Sir Edmund Reve / Reeve 1589- dsp 1647 in judges robes and wife Mary Cory 1657 who erected the monument . flic.kr/p/pYxwJo

 

Sir Edmund was one of at least 4 sons and 5 children of attorney Christopher Reeve of Aylsham, Oulton and Felthorpe

He was called to the bar in 1611, appointed steward of Norwich and JP for Norfolk being one of the benefactors when the font at St Gregory's church Norwich was repaired. He was a justice of the common pleas from 1639 when he was knighted, and by which time he had bought from Sir Henry Bedingfield the manor of Stratton St Mary (wrongfully according to local legend and his ghost known as Old Hutch patrols the area in a carriage to catch the unwary) . As a judge he supported the Long Parliament and sat alone at Westminster when the king's proclamation to adjourn to Oxford was received. In 1640 he refused to proceed upon an indictment of one of the Lambeth rioters and at the end of 1642 he was one of only 3 common-law judges still sitting at Westminster in defiance of the king's will. His continuation on the bench became a condition in parliamentary overtures to the king in early 1643. Both he and his brother John Reve 1657 who he appointed rector of Stratton St Mary in 1638, took the covenant.

Dying March 27th 1647, in his 1642 will he left his wife and executor, Dame Mary Corie, a life interest in lands in Norfolk and Suffolk, and, having apparently no children but considerable wealth provided generously for other relatives, including his brothers Thomas 1663 flic.kr/p/pYwJEN and John and their families.

His heir to his manors was his brother Augustine Reeve 1666 of Bracondale whose son Henry Reeve sold them to John Mallom of Booton.

Port Richmond, Staten Island, New York City, New York, United States

 

Port Richmond is located on the north shore of Staten Island, adjacent to the Kill van Kull, the strait between Staten Island and Bayonne, New Jersey. There is evidence that Paleo Indians occupied Staten Island as early as 10,000 B.C. By the Late Woodlands period considerable land had been cleared for horticulture. Staten Island was then occupied by Munsee-speaking members of the Lenape nation. Europeans were slow to colonize the island because of the resistance they met from Native Americans; however, in 1670, four years after the English takeover of New Amsterdam, the English Governor, Francis Lovelace, "purchased" Staten Island from the Native Americans, who left the island to move westward. During the next decade a number of Dutch families from Brooklyn settled along the North Shore in the vicinity of modern-day Mariners Harbor, Port Richmond, and West Brighton. Many settlers brought African American slaves to the area to work on their farms, businesses, and homes.

 

At the beginning of the 18th century the enclave that eventually became Port Richmond became a transportation hub due to the establishment of a ferry to Bergen Point in present-day Bayonne and the opening of two roads — one running along the north shore along the route of present-day Richmond Terrace and the other linking the ferry and north shore road to Richmondtown. By the mid 18th century the ferry to Bergen Point had become an important link in a major overland route between New York and Philadelphia and was a transfer point for stage coach service between the two cities. Usually known by the name of the proprietor of the ferry to Bergen's Point — Beck's Ferry, Ryerss's Ferry, and Decker's Ferry — but alternately called Dutch Church for the Reformed Church established there in 1715, the enclave became a thriving village, where, according to historian Phillip Papas, "merchants and shopkeepers bought and sold a variety of goods and offered the island's farmers basic commercial services." During the Revolutionary War, the village was a center of military activities. British forces occupied the village from 1776 to 1783, and the ferry landing was an embarkation point for British troops.

 

During the Federal period and early 19th century the village continued to prosper. It remained an important stop on the stagecoach route to Philadelphia, was served by two ferries, and had at least one inn, the Continental Hotel , at 2040 Richmond Terrace, the last residence of Aaron Burr, who died there in 1836. Steam ferries began traveling between Port Richmond and Lower Manhattan in 1823. Port Richmond was also the center of thriving shipping and fishing industries. Several boat builders and sail makers established businesses to service the shippers and the numerous fishermen, sea captains, and oystermen who resided on the North Shore between Port Richmond and Mariners Harbor. Port Richmond's commercial and industrial base included the 1838 Staten Island Whaling company; the first bank on Staten Island, established in 1838 in conjunction with the whaling company; and the Jewett White Lead Company, which later became part of Dutch Boy Paints and operated into the 20th century.

 

No. 29 Cottage Place: Construction and Early Residents

 

In 1836 carpenter Peter N. Haughwout and his son Eder V. Haughwout purchased two large tracts from the executors of David Mersereau, which together extended from the east side of Port Richmond Avenue to just beyond the east side of present-day Cottage Place between Church Street and Bond Street. The Haughwouts had this land laid out into building lots retaining a square block bounded by Park Avenue , Bennett Street,

 

Heberton Avenue, and Vreeland Street for a public park that they presented to the Village of Northfield. By 1838, the Haughwouts had sold a number of lots on the blocks between Richmond Street and Mersereau Street . In 1842, the trustees of Northfield School District 6 purchased the lot at the northwest corner of Heberton Avenue and New Street and shortly thereafter erected a two-story school building. In 1843, the North Baptist Church built a modest frame church building on the northwest corner of Park Avenue and Vreeland Street facing on to the west side of the park. By 1853 the blocks on the north, south, and west sides of the square had been built up with fine residences. A number of shops and residences had been erected along the Pond Road, now Jewett Avenue, in Port Richmond, just to the east of the Haughwouts' land.

 

In 1836, when the John Mersereau first mapped the Haughwouts' Port Richmond real estate, the land immediately east of Heberton Avenue was laid out in 25 x 100 feet lots and the remaining triangle of land to the east was undivided. In 1838 Mersereau filed a second map for the Haughwouts in which this eastern parcel was divided into town lots and streets. These included a new street near the eastern edge of the Haughwout property, running southeasterly from Bennett Street to Bond Street, which was originally named Richmond Avenue and later was known as Smith Street and South Street, before being renamed Cottage Place around 1859. By 1841 the Haughwouts had sold the long narrow strip of land to the east of Cottage Place, which varied in width from about 16 feet to about 42 feet, to John Johnson, along with several lots on Ann and Bennett Streets.

 

In August 1841, Peter N. Haughwout repurchased the lots on Bennett and Ann Streets and the strip along the east side of Cottage Place. Haughwout had the strip divided into several lots. This house occupies a lot that originally extended 115 feet along Cottage Place, was 30 feet wide at its northern end and 42 feet wide at its southern end. Haughwout sold the lot to marble cutter Orlando W. Buel for $225 in January 1847. Buel held the property for a little over a year then sold it for $260 to farmer Abraham Merrell, who resided in Bulls Head, Staten Island. In both cases the purchase price was appropriate for a town lot but was insufficient to cover the cost of a building. Merrell probably erected the present house shortly after he acquired the land.

 

Because there are no early directories for Staten Island and no addresses were given in the census and Merrell continued to reside on his farm, it is not possible to determine exactly when the house was built or to identify the early tenants with absolute certainty. Nevertheless, census records suggest that this house was completed by 1850 and was leased to boatman Henry Prall and his wife Elizabeth. In 1860 the likely tenants were 25-year-old German-born cooper, Henry Fachner, his wife Agnes, and their two-month-old son Henry. In 1865 the residents were probably F. Merrill , a ship builder, his wife, their infant daughter, and an Irish maid. In 1875, 29 Cottage Place was probably occupied by carver Phillip Brewster, his wife Eliza, son Phillip, and his wife Amelia. The residents in 1880 were likely Norwegian-born blacksmith John W. Tanberg his wife, and their two daughters. The 1884 and 1886 Staten Island directories list [Frances] Elizabeth Tranter as the occupant of this house, an English-born widow of hotel keeper Charles Tranter, who probably occupied this house with at least some of her four children.

 

In 1887, 89-year-old Abraham Merrill sold this house to David Decker of Northfield. Decker continued to lease the house to tenants and by 1898 had constructed a second house at 23

 

Cottage Place on the northern half of the lot. Tenants at 29 Cottage Place included carpenter John W. Guyon who resided there from around 1892 to around 1894. By 1899 No. 29 was being leased by Frederick Schmidt , a German- immigrant worker in a plaster mill, who resided in the house with his wife Annie and their three children. In 1918 the Schmidts' daughter Lena Sophia Schmidt purchased the house from Elizabeth Bruce Decker, David Decker's widow. It remained in the ownership of the Schmidt family until 1941.

 

The Design of 29 Cottage Place

 

Built on a shallow lot that only extended back about 35-40 feet from the street, 29 Cottage Place is a relatively modest frame house with a three-bay-wide, one-room-deep, two- story gable-roofed front section and a shed-roofed 1/ story rear wing. The house's most distinctive features are the slightly curved profile of the front slope of its roof, which is probably the remnant of a flared projecting spring eave, its Greek Revival entrance surround, and its shed- roofed rear wing.

 

Curved roof slopes were a relatively common feature for vernacular Staten Island buildings in the first half of the 19th century where they invariably terminated in flared overhanging eaves. Flared projecting spring or bell-cast eaves were widely used on Staten Island from the late 17th century on and became firmly embedded in Staten Island building tradition. The earliest surviving example of a spring eave on Staten Island is found on the Billop House , at the southern tip of Staten Island. It has a relatively slight flare since the eaves extend a little more than a foot beyond the font wall. Used with both gable and gambrel roofs, the spring eave on Staten Island and elsewhere in the New Netherland area, evolved into a deeper overhang over the course of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Supported at the front by posts, it eventually formed a fa9ade-wide covered porch on the building's principal elevation.

 

The introduction of the Greek Revival style to Staten Island coincided with the island's transition, initiated by the introduction of regular steam ferry service, from a sparsely settled, largely agricultural community to the home of several major institutions and large-scaled planned developments, such as New Brighton, Stapleton, and Port Richmond. Much of the new development was designed for wealthy New York City merchants, who were aware of the latest architectural styles. Beginning in the 1820s and proliferating in the 1830s, knowledgeable versions of the fashionable Greek style were employed for both residential and institutional buildings. In the 1840s and 1850s the Greek Revival was supplanted by more picturesque styles, including the Gothic Revival and Italianate, for prestigious architect designed commissions but in those same decades the Greek Revival was taken up by local Staten Island builders and blossomed in vernacular houses built by the hundreds from one end of the island to the other.

 

While most of Staten Island's vernacular Greek Revival dwellings employ a simplified version of the style, it is evident that the columned facades of the island's high style residences and institutional buildings erected in the 1830s had a significant impact. Although there were exceptions, local builders did not, on the whole, attempt to duplicate the columned porticos of such buildings as the Caleb Ward House or the temple-fronted residences built on Richmond Terrace in New Brighton during the 1830s. Instead they applied the traditional deep spring eave to a standard 19th century residential design - a longitudinally planned, two-story house of three or five bays. The spring eave was carried on giant supports to form a fa9ade- wide quadristyle or hexastyle portico. Dozens of residences employing this combination of Greek Revival Style porticos and spring eaves were built on all sections of the island. The curved slope of the roof of 29 Cottage Place, the current termination of eaves in a simple fascia board nailed to exposed rafters rather than a decorative cornice, and the depictions of this house with a front porch on early maps all argue for this house having been originally built following this vernacular tradition with a spring-eaved quadristyle porch. Most likely, the spring eave, porch columns, and porch floor were removed in 1920 when the house was raised three feet necessitating the construction of a new porch.

 

This house also features a Greek Revival entrance surround with narrow sidelights and a transom, which retain their historic fenestration. Articulated with Tuscan pilasters, paneled dados, and simple moldings this handsome surround reflects the Greek Revival preference for simple forms and flat surfaces.

 

Another unusual vernacular feature of the design is the asymmetrical gabled roof with a short pitch in front and longer slope at the rear. Known as a saltbox roof in New England and a catslide roof in the South, such roofs were a fairly common feature of colonial and early nineteenth century houses with the lower lean-to-roofed area at the rear invariably used for service rooms and kitchens. Early examples on Staten Island included the rear addition of the Billop House, depicted in an engraving published in 1846, and the Abraham Bodine House, formerly located on Harbor Road north of Forest Avenue in Mariners Harbor. At 29 Cottage Place the shed roof rear wing was built with a change in slope causing a break in the roofline. The photograph files at the Staten Island Museum contain a number of images of mid-19th- century houses, all probably now demolished, that are similar in form to 29 Cottage Place with two-story side-gabled main blocks, and one or 1/ story rear shed-roofed wings and a similar break in the slope of their rooflines. These include the Braisted farmhouse in Watchogue, the Seaver House at 1718 Richmond Road, and a house on the south side of Old Place Road. The Seaver House and the Old Place Road house also had spring-eaved porches and shed-roofed rear wings and were probably very similar in profile to 29 Cottage Place prior to its being altered. The William H. Rutan House at 6 Shore Road in Conference House Park at Tottenville is a larger version of the saltbox house with a spring-eaved portico. It is five bays wide, has a 2/ story main block resting on a banked stone basement, and a two story rear wing. The main portion of Decker farmhouse at 435 Richmond Hill Road was enlarged and remodeled in the 1840s to create a saltbox with a spring-eaved portico. With a 1/ story main block and one story rear wing it is even smaller in scale than 29 Cottage Place. Today the saltbox house type is becoming increasingly rare in Staten Island and the 29 Cottage Place House appears to be one of the few surviving examples on the North Shore, thus, though altered the 29 Cottage Place House, which retains its original massing and distinctive roofline, is a significant reminder of Staten Island's vernacular traditions.

 

Later History

 

In 1920 two years after this house was purchased by Lena Schmidt she conveyed the property to her mother Anna Schmidt. That year the Schmidts made a number of changes to the house in keeping with the then popular Craftsman Style. These included raising the house three feet so that it rested on a basement of rusticated concrete blocks and replacing the front porch with a one-story flat-roofed porch with square posts and clapboard balustrades. While the house seems to have retained its original fenestration pattern, most of the window openings were slightly enlarged and received new surrounds and windows. The c. 1940 tax photos shows that the windows had paired casements topped by narrow transoms. The main entry retained its Greek Revival surround but its original door was replaced by a multi-light wood-and-glass door. The front eaves were removed and the rafter boards exposed. The original clapboards were replaced with shingles , which were painted or stained a dark color with the window and porch trim painted a lighter shade, following the preferred fashion for Craftsman houses.

 

After her husband died and her children moving to their own homes, Anna Schmidt continued to occupy this house, supplementing her income by taking in boarders. In 1930, when the census was taken, she had two lodgers, both immigrant carpenters from Norway. Anna Schmidt died in 1940 and the house passed to her daughter Lena who sold it to Ethel I. Lawes in 1941. Ethel Lawes resided in the house until 1963 when it was purchased by Sidney and Ethel Barr. John Foxell, the present owner, acquired the house in 1986 and has made a number of changes to the exterior and grounds, including constructing prayer and spirit houses on the grounds and signage commemorating the Catholic activist and journalist Dorothy Day, who had a cottage at Spanish Camp on Staten Island. Despite these changes the house retains its original form and fenestration pattern and sufficient Greek Revival and Craftsman details to be a significant reminder of Port Richmond's and Staten Island's vernacular architecture.

 

Description

 

Historic: Two-story frame vernacular Greek Revival saltbox with Craftsman elements from 1920 remodeling; house raised in 1920s; rusticated cast block basement; three-bay front facade; one-story 1920s wood front porch; main entrance in southern bay; Greek Revival entrance surround with original sidelights and transom; 1920s eight-light paneled wood door; original fenestration pattern ; 1920s window frames; wood four-light storms; side gable roof with curved slope at front on main block; shed roofed 1/ story rear service wing; some sections of roof eaves retain historic wood moldings.

 

Alterations: House faced with replacement clapboard ; basement masonry painted; basement windows sealed; stained glass in most first- and second-story windows, front porch trim added, signage; stoop and rails replaced; light fixture; mailbox; framed serape representing Our Lady of Guadalupe.

 

South wall: Basement entrance hatch; first floor entry with wood deck and stoop; wood shutters first and second-story windows; light fixture near entry.

 

North wall: first floor entry with wood stoop and landing; light fixture; wood shutters first and second story windows; through wall air-conditioners; signage.

 

Roof: Asphalt shingles, vent pipe with weather vane at south west corner roof; chimney box vent with weather vane at center of ridgeline; brick chimney at rear; vents sealed on rear slope

 

Site:

 

Historic: House faces Cottage Place; bluestone sidewalks.

 

Alterations: Wood fence at front; side and rear wood fences; wrought iron and masonry benches; wood, glass, and shingle prayer house and wood, glass, and shingle spirit house , sign board, mail box stanchion, metal and glass, metal lamp posts; sun dial.

