Mastering Tradition: John Russell Pope (excerpt)

G A R R I S O N is an architect with

over 20 years of experience in historic

preservation. His work has included research and restoration work on many National Historic Landmark structures. The projects have included the National Gallery of Art,

GARRISON

J

AMES

several state capitols, and the award winning adaptive re-use of McKim, Mead & White’s

MASTERING TRADITION THE RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE

OF

JOHN RUSSELL POPE

M A S T E R I N G T R A D I T I O N T HE R ESIDENTIAL A RCHITECTURE

JOHN RUSSELL POPE

Girard Trust Company buildings in Philadelphia.

and architecture of southeastern Pennsylvania, where he lives on the Main Line.

A R C H I T E C T U R A L M O N O G R A P H S AVA I L A B L E F R O M

ACANTHUS PRESS The Architecture of Charles A. Platt Introduction by Charles Warren Foreword by Robert A.M. Stern

Mediterranean Domestic Architecture in the United States Rexford Newcomb New introduction by Mark Appleton

American Splendor: The Residential Architecture of Horace Trumbauer Michael C. Kathrens Foreword by Henry Hope Reed

FORTHCOMING Great Town Houses of New York Michael C. Kathrens 2005

Carrère & Hastings

Foreword by S T E V E N M C L E O D B E D F O R D

J

OHN

R U S S E L L P O P E (1873–1937) was

an architect of tradition and a master of

proportion, massing, and scale. Drawing on a personal palette rich in historic precedents from ancient Greece to colonial America, Pope created original and refined designs that embodied the aspirations of the United States as an emerging world power. Both his private and public work possess a poise and confidence that emanated from a disciplined approach to architectural design formed by his experience at home and abroad.

T R A D I T I O N

Domestic Architecture of H.T. Lindeberg Royal Cortissoz New Introduction by Mark Alan Hewitt

JOHN RUSSELL POPE

OTHER

M A S T E R I N G

writes and lectures extensively on the history

JAMES B. GARRISON

THE RESIDENTIAL A RCHITECTURE OF

In addition to his architectural practice, Garrison

In the brief span of 35 years, Pope and his office designed several hundred buildings and monuments, including over 100 houses. His residential work spans a wide array of styles, and comprises vast estates-with integrated ensembles of living, work, and leisure buildings—city town houses, country retreats, and a series of jewel-like mausoleums. The common thread running through all his work is a total mastery of the design vocabulary In this first comprehensive and lavishly illustrated survey of his residential work,

J AMES B. G ARRISON

author James Garrison delves into Pope’s

William Lawrence Bottomley

Foreword by

how an apparently diverse body of work is

Susan Hume Frazer 2006

STEVEN MCLEOD BEDFORD

Mark Alan Hewitt, Katherine Lemos, William Morrison, and Charles Warren 2 volumes, 2005-2006

design sources and methods, and demonstrates

related to a common theme of the mastering of tradition.

www.acanthuspress.com Rear cover: Frothingham residence, drawn by Otto Eggers

OF

ACANTHUS PRESS

ACANTHUS PRESS

Front cover: The Waves Photograph by James B. Garrison

MASTERING TRADITION T HE R ESIDENTIAL A RCHITECTURE

OF

J OHN R USSELL P OPE

J AMES B. G ARRISON Foreword by

S TEVEN M C L EOD B EDFORD

N EW Y ORK 2004

Published by Acanthus Press Barry Cenower, Publisher 48 West 22nd Street New York, New York 10010 www.acanthuspress.com 800.827.7614

Copyright Š 2004, James B. Garrison All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in any part (except by reviewers for the public press) without written permission from the publisher.

Every reasonable attempt has been made to identify the owners of copyright. Errors of omission will be corrected in the subsequent printings of this work.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Garrison, James B., 1957– Mastering tradition : the residential architecture of John Russell Pope / James B. Garrison. p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-926494-24-4 (alk. paper) 1. Pope, John Russell, 1874-1937--Criticism and interpretation.

2. Architecture--United States--20th century. I. Title.

NA7239.P67G37 2004 728'.37'092--dc22 2003026890

Book design by Maggie Hinders Printed in China

C ONTENTS

Acknowledgments ~ 7 Foreword ~ 9 Introduction ~ 13

W H I T E H O L M E ~ Dr. and Mrs. Henry Barton Jacobs Residence ~ 24 W I L L I A M L . S T O W R E S I D E N C E ~ 29 D E E P D A L E G AT E H O U S E ~ William K. Vanderbilt Jr. Estate ~ 35 J E R I C H O F A R M ~ Middleton S. Burrill Residence ~ 39 M R S . R O B E R T R . H I T T R E S I D E N C E ~ 43 J O H N R . M C L E A N R E S I D E N C E ~ 49 C H AT E A U I V E R ~ Charles A. Gould Residence ~ 57 REGINALD

AND

A N N A D E K O V E N R E S I D E N C E ~ 62

R E S T H I L L ~ Robert J. Collier Residence ~ 68 ROBERT S. MCCORMICK RESIDENCE ~ 75 L E V I P. M O R T O N R E S I D E N C E ~ 81 H E N R Y W H I T E R E S I D E N C E ~ 86 B O N N I E C R E S T ~ Stuart Duncan Residence ~ 96 G E O R G E H E W I T T M Y E R S R E S I D E N C E ~ 106 C H A R L C O T E ~ James S. Frick Residence ~ 115

M R S . A R T H U R S . B U R D E N R E S I D E N C E ~ 122 O G D E N L . M I L L S R E S I D E N C E ~ 130 A R L O U G H ~ Robert Low Bacon Jr. Residence ~ 139 K A M P K I L L K A R E ~ Francis Patrick Garvan Camp ~ 145 J O H N K . B R A N C H R E S I D E N C E ~ 153 A N D R E W V. S T O U T R E S I D E N C E ~ 161 A L L A N S . L E H M A N R E S I D E N C E ~ 168 J . R A N D O L P H R O B I N S O N R E S I D E N C E ~ 177 T H O M A S H . F R O T H I N G H A M R E S I D E N C E ~ 184 M E R I D I A N H O U S E ~ Irwin B. Laughlin Residence ~ 192 T E N A C R E ~ Joseph P. Knapp Residence ~ 200 G L E N F A R M ~ Moses Taylor Residence ~ 206 S P R I N G H I L L F A R M ~ J. Hazeltine Carstairs Residence ~ 214 S K Y L A N D S ~ Clarence McKenzie Lewis Residence ~ 220 C A U M S E T T ~ Marshall Field III Estate ~ 229 THE PORT

OF

M I S S I N G M E N ~ Colonel Henry H. Rogers Jr. Residence ~ 248

M A R I E M O N T ~ H. W. Lowe Residence ~ 254 T H E T U X E D O C L U B ~ 261 T H E W AV E S ~ John Russell Pope Residence ~ 266 T H R E E W O O D L AW N C E M E T E R Y M A U S O L E U M S ~ 276 H E N R Y E . H U N T I N G T O N M A U S O L E U M ~ 288

Catalog of Houses, Clubs, and Mausoleums ~ 294 Bibliography ~ 301 Photography Credits ~ 304 Index ~ 305

A CKNOWLEDGMENTS

G R E AT

ARCHITECTURE

has the ability to speak for itself across generations

and cultures. As a practicing architect in historic preservation, I feel a special kinship to the work of John Russell Pope. The buildings themselves convey an extraordinary presence and I was convinced of that one sunny winter afternoon on the roof of the National Gallery of Art as the sun moved slowly across the profiled marble, bringing the building to life with light and shadow.

Visiting the extant houses provided me with many insights, but this book never could have been written without the generous help of Steven Bedford, who shared the fruits of his many years of research and scholarship. His insights and criticisms have been extremely helpful in putting Pope’s residential work in the larger context of both his whole body of work and the architecture of the first half of the 20th century.

The best primary sources for a volume on historical architecture are the buildings themselves, and many people assisted in making their properties accessible. Dennis Harrington was a gracious host at the Meadow Brook Club (Middleton Burrill residence) as was Ian Fettigan at the Tuxedo Club. Cathy Norris and Greg van Schaak also provided assistance in Tuxedo. The staffs at the National Paint & Coatings Association (Morton residence), The Textile Museum (Myers residence), and Meridian International Center (White and Laughlin residences) made me feel welcome. Julia Neubauer at The Textile Museum and Curtis Sandberg at the Meridian International Center provided

7

special assistance with research and enlightening

John Brady at the Authority was helpful in making

guided tours. Ruth Watson hosted me at the Branch

arrangements for that visit. A few houses are still in

residence in Richmond, now being used for offices.

private ownership, and I wish to thank Lawrence

Susan Olsen, Executive Director of the Friends

Kadish and Thomas Gravina for inviting me into

of Woodlawn Cemetery is a knowledgeable and

their homes.

enthusiastic booster for the architecture, landscap-

John Russell Pope wrote little about his process,

ing, and history of one of America’s most significant

office, or projects, but the personal reminiscences of

cemeteries. She provided access to materials from

his daughter Jane made his person come alive.

the copious archives at Woodlawn as well as an

Looking back almost 70 years, her clear recollec-

informative tour of the Pope monuments and other

tions of her father and his clients was a precious

significant mausoleums of the same period.

window into his personality and practice.

Some of the houses are now owned by govern-

Robert MacKay and Richard Gachot of the

ment entities, and are cared for by dedicated staffs

Society for the Preservation of Long Island

who must contend with large properties that have

Antiquities provided research assistance. Paul

many special needs. Lenny Krauss at Caumsett

Cenzoprano and Amanda Rival gave additional

State Park (Marshall Field III estate), and Rich

research help. Dr. Alex Boyd and the staff at the

Flynn of the New Jersey State Department of

Newark Public Library made their first class

Environmental Protection at Ringwood State Park

collection of architectural journals available for

(Skylands) oversee the complex duties at those

reproduction. Having so many sources available at

parks with the assistance of active Friends organiza-

one location made our job much easier.

tions dedicated to the restoration of the buildings and landscapes.

Finally, Dr. George Skarmeas, AIA, Director of Preservation at Hillier, put this whole project in

Sister Debbie of the Sisters of the Good

motion with a simple question back in December

Shepherd at the Collier Center (Robert Collier

1999, and has provided support since then. Barry

residence) and Nancy Stulack, museum registrar at

Cenower at Acanthus Press has been an able guide

the United State Golf Association Museum

and critic, ever pushing for the highest quality in

(Frothingham residence) invited me to these two

text and images, and has helped with both.

important properties in central New Jersey. Josh

My wife Bernadette, and children Elizabeth and

Betts provided a tour of Bonniecrest in Newport,

Drew, have had to endure a few road trips and a big

and furnished information about how the building

mess in my home office while this project was

was constructed in its multiple phases. Nearby in

underway.

Portsmouth, Glen Farm (Taylor residence) prospers

This book is dedicated to my parents, Jane L.

under the careful management of Donald Wilkinson

Garrison and the late Paul A. Garrison, who provided

and his wife with the Glen Manor House Authority.

me with a real appreciation for all of the fine arts.

8

~

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

F OREWORD

THE

ARCHITECTURE OF

J O H N R U S S E L L P O P E epitomized America’s

embrace of the classical architectural tradition. While his residential and public practices have been treated as discrete entities, a common thread runs throughout the architect’s extensive built work, a quality that critic Royal Cortissoz described as “character”: This quality of Character which a work of Pope’s possesses is to be ascribed, I repeat, to the creative nature of his art. The soaring shaft in commemoration of MacDonough before City Hall at Plattsburgh, the classical City Hall itself, the grave, almost rude Lincoln Memorial at Hodgenville, the Stewart and other mausoleums, all have the quality of work developed from within, they all point to that spark of inner energy which is inseparable from true architecture…. His work is thus convincing, thus inspiring because it is—to use Matthew Arnold’s phrase—“of the centre,” worked out from the plan in the most exciting sense of the term, Built. (T HE A RCHITECTURE

OF

J OHN R USSELL P OPE , Introductions to Volumes 2 & 3)

Cortissoz understood that the design principles governing Pope’s monumental public buildings also applied to his projects for private residences and country estates. The personal interpretation of classical architecture that resonates so profoundly in Pope’s National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., for example, is also present in his Henry White and Ogden Mills estates.

9

Pope’s career neatly spanned the period during which classicism was the most important influence

debate that condemned his work to obscurity for more than half a century.

on American architects. Early in his career, critics

What made Pope’s houses so great? He had

lavished praise on Pope for his refined approach and

both an uncanny sense of volumetric proportions

deep knowledge of the elements of the classical tra-

and an innate understanding of the propriety of dec-

dition. What distinguished his work from that of his

oration and ornament as they could be applied to

contemporaries was Pope’s ability to invoke an

each building type and style. In addition, Pope’s

urbane sense of monumentality. His best houses—

planning skills made his residential buildings mar-

Mills, Myers, Hitt, and Burden—projected a

vels of efficiency. No space was to be wasted. Even

powerful dignity that appealed to the conservative

in the most grand of these buildings, such as the

tastes of his patrons, as well as an authenticity that

house at Caumsett, there are no superfluous circu-

was often lacking in the work of contemporaries

lation spaces, no convoluted connections between

such as Delano & Aldrich.

servants’ quarters and main rooms, no unnecessary

However, with the rise of modernism, Pope’s

back passageways. The construction and finish of

architecture became the object of severe criticism,

his buildings were always of the highest quality. In

and ultimately, neglect. The faculty of the School of

his complete mastery of all aspects of planning, con-

Architecture at Columbia University, Pope’s alma

struction, and design, John Russell Pope designed

mater, condemned his Jefferson Memorial as a

houses that rival the best this country has ever built.

“lamentable misfit in time and place.” Frank Lloyd

James Garrison contributes eloquently to

Wright described it as an “arrogant insult to the

renewed critical interest in Pope, offering an assess-

memory of Thomas Jefferson.” Modernist polemi-

ment that takes account of the context within which

cists William Lescaze and Joseph Hudnut believed

the architect approached each commission through-

that Pope’s neoclassical projects had transformed

out a career that spanned four defining and

Washington from the executive seat of democracy

fractious decades in American architecture.

into a capital of empire. Dying from cancer, the architect was conspicuously absent from the public

10

~

FOREWORD

S TEVEN M C L EOD B EDFORD

MASTERING TRADITION T HE R ESIDENTIAL A RCHITECTURE

OF

J OHN R USSELL P OPE

JOHN RUSSELL POPE

INTRODUCTION

J O H N R U S S E L L P O P E (1874–1937) was an architect of tradition and a master of proportion, massing, and scale. He drew from a personal palette rich in historic precedents from ancient Greece, Renaissance Rome, and 17th- and 18th-century Europe and America. No mere copyist or assembler of pieces, Pope produced refined and original designs that satisfied the growing pride of an increasingly dominant and influential America. He created work that possessed enormous power and presence through clarity of vision and execution.

