Historic Structures

Miah Maull Shoal Lighthouse, Delaware Bay New Jersey

The Miah Maull Shoal Lighthouse is a well-preserved embodiment of the cast-iron and concrete caisson foundation technology which was used from 1876 to 1913 in lighthouses that occupied waterbound sites in the northeastern United States. At least 50 such lighthouses were built. Miah Maull Shoal, designed in 1907 and completed in 1913, was the last example of this type built before reinforced concrete technology was introduced; it was also one of the last major navigational aids built in the Delaware Bay. As part of a string of lighthouses in the bay and the lower Delaware River that were in place before World War One, Miah Maull Shoal helped foster the improved navigation of the Delaware that was crucial to the success of the Hog Island Shipyard (now the site of the Philadelphia International Airport), which was established in 1917. By the end of the conflict, Hog Island had become the largest shipyard in the world. The Miah Maull Shoal itself, which was named for an eighteenth-century Delaware mariner, was 800 yards wide and 3,000 yards long at a depth of 13 feet — a significant hazard to large modern ships, which required a much greater draft. The need for a deep channel, both for commercial and for military purposes, was foreseen during the early years of this century. Now known as the Philadelphia Ship Channel, it was called for by Congress in the River and Harbor Act of 1909 to be a 35-foot deep channel at least 800 feet wide from the Philadelphia and Camden wharves and shipyards to the mouth of Delaware Bay, to replace an existing 600-foot wide, 26-foot deep channel begun in 1885. Subsequent improvements have deepened the channel to 40 feet.

Cherokee Plantation, Fort Payne Alabama

Cherokee Plantation is reputed to be the oldest home in Alabama, dating to 1790. Oral history indicates that the house was built by Daniel and Molly Ross in 1790 when they moved from Turkey Town, near Gadsden, to Will's Town, now Fort Payne, with infant son, John Ross. The two-story log cabin they built fronted the Great War and Trading Path which traversed Alabama from north to south. In 1838 the Path became the Trail of Tears and was used when the Cherokee Nation in this portion of Alabama was removed from the stockade at Fort Payne. John Ross, who grew up in the house, later moved to the area around Chattanooga, founded Ross' Landing and Rossville, Georgia. Ross became one of the most famous and influencial chiefs of the Cherokee Nation and was Chief of the Nation at the time of its removal in 1838. In 1834 Andrew Ross, brother of John Ross, son of Daniel and Molly Ross and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Cherokee Nation, resided in the house which had by that time been greatly expanded. Being 1/8 Cherokee, he was regarded as a full Cherokee and as such was required, under the terms of the Treaty of 1828, to make a valuation of all his property. Ross was evicted from the house in 1838 during the removal of the Cherokee Nation from the area.