Grand Concourse, The Bronx, New York City, New York, United States

 

The Andrew Freedman Home, one of the most impressive edifices built in The Bronx during the first decades of the twentieth century, was erected in 1922-24 (and enlarged in 1928-31) as a result of a generous bequest in the will of Andrew Freedman. Freedman, a capitalist who had a close relationship with the leaders of Tammany Hall, was involved with many profitable business ventures, notably the construction of the IRT, New York City's first subway line. He left most of his fortune for the establishment of a home for "aged and indigent persons of both sexes," but with the proviso that the residents of the home be poor people who had once been in good circumstances. The Board of Trustees, led by prominent lawyer Samuel Untermyer, purchased a large plot of land on the Grand Concourse, the most prestigious street in the Bronx, and commissioned a building from two notable New York architects - Joseph H. Freedlander and Harry Allan Jacobs.

 

The home is an exceptional example of a monumental building which, through its symmetrical massing, fenestration, and handsome detail, recalls the tradition of the Italian Renaissance palazzo. Its design displays many handsome architectural features, including a recessed loggia, balustraded terrace, finely cut stonework, and beautifully wrought, iron detail. The elegantly appointed building functioned as a refuge for the once affluent for fifty-nine years, from its opening in 1924 until 1983 when the Andrew Freedman Home ceased to operate and the building was purchased by the Mid-Bronx Senior Citizens Council as housing for the elderly.

 

The Grand Concourse

In 1874, when New York City annexed the West Bronx (the area west of the Bronx River officially known as the 23rd and 24th Wards, but generally referred to by nineteenth-century New Yorkers as the "North Side" or, more commonly, as the "Annexed District"), it was a sparsely settled region with few urban amenities.^ Following the annexation, residents of both Manhattan and the new wards advocated the establishment of large parks in the undeveloped region. In 1884, the New York State Legislature approved the purchase of approximately 4000 acres of parkland, primarily in the North Bronx. ^ This land was relatively inaccessible to most residents of the city since no roads or mass transit lines linked Manhattan to the new parkland. Thus, in 1890 the legislature established the Department of Street Improvements of the 23rd and 24th Wards with a mandate to lay out streets throughout the annexed district; the department's finest achievement was the Grand Concourse which made the new Bronx parks accessible from Manhattan.

 

The first commissioner of the new department was Louis J. Heintz who appointed Louis Risse as his chief engineer; it was Risse who was directly responsible for the planning of the Concourse. The inspiration for the Grand Concourse was the campaign waged by the Rider and Driver Club of New York City for the construction of a speedway on which its wealthy members could run horses and carriages. After facing opposition to the idea of a speedway along the west side of Central Park, the club began to advocate a speedway along Jerome Avenue in The Bronx. Heintz asked Risse for his opinion and, according to Risse,"... I was giving serious consideration to the necessity of supplying that missing link between the upper and lower park systems [Central Park and the Bronx parks] which the Commission had failed to provide in 1884.*"* Instead of Jerome Avenue, which is located on level ground near the Harlem River, Risse proposed that a "Speedway and Concourse" be erected on the ridge to the east.

 

The street that Risse proposed was to be more than just a speedway for pleasure driving and a convenient connection to the Bronx parks; it was also to be a luxurious residential boulevard. Risse contended that 'the great enhancement in real estate values which the construction of the Concourse must necessarily produce will repay the City many times over the original cost of the undertaking.*^

 

In fact, when Risse laid out the Concourse, he planned secondary roadways adjacent to the sidewalks that could be used by local traffic servicing the villas that were expected to appear along the roadway.

 

Plans for the new Grand Boulevard and Concourse (the name was later shortened to Grand Concourse) were drawn up in 1893. Construction began in 1897 and progressed slowly; the Concourse was not officially opened until November 25,1909. As originally constructed, the Grand Concourse consisted of a fifty-eight-foot wide central speedway with a narrow central mall and thirty-seven-foot wide service roads separated from the main roadway by six-foot wide malls (these malls were subsequently altered). It was planned to provide pedestrian sidewalks and promenades, bicycle paths, and vehicular driveways. The roadway began at Cedar Park on East 161st Street and extended north to Mosholu Parkway. In 1924, the Concourse was extended to the south as far as East 138th Street.

 

The large freestanding villas that Risse had envisioned were never built. Rather, apartment houses became virtually the exclusive type of residential construction along the Concourse when real estate development began in the second decade of the twentieth century. These buildings include modest five-story walk-ups and more impressive six-story elevator buildings. In addition to the apartment houses, a few public and institutional buildings were erected along the Concourse; the Andrew Freedman Home is the largest on the original length of the street.^

 

Andrew Freedman

The Andrew Freedman Home was founded as a result of an unusual bequest in the will of wealthy capitalist Andrew Freedman (1860-1915). Freedman was a native New Yorker who was educated in the city's public schools before beginning employment in a local dry goods store. He dabbled in law before entering the Held of real estate. Freedman was extremely successful in his real estate ventures, "by ways," according to one biographer, "that are no longer traceable

 

Freedman was allied with the Democratic party and with the leadership of Tammany Hall. He was a close friend and advisor to Tammany boss Richard Croker and was intimately involved in many financially lucrative Tammany schemes, although the exact nature of most of Freedman's financial dealings remains a mystety. An example of the financial alliance between Croker and Freedman came to light in 1900 during a New York State Assembly investigation into New York City's government. Freedman was a vice-president of the United States Fidelity & Casualty Company which bonded New York City employees. He obtained this bonding contract through Croker's influence. When questioned about this arrangement, Freedman admitted that he presented a portion of his commissions to Croker though he refused to say how much money had exchanged hands, telling the investigator 'that I wouldn't care to tell you because I don't want to let you know how much money I carry on my person.'**

 

Freedman was also a key player in the construction of the original subway line built by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company. His obituary opens by stating that he "did more perhaps than any other man to make possible the subway system in this city."*° However, Freedman's involvement was primarily behind the scenes. In a speech delivered at the opening ceremonies for the subway, August Belmont, the system's principal financial backer, commented that Freedman, although unheralded, deserved a fair share of the praise and credit since he was "among the first to appreciate the practicability of the project."**

Exactly what role Freedman played in the construction of the IRT and how this relates to Tammany Hall is not clearly understood. The story that is generally told is that it was he who brought the contractor John B. McDonald and financier August Belmont together. One version of the story recounts that Freedman urged McDonald to bid on the subway contract, promising him financial backing. He then formed a group that put up $150,000 for the bid and when additional financing was needed, persuaded August Belmont to become the project's major backer.*^ A variant has it that MacDonald went to Freedman requesting that he assist in raising the necessary deposit of $150,000. Freedman pledged $45,000 of his own money and found four friends willing to invest. On the day that the deposit was due, the group was still short $50,000 when Freedman thought of Belmont, another loyal Tammany supporter, who immediately "arranged

for the cash,. .. without reading the contract, and without any further talk."

 

There is probably little truth in these dramatic stories of three heroic individuals (McDonald, Freedman, and Belmont) selflessly advancing money for the great subway construction project. As Wallace B. Katz has noted in his detailed investigation of the subway's construction, "this is a wonderful story, one that deserves to be part of the folklore of American Capitalism, but it lacks plausibility."**

 

Freedman, Belmont, McDonald, and the other four investors were all Tammany leaders and were undoubtedly well acquainted with each other. Tammany's involvement in the bidding was well known. In January 1900, when the bids for subway construction were received, the financiers' names were not known, but it was reported in the Mm York 7vHM that McDonald was "a Tammany contractor."*^ Katz concludes that "Belmont, McDonald, and Freedman maintained their stOTy concerning the origins of their partnership during the next twenty years, through civil suits and governmental investigations.... [since] it allowed the participants to this deal to deny what was both plausible and very likely true, that Belmont, Tammany, and the RTC [Rapid Transit Commission] had prearranged the entire matter."*^ Freedman continued to be closely involved with the subway, in particular as a director of companies responsible for much of the construction work.*^

 

The construction of the IRT was not Freedman's only major financial project. He was, for example, involved with the Shuberts in the construction of Broadway theaters. The Booth (1912-13), Shubert (1912-13), 44th Street (1912-13; demolished), and Little (1912; now Helen Hayes) theaters are said to have been financed by a syndicate composed of Freedman, lawyer Samuel Untermyer (see below), and Cincinnati political boss George B. Cox.*^ To his contemporaries, Freedman was probably best known as the owner of the New York Baseball Club, commonly known as the "Giants," from 1894 until 1902. Freedman's tenure as owner of the Giants was not without conflict, as reported by Harold Seymour in his history of baseball:

Freedman's irascible personality,

quick temper, and aggressiveness

had him in constant trouble. . . . His turbulent years as Giant owner (many charged that he was only a front man for others) kept the League in constant turmoil, and made the New York observation that he had "an astonishing faculty for making enemies* seem like a gross understatement.

 

The Andrew Freedman Home

On December 8,1915, several weeks after his death, Andrew Freedman's will was made public.

 

Freedman left a sizable bequest to his brother Daniel, established a trust for his mother and sister, left small amounts of money to seven local homes and hospitals,^ and gave gifts to friends, including a bequest of a pair of large white pearl shirt buttons to Richard Croker. The bulk of Freedman's estate was to be used for the incorporation of the Andrew Freedman Home "for the free and gratuitous reception, shelter, nourishment, care and maintenance of aged and indigent persons of both sexes, and without regard to race or religious creed... [with the proviso that the selection of residents be confined to those].. . who have been in good circumstances but by reason of adverse fortune, have become poor and dependent, and that in case of husband and wife being received into the institution, provisions shall be made so that they may dwell together therein."^ The initial bequest to the new home totalled approximately $5,000,(XX) with additional funds to be added to the trust upon the death of his mother and sister.

Exactly why Freedman established this rather unusual charitable institution when he drew up his will in 1907 is not known. According to DeLancey Nicoll, a business associate of Freedman's, speaking at the opening ceremonies for the Andrew Freedman Home, "I always urged that he give his money to the unusual charities. He would say: 'No: the sick and the poor are cared for by everybody else now. Nobody has offered any refuge for people of this kind, and they need one even more than other unfortunates.'"^ His sister, Isabella Freedman, explained that "he believed that the worthy habits and traditions of affluence and refinement deserve recognition and

respect, and that people possessing them should not be allowed to live in penury.*^

 

The man most responsible for the organization of the Andrew Freedman Home and the construction of its building was Freedman's friend, business partner, and executor Samuel Untermyer (1858-1940). Untermyer, who became the first president of the Home's Board of Trustees, was one of the most prominent lawyers of his time. He was also close to the leaders of Tammany Hall and it is probably through this political connection that Untermyer and Freedman became friends.

 

Untermeyer developed Freedman's concept of a home for the once wealthy into one that sought to assist those who had not only been affluent, but were also cultured "gentlefolk." The qualifications for admission promulgated by the original trustees stated that, "the Home is intended for aged and indigent gentlefolk. This has been interpreted by the Board of Directors (sic) to mean that the applicants are to be persons of culture, education, and refinement."^ Although Freedman had ordered the novel requirement that couples be allowed to live together, it was Untermyer and the trustees who decided that admission to the home would be primarily for couples. Additional requirements were that new residents had to be between the ages of sixty and eighty, in good health, and had to have enough money for clothing and other personal expenses. With the exception of the personal allowance, all facilities, including room and board, were free.

 

In 1916, the Trustees obtained a Special Act of the Legislature that incorporated the home.^ The site, a large block bounded by the Grand Concourse, Walton Avenue, East 166th Street, and McClellan Street, was purchased by the Andrew Freedman Home in 1917.^ Construction was delayed by World War I and did not actually begin until 1922.^ The original section of the Home, the Italian Renaissance-inspired central pavilion designed by Joseph H. Freedlander and Harry Allan Jacobs, was dedicated on May 25, 1924. At the opening ceremony it was announced that "two wings would eventually be added to the present building."^ Construction of the north and south wings began in 1928. Instead of Freedlander and Jacobs, architect David Levy was commissioned to design the additions

Although an institution, the Andrew Freedman Home was planned to be as much like a private house as possible. The interiors (not subject to this designation) were decorated by the prestigious interior design firm of L. Alavoine & Co. Public facilities on the first floor included a large living room "which in its decorations and its furnishings is all that might be expected in a fine and expensively equipped private home" (it had Georgian style furniture, chandeliers, and fireplace); an oak-paneled library; card and billiard rooms; and a spacious dining room decorated with chinoiserie.^ Sleeping rooms were located on the second and third floors. Married couples could live in a double room with a private bath or in two single rooms with a shared bath; single people also had their own rooms, but two singles shared a bath. Those who lived in the home were never referred to as 'inmates* (a word often applied to people living in institutions), but were always called "members," as if they resided in a private clubhouse.

 

In exchange for free residence in the home, members had to abide by a series of rules. Among the rules were those that forbade tipping or reprimanding the employees, required all meals be taken in the dining room (only tea, coffee, and related snacks could be eaten in private rooms), and permitted members to take a vacation of up to four weeks per year.^

 

The first seventeen "members" -- five couples, five single women, and two single men - moved into the home in July, 1917. Although the contemporary press referred to the home as a retreat for former millionaires, the early residents mostly came from more modest backgrounds: jeweler, dressmaker, doctor, nurse, teacher, businessman, etc.^* Others who moved in later included engineers, politicians, actors, opera singers, and journalists. In the years before the home closed, many residents were German and Austrian Jewish refugees. At its peak, after the completion of the side wings in 1928, the home could accommodate about 130 residents.

 

The Architects^

 

The two architects who were responsible for the design of the original section of the Andrew Freedman Home, Joseph Henry Freedlander (1870-1943) and Harry Allan Jacobs (1872-1932), were, by the 1920s, well-known members of New York's architectural establishment. This is the only project on which the two collaborated, although they undoubtedly were familiar with one another. Both architects were about the same age and both had attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. They were members of many of the same professional organizations, including the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects and the Architectural League of New York.

 

Joseph Freedlander was the more prominent and more talented of the two designers. He was bom in New York City and studied at M.I.T. before entering the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 1895 Freedlander became one of the first three Americans to actually complete the Ecole curriculum and receive a diploma.^ He retained a deep affinity for the Ecole and for Beaux-Arts practices. Shortly after returning to New York he established an afcRfr that reproduced the French system of training.^ Later, he served as president of the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects and was a founder and president of the American Soci6t4 des Architected Dipl6mes par le Gouvemement Franca is (American Group), organized by those who had received Ecole diplomas.

 

Freedlander was proficient in designing many different types of buildings and able to utilize diverse historic architectural styles. His Ecole training allowed him to excel in competitions, and many of his commissions were won in this manner. Among Freedlander's extant buildings in New York City are those for the New Harlem Hospital (1905, with later additions, demolished in part), the George Engel House at 17 East 74th Street (1920-21; located within the Upper East Side Historic District), the French Institute of the United States at 22 East 60th Street (1924), and the Museum of the City of New York (1928-30; a designated New York City Landmark). Outside of New York, he won competitions for the St. Louis Club (1897); the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Johnson City, Tennessee (1904); the Perry Memorial and International Peace Memorial (1912-15) at Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie near Cleveland; the Portland Auditorium, Portland Oregon (1912); and the White Plains Municipal Building (1924-26).

 

He was also responsible for a major expansion of the spa at Saratoga Springs (1933-36). In addition, Freedlander designed three of the largest buildings erected in the Bronx in the 1920s and early 1930s -- the Freedman Home, the Bronx County Building (1931-35), and the Bronx County Jail (1931 37), the last two designed in association with Max Hausle.

 

Harry Allan Jacobs was also a native New Yorker. He studied at the Columbia School of Mines and then at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and was a winner of the American Academy's Prix de Rome. Although he designed commercial buildings, his specialty was town houses, including sixteen buildings and facade alterations in what is now the Upper East Side Historic District.

 

Freedlander and Jacobs probably became associated on the design of the Andrew Freedman Home through their personal contacts with important members of the home's Board of Trustees. Samuel Untermyer had been one of Joseph Freedlander's earliest clients. Shortly after Freedlander opened his office, he was commissioned by Untermyer to redesign Greystone, his home in Yonkers.^ One of Harry Allan Jacobs's first town houses was the Charles S. Guggenheimer House at 129 East 73rd Street of 1907 (this house is in the Upper East Side Historic District). Guggenheimer, who was a member of the Board of Trustees, was the son of Samuel Untermyer's half-brother and law partner Randolph Guggenheimer.^

 

Little is known about David Levy, the architect of the wings. He was in independent practice ior a brief period between 1928 and 1933.^ His most notable commission was the Jewish Theological Seminary (1930), where he was associated with the firm of Gehron, Ross & Alley.