He was not immune to eclecticism, but he showed discipline and skill in melding components from various sources and periods into coherent designs. Thus, an English Tudor house on the Hudson River or a Roman monument in The Bronx is lifted beyond time and place.

His practice encompassed a broad spectrum of building types from small commemorative monuments to large public buildings and country estates, but until recently he has been remembered only for a few public commissions such as the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and the National Gallery of Art, both of which were completed after his death in 1937. However, his residential work was a very important component of his practice, and for several reasons.

From a design standpoint, it offered a great variety of stylistic possibilities.

It also brought him into contact with important people influential in the larger public and institutional projects. Also, there was the level of detail and

13

refinement in design and execution that he could

as anathema. Steven Bedford, author of John

achieve in private work that was not always possible

Russell Pope–Architect of Empire, has written, “Pope

in public commissions. It is possible to see common

was a designer not a theorist.” This gets to the

threads in the designs of most of his residential pro-

heart of his approach to architecture, and it

jects even though the styles vary from half-timbered

explains why his work seemed dated in the late

Tudor to chaste Federal-style townhouses with an

1930s as the theories of modernism came to dom-

occasional French baroque extravaganza. The log

inate intellectual discourse.

construction of Kamp Kill Kare in the Adirondacks was just another opportunity to adopt and master a

~ ~ ~

style in the service of producing a masterful design solution to a specific problem.

John Russell Pope was born in 1874 in New

A hallmark of Pope’s work was the level of

York City to John and Mary Loomis Pope. John

refinement in the architectural design and detailing.

Pope was a portrait painter who had studied in Paris

His work was confined to a few building types,

and later became an associate at the National

notably avoiding significant commercial properties,

Academy of Design in New York. Artistic talent also

but it included a very broad range of styles, all

existed on his mother’s side. She was also a painter

impeccably executed. In his residential work, he

and piano teacher. After completing his courses at

explored different techniques to produce effects of

P.S. 35, John Russell entered the sub-freshman class

artificial aging in order to create references to past

at City College of New York with the initial aim of

times and places. This was not a whimsical process

studying medicine. It had always been his intention

but a serious attempt to make contemporary archi-

to transfer from City College, possibly to Johns

tecture achieve a quality of permanence and

Hopkins, to pursue a medical degree. Showing more

pedigree for clients whose wealth and influence

aptitude for drawing than for some of his other

made them at least peers with the aristocracy of

courses, Pope instead entered the architecture pro-

Europe. While there was a co-opting of the art and

gram at Columbia University in 1891.

architecture of Europe during the late-19th and

Architectural education was new in the United

early-20th centuries by many artists and architects,

States, even as late as the turn of the 20th century.

Pope approached the issue with a greater connois-

The most typical path to the profession was for a

seurship than many of his contemporaries.

man, most commonly, to apprentice in an office

John Russell Pope’s work tells us much about

starting in his early teens, becoming a partner or

the man. He did not write very much about his

opening his own firm while still in his early twen-

work, and first person reminiscences fill in only a

ties. The program at Columbia had only been

few details. For most of his career the press was

started in 1881 as part of the School of Mines.

full of praise for his work until the last years of his

William Ware, founder of the first college-level pro-

life when, at best, his work was deemed irrelevant.

gram in the United States at the Massachusetts

His work shows a progression and development in

Institute of Technology, came to Columbia stress-

sophistication, with a design process of refining

ing the classical orders and the importance of

ideas rather than a constant reinvention of forms.

history and technical competence. The program

This made him different from contemporaries like

did not have the strong, juried design studio

Paul Cret, who saw the onset of the modern move-

process that was so much a part of the beaux-arts

ment as another approach to consider rather than

method in France. Ware also did not stress courses

14

~

INTRODUCTION

on theory, but advocated a rather catholic

exposed the essence of the issues was a skill that

approach to design that appreciated all forms, not

more than anything else gave Pope an advantage in

merely the classically oriented French pedagogy.

design competitions in the United States. In a

While the programs at Columbia and other

1947 article in the AIA Journal, William Delano,

American architectural schools changed over time,

another McKim Fellowship recipient, wrote this

building a greater emphasis on a studio and juried

about Pope:

design process, they were too late to benefit Pope, who graduated in 1894. Importantly, at some time

Jack had an uncanny way of reading the minds

during his education at Columbia, Pope made

of juries, so that in many competitions that we

important contacts with the office of McKim,

both took part, Jack, with his able assistants,

Mead & White and the office of Bruce Price.

always walked away with the prize.

While aiding Ware during his first post-graduate year, Pope entered and won the first McKim

In 1900, his fellowships having run out, Pope

Traveling Fellowship to study at the new American

returned to New York to begin his post-academic

Academy in Rome. McKim personally supervised

career. His talent and training were held in high

portions of the curriculum in Rome, leading stu-

regard. He was able to land freelance work for

dents on tours of works by the High Renaissance

McKim, Mead & White and simultaneously join the

masters such as Bramante and Peruzzi, sources that

office of Bruce Price, while maintaining some pro-

would figure prominently in Pope’s later work.

fessional independence to do his own work. At this

During this phase of his studies he also improved

time, he assisted Stanford White drawing plans for a

his freehand sketching skills and probably also

monument at Belle Isle Park in Detroit, Michigan,

began his life-long interest in photography, which he

which was landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted.

used to record his travels. At the conclusion of his

His ties to McKim, Mead & White grew stronger,

fellowship year, Pope entered the atelier preparatoire

especially to Charles McKim. McKim was very

of Godefroy and Freynet in Paris to prepare for the

active in the realization of the McMillan Plan for

entrance exams of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the

the rebuilding of Washington, D.C., and probably

most renowned school of architecture in the world.

was instrumental in helping Pope make critical asso-

Following the pioneering visits by Richard Morris

ciations. There are also other ties between McKim’s

Hunt, Henry Hobson Richardson, Charles McKim

clients and projects by Pope before and after

and Stanford White, attendance at the Ecole

McKim’s death in 1909. McKim also invited Pope

became the ultimate goal of many aspiring

to run his design studio for Columbia students. The

American architects.

association between the two was too strong to be

Over the next year, Pope passed the required entrance examinations and entered the atelier of

purely circumstantial and suggests that McKim held Pope in high esteem.

Henry Deglane, who had just been named one of

By 1900, Bruce Price had removed himself

the designers for the Grand Palais at the Paris

from the design process of much of the work at his

Exposition of 1900. During his three years at the

firm and successfully focused on securing promi-

Ecole, Pope became even more adept at analyzing

nent commissions. Pope was fed a steady quantity

the requirements of a design problem and produc-

of high-quality work. Price had designed many of

ing successful sketch solutions. The ability to

the first buildings in Tuxedo Park for Pierre

produce quick, clearly delineated solutions that

Lorillard, but by the turn of the 20th century, his

INTRODUCTION

~

15

G E O R G E S T. G E O R G E R E S I D E N C E

office was designing for a wide range of building

McKim and Price and the careful foundation he had

types, from houses to office buildings. There are a

built with his education. It is clear that Pope was

number of buildings from the Price office of this

highly intelligent and used his gifts to make very cal-

period that can be attributed to Pope on stylistic

culated career moves. In his circle of clients,

grounds, among them the George St. George

political skill was essential in dealing with the large

house in Tuxedo Park (1900) and the Howard res-

egos and aspirations of the clients, but also in his

idence in Washington, not completed until 1907.

own pursuit of glamorous public works like the

Price died in 1903, by which time Pope was

Washington, D.C. memorial projects. Two other

actively involved in creating his own large projects

ingredients to benefit Pope were an efficient office

for Henry Jacobs in Newport (1901) and William

organization that would enable him to concentrate

Stow in Long Island (1903). In November 1903,

on design and client matters and a strong relation-

Pope, sponsored by McKim, the former national

ship with the press to publicize his work. The latter

president, applied for membership in the American

point should not be underestimated in a time where

Institute of Architects.

publicity related to professional practice was a deli-

Pope had relied on teaching to make ends meet, but in 1905 he formally started his independent

cate matter and the organized marketing of professional services unheard of.

practice. He attained success quickly, some of it

Then as now, the architectural press existed

attained by virtue of his prior associations with

mainly for the benefit of the profession, but good

16

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INTRODUCTION

reviews often raised the esteem of a designer

cratic architecture is on the wane…the newer

amongst his peers and would help him attract the

houses, while they still proclaim loudly their owners’

best talent to the firm. It was and remains highly

opulence, indicate the influence of better ideas of

unusual for an architect’s early works to receive

propriety.” Certainly Pope’s work fit the definition

extensive national and uniformly adulatory cover-

of propriety. The Jacobs and Stow houses were opu-

age. His early work was appearing side by side with

lent, but there was also a hint of restraint on their

that of more established firms and designers, and at

exteriors, and the houses that followed soon after

the same time it was hailed as being among the best

emphasized severity and restraint almost to the

examples of the most current design trends. It is not

point of austerity. It would not be correct to suggest

entirely clear how Pope managed to obtain so much

that Pope was somehow pandering to these sensi-

coverage in the architectural and general press, but

bilities in the marketplace, but it is safe to say that

he counted many of the writers as friends. Barr

his work represented the spirit of a strong voice in

Ferree at the Scientific American Building Journal,

American life and politics of the day.

Herbert Croly at Architectural Record, and Samuel

During the latter part of the 19th century

Howe in House Beautiful all covered his work exten-

through the beginning World War One, a move-

sively. Another booster was Royal Cortissoz, who

ment arose to describe stylistic trends in design. It

had apprenticed in the office of McKim, Mead &

was known as the American Renaissance. Works

White, but went on to become an important critic

created during this period displayed a strong spirit

and writer. He wrote the introductions to the three

of nationalism, an interest in idealistic subjects,

volumes of The Architecture of John Russell Pope pub-

and an appreciation for the artistic works of classi-

lished between 1925 and 1930.

cal antiquity. In 1904 Joy Wheeler Dow wrote The

One of the most outspoken and articulate writ-

American Renaissance, which was a moralistic trea-

ers on Pope’s work was Herbert Croly, an editor of

tise that elevated the country house to the pinnacle

the Architectural Record and a prominent progressive

of art of architecture. The book described the

writer. Croly’s journalistic career culminated with

country house as the one place where a true

his leadership of the New Republic and the influen-

expression of ideals could be achieved. A common

tial book The Promise of American Life published in

theme in much of the writing of the day, reformers

1909. Pope’s career and architecture were related to

promoted the idea of the “City Beautiful” as they

the changes in American politics and self-image that

looked for examples of design solutions to social

came with the rise of the Progressive movement

problems. The idea was to improve on precedents,

with Theodore Roosevelt as its most famous voice.

not to merely copy or co-opt them. In contrast to

Even though Croly’s writing appeared in an archi-

the later modern movement, the American

tectural journal, it contained a strong social message

Renaissance artists and architects built on tradi-

nevertheless. Croly expressed some ambivalence on

tion and continuity. The American 20th century

the questions as to the propriety of the concentra-

was the rightful successor to the Pax Britannica of

tion of wealth that was occurring in the country and

the 19th century. Pope was well positioned to

the ostentatious spending that went with it. He rec-

exploit these feelings of patriotism and idealism.

ognized the importance of capitalism and its

The road had been paved by the previous genera-

potential for bettering society, but at the same time

tion of architects, led by McKim’s vision for the

cautioned against excesses. As early as 1901 he was

White City at the 1893 World’s Columbian

writing that “the palatial period of American demo-

Exposition in Chicago.

INTRODUCTION

~

17

How did Pope bring this American sentiment to

the qualities of the site and the traditional vocabu-

his architecture? There were overt references in

lary that best fit it. He did not simply apply styles,

buildings like the 1911 residence for Robert Collier

but rather engaged in a design process where, as in

that used the portico from Mount Vernon on a

his days at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the esquisse, or

colossal scale. There were also the more subtle adap-

sketch, distilled the scheme to its basics and

tations of the Federal style characterized by the work

imparted a clarity that would guide the development

of Charles Bulfinch in the early 19th century. In the

of the design.

Henry White residence (1912) Pope amplified the

The question of style is an intriguing one when

brick and stone of the traditional Federal style with

applied to Pope’s overall work. His public commis-

a monumental porte cochere and details with spe-

sions usually relied on a Roman classicism, from

cific precedents from the Italian Renaissance,

the design of the Temple of the Scottish Rite in

essentially “remaking” the style. There was a clientele

1910 through the Jefferson Memorial completed

of both owners and writers who would pick up the

after his death. There were occasional forays into

references in the design and by association, the pres-

the Greek revival for buildings like the Plattsburgh

tige. While today’s viewers sometimes find it hard to

City Hall of 1916. In his residential and campus

grasp the subtlety and meaning of these references,

designs, he explored various forms of the Gothic

clients and writers in Pope’s era readily recognized

and Tudor styles, the colonial revival, and the

them and understood their purpose.

Adam–Federal style. While on the surface this

As a consummate designer, Pope masterfully

might appear to be simple eclecticism, his work has

manipulated his sources by reducing some to their

a greater depth that shows a real understanding of

essential qualities while exaggerating others.

the essential and symbolic qualities of a style. There

Examples of the former are the series of brick and

also appears to be a period in which he was search-

stone residences featured in a 1916 issue of The

ing for some type of “universal” vocabulary that

Brickbuilder. The Myers, Frick, Burden, and Mills

might be applied to a broad range of building types.

residences, built between 1914 and 1915, shared a

His essays in the neoclassical–Federal style showed

common expression in American Federal-style brick

promise for developing a truly distinctive personal

and stone, but the ornament was spare. The build-

idiom, but for some reason he chose to move on to

ings relied on massing and compositional effects to

a more literal historicism. There is no doubt that he

achieve an extraordinary presence on their sites. The

never saw an alternate to classicism for monumen-

success of this approach balances on a knife’s edge,

tal

where one side appears banal and the other as

architecture seems to lose a little of the spark that

mindless copying. Similarly, exaggeration is a diffi-

made it so interesting before 1920. It remained

cult art to master. At the Frothingham residence

highly competent and distinctive, but the change

(1919) Pope used the middle Atlantic classic five-

was noticed by his contemporaries. In the 1940s

part tidewater form and gave it a decided vertical

William Delano noted somewhat acidly:

public

architecture,

but

his

residential

emphasis in contrast to the horizontal extension of the plan type. At Caumsett (1925) for Marshall

I often wished that this really gifted artist had

Field III, Pope downplayed the vertical qualities of

not been such a follower of precedent for he had

the English baroque style in a design that stretches

the ability to express himself more personally

across the brow of an artificially enhanced hill.

without losing the spirit of what he sought; but

Wherever he worked, Pope had a strong instinct for

Jack was lazy.

