form a fascinating narrative. His illustrated presentation will explore the sum of their extraordinary legacy.

GIDEON SHRYOCK: TRACING THE GREEK REVIVAL FROM PHILADELPHIA TO FRANKFORT AND BACK

April 6, 2023 / / 0 Comments

presented by Philadelphia Chapter Society of Architectural Historians & Temple School of Architecture

by R. Scott Gill, PhD, Assoc AIA, and co-author of Gideon Shryock, His Life and Architecture 1802-1880
Thursday, April 13 at 6:30 PM
Tyler Architecture Building
2001 N 13th Street, Room 104
Free and open to all.

Gideon Shryock, Kentucky’s first formally trained architect, brought the international style of the Greek Revival to Kentucky, and in the process imparted a template of architectural and professional dignity for others to follow. Born in Lexington in 1802, Shryock learned the building trade working with his father, a skilled carpenter and builder. At the age of twenty, he traveled to Philadelphia to apprentice under the country’s great architectural master, William Strickland. There, Shryock absorbed the skills, rules, and resources of his chosen profession, and made valuable friends among his talented cohort of apprentices. Upon returning home, he won the coveted prize to design and build a new statehouse in Frankfort. It was an extraordinary accomplishment that launched the young architect toward a remarkable future.

While Shryock is most known for his monumental Greek Revival buildings in Frankfort, Lexington, and Louisville, his body of work was quite varied and included numerous houses, churches, commercial buildings, and even a patented “steam-boiler furnace.” He pursued competitions, including for the Washington Monument and Tennessee State Capitol. In his twilight years, he was honored as the first president of the newly created Kentucky Association of Architects.

In this talk Gill will draw from his recently published book, Gideon Shryock: His Life and Architecture, 1802-1880, to show how Shryock influenced and was influenced by his great peers as he helped evolve the American Greek Revival into a mature style.

Scott Gill is the award-winning co-author of three books on Kentucky architecture and an adjunct lecturer in architectural history at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a former board member of the Society of Architectural Historians and currently sits on the board of the Texas Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art. Gill holds a PhD in architectural history from UT-Austin, an MBA from MIT, a Master of Architecture from Rice, and a bachelor’s degree in history from Stanford. A past resident of Louisville, he currently practices real estate in Austin.

RECENT DISCOVERY: SAMUEL SLOAN, TERRA COTTA, AND THE FRANKLIN COUNTY COURTHOUSE IN CHAMBERSBURG, PA

September 18, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Tuesday, October 11 at 7:00 p.m.
Online via Zoom
Free, but in order to receive a private link to the Zoom presentation registration is required with david.breiner@jefferson.edu

Chambersburg, PA, was the only Northern town burned down by the Confederate Army, in 1864. This included the Franklin County Courthouse of 1841-43. Even though the reconstruction of this building following the war is central to the town’s history, it was never known who was responsible for it. During the pandemic, one of the lecturers discovered that the beautiful column capitals on the courthouse are terra cotta. Prior research by both lecturers on the central role of Philadelphia architect Samuel Sloan in the promotion of American terra cotta in the 1850s led to the further discovery that Sloan and his partner Addison Hutton were the architects of the 1865- 66 courthouse.

Jay Shockley, an architectural historian and preservationist, was employed by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission between 1979 and 2015. As the senior historian in the Research Department, he researched and wrote more than 100 reports covering all aspects of the city’s architectural and social cultural history. Currently he is a Co-Director of the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project.

Susan Tunick, a New Yorker, is a ceramic artist, historian, and preservationist. She combines her interest in making ceramics with her concern about preserving historic architectural ceramic surfaces. As president of the Friends of Terra Cotta, she is active in research and advocacy, working to protect terra cotta and tile.

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: GENDER AND SPACE IN IMPRESSIONIST INTERIORS

October 28, 2019 / / 0 Comments
In the Conservatory, Edouard Manet, 1879

by Suzanne Singletary, Ph.D., Associate Dean, New Academic Initiatives and Graduate Studies, College of Architecture and the Built Environment, Thomas Jefferson University

Tuesday Nov 12 at 6:00 p.m.
Lawrence N. Field DEC Center Forum
4201 Henry Avenue, Philadelphia, PA
Thomas Jefferson University’s East Falls Campus

Free and open to all, no registration required.
For public transit info see www.SEPTA.com.
Free parking is available in a nearby visitors’ parking lot accessed from School House Lane, just east of Henry Avenue, behind Search Hall.