 

Design of the Andrew Freedman Home

 

The Andrew Freedman Home is characteristic of the traditional design found in New York during the 1920s. Almost all of the New York architects in the forefront of their profession during that decade had studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts or in American architecture schools with Beaux-Arts curricula. Many had also traveled extensively in Europe and had a first-hand knowledge of the great monuments of that continent. Freedlander and Jacobs were both well trained and well traveled, and their design for the Andrew Freedman House reflects their Beaux-Arts education and the influence of European architectural precedents.

 

Following principles expounded at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the Andrew Freedman Home is a building rooted in the traditions of European architecture. It is not, however, a copy of a specific building from the past. The design borrows freely from Italian Renaissance precedents, rearranging forms into a regularized and rigidly symmetrical composition. The major inspiration is the Palazzo Famese in Rome (c.1535) with its three-story massing, long thirteen-bay wide facade organization, and its ^tano ncMf articulated by rectangular windows with alternating triangular and segmentally-arched pediments.

 

While the Palazzo Famese was clearly the prototype, many other features of the home differ from the model: the somewhat elongated rustication of the first-story openings resembles that around the second-story windows of the Palazzo Gondi, Florence; the lamps flanking each entrance are modeled on that at the corner of the Palazzo Strozzi; and the tripartite arched loggia overlooking Walton Avenue resembles arcades, porches, and loggias found on many Italian Renaissance buildings. Not only does the design successfully combine features from a number of Renaissance precedents, but it also melds the rectilinear, balanced form of Italian Renaissance urban palazzi, such as the Palazzo Famese, with the setting and terraces of a rural villa. While the design relies on historical sources, the construction technology was modem; the Home is a steel-frame, fireproof structure with concrete floors and terracotta and brick partitions.

 

Description

 

The Andrew Freedman Home is located on a sloping site on the west side of the Grand Concourse; Walton Avenue is at a considerably lower elevation than the Concourse. The lot has a varied topography with a major rock outcropping near East 166th Street. Stone and concrete retaining walls run along the south and west sides of the lot and along the Grand Concourse just north of 166th Street. The building is sited near the west side of the lot, close to Walton Avenue, with a lawn and garden separating the home from the Concourse. The building is three stories facing the Concourse and four stories facing Walton Avenue. The structure consists of the original rectangular section dating from 1922-24 and the rectangular north and south wings added in 1928-31.

 

The original building is a symmetrical structure separated from the garden by a wide terrace with limestone balustrade railings. A broad flight of stone stairs, set in the center of the terrace, extends into the garden. At either end of the terrace are subsidiary stairs that connect with pedestrian walkways leading from the Concourse. Carved stone urns flank each of the stairs. The home is clad entirely in pale limestone/* The front facade of the original section is thirteen bays wide, with a rusticated ground story and smooth limestone ashlar above; quoins mark each of the comers of the building. The first story is articulated by round-arched openings, including windows with multipane wood casement sash and fixed wood transoms and a pair of entrances set into the shallow projecting fourth and tenth bays. Each entrance arch has a projecting keystone that visually supports a balustrade railing. Set within the entrances are omate iron double doors with iron transoms; pairs of iron lamps flank the entrances.

 

These wrought-iron elements and the iron canopies and window guards found elsewhere on the building were the work of FerTO Studio, Inc. The windows light the library (at the south end of the facade), the card room (at the north), and the living room (in the center).

 

Two modest beltcourses separate the first and second stories. The rectangular second-story windows, with their multipane wood sash, are alternately capped by segmentally-arched and triangular pediments, each supported on modest brackets. The rectangular, multipane, third-story windows have no enframements. The facade is crowned by a deep copper cornice with a tall parapet that hides the fourth story. Three tall chimneys rise above the slightly sloping roof.

 

The side elevations of the original section, which are now concealed by the wings, were originally three bays wide and continued the main design features of the front facade. Balconies projected in front of the central windows on the second and third stories of the north elevation.^

 

The rear facade of the original section, facing Walton Avenue, is a full four stories tall (plus the attic level set behind the parapet) and is massed with two-story projecting three-bay wide arms at either end. The ground story is the main entrance for those arriving by automobile. The driveway begins on McClellan Street, near Walton Avenue, and extends to a wide turn around in front of the central entrance. The rusticated ground story has a rectangular entrance with iron doors and a transom and an iron canopy (a wooden shelter has been constructed beneath this canopy). Flanking the entrance are pairs of rectangular windows with omate iron grilles. The focal point of this facade is a triple-arched loggia with French doors and iron railings located above the entrance. The loggia is flanked by niches and pairs of round-arched windows. The upper stories are articulated in a manner identical to that on the front.

 

The concrete retaining wall along Walton Avenue is pierced by the entrance to a passage that connects to the basement of the building, allowing goods to be delivered and garbage to be removed without disturbing the residents.

 

The north and south wings were designed in a style to match the original building. They are also clad in stone, but the stone is of a somewhat more yellow shade. The front facade of each of the two wings is six bays wide and is articulated in a manner similar to the original section. The openings of the first story of the north wing take the same form as those of the original building. In the south wing, the first story has six rectangular windows set within blind arches; three smaller rectangular openings also articulate this story. The upper stories of the wings have crisply-cut rectangular windows; there are no pediments at the second-story openings. As on the first story, each upper story of the south wing contains three smaller openings.

 

The rear facades of the wings are not symmetrical. The ground story of the north wing contains a mix of large and small windows and a single door. On the first story are round-arched windows (lighting the dining room) of the same type seen on the front facade. The two upper stories contain three groups of windows without enframements, each consisting of two large openings separated by a smaller window. The McClellan Street elevation of this wing is three bays wide and is articulated in a manner identical to that on the front elevation of this wing, except that the central window on the second story is capped by a pediment. On the rear facade of the south wing, the ground story also has openings of varying sizes, while the first story consists of rectangular windows set within the same type of blind stone arch seen on the wing's front elevation. Large and small windows alternate on the upper stories.

 

The south elevation, set on a rock outcropping high above East 166th Street, has a central door in the basement flanked by windows. The first story contains windows set in blind arches, while the central window on the second story is accented with a pediment.

 

The Andrew Freedman Home continued to serve its original function until 1983, when the increasing cost of maintaining the facility forced the home to close.^ The building was purchased by the Mid-Bronx Senior Citizens Council, a private not-for-profit organization that sponsors senior citizen housing projects in the Bronx. According to the Council's executive director at the time of the purchase: "our reopening of the home will insure the legacy of Andrew Freedman will continue to serve as a symbol of human dignity, but this time in a more universal sense because residents will come from different walks of life."** Although the building remained vacant for a period after its purchase by Mid-Bronx, it is now, once again, in use and its elegant rooms continue to serve the elderly.

 

- From the 2000 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Hans Holbein the younger

Thomas Wriothesley (1505–1550), First Earl of Southampton [1535]

New York Metropolitan Museum of Art; AN 25.205

*************************************************************************************************

This miniature, which is widely ascribed to Holbein, is based on a drawing by him in the Louvre, Paris. It has apparently been cut down to fit an oval frame. Wriothesley (1508–1550), who was Lord Chancellor and Keeper of the Great Seal, acted as Henry VIII's executor and privy counselor to Edward VI.

 

A comparison of the sizes to a Darth Vader minifigure

"Here lieth entombed James Harington esq: the youngest sone of Sir James Harington of Exton, knight, & Frauncis his first wife, one of ye daughters & coheires of Robert Sapcots of Elton in countie of Huntingdon esq: by whome he had issue sixteen children viz. nyne sones & seaven daughters which said Fraunces deceased in September 1599 and the said James Harington decessed the 2 of February 1613"

Monument erected in his lifetime probably on the death of Frances.

 

James was the son of Sir James Harington and Lucy www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/03e3L7 daughter of Sir William Sydney & Anne daughter of Hugh Pakenham / Packenham and Anne Clement

He m Frances was the daughter of Robert Sapcote 1600 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/8U15k6 and either Catherine or Eleanor daughters of William Prestland

Children - 9 sons & 7 daughters

1. Edward 2nd bart 1574-1653 m Margery daughter of John D'Oyley +++ & Anne Bernard

2. Sir Sapcote Harington of Rand 1586-1629 m1 Jane 1619 flic.kr/p/4iVR8s daughter of Sir William Samwell of Upton 1628, Auditor of the Exchequer to Queen Elizabeth m2 Jane Woodward

3.John 1611-dsp 1662 m Frances daughter of Terringham Norwood of Ashwood

4. William

5. Robert

6. Henry

7. James

1. Theodosia b1584 m Henry Ascough / Ayscough of Blyborough

2. Bridget m Sir Anthony Markham of Sedgebrook son of John Markham & Mary daughter of Sir Anthony Thorold 1594 flic.kr/p/qZmVLP of Marston Thorold

3. Anne m1 Sir Thomas Foljambe m2 Sir John Molyneux of Haughton

4. Eleanor m Sir Henry Clinton

 

He m2 1601 Anne 1629 daughter of Francis Bernard of Abington, Widow of John D'oyley of Merton +++ who m3 Sir Henry Poole of Kemble & Oaksey 1632 widower of Griselda daughter of Sir Edward Neville, 7th baron Abergavenny and Catherine Brome

(Anne was the sister in law of Alice Chubnoll of Turvey flic.kr/p/hXBNdr 1st wife of her brother Richard Bernard )

 

Early in 1603 he travelled north with his brother to meet the new King James from Scotland, who knighted him at Grimston Yorkshire, and he was among the first baronets, paying a first instalment of £360. .

Calling himself ‘a worm and no man, clothed with earth, full of sin’, he asked to be buried with ‘as little cost as may be’. Though wealthy he left only 40s. to the poor of Ridlington and a similar sum to those of Merton. Having assured his principal estates to his son Edward, he bequeathed a life interest in Thornbury and Morton to his wife, together with household stuff. He provided annuities for his wife and 4 of his younger sons, and left Gunthorpe, Knossington, Oldebury and a few small properties, in all worth £10,000, to his executors, his sons Edward and Sapcote, to pay his debts and legacies. These included £2,000 to one daughter, £1,000 to another, £500 to his second son, and £1,500 to his five youngest sons. He left a colt to his nephew Lord Harington and nominated him supervisor of the will.

www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member...

- Church of St Mary Magdalene & St Andrew, Ridlington Rutland

Face: Titan Silver

F: 20x9.5 +18 SCSL

R: 20x10.5 +18 SCSL

Civic Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

 

The 13-story (plus basement) Mutual Reserve Building (1892-94), located on the northwest corner of Broadway and Duane Street, is one of New York City's most significant examples of a tall late-19th-century office building designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque Revival style. The two designed facades feature granite and limestone cladding, rusticated piers, foliate carving, and arcaded base and upper sections. The architect, William H. Hume, was best known in his day for commercial and institutional work, and this is his most important extant commission.

 

The building is notable as an early steel cage- framed structure in New York, constructed just prior to the full development of the skyscraper. The builder was the eminent Richard Deeves, while the prominent consulting structural engineer was Frederick H. Kindl, chief engineer of the Carnegie Steel Co. The Mutual Reserve Building was owned, until 1920, by the grandchildren of the immensely wealthy Boston merchant shipping magnate and shipbuilder, William F. Weld.

 

The initial principal tenant of the building was the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association, launched in 1881 with the intention of offering life insurance at cost and called by King's Handbook of New York in 1892 "the largest purely mutual natural-premium life-association in the world." Mutual Reserve only lasted until 1909, however,

 

and the structure was re-named the Langdon Building. It has housed many other tenants, including firms and organizations associated with the publishing and paper trades, as well as many lawyers' offices, and was the first long-term home of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (1967-80). The original main and auxiliary entrances on Broadway were altered and eliminated, respectively (c. 1923). The Mutual Reserve Building is also significant as a survivor among the 19th-century insurance industry buildings along Broadway in this vicinity, which include the Home Life Insurance Co. Building (1892-94, Napoleon le Brun & Sons), No. 256, and New York Life Insurance Co. Building (1894-99, Stephen Decatur Hatch with McKim, Mead & White), No. 346.

 

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

 

William F. Weld Estate

 

The Mutual Reserve Building was commissioned by the Estate of William F. Weld. One of America's most successful merchant shipping magnates and shipbuilders, William Fletcher Weld (1800-1881), the proprietor of William F. Weld & Co. in Boston, operated one of the largest fleets in the country, including the Senator (1833), one of the largest ships of its era. His trade was centered in the Canary Islands, East and West Indies, Manila, and Singapore. Merchants in both Boston and New York City had created immense wealth based on commerce with Europe, the Caribbean, and Asia starting in the 18th century - participation in the trans-Atlantic "triangular trade" became an integral part of both cities' economies. These merchants were significant in this highly lucrative Europe-Africa-Americas shipping network that traded enslaved workers from Africa and the Caribbean, manufactured goods, and products from the Caribbean, such as sugar, rum, molasses, tobacco, rice, and cotton. Located closer to the West Indies, New York eventually surpassed Boston in the domination of the northern Atlantic coastal trade. This trade, in turn, spurred a number of profitable local industries, such as shipbuilding and food processing, particularly sugar refining, distilling molasses into rum, and the conversion of tobacco into snuff.

 

William F. Weld also invested in the construction of railroads, and became sole agent of the English firm of Thompson & Forman, producer of iron rails. After he retired from business in 1861, according to a biographical sketch, he "devoted himself largely to real estate, purchasing and building stores and warehouses in Boston and New York, a policy he directed, in his will, should be carried out by his trustees." He left an estate estimated to be about $21 million which, after various family and charitable bequests, was left to his four grandchildren (the two granddaughters when they reached the age of 25): William Fletcher Weld, Jr. (1855-1893), Charles Goddard Weld (18571911), Mary Bryant Pratt (later Sprague, then Brandegee)(1871-1956), and Isabel Weld Perkins (later Anderson)(1876-1948). His son, William Gordon Weld (1827-1896), grandson William F. Weld, Jr., and Samuel Johnson were the original executors of the estate.

 

In May 1888, the Weld Estate (on behalf of the four Weld grandchildren) purchased a lot for $350,000 at the northwest corner of Broadway and Duane Street, and in 1890 acquired a tiny adjacent interior lot. The Estate commissioned the construction of a speculative office building (the Mutual Reserve Building) in 1892. Following the death of William F. Weld, Jr., in 1893 and the transferral of Charles G. Weld's interest in 1901, this property was held by the trustees of Mary Bryant Pratt Sprague and Isabel Weld Perkins Anderson. It was transferred solely to Mary Bryant Pratt Brandegee in 1907. In 1891, Mary Bryant Pratt had married Charles Franklin Sprague (18571902), a wealthy Boston lawyer who, after his marriage, was said to have been the wealthiest man to serve in Congress. In 1904, Mary (called by the New York Times "one of the richest young widows in the country") married Edward Deshon Brandegee, a wholesale clothing manufacturer from Utica, New York. Mary Brandegee retained the 305 Broadway property until 1920.

 

The Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association

 

The original principal tenant of the Weld Estate's office building at 305 Broadway was the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association, which signed a 40-year lease for its home office that officially began on June 1, 1894. The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported in January 1892 that the rent would be "on a per cent basis of the total cost of the building, together with a percentage of the valuation -- $500,000 we believe -- of the land." According to an 1894 report, Mutual Reserve had contributed $408,297 towards the lease and the building's construction and furnishing. William H. Hume, the architect selected to design their headquarters, was listed as a director of the Association in an obituary.

 

Incorporated in 1875 and launched in 1881 with the intention of offering life insurance at cost, the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association was called by King's Handbook of New York in 1892 "the largest purely mutual natural-premium life-association in the world." Offering reduced premiums that allowed many people to be able to afford the cost of insurance, Mutual Reserve became one of the largest and most popular life insurance companies, with branches in Canada and Europe. The Association was previously located in the Potter Building on Park Row, and its founder and president was Edward Bascom Harper (1842-1895), who was succeeded in 1895 in the new building by Frederick A. Burnham. In 1892, the firm had $225 million worth of insurance coverage "in force", and by 1895 its coverage rose to $300 million.

 

Reports began to circulate by 1896, however, about a significant decrease in business, the depletion of reserves, rapid losses due to death benefit payouts, and excessive executive salaries, and the affairs of the Association were under investigation for several years. In 1902, the firm was re-incorporated as the Mutual Reserve Life Insurance Co., a "purely mutual life insurance institution" and New York's third largest. Complaints continued about the company's solvency, and after further investigations, indictments were made against Mutual Reserve's president and vice-president. The lease at 305 Broadway was renewed in 1908 at $60,000 a year, but the company was placed under receivership that year, then-president Archibald C. Haynes filed for bankruptcy, and former president Burnham was found dead, a possible suicide. The Mutual Reserve Life Insurance Co. was fully defunct by 1911.