Macombs Dam Bridge, New York City New York

The Macombs Dam Bridge (originally the Central Bridge) and the 155th Street Viaduct, constructed in 1890-95 to the designs of eminent Structural Engineer Alfred Pancoast Boiler, for the New York City Departments of Public Parks and Public Works, was a considerable municipal undertaking, as well as a significant feat of engineering. The Macombs Dam Bridge is the third oldest major bridge in New York City (after the Brooklyn and George Washington Bridges) and is also the City's oldest, intact metal truss, swing-type bridge, a bridge type most often employed in New York City along the Harlem River between the 1880's and 1910. The bridge's steel central Swing Span was considered at the time to be the world's heaviest movable mass. Boiler successfully overcame the various difficult challenges involved in the construction of the bridge and Viaduct, particularly in the placing of the foundations, while producing an aesthetically noteworthy design. The Passaic Rolling Mill Company of Paterson, New Jersey, and the Union Bridge Company of Athens, Pennsylvania, Contractors for the critically-acclaimed bridge, were leading steel and iron bridge manufacturers. The long steel 155th Street Viaduct provides a gradual descent toward the bridge from the heights of Harlem to the west, while the long Jerome Avenue approach viaduct of the bridge, consisting primarily of steel deck truss spans carried by masonry piers, with a subsidiary Camel back Truss Span, was built over what was then marshland in the Bronx. The appearance of the bridge and Viaduct is enhanced by the central Swing Span truss outline, the steel latticework, the steel and iron ornamental details (including the Eighth Avenue stairs, sections of original railing and several lamp posts) and the masonry piers, abutments and shelterhouses. Following in a succession of bridges at this site since 1815, the Macombs Dam Bridge and the 155th Street Viaduct continue to provide a historically important connection between upper Manhattan and the Bronx. In 1813 Robert Macomb petitioned the New York State Legislature for permission to construct a dam across the Harlem River in the vicinity of present-day 155th Street in order to form a mill pond for the use of the business he had obtained from his father. He was granted this right in 1814 with several requirements, including the provision that he operate a lock to allow vessels to pass along the river. A dam was completed in 1815, which also functioned as a toll bridge. Macombs milling business later failed, and the dam/bridge, consisting of stone piers connected by wooden spans, was sold. By 1838, a dispute arose over this private usurpation of the river and the courts found that Macombs Dam was a public nuisance. The Legislature in 1858 directed New York City and Westchester County to remove the dam and build a new toll-free bridge. The Central Bridge (familiarly known as Macombs Dam Bridge) was constructed in 1860-61 by Builders John Ross and D. L. Harris under the direction of Engineer E. H. Tracey; initially authorized at $10,000, it cost over $90,000. Built of wood, it had a 210-foot central draw span, with a square tower and iron rods supporting the ends, as well as two Howe truss approach spans carried on trestles. This bridge was reconstructed several times: around 1877, the square tower was replaced by A-frames; in 1883, iron trusses by the Central Bridge Works of Buffalo, New York, replaced the approach spans; and in 1890, the wooden draw span was rebuilt.

Hereford Lighthouse, North Wildwood New Jersey

When the Life Saving Serivce was started in 1849, installing men and boats on the county beaches, Hereford Inlet, Station #36, was one of the most active. The dangerous waters and shoals between Seven Mile Beach and Five Mile Beach were the scene of many tragic and costly wrecks. This service developed a hardy breed of men, some of whom made their homes in Anglesea. In 1874 the Hereford Lighthouse was built.

Alfred Ringling Manor, Oak Ridge New Jersey

Alfred T. Ringling was one of seven brothers out of the small town of Baraboo, Wisconsin who in their lifetime organized and performed in the greatest tented amusement enterprise in the world. Ringling's palatial estate at Oak Ridge, New Jersey was built around 1913 and completed in 1916 and, in addition to being Alf T.'s residence, became the winter headquarters for the R. T. Richards Circus. The Ringling Brothers Circus, organized in 1884 grew to the largest circus in the world four years later; surpassing in magnitude even the Barnum and Bailey Circus. In 1907 the Ringlings bought out the Barnum and Bailey Circus and operated under the name Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus until its final show on May 21st 2017.

Hahne and Company Department Store, Newark New Jersey

The establishment of the first department store has been credited to Aristide Bougicaut, with the founding of his Bon Marche' store in Paris in 1838. Beginning with a drapery store, by 1860, the Bon Marche' store had separate departments selling dresses, coats, millinery, underwear and shoes. The storeowner encouraged customers to visit his store by creating displays and offers, with clearly marked prices on the goods. He pioneered the idea of the store as purposely designed for fashionable public assembly rather than just a means of supply. Boucicaut allowed customers to exchange merchandise they bought or get their money back. His money-back guarantee was a new concept that built up his trade substantially, and he reversed the prevalent practice of taking a high profit on goods that turned over slowly. Selling his merchandise at a small markup, he depended on a rapid turnover to make his profit. The success of the store was reflected in the opening of rival stores such as Le Printemps in 1865 and La Bell Jardinie're in 1866. These stores caught the imagination of American visitors to Paris and formed the basis for early American department stores. R.H. Macy visited the store himself and, when he got back home, outfitted his doormen in uniforms like those worn by Bon Marche' employees. In the middle of the nineteenth century, national economic conditions were very favorable to the development of the department store. The American department store is largely a product of the period 1860 to 1910, due to several important factors, besides the example of Bon marche'. First, population increased dramatically in many regions of the country in the second half of the nineteenth century. Large numbers of people lived in relatively small areas and were easily able to reach almost any place in town with the development of improved mass transportation systems. Horse drawn trolleys, the precursors of electric trolley systems in Newark, as well as in other metropolitan areas, charged a reasonable fare to transport potential consumers from every point in town to the point of sale. More and better advertising, enabling merchants to lure customers to their stores, was made possible by the lowering of the price of paper in the 1830s. By around 1850, the typical once column-wide advertisement evolved into a much larger, multi-column, profusely illustrated ad. The development of plate glass windows allowed for elaborate window displays and in-store advertising.