As early as the 1830s, the English word home had migrated into the French language, signifying an isolated, self-contained domesticity and recognition that the “house” had undergone a radical redefinition. Population growth, demographic shifts, revolutions within the social and political spheres and, significantly, the all-encompassing redesign of Paris by Napoleon III and his urban planner Baron Haussmann effected a fundamental split between public and private spaces. Impressionist painters chronicled their responses to the “New Paris,” interpreting the many repercussions and permutations wrought by Haussmannization and leaving us a painted archive of urban vistas as well as the sequestered spaces of home. Their domestic interiors not only itemize activities of daily life, but also insinuate the volatile conditions and invariable frictions that accompanied modernity, specifically the often-strained relationships between modern men and modern women “at home.” Private space, by definition, permitted the enactment of clandestine psychological and gender-related dramas, intended to remain securely closeted behind closed doors.

Suzanne Singletary teaches the history and theory of art, architecture and design. She has been involved in the development of the History of Architecture and Interiors series and taught seminars in thesis research and preparation, photography and visual culture, and issues in contemporary architecture. Currently she serves as Associate Dean for New Academic Initiatives and Graduate Studies and Director of the MS Historic Preservation Program. Her research interests include interdisciplinary aspects of art, architecture, literature and music. She has participated in international symposia and been an invited speaker at the National Gallery of Washington, D.C., the National Gallery of London, the Tate Britain, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She has published articles on Eugène Delacroix, French Symbolism, and Francesco Goya, and contributed essays to Impressionist Interiors (National Gallery of Ireland 2008), Perspectives on Manet (Ashgate 2012) and Rival Sisters (Ashgate 2014). Her book, James McNeill Whistler and France: A Dialogue in Paint, Poetry, and Music was published by Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group (2017).

HENRY W. BROWN, HIS HOUSE, AND THE OAK ROAD: A WALKING TOUR

September 3, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Ivy Cottage, 3819 The Oak Road, 1914

Sponsored by The East Falls Historical Society

Led by David M. Breiner, PhD, Thomas Jefferson University,
and Steven J. Peitzman, MD, Drexel University

Saturday, September 15, 2018 at 10 a.m. (Rain Date will be Sunday September 16)

Cost $15, EFHS Members $10, payable on site, pre-registration is not required.

Please meet at 10:00 sharp at the southwest corner of The Oak Road and School House Lane. The tour goes on unless the morning brings heavy rain. Parking is permitted along some parts of The Oak Road. For more information contact Steven Peitzman at peitzmansj@gmail.com.

Stretching only from School House Lane to Midvale Avenue, The Oak Road is likely the only street in Philadelphia that both requires a  “The” for its full name, and has always contained an oak tree in its center. Both the street and its dominant structure, the Timmons House, were created by Henry W. Brown in 1907. Brown was a prominent figure in the insurance industry and a lead cricket player at the Germantown Cricket Club. The Oak Road came to be both a residential “colony” for the Brown family and a handsome development of mostly Colonial Revival homes: the handsome brick and stucco Timmons house exemplifies the Colonial Revival movement in American Architecture and culture. Other buildings on the tour will include the Ivy Cottage, a Gothic revival house dating to circa 1860, and the Memorial Church of the Good Shepherd, designed by Philadelphia architect Carl Ziegler and built in 1926. The tour leaders, David Breiner, PhD and Steven Peitzman, MD, will also discuss the historical background of School House Lane and of the nearby part of East Falls which was once known as Queen Lane Manor. We will not visit inside the structures to be discussed, but the tour leaders will share several historic maps and photographs. The tour will meet on Saturday, September 15, at 10 am, at the southwest corner of School House Lane and The Oak Road.

T. Roney Williamson and Oakbourne

May 15, 2015 /

2015-06-11 Oakbourne Mansion SAR_4954cropped
Thursday, June 11, Reception at 5:30 p.m., Talk at 6:30 p.m.
Oakbourne Park, 1014 S. Concord Rd, West Chester, PA

In 1882 James C. Smith of Philadelphia purchased 143 acres of land in Westtown Township, Chester County with an existing granite mansion. By 1884 the Smiths had enlarged and refurbished the mansion to replace their original summer house and named it “Oakbourne.”  The Queen Anne renovations are attributed to West Chester architect T. Roney Williamson (1852-1896).  Mr. Smith died in 1893 and willed the property to the Philadelphia Protestant Episcopal City Mission with the stipulation that it be used as a retreat for sick and convalescent white women, 23 years of age or older.  For more than 70 years the James C. Smith Memorial Home was opened to guests.  As many as 25 to 30 women convalesced there at any given time. By 1971, however, increasing operational costs forced the home to close its doors.  In 1974 Westtown Township purchased the land for use as a township park.

