Historic Structures

Magnolia Hotel, Seguin Texas

The original building, constructed of an early type of concrete, was built in 1846; the builder is unknown. At a somewhat later date the concrete structure was bought by a Doctor Read, who in all probability added much of the frame structure as it exists today. Down thru the years the hotel was operated by several different families, and it is generally supposed that as the business grew, the hotel was enlarged. In the days prior to the advent of the Southern Pacific railroad, a stage stand vras operated in conjunction with the hotel.

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Train Station, Laurel Maryland

The Baltimore & Ohio was the first railroad line constructed in this country for both freight and passenger service on a comprehensive scale. Construction began in 1828 and by 1830 the first 15-mile section, running from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills (Ellicott City), Maryland, was complete. The Washington Branch of the B&O, completed in 1835, came from the Baltimore line through Prince George's County and into Washington. It entered Prince George's in Laurel and continued in a southwesterly direction, carrying passengers and freight on to Beltsville, College Park, Riverdale and Hyattsville. The Laurel station was designed by Baltimore architect E. Francis Baldwin. John w. Garrett, then president of the B&O Railroad, hired Baldwin in the mid-1870s to design a number of stations as well as the B&O's new headquarters building. He designed at least thirty railroad stations along the B&O, probably beginning with the Point of Rocks station in 1875. His designs reflected the picturesque Queen Anne style, popular during this period. Despite similar floor plans and basic functions, no two designs were exactly alike. Both the Laurel and the Hyattsville stations were erected from Baldwin designs in 1884. Baldwin also is known to have designed stations at Branchville, Riverdale and Beltsville. The Laurel station, however, is the only Washington Branch station extant (Harwood).

Missouri Pacific-Texas Railroad Train Station, Alexandria Louisiana

In 1882 the Texas and Pacific Railroad Co. received the franchise for the Texas to New Orleans line of the New Orleans Pacific Railroad Co. and on September 11 of that year, the first regular service between New Orleans and Shreveport was established. This service was followed by five other lines connecting Alexandria to various locals in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas. With the establishment of these lines, the lumber industry in central Louisiana, which was basically a sleeping giant, gained considerable momentum, bringing Alexandria to the brink of its so called golden age. Many Northern lumbermen came to Alexandria to capitalize on this new wealth in wood. By the last decade of the century, visible signs of this new railroad-based economy began to appear: 1888 saw the opening of the town's first bank since the Civil War and the first large lumber mill was established by two Pennsylvania natives -Mr. Joseph A. Bentley of Hotel Bentley fame and Mr. Zimmerman.

Kenworthy Hall - Carlisle-Martin House, Marion Alabama

In February of 1858, Edward Kenworthy Carlisle acquired 200 acres, encompassing the gentle rise between two small creeks, with a fresh natural spring at the base of the hill. Many of his relatives owned land and lived in plantation houses in the area, and since 1843 Carlisle had lived in a one-story brick dwelling on land that he purchased, located in the neighboring section of the township. After that date he slowly began to acquire lands around the present site of Kenworthy Hall, eventually amassing approximately 440 acres by the time he deeded the property to his wife in 1867. Carlisle wrote his first letter to Richard Upjohn on May 4th, 1858, inquiring about ideas and terms for designing a country house. Carlisle saw an image of his future house, however, in mid-March of the same year, when his brother-in-law, Leonidas N. Walthall, shared the Richard Upjohn design he chose not to build and suggested it as a possible design for Carlisle. Walthall was so well pleased with Upjohn's services and gentlemanly manner that he apparently tried to encourage many of his neighbors to engage R. Upjohn & Co. as their architect. I have a friend who is preparing to build a house, Walthall wrote in March, 1858. I think the design No. 2 which you sent me would suit him exactly. The correspondence shows that the official planning stages for the house took place from May, 1858 until into early 1859, when letters continued to discuss details about the villa's design even as supplies began to arrive the long route from New York to Carlisle's building site near Marion. On September 1st, 1858, Carlisle expressed his concern at not yet finding a builder for his house so late in the year and estimated when each stage might be completed. But now late in the season and not more than the foundations can be done before the fall and winter rains commence, he wrote. So the brick work will be mostly put up next spring and the early part of the summer, he calculated, but all this depends on the contract when one [is] made. By November 4th he had engaged a builder and wrote to Upjohn that the foundation now laid off and work to commence, marking the official beginning of Kenworthy Hall's construction. The available Carlisle to Upjohn correspondence ends abruptly in December, 1859, but letters exchanged between Robert Jemison, building an Italianate villa in Tuscaloosa designed by John Stewart, formerly of the Philadelphia architectural firm of Sloan and Stewart, and Philip Bond, a master brick mason who supervised the brickwork for Kenworthy Hall, shows that Bond expected to complete his work in Marion by early June, 1860. The house's design, construction, and convenience characteristics also reflect the era in which it was built, including gas lighting, massive newel posts, and circular sawn exposed timbers in the attic.