 

The Mutual Reserve Building

 

Plans for the 13-story (plus basement) Mutual Reserve Building were filed by architect William H. Hume in June 1892, to cost an estimated $730,000. Construction began at the end of that month, but was ultimately greatly delayed due to steel and granite strikes. The builder, the eminent Richard Deeves, stated that "the Mutual Reserve Building... was about a year and a half under construction, but then we lost at least eight months in consequence of the strike at the Carnegie Iron and Steel Works." The Mutual Reserve Building was steel cage framed: the prominent consulting structural engineer, Frederick H. Kindl chief engineer of the Carnegie Steel Co., wrote that "this method of construction, that is, using steel beams and columns for framework, and supporting the walls at each floor level, has only of late been introduced extensively. ... Mutual Reserve Building... [is] of similar construction...." The stone contractor, Hanlein & Co., also executed the extensive Romanesque style ornamental carving. Dedicated on June 14, 1894, the building was officially completed in September.

 

Hume's design for the Mutual Reserve Building was comparable to, and undoubtedly influenced by, architect R.H. Robertson's first tall commercial structure completed two years earlier, the nine-story Lincoln Building (1889-90), 1-3 Union Square West. The architectural vocabulary of both buildings was influenced by the Richardsonian Romanesque style, named after one of America's greatest architects, Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886), who created an American interpretation of the Romanesque based on French and Italian prototypes. His Trinity Church (187377), Boston, as well as his many libraries and other buildings, firmly established Richardson's professional reputation and launched the popularity and influence of the style.

 

Following Richardson's precedent, many architects employed it in the 1880s and 90s for a wide variety of building types, ranging from mansions to courthouses, university structures, and railroad stations, and including some tall office buildings. The style was characterized by its appearance of massiveness and such features as rockfaced masonry and round-arched fenestration. In this period, as architects in New York City were still grappling with appropriate ways to design tall office structures and early skyscrapers, two features were commonly employed: multiple-story arcades on facades, and a tripartite base-shaft-capital arrangement associated with the classical column. The designs of both the Lincoln and Mutual Reserve Buildings merged these features through a horizontal layering of sections (an effect criticized by some contemporary architectural critics).

 

The Mutual Reserve Building's two designed granite- and limestone-clad facades are arranged with a six-story base, with arcades up to the fifth story, and rusticated piers; a six-story planar mid-section; and a one-story rusticated upper section with an arcade of windows and a tall balustraded parapet. Intricate Romanesque style foliate carving appears on such areas as the arches, column capitals, and cornices. King's Handbook (1892) had speculated that the proposed structure "will be one of the finest office-buildings in the city... the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association... is contributing a masterpiece of architecture to its artistic aspect." An observer at the New York Herald-Tribune in November 1893 expounded on the "model new office building" and its amenities:

 

The handsome new building of the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association... has aroused the admiration of all who have seen it. ... The exterior of the building is of a dignified and attractive Romanesque style of architecture. The material employed is Indiana limestone, which has given a rich architectural effect. The building is one of the best types of the new steel buildings, and is built in the most substantial manner. It is, in fact, a tremendous steel frame inclosed in a handsome stone casing, while the partitions and floors are of fire-proof brick. ... The building is provided with every convenience that skill and modern invention can give. Four swift-running Otis elevators will give the most rapid communication between the highest and lowest parts of the building. The offices will be heated by steam and lighted by electricity throughout, while the plumbing, ventilating and sanitary arrangements have received the most careful study. The unusually desirable situation of this building has enabled the architect, William H. Hume, to make all the offices light and well ventilated from the street, while large courts give good light to the other rooms in the building. All the windows of the building are the largest size.

 

After its completion, the New York Times in 1895 touted "this massive and impressive structure" as "an instance of genuinely fire-proof construction" that "closely approached the ideal of safe construction," while the National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (1897) noted that "towering above all the other buildings in its vicinity, its stately walls fittingly represent the solidity and permanence of the business for which it was erected." Mutual Reserve's slogan, "Founded Upon a Rock," seemed to mimic the solid Romanesque style of its home office. The firm occupied the second through fourth stories.

 

Not only is the Mutual Reserve Building one of New York City's most significant examples of a tall office building designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque Revival style, the structure is also notable as a survivor among the 19th-century insurance industry buildings along Broadway in

 

this vicinity, which also include the Home Life Insurance Co. Building (1892-94, Napoleon le Brun & Sons), No. 256, and New York Life Insurance Co. Building (1894-99, Stephen Decatur Hatch with McKim, Mead & White), No. 346.

 

Architect: William H. Hume

 

William Henry Hume (1834-1899), born in New York City, began an architectural practice here in 1855. Examples of his early commercial work in contemporary styles may be seen at 62 and 66 Perry Street (1866); 53 Lispenard Street (1867-68); 313 Church Street (1868-70); and 83-87, 89, and 66 Grand Street (1872, 1877, 1885), in the Greenwich Village, SoHo-Cast Iron, and Tribeca East Historic Districts. By the 1880s, Hume was receiving some highly noteworthy commercial and institutional commissions, including: the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society Asylum (1881-84; demolished), Broadway and West 136th Street; B. Altman Store addition (1887), 615-629 Sixth Avenue; Hotel Normandie (1887; demolished), Broadway and 38th Street; Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank (1887-89; demolished), 49-51 Chambers Street; Masonic Home and School (c. 1890; demolished), Utica, New York; H.C.F. Koch & Co. Store (1890-91), 132-140 West 125th Street; North River Savings Bank (1892; demolished), 266 West 34th Street; and Lotus Club (1893; demolished), 556 Fifth Avenue.

 

Hume designed William Waldorf Astor's 17-story New Netherland Hotel (1891-93; demolished), Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, touted as the world's tallest hotel at the time and an early steel cage-framed structure. The firm of William H. Hume & Son, formed in 1894 with Frederick Thomas Hume (1859-1934), was responsible for the Scotch Presbyterian Lecture Hall (1895; demolished), Central Park West and 95th Street; First Church of Christ Scientist (1896; demolished), 137 West 48th Street; Spingler Building (1896-97), 5 Union Square West; and Simpson, Crawford & Simpson Co. Store (1900-02), 635-649 Sixth Avenue. The firm continued until around 1910. The Mutual Reserve Building was one of the Hume's finest commissions and is his most important extant work.

 

Builder Richard Deeves and Consulting Engineer Frederick H. Kindl

 

The builder of the Mutual Reserve Building, Richard Deeves (1837-1919), was born in Dublin, Ireland, came to the United States in 1850, apprenticed as a mason with George S. Dixon, and soon became a builder, establishing his own firm in 1869. An early specialty was gasworks structures. He was responsible for the construction of countless notable residences, commercial buildings, and skyscrapers, examples of which included the Temple Court Building (1881-83, Silliman & Farnsworth), 3-9 Beekman Street (where he maintained an office); Randall Memorial Chapel and Music Hall (1890-92, Robert W. Gibson; chapel demolished), Sailors' Snug Harbor, Staten Island; and the Manhattan Life Insurance Co. Building (1893-94, [Francis H.] Kimball & [G. Kramer] Thompson, with engineer Charles Sooysmith; demolished), 64-66 Broadway. Richard Deeves & Son, with J[ohn]. Henry Deeves, "mason builders and general contractors," was formed by 1895. One of its projects was the American Seamen's Friend Society Sailors' Home and Institute (1907-08, William A. Boring), 505-507 West Street. Richard Deeves had his office in the Mutual Reserve Building from its completion until at least 1914.

 

Frederick Henry Kindl (1863-1914), born in Austria, immigrated to the United States as a boy in 1873, and graduated from the Case School of Applied Science (1884), Cleveland. After working as an engineer in Chicago for several years, he moved to Pittsburgh, where he became Structural and Chief Engineer of the Carnegie Steel Co. Kindl is considered one of the seminal

 

pioneers of the American steel-framed tall building and skyscraper, a field in which he specialized as a consulting engineer nationally.

 

The Tall Office Building in New York City in the 1880s-90s

 

During the 19th century, commercial buildings in New York City developed from four-story structures modeled on Italian Renaissance palazzi to much taller skyscrapers. Made possible by technological advances, tall buildings challenged designers to fashion an appropriate architectural expression. Between 1870 and 1890, nine- and ten-story buildings transformed the streetscapes of lower Manhattan between Bowling Green and the City Hall area. During the building boom following the Civil War, building envelopes continued to be articulated largely according to traditional palazzo compositions, with mansarded and towered roof profiles.

 

Beginning in the later 1870s, tall buildings were characterized by flat roofs and a free, varied grouping of stories, often in the form of multi-storied arcades, within the facades. The period of the late 1870s into the 1890s was also one of stylistic experimentation in which commercial and office buildings in New York incorporated diverse influences, such as the Queen Anne, Victorian Gothic, Romanesque, and neo- Grec styles, French rationalism, and the German Rundbogenstil, under the leadership of such architects as Richard M. Hunt and George B. Post. Beginning around 1890, architects began producing tall building designs that adhered to the tripartite base-shaft-capital arrangement associated with the classical column, a scheme that became commonly employed in New York.

 

New York's early tall buildings -- including the seven-and-one-half-story Equitable Life Assurance Co. Building (1868-70, Gilman & Kendall and George B. Post) at Broadway and Cedar Street, the ten-story Western Union Building (1872-75, George B. Post) at Broadway and Liberty Street, and the ten-story Tribune Building (1873-75, Richard M. Hunt) on Park Row (all now demolished) -- incorporated passenger elevators, iron floor beams, and fireproof building materials. Fireproofing was of paramount concern as office buildings grew taller, and by 1881-82 systems had been devised to "completely fireproof' them. Cage construction, employed in the 1880s in tall buildings in New York and Chicago, was characterized by the Record and Guide as

 

a frame work of iron or steel columns and girders which carry the floors only, and do not carry the outer walls. In the cage construction the outer walls are independent walls, from the foundation to the extreme top, sustaining themselves only, and therefore, the walls are made less in thickness than if they had to bear the floors as in ordinary buildings such walls would have to do.

 

Ever taller skyscrapers were permitted by the increasing use and refinement of the metal skeleton frame, in which the metal columns and girders support both the floors and the outer (curtain) walls. In addition, several hybrid structural forms were used in tall buildings, such as the combination of both masonry and metal for interior vertical supports.

 

In 1888-89, New York architect Bradford Lee Gilbert used iron skeleton framing for the first seven stories of the 11-story Tower Building at 50 Broadway (demolished). As steel skeleton framing was adopted for tall buildings in New York, architects and engineers introduced caisson foundations which carried the weight of the skeleton frame down to bedrock. Kimball & Thompson's seminal 17-story (plus tower) Manhattan Life Insurance Co. Building (1893-94, with engineer Charles Sooysmith; demolished) was the tallest building yet constructed in the city and is credited with being the first skyscraper with a full iron and steel frame, set on pneumatic concrete caissons.

 

This was followed by the American Surety Co. Building (1894-95, Bruce Price, also with Sooysmith), 100 Broadway, which was the first New York skyscraper with a full steel frame, set on pneumatic concrete caissons. The cage-framed Mutual Reserve Building utilized the successful design and construction techniques of its predecessors, just prior to the full development of the skyscraper. It is interesting to note that, while the Mutual Reserve Building was nearing completion, the building committee of the American Surety Co. visited the structure and expressed the intention to construct something similar.

 

Other Early Tenants

 

The Arkwright Club, for drygoods merchants, was one of the earliest Mutual Reserve Building tenants, having signed a lease in 1893 for one of the top stories at $90,000 (to 1899). Undoubtedly drawn to the location nearby the then-center of New York's publishing and newspaper industries, the Mutual Reserve Building drew a number of firms and organizations associated with the publishing and paper trades, such as Hubbell Publishing Co. (c. 1894-1915), West Virginia Pulp & Paper Co. (1894-1909), Hollingsworth & Whitney Co., paper manufacturer (c. 1899-1911), Marcus S. Bulkley, paper buyer (1901), American Paper & Pulp Association (c. 1906-08), and Stationers Association ofNew York (c. 1907-11). Other tenants included the Co-Operative Building Bank (1894), Spanish Benevolent Society of New York (c. 1896-1902), Mutual Mercantile Agency (pre-1901), Miller Bros. Cutlery Co., pocket cutlery and pens (c. 1903-15), and Hapgoods, "National Organization of Brain Brokers" (c. 1905-14).

 

The Langdon Building and Later Ownership History and Tenants

 

By 1909, with the demise of the Mutual Reserve company, No. 305-309 Broadway was renamed the Langdon Building, most likely after the owner's son, the stockbrocker John Langdon Brandegee. In 1920, the Times announced the purchase of the property (from Mary Brandegee) for about $2 million by the Broadway-John Street Corp. (Elias A. Cohen, president), which intended to remodel it to lease as "high-grade offices for lawyers" who, according to the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, "are being crowded out of the financial district by the insistent demand from banks and business concerns willing to pay rentals which are prohibitive to lawyers." Lawyer tenants already in the building formed the Office Tenants League to protest eviction and expected exorbitant rents. The building was transferred in 1921 to a group of investors that included Isidor and Charlotte Mishkind, Fred and Cecilia Mishkind Broverman, Joachim S. Van Wetzel, Warren and Marguerite Watson, and Edward J. and Beatrice Lewis. In 1923, the central auxiliary entrance on Broadway was removed (Schwartz & Gross, architects). The building was conveyed in 1940 to the Downtown Renting Co. (Elias A. Cohen, president) and in 1945 to the Broaduane Corp. (Elias A. Cohen, president).

 

Two authors mentioned the building's unsavory reputation within the legal profession, one referring to it as "the 'Den of Forty Thieves,' reflecting the appearance... and the snobbish opinion of lawyers located elsewhere on lower Broadway... [and] because the structure was regarded as a law office slum." The other called the building one of the centers in the 1920s of the faked American "personal injury underworld." Various other tenants included Herman J. Hegt, Inc., metals dealer (c. 1919-20); George F. Hardy, mill architect and consulting engineer (c. 1914-20); Lithographers International Protective and Beneficial Association of the United States & Canada (c.

 

1914-15); Earle E. Liederman/ Progressive Exerciser Co., one of America's early physical culture mail-order businesses (1922-30); Wall Street Synagague (1929); and Jewish Forum Association, publisher of The Jewish Forum (1944). By 1950, the building began to house a number of state government agencies.

 

In 1957, the property was conveyed to the 305 Broadway Co. (Sylvan Lawrence and Seymour Cohn, partnership), and was purchased in 1959 by Broadway Duane Associates (Louis and Joseph Lefkowitz, general partners) and leased back to the 305 Broadway Co. The building was transferred in 1969 to the 305 Broadway Corp. (Louis Lefkowitz, president), then in 1975 back to the 305 Broadway Co., which merged the lease and fee of the property. It was owned in 1980 by 305 Broadway, Limited Partnership (Herman Abbott, president, of Abbott Corp., general partner), and since 1982 by Reade Broadway Associates. The former Mutual Reserve Building has housed a number of New York City agencies, including the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (1967-80) as its first long-term home.

 

Description

 

Historic: 13-story (plus basement) corner Richardsonian Romanesque Revival style office building clad in granite and limestone on main facades, with carved foliate ornament; six-story base, with arcades up to the fifth story, and rusticated piers; six-story planar mid-section; one-story rusticated upper section with arcade of windows and tall balustraded parapet; paired windows on Broadway and end bays on Duane Street, and tripartite windows on the rest of Duane Street facade, divided by stone piers, columns, or colonnettes; small rectangular windows inserted at top of building (1909, William H. Hume & Son)

 

Alterations: shopfronts (originally single-pane glass with bulkheads and sign bands), signage, and rolldown gates; two-story main Broadway entrance (originally elaborately ornamental with round-arched entrance) re-built in flattened form, with rectangular entrance and transom, non- historic doors, and rectangular second-story window bay (c. 1923); two-story central auxiliary Broadway entrance (originally with steps and round-arched transom) eliminated and replaced with shopfront and rectangular second-story window bay (1923); windows with anodized aluminum sash (originally one-over-one double-hung wood sash)

 

Western and Northern Side Elevations: unarticulated brick cladding, pierced by windows

 

- From the 2011 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

A statue that sits in a niche on the ground floor of the Holiday Inn Dalí in Mexico City, D.F. Mexico. Taken by a Nikon D610 at ISO 400 with a Nikkor 35-135mm ƒ 3.5-4.5 AF lens. (at 53) Exposure is 1/8 sec @ ƒ 3.8.

 

If an artistic executor of the sculptor has any copyright objections to this photo, Flickr-mail the poster stating that you are such an executor, state the objection(s), and it will be taken down...