Woodlane Plantation, Eufaula Alabama

Available records show that Tennant Lomax, a wealthy Montgomery Courtian, owned Woodlane Plantation in the early 1850s. While it is possible that Lomax may have built a house at Woodlane Plantation, the construction of the main dwelling has historically been attributed to John Raines, a wealthy cotton planter from Muscogee County, Georgia. Raines owned land in Barbour County as early as 1833. Woodlane plantation was part of a 2400-acre tract that comprised all of the land between Barbour and Chaneyhatchee Creek to the Chattahoochee River. Raines' Landing was located on the banks of the Chatthoochee River at the end of the tree-lined canopied drive. In addition to cotton, Raines also raised tobacco and subsequently, constructed the tobacco-curing barn that is still located on the property. John W. Raines died sometime between December 1856, the date of the execution of his will, and March 2,1858, the date his will was filed for probate. Raines' will shows that his primary concern was for the two children and the unborn child of his servant yellow woman Mary. The children were Mary Antoinette, Sally Angeline, and Aurora Boreallis, born after Mr. Raines wrote his will. Mr. Raines directed his executors to secure the passage of an act by the Alabama State Legislature to free the children and Mary. His will dictates that if such an act could not be passed, Mary and his children were to be moved to the Free State of Ohio. At the time Mr. Raines drafted his will, an Alabama slaveholder could not free his slaves without the consent of the state legislature. Raines' executors were ordered to sell by private sale or public auction the entire estate, including Woodlane Plantation, which was valued at more than $75,000. The proceeds were to be held in trust by his executors for the three children, their education, and a station inlife compatible with their up-bringing. Edward B. Young and William H. Thornton, residents of nearby Eufaula, were appointed as executors while Lewis Cato, a prominent Eufaula attorney, served as Mr. Raines' attorney.

Pennsylvania Train Station, Newark New Jersey

Built in the 1930's as a large prestige, palatial station, Pennsylvania Station retains much of its original stature after forty years. The Station is most notable for its well developed and sophisticated functional organization and its Art Deco detailing which is found in numerous motifs throughout the exterior and interior of the building. The Art Deco style is found in repetitive curve linear forms, periodic decorations, and the clean white metal materials used. Despite grime and some deterioration and alteration, the Station is the first and perhaps the most successful of the grand railway stations which also served as an intermodal terminal. The most significant design feature of the building is its Art Deco detailing which is found in numerous motifs throughout the interior and exterior of the building. The Station's overall style is Art Deco as well, a popular sub-set of Art Moderne (c. 1920-1940), and a style often associated with the public building of that period. The major concentrations of the detail work are on the exterior surrounds of the west entrances, the north, south, and west entrance interiors of the Waiting Room, the walkway surrounds flanking the west portals of Raymond Boulevard and Market Street under the train shed, and the running motifs throughtbut the building. These principally are the exterior spandrel panels and frieze on the north elevation, the coping on the north elevation of the train shed, the entablature pilaster system in the Concourses, the Waiting Room medallions, and the four (original) lighting fixtures in the Waiting Room.