John Stetson Hat Company, Philadelphia Pennsylvania

The Stetson Company began manufacturing hats in Philadelphia in 1865. John B. Stetson moved production to the site on Germantown Avenue in 1874. Stetson died in 1906, but the firm he founded continued to flourish for many years thereafter, finally ceasing operations on the site in 1971. The plant at one time employed over 5,000 people and contained a total of about 1,400,000 square feet of floor space in its buildings. It was then (circa 1920) the largest hat factory in the world. There were only two American hat-making centers in Colonial times, Danbury, Connecticut, and Orange, New Jersey. The Stetsons settled in Orange, New Jersey, and it was there that John B. Stetson was born in 1830. After learning his trade in his father's hat manufactory in Orange, the younger Stetson started a small plant of his own in Philadelphia in 1865, and moved to the Germantown Avenue location in 1874.

Sand Key Lighthouse,

This is one of the most important lights on the coast of the United States. It was first lighted on July 20, 1853, and is the second oldest of the six iron screw pile light houses which extend from Fowey Rocks to Sand Key to mark off-shore keys, shoals, and reefs which are hazardous to coastal shipping. It is the only one of these lights not standing entirely in water. The original brick conical tower, keeper's quarters, dock, etc., were completely destroyed in the hurricane of 18U6. A light ship was stationed here until 1853, when the iron work tower was completed. J.W.P. Lewis who designed this tower was one of the most noted American designers of lighthouses. Lt. George B. Meade, in charge of the construction, was also responsible for Carysfort Light. Ten years later he was in command of the Union forces at Gettysburg.

Longacres Park Horse Track, Renton Washington

The development of Longacres began June 23, 1933, when successful Seattle real estate investor Vinson Joseph Gottstein signed a ten-year lease option for 101 acres of the James Nelson dairy farm in the Green River Valley. In anticipation of the project, Gottstein had organized the Washington Jockey Club earlier that spring. From the newly-formed Washington Horse Racing Commission, he secured a 40-day racing season to commence on August 3rd, and hired architect B. Marcus Priteca to begin preliminary design work. Priteca's earliest extant drawing for the project is a site plan of the Nelson farm parcel, dated June 21, 1933. Subsequent drawings for the initial phase of development date from June 30 through July 18, overlapping several weeks of actual construction work in July. To meet the August 3rd deadline, construction proceeded at a pace remarkable even by the standards of that era. Twentyeight days from the first shipment of lumber to the site, the track was completed. A plentiful force of willing labor, made possible by widespread Depression unemployment, allowed work to continue into the night. Despite one serious downpour, construction remained on schedule.3 On opening day, August 3, 1933, Longacres boasted a freshly painted red and silver grandstand, a two-story clubhouse with open verandas, a paddock, a jockey's building, and various smaller structures. Across the sandy racing oval and its undeveloped infield was an orderly backstretch complex of some 40 stables.

Bethlehem Train Station, Bethlehem Pennsylvania

This one and one-half story brick mansard roofed station with canopy skirt supported by elaborate brackets on all four sides stands on the north side of the Central Railroad of New Jersey tracks in Bethlehem. One room deep by four long, bilaterally symetrical with a central telegrapher's bay, it sports elaborate bracketed cornices at both top and bottom of the mansard faces and barge board with crossed timbers, florals, and stars in the eaves at its central cross gable. Built in 1873. The Bethlehem Jaycees leased the station in 1962 from the railroad and restored it as a restaurant with the consulatlon of Charles H. Bauber, AIA, (Newark, NJ) . Between 1977 and 1979, it was subleased by the operators of Train's Inn Restaurant, an operation that went bankrupt in August 1979.

Spring Villa House, Opelika Alabama

William Penn Yonga built this home and was the original owner. He was his own architect. After a trip to California, during the gold rush, Penn Yonge settled on a beautiful piece of wooded land, near a little village named for his family, Yongesborough. At first he must have lived in a log cabin. But later he built a more pretentious home on his wooded plantation, near a very fine spring.

Henry Ford Plantation, Richmond Hill Georgia

Henry Ford, the great American industrialist, first visited the Savannah area in 191 7. In that year, Ford explored the Georgia coast and Ogeechee River by yacht with his close friend and famous naturalist, John Burroughs. By that time, Henry Ford was a household name for the great automobile dynasty he founded in Detroit, Michigan. He was also the world's first billionaire. On occasion, Henry Ford, John Burroughs, Harvey Firestone, and Thomas Edison subsequently took camping trips up the Ogeechee River and elsewhere.