18

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INTRODUCTION

office in 1909 but continued to work as a draftsman for other architects. In 1912 he won the LeBrun Scholarship to spend six months sketching in Europe. Upon his return, Pope prevailed on him to quit his work for other offices. While no formal partnership papers were signed, Eggers truly became Pope’s right arm. It is beside the point to argue design responsibility for individual projects, but instead it is more important to understand the synergistic relationship between the two men. Eggers’ facility with sketching and capturing the qualities of light and textures of materials were undoubtedly crucial in achieving the effects that Pope sought.

With many complex projects underway simultaneously in the office, a clarity and economy in sketches was essential. T. J. Young, a Pope employee, wrote in Pencil Points in 1937 that Eggers’ drawings were not meant to be only for presentation or to be pretty. The drawings were part of the design process, elucidating particular aspects, be it a garTEMPLE OF THE SCOTTISH RITE

den gate, or an exterior or interior detail. The interior views, even in monochrome, had an

This quote reflects more on the waning star of tra-

uncanny quality that conveyed a realistic sense of

ditional design that affected firms like Delano’s and

light and color, complete with furnishings that com-

Pope’s rather than a lack of quality and invention in

plemented the architecture. Young writes:

Pope’s work.

Pope never could have achieved the quantity

This knowledge of perspective…is always used

and quality of the work he produced without the

with honesty of purpose, never to cover defects in

assistance of his highly competent office. Being able

the design nor by tricks of draftsmanship to

to rely on a highly professional design staff, Pope

draw attention away from some detail lacking

assumed the role of patron of the firm. Several key

in study. It is used…as a method for seeking

figures assisted Pope for much of his career, the two

perfection.

most important being Otto Eggers and Daniel Higgins. Otto Eggers was one of the great architec-

The third leg of the tripod was Daniel Higgins

tural draftsmen of the 20th century and was a good

(1886–1953), who managed the business affairs of

designer in his own right. He was born in 1882 in

the firm. He was hired in 1909 as the office

New York and attended the same public school as

accountant and later took night courses in archi-

did Pope. After high school, Eggers went directly to

tecture at New York University, eventually

work in several architectural offices while taking

securing a degree. He wrote a four-part series

night courses at The Cooper Union for the

called “The ‘Business’ of Architecture” for The

Advancement of Science and Art. He joined Pope’s

Architectural Review in 1917 and 1918 in which he

INTRODUCTION

~

19

N AT I O N A L A R C H I V E S

described the ideal office structure and the role of

to recognize that this role was in support of the

every member. The structure and roles of staff cor-

named architect and provided an important link to

respond very closely to the Pope office, only

the specialty departments within the firm.

natural given Higgins’ experience. This is one of

Pope’s office remained moderately small

the few insights we have about how Pope’s office

throughout its existence, usually numbering between

was structured. Higgins created the position of

20 to 25 people. At this size, the office could func-

architect at the top of the chart. The next tier had

tion with a pyramidal hierarchy with one person at

the clients and the business manager, and directly

the top. In this way it differed from large firms such

below them were the designers, the supervising

as McKim, Mead & White and D. H. Burnham &

architect, and “interior decoration.” Higgins stated

Company, where there would be several partners and

that office functions should be distributed to spe-

multiple designers. Although the Pope office was

cialists but that everyone must have a common

small, it was hierarchical and formal. While Pope had

basis of knowledge—architecture. He placed the

a reputation for being somewhat imperious in the

business manager on the plane of the clients

office, Eggers was truly a teacher and was the bridge

because he believed that a typical client—a busi-

to the senior staff, which in turn supervised the draft-

nessman—would be more comfortable knowing

ing room where a high turnover of personnel was

that his affairs were being handled by someone

typical. There is no hard evidence that Pope avoided

with business acumen. Higgins was smart enough

or turned away work that would have necessitated a

20

~

INTRODUCTION

significant expansion of the firm. As a smaller firm

would sequester himself in the hotel bathroom to

with little commercial work and with the benefit of a

develop the day’s film. He was very successful in

major government commission—the National

amateur photo competitions. The fact that he con-

Archives Building—Pope’s office was better posi-

trolled every aspect of his photography is also

tioned to ride out the Depression without losing key

indicative of the seriousness with which he

staff members. Information of Pope’s office is some-

approached his hobbies. He shared this trait with

what oblique, drawn from evidence in magazine

Otto Eggers, whose hobbies included building mod-

articles and a few personal reminiscences that

els, etching, and sitting on design juries.

appeared after Pope’s death, or interviews conducted

As a person, Pope is described as shy in crowds

by Steven Bedford while some of the associates were

but animated in an intimate setting. He was a mem-

still alive. Information about the personal side of

ber of several clubs in New York and Newport, and

John Russell Pope is even scarcer. His education and

maintained a lifelong interest in the American

professional accomplishments are well documented,

Academy in Rome where he ultimately became

but he wrote little, and preferred to let his work

President and a trustee. Unlike McKim, he did not

speak for him.

seek offices in the local or national professional societies or seek the public limelight in a direct way, ~ ~ ~

even though throughout his career he sought and sometimes gained the most prominent public com-

John Russell Pope married at the relatively late age

missions. He lived near his office, and was not a

of 39 to Sadie Jones, a woman 20 years younger.

person who enjoyed extended stays away from his

Her father, Pembroke Jones of Wilmington, North

family. While there was discussion of opening an

Carolina, had made money in the Civil War as a

office in Washington to handle the work there, espe-

blockade runner. He invested his money in southern

cially in the 1930s, he remained in mid-town

railroads and would later have some professional

Manhattan on Fifth Avenue. When the family sum-

involvement with his son-in-law in the design of

mered in Newport, he and Sadie would return to the

railroad stations for Richmond, Virginia, and

city during the week and leave the girls with their

Jacksonville, Florida. The Jones family summered in

grandmother at Sherwood, the Jones family cottage.

Newport, where Pope was active in the design of

By 1927, Pope’s own house, The Waves, was com-

several major houses before he married Sadie in

pleted. When their elder daughter Mary was killed

1912. The marriage brought some financial security

in an automobile accident in Newport in 1930, John

and enhanced his client contacts in the south and

and Sadie became more reclusive. The incident

Baltimore, where Sadie’s mother had married

seems to have affected Pope’s professional life as

Henry Walters after Pembroke Jones’s death. By all

well; Pope seemed to focus all his energies on his

accounts, Pope was a devoted husband and father

two major public commissions.

to his daughters Mary and Jane. A third daughter Sarah died at a very young age.

It has been suggested that Pope’s reserve might have been due to insecurity about his social position,

Jane recounts that the family often traveled

particularly as many of his peers were from more

together, either to Europe or to visit clients on Long

privileged backgrounds. An analysis of his career and

Island or Newport. She stated that not only was her

life reveals him to be a man of great intelligence who

father an avid photographer, but that he developed

approached every situation or project in a calculated

and printed all of his own film. While traveling, he

way. Starting with the basis of real artistic talent and

INTRODUCTION

~

21

intellectual curiosity, he made the right academic

A comparison of significant books on the

and professional connections and impressed his

country house between Barr Feree’s American

mentors at every step along the way. He recognized

Estates and Gardens of 1904, and R. W. Sexton’s

that a practice needed organization and found two

1930 edition of American Country Houses of Today,

highly competent individuals to work with him. For

show more than a maturation of eclecticism. There

almost 30 years, he never made them partners, yet

was a diffusion of academically based styles

they never left the firm. The lack of a partnership and

throughout the country, with a trickle down of

succession plan led to some disarray when Pope died

“high design” from estates to smaller speculative

in 1937, with the National Gallery of Art and the

housing. Pope’s houses were paradigms, buildings

Thomas Jefferson Memorial still on the drawing

that were widely admired and imitated. Close

boards. Eggers and Higgins formed their own firm

cousins of the Myers and White residences started

that eventually became the Eggers Group until it

appearing all over Washington following the publi-

was purchased in the 1990s and the Eggers name

cation of those seminal works. In 1931, David

ceased to exist.

Adler used a literal copy of the Burden stair for a

Pope wanted the firm to stay small, and he truly

house in suburban Chicago.

believed in the design ethic of classicism and prece-

In mastering the art of residential design, Pope

dent. He saw the world through his own lens, and he

created transcendent works of architecture. His

had either the strength or stubbornness to stay with

buildings have an integrity that imparts a timeless

his ideals. His idealism extended to his interest in

quality that is an attribute of great architecture.

only pursuing prestigious commissions or work that

Fortunately, a good number of them remain for us

might have some higher purpose. This pursuit is a

to appreciate, a surprising number still functioning

direct result of his academic training. The calculated

as single-family residences. Their present owners

part of the equation was the structuring of a per-

cherish them for their comfort, planning, and qual-

sonal and professional life that would support it.

ity. That last item, quality, is a term that comes up

Few of Pope’s contemporaries pursued such a

often when speaking with the present owners or

path, and in the end, without his presence, his final

stewards, and repeats what was written in articles

works seemed apocryphal, and his reputation lan-

when the buildings were completed. Quality is an

guished. The era of the great country house was also

elusive trait, and one that rarely endures, but has in

over with the Depression years. Few of the great

the case of Pope’s domestic work. It is his single-

firms from the early 20th century outlasted the Great

minded pursuit of perfection that defines his

Depression, and fewer still, World War II. Pope’s

residential architecture. As a crucial component of

nearly four-decade practice saw the peaking of the

his overall portfolio, Pope’s houses consist of works

American Renaissance, the continued optimism of

that define the highest level of pre-War design in

the 1920s, and then the rise of the massive Federal

the United States, worthy of continued admiration

Bureaucracy with the New Deal.

and preservation.

22

~

INTRODUCTION

JOHN R. MCLEAN RESIDENCE Washington, D.C., 1907

THE JOHN R. MCLEAN

R E S I D E N C E is one of the lost treasures of the

District of Columbia. As with the nearby John Hay and Henry Adams houses

by H. H. Richardson, this next-generation house is really nothing more than a series of rooms meant for entertaining, each a set piece in a fantastic style. The challenge consisted in combining pre-existing houses on the site with new construction, then cloaking it all with a facade that united the disparate elements.

John Russell Pope achieved the latter by turning to the brick architecture of Lombardy, which he enlivened with details drawn from Renaissance Rome.

The facades became flat canvases with multiple compositions of openings and local symmetries. The battered stone base with its exaggerated water table and the heavy tile roof served as unifying elements at the bottom and top.

John Roll McLean was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1848. He was the son of Washington McLean, a manufacturer, and a leading Democrat in Ohio.

Washington McLean was also a partner in the Cincinnati Enquirer. After John finished his studies at Harvard University and the University of Heidelberg in Germany, he entered the newspaper business. He eventually became the sole owner of the Enquirer and built it into the largest circulation five-cent paper in the country. In 1884, he married Emily Beale in Washington, and he moved to that city where he had many successful investments in utilities, real estate, and transit companies. By 1905, he counted The Washington Post as one of his possessions. He had built a lavish Georgian revival house, Friendship, on

49

V I E W F R O M N O RT H E A S T

75 acres off Wisconsin Avenue—also designed by

various horizontal zones in the facades. The

Pope. McLean was determined to have a second res-

entrance was not located in the center of the facade

idence strictly for social affairs, located in the heart

due to the pre-existing structures at the corner of

of the city. He spent lavishly on art and artifacts from

15th and I Streets.

Europe that became the principle internal ornaments of his new house at 1500 I Street.

The older buildings that were incorporated into the new residence became the Long Gallery and the

McLean requested a house that looked forbid-

Old Gallery; in the latter, a massive stair to the left

ding on the exterior but would dazzle on the

was announced on the facade by five heavily mul-

interior. There were few traces of domesticity in the

lioned window openings. The 15th Street facade

cavernous interior rooms meant for large gatherings.

kept an old square bay window in the sitting room,

Nevertheless, the building was imposing and seems

which was located in the Long Gallery wing. A

to have fulfilled the client’s wishes. The entry facade

larger, semicircular bay of the dining room resem-

faced the southern edge of McPherson Square and

bled the chancel of a northern Italian parish church

announced itself with a huge arch with stone vous-

on the Lombardian plain.

soirs in the manner of Vignola. Pope relied on the

The first floor consisted of five major rooms

color and texture of the brickwork to animate an

with a rather open circulation pattern for service

otherwise sheer wall. The wide contrasting mortar

and access to the upper floor. Other than the library,

joints and various bond patterns in the brick created

the rooms were palatial and had little architectural

50

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MCLEAN

E N T R A N C E D E TA I L

MCLEAN

~

51

STUDY

52

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MCLEAN

C O N S E RVAT O RY

MCLEAN

~

53

TA P E S T RY G A L L E RY

O L D G A L L E RY

54

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MCLEAN

DINING ROOM

ornament, except for an occasional balcony or stair.

and life-size medieval figures surrounded by vines

The doorways between the rooms were dominant,

and pictorial relief panels. The dining room opened

suggesting movement through the spaces, creating

into a skylit conservatory with its Neptune fountain.

a flow while entertaining. These public spaces

Pope repeated the design for this conservatory sev-

housed the owner’s art objects, which consisted

eral times in modified forms in the various art

mostly of large tapestries, sculptures, fountains,

museums he designed in his later years.

and chimneypieces.

The last great room was the Tapestry Gallery, a

The Old Gallery held a large stair, which had a

chamfered rectangle perpendicular to the Old

unique and dramatic purpose: it was a backdrop for

Gallery. It was distinguished by a Hercules chimney-

grand entrances by the owner only. It was balanced

piece held up by four life-size figures and by a Venus

at the other end of the room by a huge semicircular

fountain niche below a balcony that opened to the

arch with paneled sliding doors that led to the din-

second floor. The tray ceiling above was painted with

ing hall. The dining room mantel and sideboard

trompe l’oeil beams and panels to complete the the-

were particularly interesting pieces with a true archi-

atrical effect. Elsie de Wolfe later remodeled some of

tectural scale formed by ranks of twisted columns

the upstairs rooms and performed some minor work

MCLEAN

~

55

F I R S T- F L O O R P L A N

in the main rooms for John’s son and daughter-in-

developer in 1939. They demolished the house and

law, Edward and Evalyn McLean.

built an office building.