 

While you are contacting the poster anyway, please tell him the name of the sculptor, and title of the piece...

 

Shown here is an image from an exhibit about the history of the Indian School at the College of William and Mary, on display from February 18-21, 2011 for a conference for the Virginia Indian Nations Summit on Higher Education and Native American Student Association Summit on Higher Education at the School of Education building.

 

The following is taken from the label text for this exhibit:

 

Although the English colonists in Virginia attempted to establish an Indian School as early as 1618, it was with the death of British scientist Sir Robert Boyle in 1691, that an Indian School at the College of William & Mary became a real possibility. Between 1695 and 1697, William & Mary President James Blair signed an agreement with the executors of Boyle’s will to invest funds in an estate in Yorkshire, England known as Brafferton. The rents generated annually paid the College 90 pounds to support the Indian School. The main purpose of the school was to educate students who would then attempt to convert other members of their tribes to Christianity.

 

The Governors of Virginia attempted to enroll students by convincing Virginia’s American Indian tribes that their sons would learn to read and write as well as the English colonists. When that failed to generate students, William & Mary resorted to buying their pupils from local Native Americans who captured the boys from other tribes. While the Indian School failed to convert many pupils to Christianity, it was beneficial for those students who were able to use their extensive knowledge gained from living in Williamsburg to assist their tribes in defending their way of life against the English colonists. Enrollment at the school reached a high of 24 students in 1712, declined to 8 by 1754, and remained at that level until the school closed in 1777 as a result of the American Revolution.

 

Excerpts from meetings of the William & Mary faculty with references to the Indian School and requests for funds for the library to support the education of the students. Reproductions of the 10 August 1732 Faculty Minutes, Faculty Assembly Records, UA 133

 

An account from the Indian School for Doctors James and William Carter for medical services provided to students. Reproduction of an account for James and William Carter, Brafferton Estate Collection, UA 113, Acc. 1994.009

 

As seen on this page from the Bursar’s account book, from 1771 to 1776, the Indian School at William & Mary enrolled five students. The Manor of Brafferton Account from the Bursar’s Book, Office of the Bursar, UA 72, Acc. 1983.122

 

The 1782 Frenchman’s Map shows the Brafferton building in relation to the rest of the town of Williamsburg. The map is so-named because it was drafted by an unknown Frenchman probably stationed with Rochambeau's army during the American Revolution. The original Frenchman’s Map is also owned by William & Mary. Reproduction of the 1978 Reprint of the Frenchman’s Map of Williamsburg, Virginia, Mss. Acc. 2009.002

 

Account from William & Mary for clothing for pupils of the Indian School, 1773. Account for Clothing from the Indian School, Brafferton Estate Collection, UA 113, Acc. 2011.068

 

Color portrait of Virginia Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood, 1736. “Alexander Spotswood: Portrait of a Governor,” Walter Havighurst, F234.W7 W7.

 

Photograph of a portrait of Sir Robert Boyle, British scientist and the benefactor of the Indian School at William & Mary. Photograph of an oil portrait of Sir Robert Boyle owned by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, University Archives Photograph Collection, UA 8

 

When the English colonists were unable to find pupils for the Indian School, colonial officials negotiating treaties with Virginia’s American Indian tribes attempted to convince them to send their sons to the school. Transcripts from “The Official Letters of Governor Spotswood…” and “Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia,” University Archives Subject File Collection, UA 9

 

Alexander Spotswood, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia from 1710 to 1722, was a strong supporter of the Indian School and frequently requested additional money to sustain the school. Memorial of Alexander Spotswood’s Letter to the Bishop of London, 1712, Brafferton Estate Collection, UA 113, Acc. 1994.009

 

Initially, classes for students were held in temporary quarters around Williamsburg and then later in the College’s Wren Building. In 1723, William & Mary used funds from the Boyle estate to fund a new building, named The Brafferton, to house the Indian School. Shown here is a photograph of an engraving found in the Bodleian Library in England showing the three College buildings (l to r): the Brafferton, Wren Building, and President’s House, circa 1740. Reproduction of the Bodleian Plate photograph of Wren Yard, University Archives Photograph Collection, UA 8

 

From the Special Collections Research Center, Earl Gregg Swem Library at the College of William and Mary. See swem.wm.edu/scrc/ for further information and assistance.

LEGO Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer Fleet

Visual review.

- Bag 5.

 

LEGO Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer Fleet

☣ ☣

 

** View LARGE On Black **

"Here lieth Margaret who was the daughter of John Elmes and Elizabeth his wife of Henley on Thames (?) who died the 1st day of August 1471 on whom God have mercy"

Margaret Elmes 1471 grand daughter of William Browne & Margaret Stocks www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/eCL3g8 who must have died an infant

She was the first (?) child of their sole heiress daughter Elizabeth Browne 1511 and John Elmes c1455-1497 of Henley on Thames, merchant of the Staple of Calais

She had 2 brothers

1. William c1475-1505 Woolfox Greetham Rutland m Elizabeth 1474-1549 daughter and coheir of John Iwardby by Joan Brudenell (her co-heir was Margaret Verney flic.kr/p/fFxqbw ) - William was a lawyer and an executor of their grandfathers will, who after their mother's death inherited their grandparents estates and the Manor of Lilford (Joan m2 (2nd wife) Thomas Piggot / Pigott 1520 of Whaddon flic.kr/p/fFxy2L

2 Thomas bc1477

and a sister Catherine bc 1479 who m Peter Turner

freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kingsman/kinsm... - Church of All Saints, Stamford Lincolnshire

Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

  

The rowhouse at 129 MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village was constructed c. 1828-29 in the Federal style, characterized by its 2-1/2-story height, Flemish bond brickwork, low stoop with wrought-ironwork, entrance with Ionic columns, entablature and transom, molded lintels with end blocks, peaked roof, molded cornice, and pedimented double dormers. This was one of four houses speculatively built on lots owned by Alonzo Alwyn Alvord, a downtown hat merchant, as the area around Washington Square was being developed as an elite residential enclave. Until 1881, No. 129 was continually owned by and leased to families of the merchant class. In the later 19th century, as the neighborhood’s fashionable heyday waned, this house was no longer a single-family dwelling and became a lodging house. In the 1910s, this block of MacDougal Street became a cultural and social center of bohemian Greenwich Village, which experienced a real estate boom in the 1920s.

 

No. 129 was owned from 1920 to 1961 by Harold G. and Dorothy Donnell Calhoun, the former an assistant to the U.S. Attorney General; the Calhouns also owned Nos. 127 and 131. No. 129 was in commercial use by 1920 when noted Hungarian-born portrait photographer Nickolas Muray had his studio here. Alterations to the house included the creation of a roof “studio dormer” by linking its two dormers and the joining and lowering of the first-story windows as a commercial storefront . The Times in 1951 reported on the planned modernization of the houses, noting that their “old architectural charm” was to be preserved. With most of its original architectural details, this house, notable

 

singularly and as a group with its neighbors, is among the relatively rare surviving and significantly intact Manhattan buildings of the Federal style, period, and 2-1/2-story, dormered peaked-roof type.

   

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

  

The Development of the Washington Square Neighborhood

 

The area of today’s Greenwich Village was, during the 18th century, the location of the small rural hamlet of Greenwich, as well as the country seats and summer homes of wealthy downtown aristocrats, merchants, and capitalists. A number of cholera and yellow fever epidemics in lower Manhattan between 1799 and 1822 led to an influx of settlers in the Greenwich area, with the population quadrupling between 1825 and 1840. Previously undeveloped tracts of land were speculatively subdivided for the construction of town houses and rowhouses. Whereas in the early 19th century many of the wealthiest New Yorkers lived in the vicinity of Broadway and the side streets adjacent to City Hall Park between Barclay and Chambers Streets, by the 1820s and 30s, as commercial development and congestion increasingly disrupted and displaced them, the elite moved northward into Greenwich Village east of Sixth Avenue. For a brief period beginning in the 1820s, Lafayette Place and Bond, Great Jones and Bleecker Streets were among the most fashionable addresses, the latter developed with three block-long rows of houses in 1827-31.

 

A potter’s field, located north of 4th Street below Fifth Avenue since 1797, was converted into Washington Military Parade Ground and expanded in 1826 and landscaped as Washington Square in 1828. This public square spurred the construction of fine houses surrounding it, beginning with a uniform row of twelve 3-1/2-story Federal style houses on Washington Square South , between Thompson and MacDougal Streets, by Col. James B. Murray and others. On Washington Square North, west of Fifth Avenue, Federal and Greek Revival style town houses were built between 1828 and 1839, while east of Fifth Avenue, “The Row” of thirteen large Greek Revival style town houses was developed in 1832-33 by downtown merchants and bankers who leased the properties from the Trustees of Sailors Snug Harbor. The University of the City of New York constructed its first structure, the Gothic Revival style University Building , on the east side of the Square. While many of the better houses were built on east-west streets south of the Square, more modest dwellings for the working class were constructed on many of the north-south streets. The block of MacDougal Street just southwest of the Square was developed with houses more modest than those on the Square, but still attracting the merchant and professional class.

 

In 1832, the Common Council created the 15th Ward out of the eastern section of the large 9th Ward, its boundaries being Sixth Avenue, Houston and 14th Streets, and the East River. According to Luther Harris’ recent history Around Washington Square, during the 1830s-40s “this ward drew the wealthiest, most influential, and most talented people from New York City and elsewhere. By 1845, 85 percent of the richest citizens living in the city’s northern wards resided in the Fifteenth.”FifthAvenue, extended north of Washington Square to 23rd Street in 1829, emerged as the city’s most prestigious address.

 

Construction and 19th Century History of No. 129 MacDougal Street

 

No. 129 MacDougal Street was one of four adjacent rowhouses that were speculatively built on lots located between Amity and West 4th Street just southwest of Washington Square that were owned by Alonzo Alwyn Alvord. A downtown hat merchant in the firm of Alonzo A. Alvord & Co. at 14 Bowery, Alvord was born in Connecticut, married Elizabeth Bulkley in 1834, and served on the Board of Assistant Aldermen in 1851. Alvord had acquired this property in 1827 from Thomas R. and Mary Mercein; according to tax assessment records, he had been paying taxes on the property at least a year earlier. Construction of the four houses began in 1828 and was completed prior to March 1829, when Nos. 129 and 131 were sold for $8000 to downtown merchants John W. Harris and William Chauncey. The earliest known tenant of No. 129, in 1832-39, was merchant Benjamin Ellis. In 1836, Nos. 129 and 131 were sold by John W. and Frasier Harris and William and Julia Ann Chauncey to Elias Hicks Herrick , a wealthy downtown flour commission merchant in the firm of E. & J. Herrick, and his wife, Jane Maria Taylor Herrick . In 1839-42, Timothy Trowbridge, another downtown commission merchant, leased No. 129. The property was transferred in 1846 to Jacob B. Herrick, apparently Elias’ brother and a partner in the firm of E. & J. Herrick, and his wife, Julia A. . The house was rented in 1850-54 to Sarah A. McMaster , the widow of William J. McMaster, who had been a clerk at the Customs House. In December 1872, following the death of Jacob B. Herrick, No. 129 was announced for sale by the executor. It was purchased in 1873 by John

 

H. Gardiner, a merchant and later a stevedore, and his wife, Anna E. The Gardiners lived in this house until 1878; she had filed for divorce in late 1877 and he died soon after.

 

The property was acquired in 1881 through foreclosure by Jacob and Fanny Cohen. In 1891-99, No. 129 was owned by Louisa Kahn Sindic, in the clothing business, who married Francis Victor Kenebel in 1899. In 1897-98, ironworker Felix Peltrisot was living here with his wife, Eulalie, who may have been operating it as a lodging house. Commercial intrusions and the arrival of workingclass immigrants in parts of the neighborhood south of Washington Square had ended its fashionable heyday by the Civil War. Many older residences were converted into multiple dwellings or boardinghouses, as the former residents moved northward. Bleecker Street as early as the 1850s was known for its boardinghouses and artists’ community.

 

Federal Style Rowhouses in Manhattan

 

As the city of New York grew in the period after the Revolution, large plots of land in lower Manhattan were sold and subdivided for the construction of groups of brick-clad houses. Their architectural style has been called “Federal” after the new republic, but in form and detail they continued the Georgian style of Great Britain. Federal style houses were constructed from the Battery as far north as 23rd Street between the 1790s and 1830s. The size of the lot dictated the size of the house: typically each house lot was 20 or 25 feet wide by 90 to 100 feet deep, which accorded with the rectilinear plan of New York City, laid out in 1807 and adopted as the Commissioners’ Plan in 1811. The rowhouse itself would be as wide as the lot, and 35 to 40 feet deep. This allowed for a stoop and small front yard or areaway, and a fairly spacious rear yard, which usually contained a buried cistern to collect fresh water and the privy. During the early 19th century, several houses were often constructed together, sharing common party walls, chimneys, and roof timbering to form a continuous group. The houses were of load-bearing masonry construction or modified timber-frame construction with brick-clad front facades. With shared structural framing and party walls, each house in a row was dependent on its neighbor for structural stability. With the increasing availability of pattern books, such as Asher Benjamin’s American Builders Companion, local builders had access to drawings and instructions for exterior and interior plans and details.

 

Federal style rowhouses usually had a three-bay facade with two full stories over a high basement and an additional half story under a peaked roof with the ridge line running parallel to the front facade. . The front facade was usually clad in red brick laid in the Flemish bond pattern, which alternated a stretcher and a header in every row. This system allowed the linking of the more expensive face brick with the cheaper, rougher brick behind. Walls were usually two “wythes,” or eight inches, thick. Because brick was fabricated by hand in molds , it was relatively porous. To protect the brick surface and slow water penetration, facades were often painted.

 

The planar quality of Federal style facades was relieved by ornament in the form of lintels, entrances, stoops with iron railings, cornices, and dormers. Doorway and window lintels, seen in a variety of types , were commonly brownstone. The most ornamental feature was the doorway, often framed with columns and sidelights and topped with a rectangular transom or fanlight, and having a single wooden paneled door. Some grander houses had large round-arched entrances with Gibbs surrounds. The entrance was approached by a stoop – a flight of brownstone steps placed to one side of the facade – on the parlor floor above a basement level. Wrought-iron railings with finials lined the stoop and enclosed areaways. Window openings at the parlor and second stories were usually the same height and were aligned and the same width from story to story. The wood-framed sash were double hung and multi-light . Shutters were common on the exterior. A wooden cornice with a molded fascia extended across the front along the eave, which carried a built-in gutter. A leader head and downspout that drained onto the sidewalk extended down the facade on the opposite side from the doorway. Pedimented or segmental dormers on the front roof slope usually had decorative wood trim, and the top sash were often arched with decorative muntins. The roof was covered with continuous wood sheathing over the rafters and clad in slate.

 

The original design of the three 19-1/2-foot-wide and 2-1/2-story rowhouses at 127, 129 and 131 MacDougal Street were characteristic of the Federal style in their Flemish bond brickwork, low stoops with wrought-ironwork, entrances with Ionic columns, entablatures and transoms, molded lintels with end blocks, peaked roofs, molded cornices, and pedimented double dormers. Remaining historic features on No. 129 are its 2-1/2-story configuration and basic fenestration pattern, Flemish bond brickwork , stoop and wrought-ironwork, entrance with Ionic columns, entablature and transom, molded lintels, molded cornice, peaked roof, and early 20th-century dormer. The specific Federal style lintel type seen on this building is rare today. The lintels on Nos. 127, 129 and 131 are cast iron; they are probably replacements for the original brownstone ones, and possibly date from c. 1867, when No. 125 MacDougal Street received a one-story addition with this type of cast-iron lintel. Despite the alteration of the first-story windows as a storefront, No. 129 MacDougal Street, notable singularly and as part of a group, is among the relatively rare surviving and significantly intact Manhattan buildings of the Federal style, period, and 21/2-story, dormered peaked-roof type .

 

20th Century History of MacDougal Street

 

After a period of decline, Greenwich Village was becoming known, prior to World War I, for its historic and picturesque qualities, its affordable housing, and the diversity of its population and social and political ideas. Many artists and writers, as well as tourists, were attracted to the Village. In 1914, the block of MacDougal Street just south of Washington Square emerged as a cultural and social center of the bohemian set. After the Liberal Club, headquarters also of the feminist Heterodoxy Club, moved into No. 137 in 1913, it was joined the following year by Polly Holladay’s popular basement restaurant, also in No. 137, and Albert and Charles Boni’s Washington Square Bookshop, specializing in modern literature, next door in No. 135.