Dey Mansion, Preakness New Jersey

Dirck Dey, the third generation of the family in America, settled in Preakness as early as 1707. He bought the land upon which this house stands on October 9, 1717. Dirck built the present house about 1740. However it is possible that he left the completion of the residence to his son Theunis. Dirck was a freeholder of Bergen County and a member of the New Jersey Assembly from 1748 - 1752. It is thought that the east wing of the house was the part built by Dirck Dey. He gave this building to his son Colonel Theunis Dey who added the west wing with the 12 foot hall. This place has also been called Bloomsburg Manor. There are several letters from Esther or Hester Dey, daughter of Colonel Dey, that were thus headed.

Muscogee Manufacturing Company Mill, Columbus Georgia

In 1844 the Coweta Falls Factory, the first textile mill within the Columbus city limits, went into operation at the site of the present Muscogee Manufacturing Company. Major John H. Howard and Josephus Echols built the Coweta Falls mill on the northernmost of 37 water lots set aside for private developers by the city of Columbus. Water Lot 1 cost the developers $3,500; mill construction costs totalled $6,000. Contemporary newspapers described the mill as a 75 x 48 foot, five-story brick structure with, a tin roof. A mill bell in the belfry atop the roof called the hands to work. A dam, built by Howard and Echols just north of the mill, diverted water into a power canal which ran to water lots 1 through 29. The canal served several other ante-bellum mills, including the Howard-Factory and the Eagle Manufacturing Company. Power was transmitted hydromechanically to the 1,100 spindles and 20 looms in the Coweta Falls mill.

Cavalier Jouet Mansion - The Old Chateau Elizabeth New Jersey

Stone-Young Plantation, Burkville Alabama

The Stone-Young Plantation, located about seven miles from Montgomery is one of the finest examples of an old southern plantation home, (The slave quarters and minor buildings which were quite extensively and widely known were destroyed by fire in the late 1920s. The old mansion, oat kitchen and smoke house offer an outstanding example of work done during this period along the more pretentious line. The main house is of brick stuccoed, with markings imitating stone and two storied - portico on the front, small one story wings at the rear with minor porches on the respective fronts. The house is magnificent in its proportions and an exceptionally fine example of the Greek Revival. The detail of the front entrance, with balcony over it, the front and side porches, the flat parapet, the iron grills and railing, the interior trim and stair are all done in a way which is typical and expressive of the finest work done during this period. The usual block plan with the square rooms on each corner and.the wide hall is followed here. The outside kitchen and smoke house are of brick with hipped roofs and are extremely pleasing in their proportions and simplicity. This house with the pollard house and the Loretta Academy, which are very close parallels, offers an outstanding example for record and study of this period. The foundations of the house are briex; floors are of pine boards; exterior walls are stucco over brick marked off to imitate stone, the interior walls are plaster over wooden laths, the roof is of metal with standing seams.

Whittier Mansion - California Historical Society Mansion, San Francisco

Built for William Franklin Whittier between 1894 and 1896, this massive Arizona sandstone building has passed through a number of interesting owners. Occupied as a residence until the early 1940's, it was sold to the German Reich in 1941 as a San Francisco consulate. Seized by the Alien Property Custodian (later transferred to the Attorney General of the United States) during World War II, it was auctioned in 195O to Mrs. Echo Leonetti. From her it passed to George and Jfery Barton, thence to Robert Wilhelm and Isabelle and Paul Dessez, and finally to the California Historical Society in 1956* Mortimer Adler's Institute of Philosophical Research occupied part of the building from 1952 to 1956. It is one of the few major houses of the later 19th century to survive to the present day, and is an interesting combination of massive Richardsonian Romanesque with Period styling. The architectural details of the interiors are exceptional in material and in preservation; they reflect studious variations of historical sources which marked the end of 19th century American architecture. The building was originally designed as a private residence for William Franklin (he always signed: W, Frank) Whittier and his children. (Mrs. Whittier had died earlier.) Frank Whittier was born on January 17, 1832 in Vienna. Maine. He came over the Isthmus of Panama to California in 1854; his first major employment was with Sawyer, Johnson and Company, and three years later he purchased (with Caleb Cameron) the proprietors interest in the firm. The name was changed to Cameron, Whittier and Company; Cameron accidentally drowned at Benicia in 1862, but the firm continued under the joint name until its dissolution in 1867.