After his father’s death in 1916, Edward used

This early house in Washington could not have

the house until 1932, at which time the house sat

been more different from the nearby Hitt residence

vacant for several years. Edward was an unstable

designed that same year. Hitt’s house was a fine

person, something his father must have realized as

example of period styling, while the McLean resi-

he put his fortune in trust for his grandchildren.

dence was illustrative of Pope’s inventiveness and

Indeed, Edward succeeded in bankrupting the Post.

independence. It is truly unfortunate that neither of

The paper was purchased by Eugene Meyer, who

these houses remains. Each was a paragon of its

also bought the Pope-designed Henry White resi-

genre. The McLean house was an anomaly for

dence. The WPA briefly occupied the McLean

Pope’s work: inside, more theater than architecture;

house until John McLean’s trustees sold it to a

outside, a steadfast presence in the cityscape.

56

~

MCLEAN

ROBERT S. MCCORMICK RESIDENCE Washington, D.C., 1911

THE MCCORMICK

R E S I D E N C E stands confidently on its triangular site

on Massachusetts Avenue at Whitehaven Street as the avenue begins its climb to Observatory Hill. When the McCormick house was built, it was some distance from the more developed areas of Washington, past Dupont and Sheridan Circles, and across Rock Creek from the fashionable residential sections and the government center. Appropriately, the classical detailing and massing of the building is evocative of a High Renaissance villa suburbana. This house represents one of John Russell Pope’s last truly eclectic residences, where little connection exists between the exterior style and the interior design.

Robert Sanderson McCormick was a nephew of Cyrus Hall McCormick, a developer of the mechanized reaper. Robert was born in Virginia, and following the success of the family business, his parents relocated to Chicago.

He was staff secretary to Robert Todd Lincoln, Minister to London, in 1889 and served as United States Commissioner to England for the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition. His diplomatic career started with his post as Secretary of the American Legation to the Court of St. James. He became the first United States ambassador to the Habsburg court in Austria-Hungary, which was followed by appointments to Russia and France. He retired from public service in 1907. McCormick’s wife, the former Katharine van Etta Medill was a daughter of the founder of the Chicago Tribune and grew up in a

75

P R E S E N T- D AY V I E W F R O M M A S S A C H U S E T T S AV E N U E

household filled with notable guests, among them

The narrow side of the rectangular building faces

Abraham Lincoln.

the avenue, and the house is pushed to the rear of

McCormick likely came to Pope based on rec-

the site where the triangular lot is both widest and

ommendations from two of the architect’s clients,

highest. Thus, the main facade was visible in its full

Levi Morton and Henry White, the latter also hav-

width for some distance down Massachusetts

ing been posted at the American Embassy in Paris.

Avenue. The landscaping contributes to both the

Although the land for the McCormick house was

effect of grandeur and privacy with the placement

purchased in 1907, construction did not begin until

of what have become huge evergreen trees to either

1911, but there is no evidence of a prolonged

side of the approach drive. Dense plantings to one

design period.

side and the rear give some privacy from the service

When the house was built, it stood on recently

drive behind.

converted farmland with few features beyond the

The pictorial effect of the house is emphasized

newly laid out streets. The orientation of the impos-

by the grouping of the openings in vertical stacks

ing main facade, with the concentration of its

concentrated in the center above the entrance, and

openings at its center, was a site-specific response

it is strengthened by a crest placed above the center

that accounted for the topography, the angled

window of the piano nobile. The flanking balconies

intersection, and the views to and from the house.

have a solidity that tie them to the wall through a

76

~

MCCORMICK

F R O N T E L E VAT I O N , 1 9 1 1

combination of applied ornament and integral string

Pietro Massimo in the center of Rome and the

courses that gird the facades. Large corner quoins

suburban Villa Farnesina for Agostino Chigi. True

provide the only other relief to the smooth

to form, Pope quoted selectively, with all of the

stonework. In its original form, the second and third

masses and details appropriately scaled and mod-

floor windows were fitted with hinged louvered

ified to create a unified composition. He used the

shutters, adding some color and texture to the

smooth limestone ashlar surface as a canvas for

facades. The Roman tile roof and the cluster of

the design without any of the applied orders or

chimneys were clearly subservient to the masonry

intermediate entablatures of the original proto-

walls and cornice; today, they are barely visible

types. From the strong chiaroscuro of the recessed

behind the trees.

entry colonnade that is a literal quotation from

Pope chose his sources carefully and arrived at

Palazzo Pietro Massimo, Pope made the transi-

a unique synthesis of elements drawn from plates

tion to shallower ornamental window surrounds

in Paul Letarouilly’s 1849 Edifices de Rome

drawn from the Palazzo Angelo Massimo. The

Moderne, the standard source for measured draw-

chaste cornice and its frieze with small attic win-

ings of Renaissance buildings in Rome. For

dows are drawn from the Villa Farnesina. Each

McCormick’s house, Pope used as primary

quotation has an appropriate level of ornamenta-

sources three High Renaissance buildings by

tion to achieve an overall level of harmony and

Baldasarre Peruzzi: the palazzi of Angelo and

severity without becoming pastiche.

MCCORMICK

~

77

S TA I R H A L L

The compact plan, divided into thirds by heavy

elaborate garlanded frieze, and a coffered ceiling sur-

bearing walls, is a model of clarity and echoes the

round. When the building became the Brazilian

organization of the facade. The interior program

Ambassador’s residence in 1934, the southwest side

was organized around the need to keep the

of the house, where the library once stood, became

McCormick’s many public and business activities

the State Dining Room. The small semicircular cov-

away from the family spaces. To that end, the

ered porch in the garden, which was accessed from

ground floor held a combination of service and

the library, had been Mr. McCormick’s private out-

semi-public spaces; the second floor was the prin-

door retreat. The Massachusetts Avenue side of the

cipal entertaining level; the third floor, reached by

first floor housed the kitchen and service spaces.

a discrete stair, was the family’s private domain.

The second floor contains four principal spaces:

The main entrance doors are in a well and are sev-

hall, drawing room, salon, and dining room. The

eral steps below the main hall. A semicircular marble

drawing room directly opposite the stair in the cen-

stair occupies a large proscenium opening that occu-

ter bay is somewhat awkwardly proportioned, as it

pies nearly the entire width of the hall on the far side.

is limited by the width of the stair hall. It is deco-

In contrast to the austerity of the exterior facade, the

rated with a diverse mix of motifs. A heavy baroque

hall and stair have a more theatrical quality enlivened

plaster cornice above a triglyph and metope frieze

by an eclectic mix of ornamental features: a rococo-

with modillions is placed above a richly veined pur-

style iron stair rail, Corinthian pilasters supporting an

ple and white Louis XV mantel. The chimneypiece

78

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MCCORMICK

PLANS

80

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MCCORMICK

BONNIECREST S TUART D UNCAN R ESIDENCE Newport, Rhode Island, 1912

B O N N I E C R E S T is one of the most spectacular brick Tudor revival residences in America. Built by Stuart Duncan, the house stands confidently on its cliff-side site overlooking Brenton Cove in Newport. Exploiting the views of the bay and the natural features of the land while also appearing to be an ancestral manor house, Bonniecrest avoids any notion of newness. The success of this design, especially as a mature effort in the Tudor, tells us more about John Russell Pope’s methods than his abilities.

Stuart Duncan was a Midwest industrialist who purchased a portion of an estate previously owned by Henry White, a recent Pope client. Working with the Olmsted brothers, who landscaped the property, Pope attached the long, narrow residence to a major rock outcropping to the west of the site, and he tucked the servants’ wing into an exiting grove of trees to the east. The dogleg plan, very popular for the Tudor revival in England and the United States, further enabled him to create an animated skyline silhouetted above the ridge.

The plan is linear yet picturesque at the same time and responds to the programmatic need to emphasize the main block of the house. An angled wing on the right embraces the entrance approach.

In the beaux-arts tradition, style deferred to plan, site, and basic massing of the building. Having established the basic form, Pope’s knowledge and care in applying the appropriate stylistic elements on the exterior and interior, including furnishings, ensured that Bonniecrest would be a complete artistic

96

E N T R A N C E FA C A D E

triumph. In the contemporary press, overwhelming opinion praised both the owner and architect for enabling the vision to be so completely realized.

The undertaking required an enormous effort, for the building shell alone contains a wide array of carefully chosen native and imported materials, selectively aged to remove any signs of newness. On the interiors, the same combination of the old and new, and the use of the best artisans, including Samuel Yellin, the master metalsmith from Philadelphia, created a convincing container for the extraordinary collection of antique and reproduction furniture that completed the work.

The plan and elevations are composed of a few discrete elements arranged and proportioned to promote a picturesque effect. The entrance portal is a literal copy of the famous porch at the Warwickshire Tudor estate, Compton Wynyates.

The diaper pattern brickwork and ornate chimneys

E N T R A N C E D E TA I L

BONNIECREST

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97

RAIN LEADER

B R I C K A N D S T O N E D E TA I L

are also derived from this prototype. Aside from his

house, whose design is full of incidents and

intimate knowledge of English architecture, Pope

irregularities, yet which at the same time is a

copied many of the details from photographs and

peculiarly happy example of the effective com-

measured drawings in The Domestic Architecture of

position of masses and the grouping of colors

England during the Tudor Period, by Thomas Garner

and materials.

and Arthur Stratton, published in 1911. The use of pattern books in no way diminishes the achieve-

Two half-timbered gables with elaborate barge-

ment in this house—the composition of the

boards flank the entrance portal, capping projecting

elements is wholly the work of Pope. In the

pavilions with huge mullioned windows. The warm

September 1915 issue of Architectural Record, edi-

honey-colored stone from Virginia complements the

tor Herbert Croly commented:

variegated brick that ranges from dark clinker, or overburned, to light salmon. The diagonal decorative

98

It looks extremely easy to design a house in

bond pattern in the brick and the stone stringcourses

these loose irregular styles…of course this

knit the facade together and tie it to the crenellated

apparent ease is really illusory, for it requires

parapet. Even the Vermont slate in the roof is hand

a more special and higher grade of architec-

split to provide irregular thicknesses and undulating

tural talent to make a house of this kind

coursing to enhance the vintage appearance.

charming and idiomatic…. He has built a

Stone towers provide the appropriate punctu-

very large, spacious, and apparently rambling

ation marks for the transition to the servants’ wing

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BONNIECREST

H A R B O R FA C A D E

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S M A L L S TA I R T O W E R

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BONNIECREST

A D D I T I O N F R O M L AW N AT M I D - R A N G E , P R E S E N T- D AY V I E W

SITE PLAN

LONG VIEW WITH HARBOR

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S TA I R H A L L

L O N G G A L L E RY

and the family quarters. As if the house were not

The estate itself with its restful lawns and ter-

large enough when completed in 1914, Pope was

races presents a curious and refreshing

recalled in 1926 to add a ballroom, which was

combination…. Infinite care has already reared

housed in a gigantic wing at the western end. The

a lawn that shows fair comparison to the won-

same mix of materials and detailing was continued

derful carpets surrounding the old houses in

there, with that end of the house towering over

England. The side facing the water is just as

the steep slope down to the water. In her 1944

appropriate for its location, for here can be seen

book, This Was My Newport, Maud Howe Elliot

how the materials used in the building have har-

described the balls that were held at Bonniecrest

monized with the colors and texture of the rocky

as “pageantry on a highly artistic plane.” Pope’s

shore merging the house with the boulders and

daughter Jane relates that her father and Duncan

not merely perching it on top of the ground.

were close friends, and that he spent a good deal of time at Bonniecrest, where she had her debut into society.

Two half-timber gables also dominate this facade, and the south entrance to the lawn is topped

Originally, both major facades faced broad

by a sculptural oriel window. This detail, like the

lawns; today, only the lawn on the harbor side is

many twisted and sculpted chimneys on the house,

intact. Pope himself commented on the lawns in an

also came from the pages of Garner and Stratton.

article for Country Life:

An interesting local legend has grown up around the

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BONNIECREST

LIVING ROOM

chimneys, described as outlining the Worcestershire

Chapel of Henry VII in Westminster Abbey. The

sauce bottles of the owner’s business. There is no

stair next to the gates is a Jacobean design. Three

documentary evidence to support this persistent

tapestries added warmth to the oak paneled walls of

tale, and Duncan was not associated with any busi-

the living room; a 46 foot by 28 foot rug covered the

ness related to condiments.

floor. The limestone fireplace hood, with its seven

As completed, the plan contained the typical

sculpted panels, was sandblasted to achieve an aged

array of first floor rooms for a large house of the

effect. With its vaulted ornamental plaster ceiling,

period: an entrance hall, living and dining rooms,

the Long Gallery has a distinctly medieval feeling.

and a library. The simplicity of the plan is in contrast

Along its length it housed a large model of Sir Francis

to the immensity of the rooms and the degree of

Drake’s ship the Golden Hind. The dining room fire-

detail in the interior design. The living and dining

place terminates the view, and is seen through an

rooms occur at opposite ends of the main block. The

arched entrance with an elaborately carved screen,

fireplaces on their outside walls are nearly 200 feet

again based on an original in Compton Wynyates.

apart and are both viewed through the Long Gallery

The dining room was very colorful, with a combina-

that connects them via the stair hall.

tion of polychrome painting supplementing the wood

Proceeding to the entrance hall from the

paneling, the marble and limestone fireplace, and the

vestibule, one passes through a set of wrought iron

furnishings. The huge fireplace has a richly carved lin-

gates that Samuel Yellin patterned after those in the

tel depicting St. George slaying the dragon and a

BONNIECREST

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L I V I N G R O O M FA C I N G S O U T H

very ornate set of andirons and accessories by

exterior and remaining portions of the interior, it is

Samuel Yellin.

possible to imagine that this residence achieved

Bonniecrest shows what can be achieved when

something beyond the typical eclectic designs of

there is complete coordination on all aspects of the

the day. The attention to detail borders on the

house’s design, and with a budget that could

obsessive, but the degree of artistry from the land-

enable its fulfillment. Unfortunately, many of the

scape siting, to the building massing, down to the

interiors have been lost since the house was subdi-

smallest ornamental details in stone, brick, wood,

vided into condominiums in the early 1980s—the

and iron form a convincing whole.

huge ballroom holds four units itself. From the

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BONNIECREST

PLANS

BONNIECREST

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105

MRS. ARTHUR S. BURDEN R ESIDENCE Jericho, New York, 1915

THE AUGUST 1916

I S S U E of The Brickbuilder was devoted to four

houses by John Russell Pope. All four residences—two country, one suburban, and one urban—shared a common architectural style of brick and stone. Some of Pope’s best and most creative work was done in a neoclassical style in his own version of Georgian architecture characterized by chaste ornament and subtle use of Adam-style features. The Burden residence, one of the houses featured in the article, was located in Jericho, New York, and was designed in response to its site and its owner’s wishes.