Shadow Lawn Mansion - Woodrow Wilson Hall, West Long Branch New Jersey

The present central building of Monmouth College is the second Shadow Lawn. For a short time in the summer of 1915, the first house was the site of the summer White House. President Woodrow Wilson used Shadow Lawn as a base for re-election and narrowly defeated Charles Evans Hughes that autumn. On June 11, 1918, Hubert Templeton Parson and his wife Maysie acquired the property for $800,000. The original 65-acre estate grew into 108 acres. Half the land was set aside for farming. Parson became the country gentleman on the estate, although he conducted business in New York City. The house burned to the ground in January, 1927.

Romer Shoal Light Station Lighthouse, Highlands New Jersey

Romer Shoal was a well-known hazard to navigation several decades before the existing lighthouse was built. Its location on the north side of the Swash Channel, a natural navigation route, meant that a significant amount of maritime traffic passed nearby. It is unclear how this submerged land feature got its name. However, its appellation clearly predates 1837 when the U.S. Congress considered a proposal to erect an aid to navigation on Romer Shoal. This hazard to shipping was marked by a series of unmanned aids to navigation for several decades prior to 1898 when the existing lighthouse was built. In 1837 the U.S. Congress appropriated $15,000 for building a day beacon marker. This was augmented with a second appropriation of $10,000 in 1838. TTie day beacon on Romer Shoal was built as a frustum constructed of granite blocks. A frustum is a truncated cone that tapers to a flat top. A wooden mast surmounted with a rectangular wooden case was affixed atop the stone masonry. This day beacon remained an important navigational aid in Lower New York Bay for almost 50 years. Congress appropriated additional funds in 1850 ($30,000), 1854 ($25,000), and 1867 (45,000) to provide for the marker's maintenance and improvement. However, erosion caused the granite structure to settle unevenly through time, and by the early 1880s it became clear a replacement was needed.

Navesink Light Station - Twin Lights Lighthouse, Highlands New Jersey

The Twin Lights at Navesink were established in 1828 on a promontory of land in Highlands, New Jersey, overlooking Sandy Hook peninsula and the Atlantic Ocean. The purpose of the light station was to guide shipping in and out of New York Harbor. The lighthouse's twin or double towers gave it a distinct appearance, preventing mariners from confusing the lights at Navesink with Sandy Hook Light about five miles to the north and the Sandy Hook Lightship nearby. The original twin towers were replaced in 1862 with the current castle-like structure which continued to serve as part of a system of navigational aides for the New York Harbor area until the station was decommissioned in 1949.

Sandy Hook Lighthouse, Sandy Hook New Jersey

The tall, white lighthouse at Sandy Hook, New Jersey was the fifth lighthouse to be built in America, when erected in 1764, and today is the oldest standing light tower in the United States. Originally called the New York Lighthouse, its unfailing beam has befriended innumerable vessels as they have passed in or out of New York. In 1761, the merchants of New York City financed a lottery to raise sufficient funds to erect a lighthouse on Sandy Hook, to guide ships past the New Jersey Shoal into New York harbour. Built by Isaac Contro by June 11, 1764, the 105 foot brick and masonry lighthouse was called the New York Lighthouse. The cost of construction was defrayed by a 22 cent per ton tax levied on ships entering the harbour.

United States Life Saving Station At Surfside, Nantucket Massachusetts

Surfside is the name given to about four miles of coast on the south shore of Nantucket Island, about three and a half miles from the Town of Nantucket. The U. S. Life Saving Service was founded in 1871 and although there were eventually four stations, the Surfside Station was the first one operated on Nantucket. They were located at points where wrecks were unusually frequent, It was estimated that over five hundred shipwrecks occurred around the coast of the Island from the time of its first settlement by the white men to 1877.

August Schell Brewing Company, New Ulm Minnesota

Built just six years after the founding of New Ulm in 1854, and one year before the Civil War, the August Schell Brewing Company is the lone survivor of the seven breweries which have operated in New Ulm. Founder of the brewery which still bears his name, August Schell came to Minnesota in 1856 as a member of the Turner Colonization Society. He was born in Durnbach, Germany, 15 February 1828. In 1848 he came to America and settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he followed the trade of machinist in the Cincinnati Locomotive works until moving on to New Ulm.