Belmont Mansion, Nashville Tennessee

Fairview Mansion - Isaac Franklin Plantation, Gallatin Tennessee

On turning off the main road into the approach to Fairview one is introduced to the grandeur of this magnificant estate by an inspiring avenue of walnut trees, and following this for a pout one half mile to the mansion he passes the family mausoleum, the granary and many lesser important buildings. Terminating this avenue is a grand vista of the mansion house composing itself beautifully on a slightly higher bit of ground, and giving it a commanding view of thousands of acres in all directions. It is this imposing position of the house that prompted the appropriate name Fairview. Standing back in order to take in the gigantic facade, made up of two distinct sections, as before mentioned in this survey, one is impressed by the graceful silhouette brought about by combining two entirely different, but masterfully joined, types of architecture. The original, or main section, is typical of that dignified form so prevalent in middle Tennessee farm houses. The entrance feature conventionally follows its contemporaries in that it forms a white panel extending from ground to roof in the center of the house made up of first and second floor porches between two sets of simple white columns and terminating in a delicate pediment. Its whiteness is exaggerated, especially in the late afternoon,when the setting sun illuminates the columns, pediment and ballustrade bringing them out in sharp contrast with the soft salmon and red brick of the walls. To the right of the main section is the before mentioned addition consisting of a long wing, stepping down in height as it descends in social importance and as it follows the slope of the ground away from the center feature and thus creating this most delightful silhouette. This wing to the right joins and composes with the original section with such striking harmony that the radical change in architectural detail is at first overlooked, however, it is gradually perceptible that this whole wing is done in a definitely Spanish charactr as existed in the FELIC1ANAS OF LOUISIANA.

William H Brett Memorial Elementary School, Cleveland Ohio

Between 1900 and 1920, Cleveland's population more than doubled, from 381,768 to 796,841, reflecting both territorial growth and the continuing influx of foreign and rural immigrants seeking work. In response to an acute shortage of classrooms to house Cleveland's schoolchildren, the Cleveland Board of Education embarked on what was then the largest building program in its history. During the period 1912 and 1920, the board placed in commission, or was in process of erecting, 50 new school buildings or additions to existing buildings providing 819 additional classrooms. In May 1918, declaring a case of urgent necessity, the Board of Education authorized Frank G. Hogen, director of schools, to prepare plans and specifications and secure proposals for the construction of an 18-room building on the Royal and Ruple school site in the city's Collinwood neighborhood. Hogen prepared plans and obtained bids for three types of buildings: a one-story brick building, a three-story brick building, and a temporary wooden building. On July 24, 1918, the Board of Education authorized contracts for the erection of a one-story brick building. According to building permit records, work on the new school building commenced on August 18, 1918, and was completed the following June.

Milford Elementary School, Cleveland Ohio

Between 1900 and 1910, Cleveland's population almost doubled, from 381,768 to 560,663. Likewise, enrollment in the public schools saw a comparable increase, growing by 47 percent between the 1899-1900 and 1908-09 school years, from 57,288 to 84,227 pupils. Faced with a need for some 60 new classrooms a year to house the increase in school population, the Cleveland Board of Education engaged in a large-scale building program under the direction of architect Frank S. Barnum. Between 1895 and 1914, as superintendent of buildings for the school board, Barnum planned 86 new school buildings. Among these was Milford School on the city's West Side. In his annual report for the school year ended August 31, 1900, Superintendent Lewis H. Jones reported the need for 10 new buildings, noting, We are in very great need of an eight room building for the relief of Denison, Sackett, and Gilbert [schools]. Among the accommodations imperatively needed, he wrote a year later, was a building of not less than 12 rooms to take the place of the present Ray School and to relieve Denison, Sackett and Gilbert [schools]. Those school buildings were located in the southwest section of Cleveland, in an area heavily settled by Czechs between 1880 and the start of World War I.

Dousman Hotel and Railroad Station, Prairie du Chien Wisconsin

When its builder, The Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad, extended a line to Prairie du Chien's Lower Town in 1857, it marked the beginning of a prosperous relationship with steamboat, barge and packet companies that plied the river from St. Louis to St. Paul. In the mid-1860's, the railroad and river lines effected a major relocation of their activities north to Prairie du Chien's St. Feriole Island; the program included not only construction of railroads, shipping facilities, a warehouse and a grain elevator, but also construction of the Dousman Hotel. The hotel was strategically located on tracts near the steamboat landings, in order to serve both rail and river passengers. By including a depot, waiting room and ticket office on the hotel's first floor, the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad ensured itself a steady clientele of travelers, as persons entering to make travel arrangements were thereby encouraged to patronize the establishment's well-appointed dining and sleeping accommodations. Not least among the Dousman's patrons were emigrants on their way to seek land in the trans-Mississippi West, principally Northern Iowa and Minnesota. They appear to have come to Prairie du Chien in such numbers that an emigrant depot was built nearby to augment the hotel's own waiting rooms. With the extension of rail lines north from Prairie du Chien and other river communities in the mid-1880's, the town's importance as a transshipment point declined. The Dousman Hotel, however, remained a popular establishment until after the turn of the century. Today it shares St. Feriole Island with other structural artifacts of Prairie du Chien's history, among them an American Fur Company warehouse and the Italianate-style mansion built for Jane Dousman, widow of Hercules Dousman.