Cynthia Roche had been called the greatest equestrian on Long Island.

She married Arthur Scott Burden, a champion equestrian himself and an avid polo player. Arthur and his brother James ran the Burden Iron Works in Troy, New York, which was founded by their grandfather. Arthur graduated from Harvard in 1902 and divided his time between a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, the ironworks, and his equestrian activities. A previous injury was greatly aggravated by a fall from a polo pony in 1913, leading to mental instability and finally death from pneumonia at the age of 42. During his incapacitation, his wife proceeded with the development of the plans for the estate. The house represented a successful combination of landscape, interior, and architectural design. Its unity was widely noted and praised in both architectural journals and the early lifestyle magazines such as Town and Country.

The house had been completed for several years when Cynthia Roche Burden

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F R O N T FA C A D E

married the New York attorney Guy Fairfax Cary.

looked neither new nor foreign to the place. Unlike

Shortly after Cary’s death in 1950, Mrs. Cary sold

many contemporary country houses, notably

the estate. The house was razed and the estate sub-

Delano and Aldrich’s nearby house for James A.

divided, leaving virtually no trace of the residence

Burden, the ground floor sat barely above grade,

and its extensive gardens.

and most of the window openings extended down to

The site for the Burden residence was within 75

the floor line, fostering “an intimacy between the

acres on the rolling hills north of the Jericho

house and lawn” as Howard D. Smith wrote in a

Turnpike. The house was positioned on the highest

1918 article for The American Architect. The formal

point to sit symmetrically between stands of mature

gardens were treated as three outdoor rooms that

trees and other landscape features, which included

related to the house axially by extending from it

manicured lawns, a forecourt sized to accommodate

eastward in a series of terraces. The incorporation of

the turning radius of a large automobile and a series

architectural features from the main residence fur-

of terraced formal gardens. The landscape design

ther tied the composition together. A delicate iron

was by Lewis and Valentine of Long Island. The

and glass porch opened to an intimate lawn and gar-

house and main landscape elements stretched

den framed by flower beds at the corners and two

across a low rise with the formal gardens to one side

brick and stone pavilions at the far edge. Curving

and the service yard to the other. The building

steps and rough stone walls surrounded a mid-level

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F R O N T E N T R A N C E D E TA I L

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G A R D E N FA C A D E

G A R D E N E L E VAT I O N

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S TA I R H A L L

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S TA I R H A L L

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DINING ROOM

parterre that opened to an allĂŠe of trees and an

cornice was not based on a classical canon but was

English casting pool.

reminiscent of the free interpretation of the orders

A giant order of pilasters gave the house a sense

that was typical in late Georgian architecture.

of majesty that was balanced by intimate touches,

The central block had lower wings at each end

such as the window shutters and related wrought iron

that formed a C plan. The wings had a simplified

details. The center block was a five-bay brick rectan-

version of the center entablature. The hierarchical

gle, the windows being separated by narrow stone

elevations and massing worked well for both the

pilasters that barely projected from the wall surface.

plan and elevations. This masterful layout provided

The pilasters did not extend to the corners of the cen-

many axes of symmetry at various scales and created

tral block: rather, the wall surface and its cornice

an overall organization that was not static. Pilasters

stepped back a few inches to give precedence to the

defined only the center three bays on the rear. The

pilastered section in the center five bays. The brick

three, center, ground-floor openings were empha-

wrapped the corners of the central block, tying it

sized with blind arches and shallow relief carvings.

firmly to the wings rather than setting it apart by

The wings, which stepped back from the entrance

means of pilasters. This treatment emphasized the

facade, projected on the opposite side in an

wall planes of brick rather than having them appear

embrace of the center block.

to be infills between stone elements. A thin cornice

This balanced and seemingly simple set of ele-

with modillion blocks topped the broad frieze of the

vations masked an ingenious plan that maintained

entablature to provide a rhythmic shadow line around

symmetries within the different sized rooms. The

the perimeter of the central block. The order of this

most spectacular feature of the interior was the

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PLAN

elliptical stair hall that literally burst into the

ing room. The dining room featured an antique

entrance hall with its curving full entablature and

English Georgian mantel and gilded clock, and the

dark Ionic columns framing the view. The stair itself

walls were finished with uneven glazes of grays and

was a very austere curved design with a light iron

browns over a rich olive. The library was entirely of

railing, brightened by small touches of dull gold

teak. The second-floor plan was straightforward,

ornament. The entrance hall was finished in an

consisting of eight bedroom suites opening off a

English manner—the floor was paved with black

rather narrow corridor. The service facilities were

and cream marble tiles set on a diagonal that played

appended to the east end of the house, and a low

off the dark wall pilasters and a light gray plaster. At

walled enclosure connected them visually to the

the opposite end of the hall, two columns with a

building while receding from the main composition.

straight entablature led to a small reception room

In plan, elevation, and site, the Burden house

and the largest room of the house, the living room.

achieved a unity that transcended mere style. In its

Here was the setting for Mrs. Burden’s exquisite

prototypical form, the neoclassical style was versa-

William and Mary antique furniture. The room was

tile and its austerity allowed designers an

finished with simple panel moldings and a yellow

astonishing degree of freedom. It suited Pope’s tem-

color scheme that had a “warm mellowness, aged by

perament in its refinement and its limited palette of

wear and many coats of rubbing.”

materials. He used the freedom with discipline and

The center of the main block behind the entrance and stair hall contained the library and din-

here was able to reinvigorate and reinvent the style to create one of his finest houses.

BURDEN

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129

M ERIDIAN H OUSE I RWIN B. L AUGHLIN R ESIDENCE Washington, D.C., 1920

M E R I D I A N H O U S E is a distillation of all of the great qualities of the architecture of John Russell Pope. It thoroughly maximizes the potential of the site and the architectural style, all in concert with the owner’s requirements. It shows Pope at his peak as a planner, a skilled user of precedent, and a master at reduction. He had great latitude in interpreting the neoclassical style used earlier in his career. The Laughlin house, designed in a Louis XVI style, imposed a vocabulary that had less room for experimentation—but ample room for refinement. Here Pope neatly solved the planning problem of separating the service from the public entrance by taking advantage of the slope of the site. As with all great designers, he made the landscape an extension of the living area and a part of the architectural composition.

The architectural author and critic Matlack Price perfectly described the essence of this project and Pope’s work in general in an article in the August 1929 issue of Architectural Forum: “Certainly the manner of this house has not, in this country, been better done, not only in terms of stylistic authenticity but in terms of pure architecture…. Mr. Pope had no inconsiderable advantage over the architects of the time of Louis XVI. He could examine their works, get an idea of the thing they were trying to do—and do it better.”

To adapt a prototype successfully to its new place and time is central to the revival styles of architecture in the United States. Price acknowledged that modernism had achieved a certain legitimacy, but there was still room for the

192

ENTRANCE

use of historical styles, provided that they were used well or improved upon. To Price and Pope, improvement did not mean a more precise quotation

or

a

copying

of

precedents

but

an

understanding so thorough that the work was authentic, to use Price’s word.

The site for the Laughlin house was adjacent to Pope’s earlier Henry White residence and presented similar topographic challenges, and the White residence itself had to be considered in the contextual design of the new house. The spur of Meridian Hill did not provide much flat area between Crescent Place and Belmont Street. In a conscious contrast to the White residence, which sits high upon and to the rear of its site, the Laughlin house is placed close to Crescent Place and has its main entry just barely above street level. The walls along Crescent Place form a forecourt, with the returns serving as retaining walls for the rising grade that wraps the

E N T R A N C E C O U RT

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G A R D E N FA C A D E

house. The hill forms an elevated plateau almost 20 feet above Belmont Street, adjacent to the brick retaining wall of the White residence loggia. The more extensive rear garden of the Laughlin house is an urban parterre of clipped linden trees that thoroughly domesticates and controls the landscape. It was not only to create this terrace that Pope so drastically altered the topography. He used the space underneath as a garage and service space, neatly solving the problem of separation of service and entrance that was less successfully addressed next door for Henry White. The arched garage door entries and adjacent windows also help articulate the large limestone-faced wall on Belmont Street.

Directly behind the house, rusticated pilasters with ball finials divide the wall into an arcade, flanked by E N T R A N C E D E TA I L

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MERIDIAN HOUSE

shallow projecting pavilions. This feature, one of

ENTRANCE HALL

MERIDIAN HOUSE

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195

LOGGIA

urbanity and innovative thinking, turned a potential

business for 10 years. Then he entered the diplo-

problem into a unique architectural feature, visually

matic service and followed Henry White as secretary

and physically supporting the main residence.

to the embassy in London from 1912 to 1917. He

Irwin B. Laughlin, the grandson of one of the

left the service in 1919 with the intention of build-

founders of the Jones and Laughlin Steel Company

ing a house next to White for his retirement years.

in Pittsburgh, purchased the land in 1912 from Mr.

The house was in design and construction between

and Mrs. John B. Henderson, owners of many

1920 and 1922, but Laughlin remained busy acting

parcels along upper 16th Street in the Meridian Hill

as a secretary to Senator Henry Cabot Lodge dur-

neighborhood.

ing arms limitation talks. This was followed by an

After

graduating

from

Yale

University in 1893, Laughlin worked in the family

196

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MERIDIAN HOUSE

appointment

as

minister

to

Greece,

then

G A L L E RY

LIVING ROOM

MERIDIAN HOUSE

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197

PLANS

Ambassador to Spain during the first years of the

inserts at dormer windows that are aligned with the

Spanish Civil War between 1929 and 1933. He was

major window bays. Angled and curved bays relieve

also active in many cultural and arts institutions,

the front and rear facades respectively. The street

serving as a regent to the Smithsonian Institution

facade is slightly taller than the others to accommo-

from 1923 until 1935. Laughlin was a Francophile

date the main entrance vestibule, which is a half

and art collector whose collection included many

level below the first floor. The facade does not

18th-century French drawings and a large 16th-cen-

emphasize this extra height by giving the exposed

tury English tapestry that became a feature of the

basement story any special architectural treatment.

dining room. His preferences were no doubt instru-

The Laughlin residence cost more than twice as

mental in the choice of style for the house.

much as the White residence built less than 10

Pope had previously designed a residence that

years previously. While not substantially larger, the

was never built in the Louis XVI style for Prince

house exudes a quality of fine detailing and con-

Christopher of Greece, who was married to the

struction. Price described the chimneys as being as

widow of William Leeds, an earlier client. It differed

finely proportioned as French mantel clocks. The

significantly from the plan for Meridian House,

exterior moldings and cornices all use the shallow-

which is almost a perfect square expressed as a two-

est possible relief, yet remain very effective in

story cubic volume. The third story and roof are

articulating the limestone wall-planes. The walls do

mostly hidden by a tall parapet with balustraded

not give the impression of great mass except in

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MERIDIAN HOUSE

areas where a person enters or exits, such as the

entry, the rest of the vertical circulation for family

main entrance and the garden passage. The main

and service use is discrete. The gallery is the most

entrance and its side windows employ arches on the

opulent room in the house, with Corinthian pilasters

sharply angled walls. The entrance is further soft-

and mirrored panels. Its color scheme is more

ened by a coved reveal with a bull’s eye oculus over

vibrant than that of the other rooms, employing gold

the door. The sidelights with center-mounted urns

highlights to intensify the effects of the mirrors, the

on a sill extension are supported by a guttae-

chandelier, and custom-made torchères. The gallery

trimmed console.

leads to the garden loggia, an oval room that medi-

The front and rear elevations concentrate their

ates between the interior and the exterior, much like

drama in the center bays, while the two side eleva-

a solarium. Its architectural details relate to both the

tions are flatter and more evenly fenestrated. The

entry vestibule and the arched openings of the exte-

tall French casement windows are given greater

rior main entrance. The dining room and drawing

prominence by full height louvered shutters at every

room open to either side of the loggia and share

opening. The stone detailing consists of shallow

many decorative elements, such as understated fire-

architraves with understated keystones. The classi-

places and fine panel moldings that delimit zones of

cal orders make their only appearance on the garden

the walls between openings. The tapestry in the din-

bay, where leaf capital pilasters are superimposed

ing room required the center window opening to be

above engaged Ionic columns.

blanked off on the exterior by means of having the

If the exterior is about finely wrought rectilinear

shutters mounted in a closed position.

geometry, the interiors add color and curvature to

The library reintroduces the curve of the loggia

the vocabulary. The entrance vestibule is a circular

with elliptical heads over its windows and curved

room that provides a transition from the entrance

corners and splayed jambs at window and door

forecourt to the raised first floor. The stair itself

openings. The curves intensify the feeling of inti-

employs exquisitely sculpted solid forms, with a

macy in what is still a large room. Here there is a

light and elegant ornamental metal railing. The shal-

second set of interior doors finished as false book-

low balcony is without any ornament, but its crisp

cases to balance the real shelving on the other side

edges organically spring from the wall. It is a master

of the fireplace. The upstairs rooms continue the

stroke of modeling in a space that is otherwise

theme of chaste decoration with small mantelpieces,

coolly classical with Ionic pilasters and engaged

panelized wall surfaces, and occasional elliptical

columns framing sculpture niches. This hall estab-

overdoors, curved corners, and coved ceilings.

lishes the strong central axis of the plan with a

The house stayed in the family until 1960, when

symmetrical double stair leading to a pair of monu-

Laughlin’s daughter Gertrude sold the property to

mental doors that are framed by attached column

the American Council on Education. With grant

that emphasize mass rather than surface.

assistance from the Ford Foundation, they estab-

The plan is very straightforward, consisting of

lished the Meridian House Foundation. Meridian

the strong center axis of the entry, gallery, and loggia

House International, as the organization is now

separating the drawing room and library on one side

known, owns both the Laughlin and White resi-

from the dining room and smaller spaces on the

dences, enabling visitors to experience this unique

other. In contrast to the monumental stair of the

ensemble by John Russell Pope.