 

The Provincetown Playhouse, opened in 1916 in No. 139, relocated in No. 133 in 1918. . Other buildings on MacDougal Street, including No. 129, also attracted businesses that catered to both neighborhood residents and tourists to the Village. Historian George Chauncey has identified the importance of this block in the 1920s to New York’s burgeoning lesbian and gay community:

 

By the mid-twenties the MacDougal Street block south of Washington Square – the site of the Provincetown Playhouse and numerous bohemian tearooms, gift shops, and speakeasies – had become the most important, and certainly the best-known locus of gay and lesbian commercial institutions. ... Although... gay-run clubs... on MacDougal Street encountered opposition in the Village, this should not obscure the fact that the very existence of such clubs in a middle-class

 

cultural milieu was unprecedented.

 

At the same time, as observed by museum curator Jan S. Ramirez,

 

As early as 1914 a committee of Village property owners, merchants, social workers, and realtors had embarked on a campaign to combat the scruffy image the local bohemian populace had created for the community. ... Under the banner of the Greenwich Village Improvement Society and the Greenwich Village Rebuilding Corporation, this alliance of residents and businesses also rallied to arrest the district’s physical deterioration... their ultimate purpose was to reinstate higherincome-levelfamilies and young professionals in the Village to stimulate its economy. Shrewd realtors began to amass their holdings of dilapidated housing.

 

These various factors and the increased desirability of the Village lead to a real estate boom – “rents increased during the 1920s by 140 percent and in some cases by as much as 300 percent.” According to Luther Harris

 

From the 1920s through the 1940s, the population of the Washington Square district changed dramatically. Although a group of New York’s elite remained until the 1930s, and some even later, most of their single-family homes were subdivided into flats, and most of the new apartment houses were designed with much smaller one- and two-bedroom units. New residents were mainly upper-middle-class, professional people, including many young married couples. They enjoyed the convenient location and Village atmosphere with its informality, its cultural heritage, and, for some, its bohemian associations.

 

Older rowhouses, such as those on MacDougal Street, were remodeled to attract a more affluent clientele or as artists studios. Nearby, on most of the lots of the two blocks of MacDougal Street to the north , new apartment buildings were constructed in 1925-29.

 

New York University, particularly after World War II, became a major institutional presence around Washington Square. Vanderbilt Hall , the main building of the Law School, at the southwest corner of the Square at MacDougal Street, was the vanguard of the university’s expansion and new construction to the south. During the 1950s, the area south of Washington Square, to Houston Street, was also targeted for urban renewal. The surviving historic streets to the west, including MacDougal Street, became particularly popular for coffee houses, restaurants, and clubs.

 

No. 129 MacDougal Street in the 20th Century

 

No. 129 MacDougal Street was owned briefly by Jeanne Loreau and Fernand Leon . It was purchased in 1903 by Leon and Marie Derache, residents of City Island who also acquired No. 127 in 1906. From 1911 to 1920, both houses were owned by Mary Chapelle. The French-born Ms. Chappelle was convicted in 1912 along with Katie Hicks, the owner of No. 131, as “two notorious keepers of disorderly houses;” they were pardoned by the governor in 1913. From 1920 to 1961, Nos. 127 and 129 were owned by Harold Gilmore and Dorothy Donnell Calhoun . Harold G. Calhoun was a professor of political science at the University of California in Los Angeles and served as assistant to the U.S. Attorney General . His wife was a motion picture magazine editor and an assistant to Labor Secretary Frances Perkins , and wrote short stories, children’s books, and plays. Their son, Donald G. Calhoun, lived here for a time around 1939.

 

Reflecting changes in Greenwich Village, No. 129 MacDougal Street was used for commercial purposes by 1920. In 1920-24, portrait photographer Nickolas Muray had his studio in this building. Born in Szefad, Hungary, Muray attended a graphics arts school in Budapest, where he studied photography, photo-engraving, and lithography, and later learned color photo-engraving in Berlin. He immigrated to New York City in 1913, finding a job with Conde Nast Co. in 1915, working with color separation and halftone negatives. No. 129 was Muray’s first portrait studio. He became known as “the Village photographer and a Village character whose Wednesday-night studio parties were invariably a cross-section of celebrities from both uptown and downtown” in the spheres of theater, literature, music and art. With the sale of photographs to such publications as the New York Tribune, Harper’s Bazaar, and Vanity Fair, he developed an international reputation. In the 1930s, Muray formed one of the first color labs in the United States. For three decades, he was also a competitive fencer, participating in the Olympics in 1932.

 

In 1924, the Wind Blew Inn was a commercial tenant in No. 129, and in 1925-26, “Eve Addams’” Tearoom. George Chauncey identified the latter as a popular after-theater club run by Polish Jewish lesbian emigre Eva Kotchever, with a sign that read “Men are admitted but not welcome.” After a police raid, Kotchever was convicted of “obscenity” and disorderly conduct, and was deported. A Village columnist in 1931 reminisced that her club was “one of the most delightful hang-outs the Village ever had.” In the late 1920s-early 1930s, the second story was an artist studio for Jay Fitzpatrick, and the building also housed the Greenwich VillageMummers, Inc./ Mummers Society, Inc. An alteration to the house that occurred c. 1933-38 was the creation of a roof “studio dormer” by linking its two dormers.

 

The Times in 1951 reported on the Calhouns’ 63year lease of Nos. 127 to 131 MacDougal Street to operator Thomas M. Graham, who planned to modernize the houses by architects Knubel & Persich, but noted that Graham planned “to preserve the old architectural charm” . A 1951 Times advertisement touted No. 129's “STUDIO APT. Beautiful full dormer window . 2 fireplaces, sloping roof. One of the most attractive 2-1/2-room studios in the Village. Opp. new law school & park.” The basement and first story commercial tenant was Hanlan Assocs., furniture, home accessories, and gifts. The first-story windows were joined and lowered as a commercial storefront . In 1961, Dorothy Donnell Calhoun transferred Nos. 127 to 131 MacDougal Street to Mormac Equities, Inc. No. 129 was later owned by real estate developer Herbert A. Wells III ; Ecce Homo, Inc. ; Loft Revitalization Corp. ; Herbert A. Wells III ; and 129 MacDougal Street Assocs., Inc. . Later commercial tenants have been Pinata Party/ Fiesta Pinata , a wholesale and retail firm “that manufactures, imports and sells [Peruvian] clothing, handcrafts, folk art and pre-Columbian art;” and La Lanterna di Vittorio Caffe , a pizzeria-wine bar.

 

Description

 

No. 129 MacDougal Street is a 19-1/2-foot-wide and 2-1/2-story Federal style rowhouse clad on the front facade in Flemish bond brickwork . The basement level has two windows . The concrete-paved areaway has steps, an historic wrought-iron gate beneath the stoop, and non-historic basement entrance door, and is bordered by a 20th-century wrought-iron fence and gate. A low brownstone stoop with original wrought-iron railings with box-cage newels with pineapple finials leads to the entrance, having original Ionic columns framing sidelights and supporting an entablature and rectangular transom, and a paneled wood door. The first-story windows were joined and lowered as a single-pane commercial storefrontwith amolded frame and transom . A sign has been placed to the left of the entrance, and hanging lanterns have been placed over the doorway and storefront. An awning spans the width of the facade above the first story. The entrance and first- and second-story windows have molded cast-iron lintels with end blocks. Sash was originallysix-over-six double-hung wood;second-story windows currently have one-over-one double-hung wood sash. Downspouts are placed at both edges of the building. The house has its original molded wooden cornice. The peaked roof originally had pedimented

double dormers; a roof “studio dormer” with casement windows was created by linking the dormers ; the dormer is sided with wood shingles . A chimney rises above the party wall with No. 127.

 

- From the 2004 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Tooth Cutting Ceremonial is mandatory ceremonial that should be done by Hindus people in Bali. This ceremonial is often called with Raja Sewala ceremonial by local peoples with purpose to eliminating ‘Sad Ripu’ or six enemies on human beings which covering: Kama (lust/desire), Loba (Gluttonous), Krodha (Angry), Mada (Drunken), Moha (Muzziness), Matsarya (Covet). This ceremonial has purpose to eroding Sad Ripu which on human beings. Sad Ripu symbolized with 6 (six) teeth that covering 4 (four) incisor teeth and fang teeth. This ceremonial held when the boy or girl entering teenager or growing adult, but this ceremonial should be conduct before the boy or girl married. In the special condition it can be done after married. Tooth cutting ceremonial held in house or often called as ‘Merajan’. The executor of tooth cutting ceremonial is led by priest, called by local peoples as ‘Pedande’ and helping by ‘Sangging’ (as the executor too).

 

The cutting teeth process is only a symbol, in the application the teeth smoothed down by tight-fist, and the teeth that only smoothed down is only six parts which drawn Sadripu (Balinese words) those teeth are four incisors and two fangs. The time which process held is only ten until fifteen minutes. The ceremonial led by ‘Sangging’ which is Hindus priest that have highest position among the priest in Hindus hierarchy.

 

A devoting which used in the ceremonial process is called as ‘Sorohan’ that have function to devote to the God. The next devoting are ‘Pabhyakalan Prasyatia, ‘Panglkatan’, and the device that used to cut the teeth likes: mirror, tooth sharpener, cloth for ‘rurub’ and also a jewel and ring, and bed which have been decorated.

 

Before the process began, the ‘Sangging’ (Hindus priest) said the superstitious formula first. On this matter the ring which used in the process is ruby ring that believed have big power to protecting the applicator from the evil. The used of the ruby is after the teeth tight-fisted then the ruby touched to the teeth as the protection symbol. Saliva which is out from the applicator mouth will be accommodated in the ivory coconut and hold by the applicators mother or blood brother. Ceremonial will be continued with praying in the family temples requesting to the God to bliss their life and return to born as human beings that clean from sin.

 

The Shipley Art Gallery is an art gallery in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England, located at the south end of Prince Consort Road. It has a Designated Collection of national importance.

 

Origins

The Shipley Art Gallery opened to the public in 1917. This was made possible by a bequest from wealthy local solicitor and art collector, Joseph Ainsley Davidson Shipley (1822–1909).

 

Shipley was a rather enigmatic person about whom little is known. He was born in Gateshead, near High Street. He was a solicitor in the Newcastle firm of Hoyle, Shipley and Hoyle. From 1884 until his death, he leased Saltwell Park House, now known as Saltwell Towers. Shipley's main passion was art and collecting paintings. He bought his first painting when he was sixteen and by the time he died he had amassed a collection of some 2,500 paintings.

 

On his death, Shipley left £30,000 and all his pictures to the City of Newcastle, which was to build a new gallery to house the collection. This was to be known as "The Shipley Bequest". Current belief within local history circles is that Shipley’s will expressly banned Newcastle’s art gallery as a recipient of the bequest, but this assertion must be dismissed: since the foundation stone of the Laing Art Gallery was laid only in August 1901 and the gallery opened in October 1904, the institution did not yet exist in 1900, when Shipley’s will was compiled. Shipley’s will did, in fact, declare that ‘the Art Gallery to be erected in Higham Place will not be and shall not be regarded as an Art Gallery within this trust’, owing to its being ‘too small’, but he conceded that if it ‘shall be capable of being enlarged so as to render it capable of holding all, then I direct my Trustees to raise the sum of £30,000 out of my residuary estate and pay the same to the treasurer of the gallery to be applied in or toward such enlargement as aforesaid’. It was only following a lengthy process that Gateshead Municipal Council was offered the collection. As it was impossible to house all of the paintings, 359 of the pictures recommended by the executors of Shipley's will were selected. A further group was then added by the Gateshead Committee, bringing the total to 504.

 

In 1914, after the sale of the remaining paintings, work began on the new art gallery. The building, which was designed by Arthur Stockwell, M.S.A. of Newcastle, opened on 29 November 1917. The stone entrance portico is distyle in antis – four Corinthian-style stone columns flanked by solid pilasters. These are surmounted by two sculptured figures, one representing the Arts and the other Industry and Learning, by W. Birnie Rhind, RSA. of Edinburgh.

 

Pevsner described the art gallery as a "bold arrangement of a brick central block and lower wings containing galleries". The building was designated as Grade II listed in 1982.

 

Present gallery

The original 504 paintings represented all the main European schools from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Since 1917, the collection has been added to, and now comprises some 10,000 items.

 

The gallery holds a strong collection of 16th and 17th century Dutch and Flemish paintings, as well as 19th century British works, watercolours, prints, drawings and sculpture. Also featured are items of local interest, which include the popular painting by William C. Irving ((1866–1943) of "Blaydon Races" (1903) and a 1970 street scene of Redheugh Crossroads by Gateshead-born Charlie Rogers.

 

Since 1977 the gallery has become established as a national centre for contemporary craftwork. It has built up one of the best collections outside London, which includes ceramics, wood, metal, glass, textiles and furniture. The Shipley is home to the Henry Rothschild collection of studio ceramics. In 2008, the Shipley opened its Designs for Life gallery which showcases the gallery's collections of contemporary craft and design. The Gallery also hosts a varied programme of temporary exhibitions and has a strong partnership with the V&A Museum in London.

 

The Shipley Art Gallery is managed by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums on behalf of Gateshead Council.

 

Gateshead is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, The Glasshouse International Centre for Music and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. The town shares the Millennium Bridge, Tyne Bridge and multiple other bridges with Newcastle upon Tyne.

 

Historically part of County Durham, under the Local Government Act 1888 the town was made a county borough, meaning it was administered independently of the county council.

 

In the 2011 Census, the town had a population of 120,046 while the wider borough had 200,214.

 

History

Gateshead is first mentioned in Latin translation in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People as ad caput caprae ("at the goat's head"). This interpretation is consistent with the later English attestations of the name, among them Gatesheued (c. 1190), literally "goat's head" but in the context of a place-name meaning 'headland or hill frequented by (wild) goats'. Although other derivations have been mooted, it is this that is given by the standard authorities.

 

A Brittonic predecessor, named with the element *gabro-, 'goat' (c.f. Welsh gafr), may underlie the name. Gateshead might have been the Roman-British fort of Gabrosentum.

 

Early

There has been a settlement on the Gateshead side of the River Tyne, around the old river crossing where the Swing Bridge now stands, since Roman times.

 

The first recorded mention of Gateshead is in the writings of the Venerable Bede who referred to an Abbot of Gateshead called Utta in 623. In 1068 William the Conqueror defeated the forces of Edgar the Ætheling and Malcolm king of Scotland (Shakespeare's Malcolm) on Gateshead Fell (now Low Fell and Sheriff Hill).

 

During medieval times Gateshead was under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Durham. At this time the area was largely forest with some agricultural land. The forest was the subject of Gateshead's first charter, granted in the 12th century by Hugh du Puiset, Bishop of Durham. An alternative spelling may be "Gatishevede", as seen in a legal record, dated 1430.

 

Industrial revolution

Throughout the Industrial Revolution the population of Gateshead expanded rapidly; between 1801 and 1901 the increase was over 100,000. This expansion resulted in the spread southwards of the town.

 

In 1854, a catastrophic explosion on the quayside destroyed most of Gateshead's medieval heritage, and caused widespread damage on the Newcastle side of the river.

 

Sir Joseph Swan lived at Underhill, Low Fell, Gateshead from 1869 to 1883, where his experiments led to the invention of the electric light bulb. The house was the first in the world to be wired for domestic electric light.

 

In the 1889 one of the largest employers (Hawks, Crawshay and Company) closed down and unemployment has since been a burden. Up to the Second World War there were repeated newspaper reports of the unemployed sending deputations to the council to provide work. The depression years of the 1920s and 1930s created even more joblessness and the Team Valley Trading Estate was built in the mid-1930s to alleviate the situation.

 

Regeneration

In the late noughties, Gateshead Council started to regenerate the town, with the long-term aim of making Gateshead a city. The most extensive transformation occurred in the Quayside, with almost all the structures there being constructed or refurbished in this time.

 

In the early 2010s, regeneration refocused on the town centre. The £150 million Trinity Square development opened in May 2013, it incorporates student accommodation, a cinema, health centre and shops. It was nominated for the Carbuncle Cup in September 2014. The cup was however awarded to another development which involved Tesco, Woolwich Central.

 

Governance

In 1835, Gateshead was established as a municipal borough and in 1889 it was made a county borough, independent from Durham County Council.

 

In 1870, the Old Town Hall was built, designed by John Johnstone who also designed the previously built Newcastle Town Hall. The ornamental clock in front of the old town hall was presented to Gateshead in 1892 by the mayor, Walter de Lancey Willson, on the occasion of him being elected for a third time. He was also one of the founders of Walter Willson's, a chain of grocers in the North East and Cumbria. The old town hall also served as a magistrate's court and one of Gateshead's police stations.