Our speaker, Jane E. Dorchester, is a historic preservationist, lecturer, local and architectural historian, and writer who has been working in the preservation field since 1983.  She has lectured on a wide variety of history–oriented topics, including “How To Research Your Historic Property,” “What Is Serpentine,” “Section 106 Review,” and “Gothic Revival, Second Empire, and Queen Anne Architectural Styles in Chester County.”

Join us for wine and refreshments at 5:30 p.m. to explore the exterior of this amazing house while the sun is out.  We’ll gather inside at 6:30 p.m. to hear about Oakbourne’s architect and his other work in the area.

$10.00 for Phila SAH members,
$15.00 for all others, payable on site.
Registration required by Sunday, June 7, at info@philachaptersah.org

Thanks to the Westtown Township Historical Commission for hosting this program.

There is no public transportation to Oakbourne, but we may be able to arrange a ride or a pick up at the Media or Paoli Regional Rail stations.  Please email info@philasah.org if you need a way to get to the program.

150th Birthday of the Wagner Free Institute of Science’s historic building

April 25, 2015 /

Wagner Free Inst Building 150th talk image 237-PR-026

PHILADELPHIA 1865: A CITY ON THE EDGE
Delivered by Bruce Laverty, Gladys Brooks Curator of Architecture at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia
Wednesday, May 20th, 2015, 6:00 to 8:30 p.m.
1700 W Montgomery Avenue, Philadelphia

Join us for a lecture, cake competition, and member reception in honor of the 150th Birthday of the Wagner Free Institute of Science’s historic building.

Lecture:
In 1865 Philadelphia was a city on the edge; a city on the edge of grief; a city on the edge of growth; and a city on the edge of genius. That year saw Philadelphia’s joy of Northern victory dashed by the overwhelming shock and grief brought on by the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Less acute, but even more sobering, was the growing realization in 1865 that Union victory and the abolition of slavery were by no means the end of race problems in the City of Brotherly Love. In 1865 Philadelphia commenced the most rapid physical growth in its history; by century’s end the built portion of the city had more than doubled in size. Finally, 1865 was the year when the genius of local entrepreneurs, both individually and collectively, through the efforts of scientific, benevolent, and educational associations, achieved the critical mass that launched Philadelphia into modernity.

Bruce Laverty, a life-long resident of Philadelphia and graduate of LaSalle College, has been Curator of Architecture at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia since 1983. He prepared that institution’s first catalog of architectural drawings. During his tenure at the Athenaeum, the architectural collection grew from 30,000 to more than 220,000 drawings and he oversaw the creation of nearly 8,000 Visual Materials records documenting them. He has served as curator for more than a dozen exhibitions at the Athenaeum and in 1998 he received the Preservation Achievement Award for his work as curator, editor and co-author of “Monument to Philanthropy: The Design and Building of Girard College, 1832-1848.”

Cake Competition:
For this event we will also be running a cake competition that gives entrants the opportunity to represent the Wagner in cake. Entries are being accepted until May 1st, 2015. All information about the competition, including deadlines and baking parameters, can be found on the Wagner’s website.

Reception:
Following the talk, at 7:30 pm, Wagner members are invited to join us for the Annual Member Reception. Members are welcome to bring one guest to the reception. Non-members and extra guests are asked to pay $10 to attend the event.

For more, visit the event page on the Wagner’s website.
http://www.wagnerfreeinstitute.org/syllabi%202014-15/Philadelphia1865.htm

Registration is encouraged but not required and can be done through Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.com/e/philadelphia-1865-a-city-on-the-edge-lecture-and-member-reception-tickets-9445428531

SAVE THE DATE FOR PHILA SAH SPRING PROGRAMS

April 12, 2015 /

The next Phila Chapter SAH program will be on the evening of Thursday, May 7.  A tour of the Church of Saint Francis de Sales at 46th & Springfield Avenue with a discussion of the controversial “neon halo” and other renovations designed by Venturi Scott Brown.  Chapter President Bill Whitaker is putting the finishing touches on the details which will be sent to Chapter members as soon as possible.

Also mark Thursday, June 11, on your calendar for a program at an amazing Victorian house, Oakbourne, in Westtown Twp, Chester County.  We’ll have a reception followed by a talk on the home’s architect T. Roney Williamson.  Details and registration information will be sent to Chapter members in early May.