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199

M ARIEMONT H. W. L OWE R ESIDENCE Wheatley Hills, New York, 1927

T H E H . W. L O W E

R E S I D E N C E is typical of John Russell Pope’s later,

moderately sized commissions that are well designed and detailed but, compared to their peers, are not as distinctive as were his earlier works. Even before the Depression, in the mid- to late-1920s, large residential commissions were becoming scarce. It is difficult to know, especially after 1930, how deeply Pope himself was involved in residential commissions since he was so heavily involved in the design of the monumental work, including the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and the National Gallery of Art, both in Washington, D.C. It is interesting to compare the 1930 edition of American Country House of Today, a series of books issued episodically over a 23-year period, to the 1915 edition, which featured five houses by Pope, including illustrations of his work on the frontispiece and the title page. The 1930 edition has no work by Pope, Delano and Aldrich, or Harrie T. Lindeberg, all large-house designers who were well represented before. Instead, the emphasis is on promoting the cause of good architect-designed houses for a person of more moderate means.

Arthur Holden writes in the introduction: We are moving away from a superficial “period” conception of home architecture. We are drawing on the best that it can furnish us to interpret function, use, and setting. For this reason our home architecture bears resemblance to many different styles of the past…. He (the architect) is learning not to be slavishly imitative, he is learning to be interpretive.

254

MAIN ENTRANCE THROUGH GARDENS

MARIEMONT

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255

MAIN ENTRANCE

G A R D E N FA C A D E

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MARIEMONT

PORCH

The Lowe house shows the experience of the office’s previous work, but it somehow lacks its cre-

and otherwise, had always been marked by reserve and discipline.

ative spark and commanding presence. Part of this

The Lowe house occupies a dramatic site at the

is due to the synthetic quality of this house—the

top of a hill that drops steeply on its north. The

various parts never gel as a single design. The plan

house is placed towards the edge of the precipice,

is an interesting compression of the firm’s earlier

with a small terrace between the house and the

Georgian work with the addition of a large covered

edge. The land also drops to the east, enabling the

porch. From the front, the house appears to have a

service wing to be slightly lower than the rest of the

typical five-bay center with unequal wings. On the

house. Because of the site conditions, the formal

rear, the elevation is completely irregular, with the

gardens are in front of the house, with smaller gar-

dining room projecting from the center block, its

dens to the west side. The approach drive winds

three windows at odds with the two for the living

around the garden, providing a distant oblique view

room on the opposite side. One might say that

before arrival at a wide circular court. The white

Pope was finally freeing himself from the older for-

facade upon closer view reveals itself to be white-

malism and was investigating a new direction. This

washed brick that has been rubbed to simulate age.

irregular design at Mariemont put it at odds with

The entrance facade consists of a five bay cen-

his other contemporary work and was out of char-

ter block between two forward facing gabled wings

acter for him as an architect. His work, residential

that are nearly the same height. Whereas the

MARIEMONT

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257

Frothingham house of 1919 exaggerates the vertical

spare decoration of this room. The dining room is

axes with the bookend chimneys and the attenuated

similarly treated with a slightly greater articulation

proportions of the portico, the Lowe residence has

of the wall surfaces by sconces and a slightly pro-

a compressed feeling with the roof bearing down on

jecting chimneypiece. The library is richly paneled,

the walls with only a narrow cornice to absorb the

with built-in shelves on all of the walls. The fireplace

weight. The windows are spaced widely and evenly

wall has pairs of pilasters flanking the arched book

across the facade, but there is no terminating fea-

case openings to either side.

ture at the corner. A small beautifully detailed porch

The second floor has five large bedrooms and a

marks the entrance, but its lightness seems to clash

large amount of space devoted to servants’ rooms and

with the weight of the rest of the facade. On the

service spaces. Two of the larger rooms are over the

west, a large porch projects forward and to the rear,

open porch below, and they would have been cold

with a full second story and roof gable above. The

except in the summer. Two other large bedrooms are

porch is defined by a series of Doric columns and

over the library and the dining room. The space over

wall piers. On the western facade, the three large

the living room is divided into three bathrooms, a

porch openings have five evenly spaced windows

dressing room, and a servant’s bedroom The interiors

above. In contrast, the arched openings forming a

on this floor are finished in a basic Georgian style

ground floor porch at the Frothingham residence

with simple mantels and uniform moldings.

provided a more visually convincing support for the second story above.

William E. Hutton II, second cousin to E. F. Hutton, purchased the 26-acre estate in 1940 and

While the exterior is somewhat awkward, the

named it Mariemont. Edward F. Hutton had

interior is very elegant and the plan is extremely

already purchased the former Robinson–Gossler

functional. The front door leads to a small vestibule

residence next door following his divorce from

between two powder rooms that form the front wall

Marjorie Merriweather Post in 1936. She kept

of the stair hall. A columnar screen on the opposite

Hillwood, the large Tudor mansion on a nearby par-

side separates the semicircular stair from the hall.

cel. Long Island University purchased the Lowe

The entablature moves to a delicate cornice that

property in 1965 from the Huttons for $400,000.

wraps the hall. Light cornices top the door openings

The building is now Lorber Hall, housing part of

and panel moldings articulate the remaining wall

the business school on the C. W. Post campus of

areas. The effect is entirely harmonious. The living

the university. There have been substantial addi-

room to the left extends the full depth of the house,

tions to the rear and service wing, and much of the

with two windows on the front and rear, and doors

exterior detail has been lost. The stair hall and

to the side porch on either side of the fireplace. The

library are the two interior spaces that remain most

simple Adam-style mantel is in keeping with the

nearly intact.

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259

FIRST FLOOR PLAN

SECOND FLOOR PLAN

260

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MARIEMONT

THE WAVES J OHN R USSELL P OPE R ESIDENCE Newport, Rhode Island, 1928

THE

D E S I G N O F A H O U S E that an architect builds for himself can be

used as a window into his design ethic. Combining romance and reason, in an integration of architectural styles that John Russell Pope had developed over his career, The Waves gives us glimpses of the architect’s public and private personae. Sited on the tip of a rocky peninsula, with one face towards the Atlantic Ocean and the other offering a guarded visage to the town, the house reflects the life of the reticent architect.

The Waves was predominantly built on the foundations of an earlier picturesque house known as Lippert’s Castle, and the irregularity called for an exterior expression to match. Pope had been developing a less formal version of the Tudor style for projects such as the Tuxedo Club and some other smaller residences, having moved away from the old English mode used in the Duncan, Lehman, and Branch residences. This new idiom, sometimes associated with the turn-of-the-century English Arts and Crafts, has its origins in the vernacular building of the countryside. Pope used the style differently from the British architects Sir Edwin Lutyens, C. F. A. Voysey, and M. H. Baillie Scott. In England, the move was toward a simpler expression of domestic architecture, stripping away the ornament of the Victorian and Queen Anne revival. For Pope, this variant of the old English allows for freedom in plan and elevation while including the opportunity for ornament and articulation with half timber, stone and brick. Pope’s houses do not achieve the same austerity in

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O C E A N F R O N T, E A R LY R E N D E R I N G

exterior surfaces as with those of Voysey or Baillie-

The arc of the house is extended to one side to

Scott. His designs are also more conservative than

make room for the lower service wing. Here too is

those of Lutyens, who used the English vernacular

Pope’s semi-detached studio with its two-story

and classical precedents as a point of departure for a

north-facing dormer window placed in a jerkinhead,

more lyrical personal expression of tradition brought

or truncated hip-gable. When the studio was pho-

forward to the 20th century.

tographed by Samuel Gottscho in 1934 for Town and

The Waves has a crescent-shaped plan that grows

Country magazine, it was sparsely furnished and

out of the escarpment at the end of the peninsula.

decorated. From the bead board ceiling to the plain

Pope used a blanket of rough-hewn slate thrown

walls, with just a few pictures and a few pieces of

across the roofs of the rambling plan as a unifying

furniture, the studio has the sense of being more of

element. The roof is studded with prismatic brick

a retreat than a working space.

chimneys, marking important nodes in the plan. The

The choice of the Tudor vernacular imposed low

house presents different faces to the garden court and

ceiling heights and grouped windows for the interiors.

the sea. The eave line around the court is at a con-

The surprise of the interiors is that they are finished

stant level, and the roof seems to hang heavily over

mainly in a late 17th-century English style, with some

the groups of second floor windows. The second floor,

of the rooms incorporating antique paneling. The

detailed as timber and stucco supported by carved

wide front door opens into an austere stone-floored

outrigger beams, extends over the first floor stone

hall whose sanded plaster walls are scored to imitate

walls. On the ocean side, the eave line is lower, so the

stone. The hall leads to a dining room at one end and

second floor windows occur in stone gable fronts

a living room at the other. The dining room, to the left

piercing the eave line. This jagged appearance makes

of the front door and facing the entrance court, has

reference to the coastline on this part of the island.

walls of painted paneling and shallow pediments over

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C O U RT YA R D V I E W

V I E W F R O M N O RT H W E S T

T H E WAV E S

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STUDIO

the interior doorways. The ceiling is plain and has no

sole bracket. The striking feature of the room is not

chandelier. The library is finished in a similar manner,

its architectural ornament but the life-size portraits

with slightly more robust moldings. The fireplace

of Pope’s two daughters, Mary and Jane, on either

overmantel, with its split pediment, follows the early

side of the fireplace. They were painted by the

Georgian pattern book examples. There is a sense

English artist Wilford Deglan shortly before Mary’s

that the low ceilings have encroached into the wood-

tragic death in an automobile accident in 1930.

work, as the very shallow elliptical arches over the

In the early 1970s, after a brief period of owner-

recessed shelves demonstrate. This same pressure is

ship by Josephine Hartford, a relative of Huntington

felt in the node containing the stair, which winds

Hartford, the heir to the A&P grocery store fortune,

down from the second floor and emerges through

The Waves was purchased by a local developer, Louis

another shallow elliptical arch. The stair and hall are

Chartier and converted to condominiums. The build-

paneled with stained woodwork complimenting the

ing was extended, new entrances were cut into the

Jacobean design of the balustrade and railing.

exterior, and the flow between the rooms was inter-

The living room was a comfortable, well-lit space

rupted. Less of the original fabric survives in the

finished in early 18th-century paneling, with a cen-

second floor rooms than the first, but from a distance,

trally located fireplace dominating the wall opposite

the house still appears much as it did in the 1930s.

the ocean view. The pilaster-flanked hearth opening

In his own house, John Russell Pope showed

is paneled above and contains a small clock on a con-

that he was a true eclectic designer, freely combining

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MAIN ENTRANCE

exteriors of one style with interiors of another.

not a virtual museum of artifacts like Stanford

Reflecting his personal tastes, the house was

White’s Long Island house, Box Hill. The separa-

slightly austere, refined, and tending to traditional

tion of his studio and its almost complete lack of

forms mixing antique and reproduction materials.

objects and furnishings suggest that The Waves

The plan also shows Pope to be a private man. The

was a place for family and a relief from the pres-

coldness of the entrance hall gave way to progres-

sures of his practice.

sively warmer spaces as a visitor was brought into

The Waves is a house with an attitude. It makes

the owner’s confidence. There are no large spaces

a statement of independence in its determined

for entertaining, but that does not mean that the

approach to taking a set of forms and continuously

Popes were not part of Newport society, only that

developing them to adapt to different conditions. It

they intended their house for more intimate

responds to and challenges its location with a cer-

affairs. There was nothing overtly present in the

tain defiance in its stance to the sea. Here is a house

house to suggest Pope’s profession. It was certainly

that is a true reflection of its owner and designer.

T H E WAV E S

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LIVING ROOM

DINING ROOM

272

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AT T H E WAV E S , 1 9 3 3

C ATALOG

OF

H OUSES , C LUBS ,

Since Pope’s office records were virtually destroyed following his death, it is practically impossible to compile a definitive catalog of residential projects undertaken by him or his firm. This list has been assembled from numerous sources over the years and is, no doubt, incomplete. The authors welcome additions to the list.

JAMES GARRISON STEVEN BEDFORD 1900 GEORGIAN HOUSE FOR $7,000 with Office of Bruce Price, project.

1900 PROF. WILLARD HUMPHREYS HOUSE Princeton, NJ. Georgian, burned.

1901-1903 WHITEHOLME Dr. H. B. Jacobs house, Newport, RI. Modern French, demolished.

1901 KINGSCOTE Gould family estate, Lakewood, NJ. with Office of Bruce Price, Georgian, extant.

1901 ST. GEORGE HOUSE Tuxedo, NY. with Office of Bruce Price, Colonial revival, extant.

1902 PERRIN HOUSE Washington, D.C. Office of Bruce Price, Georgian, demolished.

294

AND

M AUSOLEUMS

1903 FRIENDSHIP J. R. McLean house, Washington, D.C. Georgian, demolished.

1903 W. L. STOW HOUSE Roslyn, NY. Modern French, demolished.

1905 GARRETT–JACOBS HOUSE ADDITION Baltimore, MD. Modern French interior, extant.

1906 O. H. P. BELMONT FARMHOUSE Hempstead, NY. Georgian, demolished.

1906 JERICHO FARM Middleton Burrill house, Jericho, NY. Palladian–modern French, extant.

1906 DEEPDALE W. K. Vanderbilt Jr. gate house, Great Neck, NY. French Norman, demolished 1907 BELCOURT CASTLE, ADDITION O.H.P Belmont house, Newport, RI. Gothic revival, extant.

1907-1910 OLD ACRES Robert Low Bacon Sr. house, Westbury, NY. Colonial revival, burned, rebuilt.

1907 JOHN R. MCLEAN HOUSE, Washington D.C. Lombard Renaissance revival, demolished.

1907 GEORGE HOWARD HOUSE Washington D.C. Begun with Office of Bruce Price, Georgian, demolished.

1907 W. STORRS WELLS HOUSE New York, NY. French rococo, demolished.

1907 WILLIAM B. LEEDS HOUSE PROJECT New York, NY. Second Empire, unbuilt.

LEEDS, 1907

1907-1909 R. R. H I T T HOUSE Washington, D.C. Neoclassical, demolished.

1908 CHATEAUIVER Charles A. Gould house, Greenlawn, NY. Louis XV revival, demolished.

1910-1912 HENRY WHITE HOUSE Washington, D.C. Georgian with true Renaissance details, extant.

1910 PETER F. COLLIER MAUSOLEUM Wickatunk, NJ. 1910 REGINALD DEKOVEN HOUSE, New York, NY. Tudor, extant, altered.

1911 REST HILL Robert J. Collier house, Wickatunk, NJ. Colonial revival, extant.

1911 VIRGINIA GRAHAM FAIR VANDERBILT HOUSE, Jericho, NY. French Norman, demolished.

BACON, 1910 (1907)

1908 POETRAM HOUSE PROJECT New York, NY. Neoclassical.

1909 W ILLIAM B. L EEDS MAUSOLEUM Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, NY. Extant.

1912-1914 GEORGE HEWITT MYERS HOUSE Washington, D.C. Neoclassical, extant as The Textile Museum.