 

Current

In 1974, following the Local Government Act 1972, the County Borough of Gateshead was merged with the urban districts of Felling, Whickham, Blaydon and Ryton and part of the rural district of Chester-le-Street to create the much larger Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead.

 

Geography

The town of Gateshead is in the North East of England in the ceremonial county of Tyne and Wear, and within the historic boundaries of County Durham. It is located on the southern bank of the River Tyne at a latitude of 54.57° N and a longitude of 1.35° W. Gateshead experiences a temperate climate which is considerably warmer than some other locations at similar latitudes as a result of the warming influence of the Gulf Stream (via the North Atlantic drift). It is located in the rain shadow of the North Pennines and is therefore in one of the driest regions of the United Kingdom.

 

One of the most distinguishing features of Gateshead is its topography. The land rises 230 feet from Gateshead Quays to the town centre and continues rising to a height of 525 feet at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Sheriff Hill. This is in contrast to the flat and low lying Team Valley located on the western edges of town. The high elevations allow for impressive views over the Tyne valley into Newcastle and across Tyneside to Sunderland and the North Sea from lookouts in Windmill Hills and Windy Nook respectively.

 

The Office for National Statistics defines the town as an urban sub-division. The latest (2011) ONS urban sub-division of Gateshead contains the historical County Borough together with areas that the town has absorbed, including Dunston, Felling, Heworth, Pelaw and Bill Quay.

 

Given the proximity of Gateshead to Newcastle, just south of the River Tyne from the city centre, it is sometimes incorrectly referred to as being a part of Newcastle. Gateshead Council and Newcastle City Council teamed up in 2000 to create a unified marketing brand name, NewcastleGateshead, to better promote the whole of the Tyneside conurbation.

 

Economy

Gateshead is home to the MetroCentre, the largest shopping mall in the UK until 2008; and the Team Valley Trading Estate, once the largest and still one of the larger purpose-built commercial estates in the UK.

 

Arts

The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art has been established in a converted flour mill. The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, previously The Sage, a Norman Foster-designed venue for music and the performing arts opened on 17 December 2004. Gateshead also hosted the Gateshead Garden Festival in 1990, rejuvenating 200 acres (0.81 km2) of derelict land (now mostly replaced with housing). The Angel of the North, a famous sculpture in nearby Lamesley, is visible from the A1 to the south of Gateshead, as well as from the East Coast Main Line. Other public art include works by Richard Deacon, Colin Rose, Sally Matthews, Andy Goldsworthy, Gordon Young and Michael Winstone.

 

Traditional and former

The earliest recorded coal mining in the Gateshead area is dated to 1344. As trade on the Tyne prospered there were several attempts by the burghers of Newcastle to annex Gateshead. In 1576 a small group of Newcastle merchants acquired the 'Grand Lease' of the manors of Gateshead and Whickham. In the hundred years from 1574 coal shipments from Newcastle increased elevenfold while the population of Gateshead doubled to approximately 5,500. However, the lease and the abundant coal supplies ended in 1680. The pits were shallow as problems of ventilation and flooding defeated attempts to mine coal from the deeper seams.

 

'William Cotesworth (1668-1726) was a prominent merchant based in Gateshead, where he was a leader in coal and international trade. Cotesworth began as the son of a yeoman and apprentice to a tallow - candler. He ended as an esquire, having been mayor, Justice of the Peace and sheriff of Northumberland. He collected tallow from all over England and sold it across the globe. He imported dyes from the Indies, as well as flax, wine, and grain. He sold tea, sugar, chocolate, and tobacco. He operated the largest coal mines in the area, and was a leading salt producer. As the government's principal agent in the North country, he was in contact with leading ministers.

 

William Hawks originally a blacksmith, started business in Gateshead in 1747, working with the iron brought to the Tyne as ballast by the Tyne colliers. Hawks and Co. eventually became one of the biggest iron businesses in the North, producing anchors, chains and so on to meet a growing demand. There was keen contemporary rivalry between 'Hawks' Blacks' and 'Crowley's Crew'. The famous 'Hawks' men' including Ned White, went on to be celebrated in Geordie song and story.

 

In 1831 a locomotive works was established by the Newcastle and Darlington Railway, later part of the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway. In 1854 the works moved to the Greenesfield site and became the manufacturing headquarters of North Eastern Railway. In 1909, locomotive construction was moved to Darlington and the rest of the works were closed in 1932.

 

Robert Stirling Newall took out a patent on the manufacture of wire ropes in 1840 and in partnership with Messrs. Liddell and Gordon, set up his headquarters at Gateshead. A worldwide industry of wire-drawing resulted. The submarine telegraph cable received its definitive form through Newall's initiative, involving the use of gutta-percha surrounded by strong wires. The first successful Dover–Calais cable on 25 September 1851, was made in Newall's works. In 1853, he invented the brake-drum and cone for laying cable in deep seas. Half of the first Atlantic cable was manufactured in Gateshead. Newall was interested in astronomy, and his giant 25-inch (640 mm) telescope was set up in the garden at Ferndene, his Gateshead residence, in 1871.

 

Architecture

JB Priestley, writing of Gateshead in his 1934 travelogue English Journey, said that "no true civilisation could have produced such a town", adding that it appeared to have been designed "by an enemy of the human race".

 

Victorian

William Wailes the celebrated stained-glass maker, lived at South Dene from 1853 to 1860. In 1860, he designed Saltwell Towers as a fairy-tale palace for himself. It is an imposing Victorian mansion in its own park with a romantic skyline of turrets and battlements. It was originally furnished sumptuously by Gerrard Robinson. Some of the panelling installed by Robinson was later moved to the Shipley Art gallery. Wailes sold Saltwell Towers to the corporation in 1876 for use as a public park, provided he could use the house for the rest of his life. For many years the structure was essentially an empty shell but following a restoration programme it was reopened to the public in 2004.

 

Post millennium

The council sponsored the development of a Gateshead Quays cultural quarter. The development includes the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, erected in 2001, which won the prestigious Stirling Prize for Architecture in 2002.

 

Former brutalism

The brutalist Trinity Centre Car Park, which was designed by Owen Luder, dominated the town centre for many years until its demolition in 2010. A product of attempts to regenerate the area in the 1960s, the car park gained an iconic status due to its appearance in the 1971 film Get Carter, starring Michael Caine. An unsuccessful campaign to have the structure listed was backed by Sylvester Stallone, who played the main role in the 2000 remake of the film. The car park was scheduled for demolition in 2009, but this was delayed as a result of a disagreement between Tesco, who re-developed the site, and Gateshead Council. The council had not been given firm assurances that Tesco would build the previously envisioned town centre development which was to include a Tesco mega-store as well as shops, restaurants, cafes, bars, offices and student accommodation. The council effectively used the car park as a bargaining tool to ensure that the company adhered to the original proposals and blocked its demolition until they submitted a suitable planning application. Demolition finally took place in July–August 2010.

 

The Derwent Tower, another well known example of brutalist architecture, was also designed by Owen Luder and stood in the neighbourhood of Dunston. Like the Trinity Car Park it also failed in its bid to become a listed building and was demolished in 2012. Also located in this area are the Grade II listed Dunston Staithes which were built in 1890. Following the award of a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of almost £420,000 restoration of the structure is expected to begin in April 2014.

 

Sport

Gateshead International Stadium regularly holds international athletics meetings over the summer months, and is home of the Gateshead Harriers athletics club. It is also host to rugby league fixtures, and the home ground of Gateshead Football Club. Gateshead Thunder Rugby League Football Club played at Gateshead International Stadium until its purchase by Newcastle Rugby Limited and the subsequent rebranding as Newcastle Thunder. Both clubs have had their problems: Gateshead A.F.C. were controversially voted out of the Football League in 1960 in favour of Peterborough United, whilst Gateshead Thunder lost their place in Super League as a result of a takeover (officially termed a merger) by Hull F.C. Both Gateshead clubs continue to ply their trade at lower levels in their respective sports, thanks mainly to the efforts of their supporters. The Gateshead Senators American Football team also use the International Stadium, as well as this it was used in the 2006 Northern Conference champions in the British American Football League.

 

Gateshead Leisure Centre is home to the Gateshead Phoenix Basketball Team. The team currently plays in EBL League Division 4. Home games are usually on a Sunday afternoon during the season, which runs from September to March. The team was formed in 2013 and ended their initial season well placed to progress after defeating local rivals Newcastle Eagles II and promotion chasing Kingston Panthers.

 

In Low Fell there is a cricket club and a rugby club adjacent to each other on Eastwood Gardens. These are Gateshead Fell Cricket Club and Gateshead Rugby Club. Gateshead Rugby Club was formed in 1998 following the merger of Gateshead Fell Rugby Club and North Durham Rugby Club.

 

Transport

Gateshead is served by the following rail transport stations with some being operated by National Rail and some being Tyne & Wear Metro stations: Dunston, Felling, Gateshead Interchange, Gateshead Stadium, Heworth Interchange, MetroCentre and Pelaw.

 

Tyne & Wear Metro stations at Gateshead Interchange and Gateshead Stadium provide direct light-rail access to Newcastle Central, Newcastle Airport , Sunderland, Tynemouth and South Shields Interchange.

 

National Rail services are provided by Northern at Dunston and MetroCentre stations. The East Coast Main Line, which runs from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley, cuts directly through the town on its way between Newcastle Central and Chester-le-Street stations. There are presently no stations on this line within Gateshead, as Low Fell, Bensham and Gateshead West stations were closed in 1952, 1954 and 1965 respectively.

 

Road

Several major road links pass through Gateshead, including the A1 which links London to Edinburgh and the A184 which connects the town to Sunderland.

 

Gateshead Interchange is the busiest bus station in Tyne & Wear and was used by 3.9 million bus passengers in 2008.

 

Cycle routes

Various bicycle trails traverse the town; most notably is the recreational Keelmans Way (National Cycle Route 14), which is located on the south bank of the Tyne and takes riders along the entire Gateshead foreshore. Other prominent routes include the East Gateshead Cycleway, which connects to Felling, the West Gateshead Cycleway, which links the town centre to Dunston and the MetroCentre, and routes along both the old and new Durham roads, which take cyclists to Birtley, Wrekenton and the Angel of the North.

 

Religion

Christianity has been present in the town since at least the 7th century, when Bede mentioned a monastery in Gateshead. A church in the town was burned down in 1080 with the Bishop of Durham inside.[citation needed] St Mary's Church was built near to the site of that building, and was the only church in the town until the 1820s. Undoubtedly the oldest building on the Quayside, St Mary's has now re-opened to the public as the town's first heritage centre.

 

Many of the Anglican churches in the town date from the 19th century, when the population of the town grew dramatically and expanded into new areas. The town presently has a number of notable and large churches of many denominations.

 

Judaism

The Bensham district is home to a community of hundreds of Jewish families and used to be known as "Little Jerusalem". Within the community is the Gateshead Yeshiva, founded in 1929, and other Jewish educational institutions with international enrolments. These include two seminaries: Beis Medrash L'Morot and Beis Chaya Rochel seminary, colloquially known together as Gateshead "old" and "new" seminaries.

 

Many yeshivot and kollels also are active. Yeshivat Beer Hatorah, Sunderland Yeshiva, Nesivos Hatorah, Nezer Hatorah and Yeshiva Ketana make up some of the list.

 

Islam

Islam is practised by a large community of people in Gateshead and there are 2 mosques located in the Bensham area (in Ely Street and Villa Place).

 

Twinning

Gateshead is twinned with the town of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen in France, and the city of Komatsu in Japan.

 

Notable people

Eliezer Adler – founder of Jewish Community

Marcus Bentley – narrator of Big Brother

Catherine Booth – wife of William Booth, known as the Mother of The Salvation Army

William Booth – founder of the Salvation Army

Mary Bowes – the Unhappy Countess, author and celebrity

Ian Branfoot – footballer and manager (Sheffield Wednesday and Southampton)

Andy Carroll – footballer (Newcastle United, Liverpool and West Ham United)

Frank Clark – footballer and manager (Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest)

David Clelland – Labour politician and MP

Derek Conway – former Conservative politician and MP

Joseph Cowen – Radical politician

Steve Cram – athlete (middle-distance runner)

Emily Davies – educational reformer and feminist, founder of Girton College, Cambridge

Daniel Defoe – writer and government agent

Ruth Dodds – politician, writer and co-founder of the Little Theatre

Jonathan Edwards – athlete (triple jumper) and television presenter

Sammy Johnson – actor (Spender)

George Elliot – industrialist and MP

Paul Gascoigne – footballer (Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Lazio, Rangers and Middlesbrough)

Alex Glasgow – singer/songwriter

Avrohom Gurwicz – rabbi, Dean of Gateshead Yeshiva

Leib Gurwicz – rabbi, Dean of Gateshead Yeshiva

Jill Halfpenny – actress (Coronation Street and EastEnders)

Chelsea Halfpenny – actress (Emmerdale)

David Hodgson – footballer and manager (Middlesbrough, Liverpool and Sunderland)

Sharon Hodgson – Labour politician and MP

Norman Hunter – footballer (Leeds United and member of 1966 World Cup-winning England squad)

Don Hutchison – footballer (Liverpool, West Ham United, Everton and Sunderland)

Brian Johnson – AC/DC frontman

Tommy Johnson – footballer (Aston Villa and Celtic)

Riley Jones - actor

Howard Kendall – footballer and manager (Preston North End and Everton)

J. Thomas Looney – Shakespeare scholar

Gary Madine – footballer (Sheffield Wednesday)

Justin McDonald – actor (Distant Shores)

Lawrie McMenemy – football manager (Southampton and Northern Ireland) and pundit

Thomas Mein – professional cyclist (Canyon DHB p/b Soreen)

Robert Stirling Newall – industrialist

Bezalel Rakow – communal rabbi

John William Rayner – flying ace and war hero

James Renforth – oarsman

Mariam Rezaei – musician and artist

Sir Tom Shakespeare - baronet, sociologist and disability rights campaigner

William Shield – Master of the King's Musick

Christina Stead – Australian novelist

John Steel – drummer (The Animals)

Henry Spencer Stephenson – chaplain to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II

Steve Stone – footballer (Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa and Portsmouth)

Chris Swailes – footballer (Ipswich Town)

Sir Joseph Swan – inventor of the incandescent light bulb

Nicholas Trainor – cricketer (Gloucestershire)

Chris Waddle – footballer (Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur and Sheffield Wednesday)

William Wailes – stained glass maker

Taylor Wane – adult entertainer

Robert Spence Watson – public benefactor

Sylvia Waugh – author of The Mennyms series for children

Chris Wilkie – guitarist (Dubstar)

John Wilson - orchestral conductor

Peter Wilson – footballer (Gateshead, captain of Australia)

Thomas Wilson – poet/school founder

Robert Wood – Australian politician

LEGO Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer Fleet

Leaving CPT 2016 - photo by @armisIt

Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio), Mailand 1571? - Porto Ercole 1610

Die Inspiration des hl. Matthäus -The Inspiration of Saint Matthew - L'ispirazione di San Matteo (1602)

Cappella Contarelli, San Luigi die Francesi, Rom

 

In 1565 the French Monsignor Matteo Contarelli acquired a chapel in San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, but when he died twenty years later it had not yet been decorated. The executor of his will, Virgilio Crescenzi, and later his son, Giacomo, undertook the task. The decorative scheme called for a statue of St Matthew and the Angel, commissioned first to Gerolamo Muziano, and then to the Flemish sculptor Cobaert, for the high altar; and for a fresco cycle for the walls and ceiling by Cavalier d'Arpino. The latter decorated the vault in 1591-93, but the walls were left bare (this may reflect at least in part the Crescenzis' intentions to speculate on the interest on the Contarelli estate). On 13 June 1599 a contract was stipulated before a notary by which Caravaggio undertook to execute two paintings for the lateral walls, for which he was paid the following year (1600), after the paintings had been set in place. Later, on 7 February 1602, after Cobaert's statue had been judged unsatisfactory, an altarpiece was entrusted to Caravaggio in a separate contract that called for delivery of the work by 32 May, the Feast of the Pentecost. This painting was rejected, the artist made another one (which was accepted) in a surprisingly brief time, receiving payment for this second work on 22 September.

 

The first version of the St Matthew and the Angel was purchased by Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani and then ended up in Berlin, where it was destroyed in the Second World War. The second version (this picture) still stands over the altar today.

 

The first version was a masterpiece of the artist. It contained, in the angel who with gentle indulgence guided the saint's uncertain hand as he wrote, one of the most charming figures ever painted by the artist. The first painting was criticised for Matthew's lack of decorum. In the final version, likewise a splendid feat of imagination but certainly less fascinating than the first, the angel much more correctly counts on his fingers, in the traditional scholastic fashion, the arguments than the saint should take note of and develop. A whirlwind of drapery envelops the angel. The saint balances on his bench, in precarious equilibrium, like a modern schoolboy; but this time the unorthodox elements do not seem to have raised particular objections.