Belvedere Hotel, Baltimore Maryland

The Hotel Belvedere takes its name from Belvidere, the estate of John Eager Howard situated at Charles and Chase Streets. The main house of the estate was built in 1794, and was located approximately one block east of the existing hotel. In 1870, the original Belvidere estate was demolished for an extension of Calvert Street. During the next several years, the land was divided and subdivided until the partnership of Perin, Harvey and Brown purchased the parcel known as Belvidere.

Gunther Brewing Company - Hamms, Baltimore Maryland

Though the president of the Gunther Brewing Company at its founding in 1900 was George Gunther, Jr., the force behind the operation seems to have been his father. George Gunther, Sr., whose last name was originally spelled Guenther, had been involved in brewing in the area for more than twenty years after arriving from Germany in 1866. Gunther worked to sweeten dank cellars at the northeast corner of Conkling and O'Donnell Streets in the early 1870s, joining Christian Gehl's brewery in 1878 and working in the brewery that stood on Conkling Street to the north of the current Gunther complex. Gehl had established his brewery in 1876 in connection with a set of earlier lagering cellars dating to the proprietorship of Conrad Herzog, who first leased the land in 1857. Contractors dug the cellars for Herzog, who then rented them to brewers including George Rossmarck. George Gunther took over the Gehl brewery in 1880, and after a fire built a new brick brewery in 1887. Otto Wolf, a noted Philadelphia brewery architect, designed the structure (now gone). Gunther continued the firm until 1899, when he sold his operation to the Maryland Brewing Company, the brewing trust. The trust continued to operate the brewery, as did the successor G.B.S. Brewing Co., which ran the plant as its Bay View Branch. Because he had agreed not to brew again under his name, Gunther's reentry into the industry with a new brewery required him to use his son's name when he established a new firm. The George Gunther, Jr. Brewing Company was erected on the northeast corner of Conkling and Toone Streets, at the south end of the same block as its namesake. Workers broke ground on February 10, 1900, and again Wolf was the architect, designing the Romanesque Revival style brewhouse that continues to occupy the corner site. Also in the complex were a stable for teams that pulled delivery wagons, a boiler house, a shop, and an office, all of which remain in some form. Buildings lined the perimeter of the site, forming a keg yard in the center where loading and unloading took place. The Boiler House heated the brew kettles, and more importantly, powered the ice machines that cooled the lagering tanks now stored above ground. The brewery's railroad siding allowed delivery of grains, which were raised to the top of the complex where they were milled in preparation for malting.

Sears Department Store Building, Washington DC

The Sears, Roebuck & Company department store, designed and built in 1940-41, is highly significant to the architectural and cultural heritage of the nation's capital. Designed by the Sears company's chief architect John Stokes Redden and store planner John G. Raben. It is among Washington's earliest and most significant examples of modern commercial architecture, illustrating the revolutionary impact of the Modernist design philosophy of functional expressionism on the historicism that constituted Washington's dominant architectural idiom; in conception and execution, the building anticipated the modern revolution which transformed the city after the war. It embodies significant innovations made by an influential national retailer in the development of modern department store design, including a windowless and upside down layout--a major customer entry from roof parking. The Sears department store also exemplifies significant national trends in the development of modern merchandising, including the decentralization of major retail centers to suburban locations, the integration of automobile parking and services into shopping facility design, the reformulation of department store layout to accommodate modern climate control systems and merchandising techniques, and the expression of practical modernity as a basis for customer appeal. This Sears building ranks among the most innovative stores realized during the seminal period of development by a company that has had significant impact on twentieth century retailing practices in the United States. By the mid-1920s, Sears had expanded beyond its mail-order beginnings to enter the retail market, guided by retired General Robert E. Wood, a veteran of Army supply operations. The company's initial outlets resembled warehouses, but by the early 1930s, Sears began to develop a more sophisticated national merchandising strategy. Stores were classified according to market size, with corresponding facilities and selections of merchandise. Sears first commissioned outside architects, but by the end of the 1930s, its own in-house planning and construction departments created complete new prototypes of modern store layout and design.