1912-1914, 1926 BONNIECREST Stuart Duncan house, Newport, RI. Tudor revival, extant, altered.

C ATA L O G

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INDEX

1500 I Street, 50 1507 K Street, 43 15th Street (Washington, DC), 50, 83, 86, 88, 196 85th Street (New York), 62 86th Street (New York), 62 A&P Stores, 276 Adams (Henry) residence, 49 Adirondacks, 145, 150, 296 Adler, David, 22, 233 AIA Journal, 15 Albany, 145 American Academy in Rome, 15, 21, 292 American Architect, 123, 144, 161 American Architect and Building News, 202 American Council on Education, 199 American Country Houses of Today–1930, 22, 254 American Country Houses of Today1915, 68, 88 American Homes of Today, 61, 68, 69, 143, 162 American Renaissance, The, 17 Annapolis, MD, 189 Annapolis Roads Development, 298 Anne Arundel County, MD, 298 Antioch School of Law, 94 Archer, John, 290, 292 Architectural Record, 17, 27, 31, 40, 48, 61, 88, 98, 173, 281 Ardmore, PA, 297 Arlough, 139, 296 Arthur, Chester, 93 Arts & Decoration, 180

Ashe, Arthur, 153 Astor, Caroline, 69 Athens, 283 Bacon, Robert, Jr., 139, 177 Bacon (Robert, Jr.) residence, 215, 216, 218, 296 Bacon, Robert, Sr., 177 Bacon (Robert, Sr.) residence, 39, 139, 295 Baillie-Scott, M. H., 266, 268 Baltimore, MD, 24, 93, 294, 296, 299 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 24, 224 Baum, Dwight James, 300 Beale, Emily, 49 Belcourt, 35, 294 Bell, Alexander Graham, 81 Bell, Algernon, 223 Belle Isle Park, 15 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, 212 Belmont, Oliver Hazard Perry, 35, 294 Belmont Street, 88, 89, 193, 194 Belton, 236 Bertschmann (Louis) residence, 300 Bexley Manor, 227 Bishop, Edith, 209 Blaine, James, 81 Bonniecrest, 96, 104, 156, 158, 159, 227 Boston, 139 Bowditch, Eugene, 261 Boyd, John Taylor, 88, 103 Bramante, 288 Branch, John K., 153, 154 Branch (John K.) residence, 266

Branch, John P., 153 Breese (James) residence, 178 Brenton Cove, 96 Bristol Myers, 114 Brodhead, Jessie, 81 Brodhead, John, 81 Brookline, MA, 211 Brookville, NY, 180, 299 Brown, Capability, 131 Bulfinch, Charles, 18, 88 Bull residence, 297 Burden, James, 122, 123 Burden, Mrs. Arthur (Cynthia Roche), 122 Burden (Mrs. Arthur) residence, 18, 22, 115, 121, 122, 130, 131, 136, 143, 296 Burgundy, 227 Burnham, D.H., and Company, 20 Burrill (Middleton S.) residence, 39, 42, 245, 294 C. W. Post College, 180, 259 Cadlands, 233 California, 250 Cambridge University, 233 Camp Pine Knot, 146 Camp Sagamore, 146 Camp Uncas, 146 Campagna (Anthony) residence, 300 Carrère & Hastings, 37, 277 Carstairs, J. Hazeltine, 214 Carstairs (J. Hazeltine) residence, 141, 240, 297 Carstairs, McCall & Company, 214 Cary, Guy Fairfax, 123 Cassini, Count Arturo, 81

305

Catholic University, 86 Caumsett, 10, 18, 223, 229, 236, 243, 297 Cedar Street (Richmond, VA), 153 Central Pacific Railroad, 290 Century Club, 62 Chapel of Henry VII, 103 Chapin, (Roy D.) residence, 299 Charlton House, 64 Chartier, Louis, 270 Chateau Sur Mer, 296 Chateauiver, 57, 61, 295 Chemical Foundation, 149 Chevy Chase, MD, 299 Chicago, IL, 22, 62, 75, 233, 277 Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad, 277 Chicago Tribune, 75 Chisholm (Hugh J.) residence, 298 Cincinnati, OH, 49, 296 City Beautiful, 17 City College of New York, 14 Clarendon, 236 Clark, John Spencer, 259 Claydon, James, 259 Cliveden, 191 Coffin Jr., Lewis, 181 Coffin, Marian, 233, 242 Collier, Peter, 69 Collier, Robert, 69, 177, 200 Collier (Peter) mausoleum, 295 Collier (Robert) residence, 18, 68, 178, 295 Collier, Sarah, 73 Collier Trophy, 70 Collier's Weekly, 69 Columbia University, 10, 15, 86, 224 Compton Wynyates, 97, 103, 156, 158 Conscience Point, 248 Cornell University, 247 Cornish, NH, 179 Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, 19, 283 Cortissoz, Royal, 9, 17 County Carlow (Ireland), 70 Country Life, 103, 181, 191 Court of St. James, 75 Crescent Place, 88, 89, 193 Cret, Paul, 14 Croly, Herbert, 17, 27, 31, 32, 40, 48, 61, 98, 281 Czar Nicholas II, 81

306 ~ I N D E X

Davis, Jefferson, 153 Davis Street (Richmond, VA), 153, 158 de Wolfe, Elsie, 55 Decatur Place, 113 Deepdale, 35 Deglan, Wilford, 270 Deglane, Henry, 15 DeKoven, Anna, 62 DeKoven, Reginald, 62, 64 DeKoven (Reginald) residence, 295 Delano and Aldrich, 8, 123, 254 Delano (Laura) residence, 300 Delano, William, 14, 18, 19 Derbyshire, 227 d'Espouy, Hector, 282 Detroit, 15 Dixie Plantation, 300 Domestic Architecture of England during the Tudor Period, 98, 103, 156 Dominick and Dominick, 161 Dominick, Bayard, 161 Donelley, John, 287 Dow, Joy Wheeler, 17 Downing Street, Farnham, England, 162 Drake, Sir Francis, 103 Dulin (H. L.) residence, 27, 38, 96, 156, 166, 225, 266, 297 Duncan, Stuart, 96 Duncan (Stuart) residence, 38, 96, 295 Dunning, Gilbert, 235, 259 Dupont Circle, 43, 75, 88, 106 DuPont, Henry Francis, 242 Durant, Thomas, 145 Durant, William West, 145, 146 Dutchess County, NY, 154 Duveen, Lord Joseph, 291, 292 Duveen (Lord Joseph) apartment, 300 Duveen (Lord Joseph ) residence, 300 Eagle's Nest, 35 East Aurora, NY, 299 Ecole des Beaux-Arts, 15, 18, 31, 276, 281 Edifices de Rome Moderne, 77, 90 Eggers Group, 22 Eggers, Otto, 19, 20, 21, 110, 149, 150, 151, 159, 202, 211, 239, 240 Elkins, Frances, 233 Elliot, Maud Howe, 102

Elmhurst Academy, 212 Elmont, NY, 298 Eltham Lodge, 237 Eton, 233 Eyre, Wilson, 261 Far Hills, NJ, 167, 181, 297 Farwell, Sen. Charles, 62 Ferree, Barr, 17, 22, 31, 32 Field, Evelyn Marshall, 240, 242, 243, 245 Field I, Marshall, 233 Field II, Marshall, 233 Field III, Marshall, 233, 240, 245 Field (Marshall III) Estate, 18, 223, 229, 297 Field, Ruth, 235, 240 Fifth Avenue, 21, 225 Florida Avenue, 86 Folger, Mr., residence, 300 Ford Foundation, 199 Four Winds Farm, 297 Fragments d'Architecture Antique, 281 Franklin, Benjamin, 93 Fraser, John, 81 French, Daniel Chester, 283 Freylinghuysen residence, 298 Frick, Henry Clay, 115 Frick, James, 23, 115, 121 Frick (James) residence, 18, 130, 136, 296 Friendship, 49, 294 Frothingham (Thomas) residence, 18, 167, 181, 259, 297 Furness, Frank, 214 Galagher, Percival, 212 Garner and Stratton, 98, 103, 156 Garrett, John, 23 Garrett, Robert, 23 Garrett-Jacobs residence, 294 Garvan, Francis Patrick, 145, 146 286 Garvan (Francis Patrick) family, 287 Garvan (Francis Patrick) mausoleum, 276, 286, 288, 300 Gavin (Michael) residence, 299 Garvan (Francis Patrick) residence, 296 Garvan (Francis Patrick) residence project, 297 Georgetown University, 69 Gibbons, Grinling, 46 Gibbs, James, 189 Gifford's Hall, 171 Gilbert, Cass, 277

Gillies, George, 259 Glen Cove Highway, 41 Glen Farm, 206, 297 Glen Manor Authority, 213 Gossler, Philip, 179 Gottscho, Samuel, 268 Gould, Charles A., 58 Gould (Charles A.) residence, 57, 206, 216, 294, 295 Gould Coupler Company, 58 Gould, Jay, 58 Godefroy and Freynet, 15 Golden Hind, 103 Great Neck, NY, 294 Greenlawn, NY, 57, 295 Greenwich, CT, 297, 300 Grosse Pointe, MI, 299 Guidal, E. Spencer, 159 Halicarnassus, 276, 281 Harbor Hill, 29 Harding Memorial, 288, 291 Harding, Warren, 290 Harrison, Benjamin, 81 Hart & Sharpe, 180 Hartford, Huntington, 288 Hartford, Josephine, 270 Harvard Law School, 130, 139 Harvard Medical School, 26 Harvard University, 49, 69, 122, 139, 233 Hatfield House, 64 Hay, John, 93 Hay (John) residence, 49 Hearst, William Randolph, 225 Hempstead, NY, 294 Hempstead Harbor, NY, 178 Hencken (William) residence, 297 Henderson (Mrs. John B.) residence, 90 Henderson, Mrs. John B., 86, 196 Hercules, 55 Hicks Nursery, 246 Higgins, Daniel, 19, 20 Hillwood, 180, 259 Hingham, MA, 262 Hitchcock, Henry-Russell, 262 Hitchcock Travers residence, 26 Hitt, Robert R., 43 Hitt, Mrs. Robert, 43, 48 Hitt (Mrs. Robert) residence, 42, 56, 65, 88, 90, 294 Hodgenville, 9, 68 Holden, Arthur, 181 Hopkins, Alfred, 223, 235

House Beautiful, 17 Howard (George) residence, 16, 295 Howe, Samuel, 68, 88 Howe, Samuel, 17 Hudnut, Joseph, 10 Humphreys, Prof. Willard, 294 Hunt, Richard Morris, 15, 26, 35, 130 Huntington, Arabella, 291 Huntington, Collis, 290 Huntington, Henry E., 290 Huntington (Henry E.) mausoleum, 288, 298 Hutton, Edward F., 180, 259 Hutton II, William E., 259 International Studio, 38 Irvin residence, 296 J. P. Morgan & Company, 139 Jacksonville, FL, 21 Jacobs, Henry Barton, 23, 115 Jacobs (Henry Barton) mausoleum, 299 Jacobs (Henry Barton) residence, 16, 17, 29, 294 Jacobs, Mary Frick Garrett, 23, 115 Jefferson Memorial, 10, 13, 18, 22, 254, 276, 290 Jekyll Island, GA, 299 Jennings (Walter ) residence, 299 Jericho Farm, 39, 294 Jericho, NY, 39, 122, 245, 246 Jericho Turnpike, 41, 131, 140 Jersey City, NJ, 223 Johns Hopkins University, 14 Johnson (Wayne) residence, 298 Jones, Pembroke, 21 Jones (Pembroke) mausoleum, 297 Jones, Sadie, 21 Junior League Club, 299 K Street, 48 Kamp Kill Kare, 14, 145, 146, 151, 286, 296 Karlsruhe, Germany, 283 Kean, Governor Thomas, 227 Keller, Helen, 260 Kerrigan (Joseph J.) estate, 299 Kingscote, 294 Knapp, Joseph P., 200, 204 Knapp (Joseph) residence, 297 Knole, 65 Knoxville, TN, 27, 297 Lake Champlain, 145 Lake George, 145

Lake Success, NY, 35 Lakewood, NJ, 294 Larchmont, NY, 299 Latrobe, Benjamin, 88 Laughlin, Gertrude, 199 Laughlin, Irwin, 196 Laughlin (Irwin) residence, 86, 94, 114, 192, 297 Lawrence Farms, 300 LeBrun Scholarship, 19 Leeds, Nancy Stewart, 281, 286 Leeds, William B., 198, 277, 283, 286 Leeds (William B.) mausoleum, 277, 295 Leeds (William B.) residence, (project), 295 Lehman, Allan, 159 Lehman (Allan) residence, 38, 168, 225, 266, 297 Lehman, Anne Roche, 176 Lehman Brothers, 176 Lehman, Emmanuel, 176 L'Enfant, Pierre, 86 Lenygon, Francis, 180 Les Bouleaux, 300 Lescaze, William, 10 Letarouilly, Paul, 77, 90 Lewis and Valentine, 123 Lewis, Clarence McKenzie, 220 Lewis (Clarence McKenzie) residence, 263, 299 Lincoln, Abraham, 77 Lincoln Memorial, 9, 68 Lincoln, Robert Todd, 75 Lindeberg, Harrie T., 254 Lippert's Castle, 266 Livingston (Gerald) residence, 300 Lloyd Harbor, NY, 223, 229, 235, 297 Lloyd, Henry, 229, 235, 243 Lloyd, James, 235 Lloyd's Neck, 235 Lodge, Sen. Henry Cabot, 196 Lombardy, 49 London, 196, 227, 300 Long Island, 16, 21, 29, 58, 115, 123, 143, 200, 216, 233, 235, 248, 259, 271, 286 Long Island Sound, 235 Lorber Hall, 259 Lorillard, Pierre, V., 15, 261 Lowe (H. W.) residence, 254, 257, 298

