George Eastman House
A closer look at the main facade of the home of George Eastman, founder of the Eastman Kodak Company. Eastman is of course known and remembered for his invention of photographic film as we know it today, his marketing genius of putting affordable cameras in the hands of millions, and for his philanthropic support of education, medicine, and music. Even though George Eastman grew up in the Victorian age and also lived as an adult in Victorian houses, when building his own house he turned away from this flamboyance in favor of simple architectural designs that had stood the test of time. Construction on his magnificent mansion began in 1902 when Eastman was 48 years old and was finished in 1905. It was designed by Rochester architect, J. Foster Warner with the Manhattan architectural firm, McKim, Mead & White as consultants on the interior design. The mansion is an imposing Colonial Revival composition of many diverse parts. Broad and rectangular, the three-story structure is adorned with a portico of four Corinthian columns finely carved in limestone, a material used to accent much of the exterior trim. The house is encased in Roman brick, colored white with speckles, which gives the impression from a distance of aged white paint. The fifty-room mansion, with its furnishings, gardens, dairy, orchard, and greenhouses, at the time, cost around $500,000 to build. George Eastman never married so he built his home to suit his particular interests. Being that photography was not only his business but also his frequent pastime as well, he spent years working around flammable films and chemicals so he made sure that his home would be made as fireproof as possible; he had the building built of steel-reinforced concrete. The mansion is located at the George Eastman House and Gardens, 900 East Ave in Rochester, NY.
George Eastman House
A closer look at the main facade of the home of George Eastman, founder of the Eastman Kodak Company. Eastman is of course known and remembered for his invention of photographic film as we know it today, his marketing genius of putting affordable cameras in the hands of millions, and for his philanthropic support of education, medicine, and music. Even though George Eastman grew up in the Victorian age and also lived as an adult in Victorian houses, when building his own house he turned away from this flamboyance in favor of simple architectural designs that had stood the test of time. Construction on his magnificent mansion began in 1902 when Eastman was 48 years old and was finished in 1905. It was designed by Rochester architect, J. Foster Warner with the Manhattan architectural firm, McKim, Mead & White as consultants on the interior design. The mansion is an imposing Colonial Revival composition of many diverse parts. Broad and rectangular, the three-story structure is adorned with a portico of four Corinthian columns finely carved in limestone, a material used to accent much of the exterior trim. The house is encased in Roman brick, colored white with speckles, which gives the impression from a distance of aged white paint. The fifty-room mansion, with its furnishings, gardens, dairy, orchard, and greenhouses, at the time, cost around $500,000 to build. George Eastman never married so he built his home to suit his particular interests. Being that photography was not only his business but also his frequent pastime as well, he spent years working around flammable films and chemicals so he made sure that his home would be made as fireproof as possible; he had the building built of steel-reinforced concrete. The mansion is located at the George Eastman House and Gardens, 900 East Ave in Rochester, NY.