Falling Water - Frank Lloyd Wright House, Mill Run Pennsylvania

Fallingwater on Bear Run is a summer house built for Pittsburgh millionaire Edgar J. Kaufmann and designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Wayne Andrews has called it the most famous modern house in the world while Vincent Scully proclaimed it one of the complete masterpieces of twentieth-century art. The house, cantilevered over a waterfall, has come to be one of America's most renowned buildings, appealing not only to architects, but to the general public as well. Kaufmann, a Pittsburgh department store owner, gave Wright the commission for a retreat, a beautiful home, elevated over a waterfall, its wings reaching out into the air, as part of the natural landscape. Its relationship to its surroundings is like that of a tree house, a made thing that is utterly natural. Wright himself writing in Architectural Forum (1938) stated that this house has no limitations as to form. Fallingwater is almost impossible to describe and very difficult to photograph, the site is spectacular, the house changes from different vantage points and the scale is elusive.

Montgomery Union Station, Montgomery Alabama

Montgomery's Union Station, one of the largest and most elaborate railway stations still standing in the State, is an excellent example of late 19th century commercial architecture. Situated on the Alabama River, not far from the city wharf, it served as the focal point of transportation into the city until the advent of commercial air travel, Its size, the ambitiousness of the design and the opulence of its materials make it a monument to the importance of rail transportation in the early 20th century.

Godlington Manor, Chestertown Maryland

The old house on Godlington Manor, patented to Thomas Godlington, a London merchant, in 1659, is significant as a tract of land, originally 1,000 acres, owned at the end of the seventeenth century by Michael Miller, a large landowner, whose lineal descendants still owned and lived on the property in the 1970s. Godlington's gambrel roof section constructed in the late eighteenth century was one of several houses on the manor tract. It is doubtful that Michael Miller or his son, Arthur, or grandson, Arthur, lived in the extant house. In 1747 the land on which the house stands was rented to John Jordan and then to Bartus Wilkins, a ship carpenter. After 1768 when the land returned to Arthur Miller's possession the same tract (although ten acres smaller) was conveyed to his daughter Sarah Miller Merritt and to her daughter Mary Ann Merritt who later married Robert Anderson. After Sarah Merritt, the mother, died in 1783, the tract, according to the terms of the original deed, would have become the property of her daughter, Mary Ann. A 1799 land transaction indicates the possibility that Mary Ann Merritt Anderson, Arthur Miller's granddaughter, lived in the extant house. She and her husband by 1799 residents of Chestertown sold the tract and the old house to her brother Samuel Merritt, son of Sarah Miller Merritt, who already owned the remainder of the Godlington Manor tract which he had inherited from his grandfather, Arthur Miller, in 1790.

Seneca Glass Company, Morgantown West Virginia

Seneca Glass Company was founded by a group of immigrant German glassblowers. Natives of the district of Baden in southern Germany, many of these men had previously been employed at the North Cumberland Glass Company in Cumberland, Maryland. In 1891, they met in Cumberland to form their own corporation and subsequently purchased, for $10,000, the plant of the Fostoria Glass Company, at Fostoria, Ohio (Fostoria Glass had moved to Moundsville, West Virginia). The new company flourished from the beginning but was soon faced with the threat of a fuel shortage. In 1896, the directors decided to relocate their plant near a plentiful supply of natural gas and decided upon Morgantown. The new plant began production in January 1897 and continued until the companys bankrupcy in 1983. The plant operated using essentially the same machinery and process with which it began in 1897 until it closed. The glass was still produced from the original 14-pot furnace by shops or teams of men in much the same manner as it was in 1897. Senenca Glass was the first company to locate in Morgantown. At the turn of the century, when transportation facilities were only crudely developed, the discovery of the nearby Mannington oil and gas field was of considerable importance in attracting new industries. In the 16 years following the move of Seneca, nine other glass plants located in Morgantown. These developments (along with that of the coal industry in the area) brought industrial processes with all their social and economic ramifications to what had been primarily an agricultural region.

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