INDEX

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307

Lusitania, 233 Lutyens, Edwin, 266, 268 Lyme Regis, Dorset, 227 MacKay (Clarence) residence, 29, 177 MacMorris, LeRoy C., 262 Maplewood, NJ, 298 Marble House, 35 Marcus Ward Home for Aged and Respectable Bachelors, 298 Mariemont, 254, 257, 298 Marion, OH, 288, 291 Marshall, Charles, 233 Marshall, Evelyn, 233 Marshall, Douglas, 259 Massachusetts Avenue, 44, 75, 76, 88 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 14 Mausolus, King, 276 McCormick, Cyrus H., 75 McCormick, Katharine, 78 McCormick, Robert S., 44, 75, 78 McCormick (Robert S.) residence, 296 McCormick, Ruth, 78 McKim, Charles, 15, 16, 17, 21 McKim Fellowship, 15, 86 McKim, Mead & White, 15, 20, 29, 43, 130, 177, 200, 206, 209, 261, 277, 283 McLean, Edward, 56, 94 McLean, Evalyn, 56 McLean, John R., 49 McLean (John R). memorial, (project), 296 McLean (John R.) residence, 42, 49, 294, 295 McLean, Washington, 49 Meadowbrook Club, 41, 42 Meadowbrook Polo Club, 245 Medill, Katharine van Etta, 75 Mellon, Andrew, 131 Mellor, Meigs and Howe, 214 Merchants National Bank, 153 Meridian Hill, 86, 88, 110, 193, 196 Meridian House, 192 Meridian House Foundation, 199 Meridian House International, 94, 199 Merleigh Farm, 297 Meyer, Eugene, 56, 93 Middletown, CT, 62 Mills, Darius Ogden, 130

308 ~ I N D E X

Mills (Ogden) residence, 9, 18, 115, 143, 296 Mills, Robert, 88 Mills, Ruth Livingston, 130 Milwaukee, WI, 298 Monmouth County, NJ, 70 Montauk, 29 Montclair, NJ, 281 Monument Avenue (Richmond, VA) 153, 154, 158 Morgan, (E. D.) residence, 177 Morgan, J. P., 146, 220 Morton, Levi, 77, 81 Morton (Levi) residence, 131, 296 Mount Vernon, 18, 68, 177, 178, 189 Mt. Kisco, NY, 209, 212, 300 Myers, George Hewitt, 106, 114 Myers (George Hewitt) residence, 18, 22, 115, 130, 136, 295, 296, 297 N Street, 83 Nassau County, 40, 177 National Academy of Design, 14 National Archives Building, 21, 276 National Democratic Club of America, 81 National Gallery of Art, 9, 13, 22, 131, 254 National Paint and Coatings Association, 85 National Paint, Varnish, and Lacquer Association, 81 Neptune, 55 New Hampshire Avenue, 44 New Jersey State Botanical Garden, 220, 227, 299 New Republic, 17 New York City, 15, 19, 21, 23, 29, 35, 81, 93, 122, 139, 188, 218, 281, 282, 283, 287, 295–300 New York Law School, 146 New York Stock Exchange, 122 New York Sun, 67 New York University, 19 Newport, RI, 16, 21, 26, 35, 43, 69, 96, 130, 156, 167, 206, 240, 261, 264, 266, 277, 294–296, 299, 300 Nicholson, Guthrie, 212 North Easton, MA, 149 Observatory Circle, 75 Oil City, PA, 260 Old Acres, 139 Old Ship Meeting House, 262

Old Westbury, NY, 39, 139, 149, 215, 295, 296 Olmsted Brothers, 96, 211, 233, 235, 286 Olmsted, Frederick Law, 15, 223 Oneonta, NY, 290 Orange County, NY, 266 Oulton Hall, 227 Oxford University, 62, 69 Oyster Bay, NY, 299 Palazzo Angelo Massimo, 77 Palazzo Pietro Massimo, 77, 90 Palmer and Hornbostel, 290 Paris, 15, 27 Paris Exposition, 1900, 15 Park Avenue, 62 Parsons, Samuel, 223 Patterson, Augusta Owen, 61, 68, 69, 143, 162 Patterson (Robert W.) residence, 43, 44 Pencil Points, 19, 211 Penn Station (New York), 52 Perrin residence, 294 Peruzzi, Baldasarre, 77 Philadelphia, 97, 191, 214, 227 Philharmonic Orchestra of Washington, 62 Pittsburgh, 115 Platt, Charles, 94, 179 Plattsburgh, City Hall, 9, 18 Players Club, 62 Poetram residence (project), 295 Pope, Jane, 21, 270 Pope, John, 14 Pope, Mary, 21, 270 Pope, Mary Loomis, 14 Pope, Sarah, 21 Port Chester, NY, 298 Port of Missing Men, 260, 262, 298 Portsmouth, RI, 206 Post, Marjorie Merriweather, 180, 259 Pratt, Charles, 260 Price, Bruce, 15, 16, 261, 294, 295 Price, C. Matlack, 38, 192 Prince Christopher, 198 Prince Christopher residence (project), 296 Princeton, NJ, 294 Promise of American Life, The, 17 Pulitzer, J. Seward, 216 Pulitzer (Seward) residence, 298 Quitman, GA, 300

Racquette Lake, NY, 145, 296 Ramapo Mountains, 220 Red Bank, NJ, 161, 297 Resthaven Mausoleum, 298 Rest Hill, 68, 295 Rhinebeck, NY, 300 Rhode Island Avenue, 83 Rhode Island School of Design, 287 Richard (W. T) apartment, 300 Richard (W. T.) residence, 298 Richardson, Henry Hobson, 15, 49, 149 Richmond Broad Street Station, 153 Richmond, VA, 21, 189, 296 Ringwood, NJ, 220, 263, 299 Riselow, Albert, 259 Robinson (J. Randolph) residence, 177, 297 Roche, Cynthia, 122 Rockefeller, John D., 260 Rockville, MD, 298 Rogers, Col. H. H., Jr., 260 Rogers (Col. H. H., Jr.) residence, 260, 298 Rogers, Henry Huttleson, 260 Rogers, E. P., estate, 299 Rome, 13, 43, 49, 77, 90 Roosevelt, Theodore, 17, 93 Rosecliff, 43 Roslyn, NY, 26, 29, 39, 177, 294, 296 Royal Orchard, VA, 297 Rumson, NJ, 161 Sabine Hall, 189 Sakonnet River, 213 Salisbury, CT, 297 Salomon, William, 225 Salve Regina College, 27 San Marino, CA, 288, 291, 298 San Pietro Montorio, 288 San Simeon, 225 Sanford, Edward, 287 Saranac Lake, 145 Saratoga, 261 Sargent, John Singer, 93 Scallop Pond, 248 Scheftel residence, 296 Scientific American Building Journal, 17, 22, 31, 32 Scipio Barbatus, 281 Scott Circle, 84 Scott residence, 297 Sexton, R. W., 22, 254 Shelburne Farms, 229

Shelton College, 227 Sheridan Circle, 75 Sherwood summer cottage, 21 Shipman, Ellen Biddle, 179 Sicard (George) residence, 299 Sisters of the Good Shepherd, 73 Skylands, 220, 263, 299 Sloan, John, 191 Smith Jr., Alfred E., 131 Smith (Consuelo Vanderbilt) apartment, 298 Smith, H. D., 121, 123, 136, 173 Southampton, NY, 178, 200, 260, 265, 297, 298 Southampton, England, 233 Spring Hill Farm, 214, 298 Spouting Rock Beach Club project, 300 St. Gaudens, Augustus, 283 St. George, George, 16, 263 St. George (George) residence, 294 St. John's College, 62 Staatsburgh, NY, 130 Standard Oil, 248 Stern, Robert A. M., 200 Stetson, Francis Lynde, 220, 223 Stewart Distilling Company, 214 Stewart, William Charles, 281 Stewart (William Charles) mausoleum, 276, 281, 297 Stout (Andrew) residence, 161, 297 Stow (William) residence, 16, 17, 26, 27, 39, 42, 294 Suffolk, England, 171 Syosset, NY, 300 Tailer (T. Suffern) residence (project), 296 Tarrytown, NY, 168, 176, 297 Taylor, H. A. C., 206, 209 Taylor (H. A. C.) tomb, 281 Taylor, Moses, 206, 209 Taylor (Moses) residence, 216, 297 Teapot Dome, 250 Temple of Asclepius, 288 Temple at Delphi, 288 Temple of Fortuna Virilis, Rome, 286 Temple of the Scottish Rite, 18 Tenacre, 200, 297 The Architectural Review, 19 The Brickbuilder, 18, 44, 121, 122, 136 The Bronx, NY, 276, 295, 297, 300 The Textile Museum, 114, 295

The Waves, 21, 264, 266, 299 This Was My Newport, 102 Thomas Branch and Company, 153 "Tin Plate King", 277 Totten, George Oakley, Jr., 86 Tower of the Winds, 132, 283 Town and Country, 122, 132, 268 Trumbauer, Horace, 37, 130 Tuskegee Institute, 260 Tuxedo Club, 261, 265, 271 Tuxedo Park, NY, 15, 16, 261, 266, 268, 294, 298 Twain, Mark, 260 United States Golf Association, 191 University Club (Milwaukee), 298 University of Heidelberg, 49 Utrecht, 65 van Alen, James, 69 van Alen, Sarah Steward, 69 Vanderbilt, Alfred, 146 Vanderbilt, Alva, 35, 277 Vanderbilt, Frederick, 281 Vanderbilt, Virginia Graham Fair, 37 Vanderbilt, (Virginia Graham Fair) residence, 295, 300 Vanderbilt, William K., 35 Vanderbilt, William K. Jr., 35, 277 Vanderbilt (William K., Jr.) gatehouse, 294 Vergennes, VT, 296 Vignola, 50 Villa Farnesina, 77 Villa Ospo, 299 Villard, Henry, 23 Violett-le-Duc, Eugene Emmanuelle, 156 Virginia Center for Architecture, 159 Vitale, Brinkerhoff and Geiffert, 191, 224 Vitale, Ferruccio, 191, 220 Voysey, C. F. A., 266, 268 Walters, Henry, 21 Ware, William, 14, 15 Warren and Wetmore, 58 Warwickshire, 97, 156 Washington, George, 68 Washington Monument, 90 Washington Post, 49 Washington, D.C., 9, 15, 16, 21, 22, 42, 43, 44, 56, 65, 75, 81, 85, 106, 110, 114, 130, 131, 192, 254, 294-297, 300

INDEX

~

309

Watch Hill, RI, 297 Webb, William Seward, 145, 229 Weinman, Adolph, 281, 283 Wells (Chester) residence, 299 Wells (W. Storrs) residence, 295 Westchester County, NY, 29 Westminster Abbey, 103 Wetmore (George. P) residence, 296 Wheatley Hills, NY, 177, 254, 297, 298 White, Henry, 56, 77, 96 White (Henry) residence, 9, 18, 22, 86, 90, 94, 110, 193, 196, 198, 199, 295 White House, The, 81 White, John Campbell, 93 White, Mrs. Henry, 93 White, Stanford, 15, 43, 178, 281 White (Stanford) residence, 271 Whitehaven Street, 75 Whiteholm, 24, 294 Wickatunk, NJ, 68, 295 Wilkins (John F.) residence, 298 Will residence, 300 Williams (A. S.) residence, 296 Wilmington, NC, 21, 296, 297 Wilson (Woodrow) residence, 114 Winterthur, 242 Wisconsin Avenue, 50 Wood, Waddy, 44, 114 Woodbury, NY, 130, 296 Woodend, 299 Woodlawn Cemetery, 277, 281, 287, 288, 291, 295, 297 300 Woodruff, Timothy, 146 Woolwich Arsenal, 162 World Health Organization, 48 World's Columbian Exposition, 17, 43, 75 Worthington, Nancy Stewart, 277 WPA (Works Progress Administration), 56 Wren, Christopher, 65, 246 Wright, Frank Lloyd, 10 Wright, Orville, 70 Yale University, 146, 149, 196, 209 Yellin, Samuel, 97, 103, 104, 215, 227 York Harbor, ME, 298 Young, T. J., 19

310 ~

INDEX

G A R R I S O N is an architect with

over 20 years of experience in historic

preservation. His work has included research and restoration work on many National Historic Landmark structures. The projects have included the National Gallery of Art,

GARRISON

J

AMES

several state capitols, and the award winning adaptive re-use of McKim, Mead & White’s

MASTERING TRADITION THE RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE

OF

JOHN RUSSELL POPE

M A S T E R I N G T R A D I T I O N T HE R ESIDENTIAL A RCHITECTURE

JOHN RUSSELL POPE

Girard Trust Company buildings in Philadelphia.

and architecture of southeastern Pennsylvania, where he lives on the Main Line.

A R C H I T E C T U R A L M O N O G R A P H S AVA I L A B L E F R O M

ACANTHUS PRESS The Architecture of Charles A. Platt Introduction by Charles Warren Foreword by Robert A.M. Stern

Mediterranean Domestic Architecture in the United States Rexford Newcomb New introduction by Mark Appleton

American Splendor: The Residential Architecture of Horace Trumbauer Michael C. Kathrens Foreword by Henry Hope Reed

FORTHCOMING Great Town Houses of New York Michael C. Kathrens 2005

Carrère & Hastings

Foreword by S T E V E N M C L E O D B E D F O R D

J

OHN

R U S S E L L P O P E (1873–1937) was

an architect of tradition and a master of

proportion, massing, and scale. Drawing on a personal palette rich in historic precedents from ancient Greece to colonial America, Pope created original and refined designs that embodied the aspirations of the United States as an emerging world power. Both his private and public work possess a poise and confidence that emanated from a disciplined approach to architectural design formed by his experience at home and abroad.

T R A D I T I O N

Domestic Architecture of H.T. Lindeberg Royal Cortissoz New Introduction by Mark Alan Hewitt

JOHN RUSSELL POPE

OTHER

M A S T E R I N G

writes and lectures extensively on the history

JAMES B. GARRISON

THE RESIDENTIAL A RCHITECTURE OF

In addition to his architectural practice, Garrison

In the brief span of 35 years, Pope and his office designed several hundred buildings and monuments, including over 100 houses. His residential work spans a wide array of styles, and comprises vast estates-with integrated ensembles of living, work, and leisure buildings—city town houses, country retreats, and a series of jewel-like mausoleums. The common thread running through all his work is a total mastery of the design vocabulary In this first comprehensive and lavishly illustrated survey of his residential work,

J AMES B. G ARRISON

author James Garrison delves into Pope’s

William Lawrence Bottomley

Foreword by

how an apparently diverse body of work is

Susan Hume Frazer 2006

STEVEN MCLEOD BEDFORD

Mark Alan Hewitt, Katherine Lemos, William Morrison, and Charles Warren 2 volumes, 2005-2006

design sources and methods, and demonstrates

related to a common theme of the mastering of tradition.

www.acanthuspress.com Rear cover: Frothingham residence, drawn by Otto Eggers

OF

ACANTHUS PRESS

ACANTHUS PRESS

Front cover: The Waves Photograph by James B. Garrison