 

Source: Web Gallery of Art

 

Heritage Weekend is more than just the Saturday. In fact its more than one weekend. And the website for the weekend listed many intersting places to go, but few in east Kent on the Sunday, but St Margaret's being open was one of them.

 

So, after we had left St Mildred in Canterbury, we drove up the M2, and then through the usual strip malls and urban spread that is the Medway Towns.

 

The sat nav took us down narrow streets, across a main road, and up a slight hill, and announced we had arrived.

 

Nothing churchy leaped out at me.

 

I thought maybe down the narrow lane in front. It was then I saw the wall.

 

The wall looked chuchy. And beyond was an early 19th century building that had heritage bunting strung out.

 

Bingo.

 

The first view had the tower hidden by a tree, I thought perhaps it didn't have one.

 

But nearer to the church I could see it did have a tower, an a medieval one at that, it looked like an unhappy coupling.

 

I was given a very warm welcome, and the history of the church was explained:

 

the original church was in a ruinous state at the start of the 19th century, and when Army and Naval officers began to have houses built in the area, they wanted a nice fashionable church.

 

So the nave and chancel were taken down, and the current nave put in its place.

 

Built before the English Gothic fervour took hold.

 

The east and west windows have been replaced since the church was built.

 

Would I like to go up the tower? THere's a chance in then minutes.

 

It was hot and my heart really wasn't in it, but for photography, I'll do it.

 

So, we walked round the outside of the tower, into through the bottom door, then up and round and round, as the steps got ever steeper and worn.

 

Would the views be worth it? THey'd better.

 

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THE PARISH OF ST. MARGARET is of large extent, and contains all the lands without the walls on the south side of the city, that are within the bounds of its jurisdiction. It is stiled in some records, St. Margaret's in Suthgate, (fn. 22) and in those of the city, the Borough of Suthgate. (fn. 23)

 

There are two streets of houses in this parish, the one called St. Margaret's-street, leading from Bully-hill to the church, and so on to Borstall and Woldham southward; the other at some distance from it called St. Margaret's-bank, being a long row of houses, situated on a high bank at the north-east boundary of the parish, on the south side of the great London road to Dover, between St. Catherine's hospital in Rochester, and the Victualling-office, in Chatham. These houses are within the manor of Larkhill.

 

THERE are SEVERAL MANORS within the bounds of this parish, the most eminent of which is that of

 

BORSTALL, which was given to the church of Rochester and bishop Beornmod, in the year 811, by Cænulf, king of Mercia, as three plough lands.

 

This manor seems to have continued part of the possessions of the church of Rochester, without any interruption, till the time of the conquest. It is thus described in the general survey of Domesday, taken in the year 1080, under the general title of Terra Epi Rovecestre, i. e. the lands of the bishop of Rochester.

 

In the hundred of Rochester, the same bishop (of Rochester) holds Borchetelle. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was taxed at two sulings, and now for one suling and an half. The arable land is four carucates. In demesne there are two carucates, and six villeins with three carucates. There are 50 acres of meadow, and two mills of 20 shillings. In the time of king Edward, and afterwards, it was worth six pounds, and now 10 pounds.

 

In Rochester the bishop had, and yet has, 24 plats of ground, which belong to Frindsbury and Borstal, his own manors. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, and afterwards, they were worth three pounds, now they are worth eight pounds, and yet they yield yearly 11 pounds and 13 shillings and four-pence.

 

When bishop Gundulph was elected to this see in the time of the Conqueror, and after the example of his patron, archbishop Lanfranc, separated his own revenues from those of his convent, this manor in the division was allotted to the bishop and his successors.

 

On a taxation of the bishop of Rochester's manors, in 1255, it appears that the bishop had in the manor of Borstalle one hundred and forty acres of arable, estimated each acre at 4d. forty acres of salt meadow at 8d. each, and fourteen acres of salt pasture, each at 6d. which, with the rents of assise, made the total value of the whole manor 9l. 10s. 3d. the repair of the buildings yearly amounting to twenty shillings. (fn. 24)

 

This manor still continues in the possession of the bishop of Rochester; but the demesne lands are leased out by him to Mrs. Vade, of Croydon, in Surry.

 

By the agreement made between John Lowe, bishop of Rochester, and the bailiff and citizens of Rochester, in the 27th year of king Henry VI. concerning the limits of the jurisdiction of the city, according to the charter then lately made to them, this borough and manor of Borstall was declared to be exempt from the precinct of the hundred of Rochester, and the law-day of it, and from all payments, fines, suits forfeitures and amerciaments due on that account, as being within the liberty of the bishop, and his church. (fn. 25)

 

The monks of Rochester priory had several grants of TYTHES, and other premises made to them within this manor and hamlet.

 

Robert Ernulf and Eadric de Borstalle, gave the tithes of their lands in Borstalle to the priory, which were confirmed to it by several bishops of Rochester, and others (fn. 26) In which confirmations they are described, as the whole tithe of Borstalle of corn, and two parts of the tithes of the land of Ralph de Borstalle. (fn. 27) Eadric de Hescenden, with his wife and two sons, entered into the society of the monks of this priory, upon condition, that when they died, the monks should say a service for them, as for their brethren; and the monks were to have for ever the tithes of their lands in Borestealle and Freondesberie, but in corn only.

 

Several parcels of land, &c. lying within the manor or hamlet of Borstall, were likewise at times given to these monks. All these premises continued part of the possessions of the priory till the dissolution of it, in 1549, when they were surrendered into the king's hands, and were settled by him, three years afterwards, on his new founded dean and chapter of Rochester, where they remain at present.

 

This manor, with others in this neighbourhood, was bound antiently to contribute to the repair of the first pier of Rochester-bridge.

 

NASHENDEN is a manor in this parish, which lies about three-quarters of a mile south-eastward from Borstall. In the Textus Roffensis it is called Hescenden, and in Domesday, Essedene.

 

This manor was part of those vast possessions, with which William the Conqueror enriched his half-brother Odo, the great bishop of Baieux; accordingly it is thus entered, under the title of that prelate's lands, in the general survey of Domesday:

 

Rannulf de Columbels holds of the bishop (of Baieux) Essedene. It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is . . . . In demesne there is one carucate, and 19 villeins, with three borderers having three carucates. There are three servants, and 8 acres of meadow. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, it was worth three pounds, when he received it four pounds, now five pounds. Earl Leuuin held it.

 

It appears by the red book of the exchequer, that this estate in the reign of king Henry II. was held by Thomas de Nessingden, of Daniel de Crevequer, as one knight's fee of the old feoffment.

 

In the reign of king Edward I. this manor was become the property of Jeffry Haspale, whose descendant, John de Aspale, for so the name was then spelt, died possessed of Nashenden in the 31st year of that reign, holding it of the king in capite. After which it appears to have come into the name of Basing, and from thence quickly after into that of Charles.

 

Richard Charles, as appears by the inquisition taken after his death, anno 1 Richard II. died possessed of the manor of Naseden, which he held of the king in capite by knight's service, excepting forty acres of pasture and wood, which he held of the lord Grey, as of his manor of Aylesford; whose nephew, Richard, son of his brother Roger Charles, died possessed of it in the 11th year of that reign, holding it of the king in capite, as of his honor of Peverel and Hagenet, by knight's service.

 

Nicholas Haut afterwards possessed this manor, in right of his wife Alice, who was a descendant of the above-mentioned family. She held it for the term of her life with remainder to James Peckham, who on her death, in the 1st year of king Henry IV. came into the possession of it. He obtained the king's licence two years afterwards, to give and amortize to the wardens of Rochester-bridge, and their successors, this manor, and also one hundred acres of pasture, with their appurtenances in Ellesford, the manor then being worth yearly, and above all reprises 6l. 13s. 4d. per annum. (fn. 28) Since which it has continued part of the possessions of the wardens and commonalty of the said bridge, for the support and repair of it. The present lessees of this manor are Leonard Bartholemew and Phil. Boghurst, esqrs.

 

An account of the tithes of this manor will be given, with those of Little Delce in this parish. (fn. 29)

 

There was a chapel at this place, dependent on the parish church of St. Margaret. (fn. 29)

 

GREAT DELCE is a manor which, with the estate now called LOWER DELCE, lies on the eastern side of this parish, about half a mile southward from Eastgate, in Rochester. It was formerly called Much Delce and Delce Magna, or Great Delce, and was given by William the Conqueror to Odo, bishop of Baieux, his halfbrother, under the title of whose lands it is thus entered in the general survey of Domesday:

 

In the lath of Aylesford, in Rochester hundred, the son of William Tabum holds Delce of the bishop (of Baieux). It was taxed at one suling and one yoke. The arable land is . . . . . There is one carucate in demesne, and five villeins having five carucates. There are 12 acres of meadow, wood for the pannage of one bog. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, and afterwards, it was worth three pounds, and now 70 shillings. Godric held it of king Edward.

 

This manor afterwards came into the possession of a family, to which it gave name. Herebert, Gosfrid, and Hugo de Delce possessed it in successive generations. After which it passed to Buckerel, and the heirs of Thomas Buckerel, in the latter end of the reign of king Henry III. held it as two knights fees and a half, of Bertram de Criol. (fn. 30) After which this estate seems to have been separated into parcels, for Geoffry de Haspale held this manor as the fourth part of a knight's fee only, at the time of his death, in the 15th year of king Edward I. as appears by the inquisition taken for that purpose.

 

The next family who succeeded, as appears by the original deeds of this estate, was that of Molineux, descended from those of Sefton, in Lancashire; but they did not keep possession of it long, for by the evidence of an antient court roll, Benedict de Fulsham was lord of it in the 30th year of king Edward III. His descendant, Richard Fulsham, held it of the king in capite, as the fourth part of a knight's fee, at his death in the 5th year of king Henry V. Soon after which this name seems to have become extinct here; for in the 9th year of that reign, Reginald Love died possessed of it, and his successor held it till the latter end of king Henry VI's reign, when it passed by sale to William Venour, whose arms were, Argent, on a fess sable five escallops or, three and two, and who died possessed of this manor in the 1st year of king Edward IV. After which it was within a few months conveyed by sale to Markham, descended from an antient family of that name in Nottinghamshire, in which name it staid but a very short time before it was sold to Tate, who passed it away to Sir Richard Lee, citizen of London, and grocer, who served the office of lord-mayor in the 39th year of king Henry VI. and the 9th year of king Edward IV. (fn. 31) He was the eldest son of John Lee, of Wolksted, in Surry, and grandson of Symon Lee, who was descended of ancestors in Worcestershire, and bore for his arms, Azure, on a sess cotized or, three leopard's faces gules. He lies buried in the church of St. Stephen, Walbrook, his arms are remaining in East-Grinsted church, and in that of St. Dionis Backchurch, in London, with those of several marriages of his posterity; his son Richard Lee seems to have had this manor of Great Delce by gift of his father during his life-time, and kept his shrievalty at this mansion in the 19th year of the latter reign, his son Richard, who was both of Delce and of Maidstone, left two sons, the youngest of whom, Edward, was archbishop of York, (fn. 32) and the eldest Richard, was of Delce, whose only surviving son, Godfrey, in the 31st year of Henry VIII. procured his lands to be disgavelled, by the general act passed for this purpose, (fn. 33) after which his descendants continued to reside here for several generations, but Richard Lee, esq. about the latter end of queen Anne's reign, passed away the whole of this estate, excepting the manor, and forty acres of land, to Thomas Chiffinch, esq. of Northfleet, in this county, from which time this seat and estate acquired the name of Lower Delce.

 

Thomas Chiffinch, esq. died in 1727, and was succeeded by Thomas Chiffinch, esq. his only son and heir, who died without issue in 1775, and by his will bequeathed this, among his other estates, to his niece and heir-at-law, Mary, the daughter of his sister Elizabeth Comyns, who afterwards carried them in marriage to Francis Wadman, esq. of the Hive, in Northfleet, and he is the present possessor of Lower Delce.

 

THE MANOR OF GREAT DELCE, and the forty acres of land above-mentioned, together with a farm, called King's Farm, continued in the possession of Richard Lee, esq. who died possessed of them in 1724, and his grandson, Richard Lee, esq. of Clytha, in Wales, now possesses this manor; but in 1769, he alienated all the demesnes of it, together with King's farm, to Mr. Sampson Waring, of Chatham, who died possessed of them in 1769, leaving his brother, Mr. Walter Waring, and his sister, Mrs. Smith, of Lower Delce, his executors, who are at this time entitled to the profits of them. The court for the manor of Great Delce has not been held for some years.

 

The manor is held by castle-guard rent of Rochester castle; but when the mansion and most part of the lands were sold, as above mentioned, from Lee to Chiffinch, the former expressly charged the whole of that rent on the premises bought by Chiffinch, and entirely exonerated that part which he reserved to himself from paying any portion of it.

 

An account of the tithes of this manor, given to the priory of Rochester, may be seen under the following description of Little Delce manor.

 

LITTLE DELCE, or DELCE PARVA, now known by the name of UPPER DELCE, is a manor in this parish, situated in the high road between Rochester and Maidstone, somewhat more than a quarter of a mile from the former. This likewise, as well as that of Great Delce, was given by William the Conqueror to his half brother Odo, bishop of Baieux; under the general title of whose lands it is thus described in the book of Domesday:

 

In Rochester hundred, Ansgotus de Roucestre holds Delce of the bishop (of Baieux). It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is two carucates, and there are in demesne . . . . . . . with one villein, and five borderers, and six servants. There are 12 acres of meadow, and 60 acres of pasture. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, and afterwards, and now, it was, and is worth 100 shillings. Osuuard held it of king Edward.

 

This estate, on the disgrace of bishop Odo, most probably reverted again into the king's hands; and seems afterwards to have been in the possession of a family, who assumed their name, De Delce, from it, and held it of William de Say, as one knight's fee. (fn. 34)

 

In the reign of king John, this manor was in the possession of Jeffry de Bosco, a Norman; but when that province was seized by the king of France, the lands of the Normans, in this kingdom, became vested in the crown, by way of escheat or seizure, under the title of, Terra Normanorum; thus the manor of Little Delce was seized by king John, in the 5th year of his reign, who gave it to William de Ciriton, the sheriff, for two hundred pounds, two palfreys, and two gols hawks, (fn. 35) on condition, that if the said Jeffry should return to his allegiance, he should, without delay, again possess the same. (fn. 36) But this never happened, and this manor continued in the desendants of William de Ciriton. Odo de Ciriton died possessed of it it in the 31st year of king Henry III. holding it of the king in capite, by the service of one knight's fee. (fn. 37) This family was extinct here before the middle of the reign of king Edward I. for in the 9th year of that reign, as appears by Kirkby's Inquest. Richard Pogeys held this manor. At the latter end of the reign of king Edward III. it was possessed by the family of Basing, from which name it went into that of Charles. Richard Charles died possessed of the manor of Little Delce, in the 1st year of king Richard II. leaving his brother's sons, Richard and John, his next heirs; the former of whom died possessed of it, anno 11 Richard II. and left a son, Robert Charles, who dying without issue, his two sisters became his coheirs, viz. Alice, married to William Snayth, and Joan to Richard Ormskirk; and on the division of their estates, this manor fell to the share of William Snayth, commonly called Snette, in right of his wife, Alice, the eldest of them. Soon after which, Charles and William Snette, for so the name is spelt in the bridge archives, gave and amortized this manor of Little Delce, of the yearly value of six marcs, above all reprises, to the wardens of Rochester bridge and their successors, for the support and repair of the same. Since which it has acquired the name of Upper Delce, by which it is now only known, and it continues at this time part of the possessions of the wardens and commonalty of the said bridge, for the purposes above mentioned. The present lessees of this manor are Leonard Bartholomew and Philip Boghurst, esqrs.

 

The tithes of Great and Little Delce, Borstal, and Nashenden, were given, in the time of bishop Gundulph, to the priory of Rochester.

 

Gosfrid de Delce, together with his wife and children, on their being admitted to be partakers of the benefits received from the prayers of the monks, gave the whole of the tithes of Little Delce, both great and small, to the priory of St. Andrew.

 

Ansgotus de Rovecestre accepted of the like benefit from the church of St. Andrew, and the monks there, in the time of bishop Gundulph, and gave to the church and monks there, all his tithes, both great and small, of Great Delce, and in like manner the whole of his tithe mill, and of a certain piece of land included within the wall of the monks, towards the south, and five acres of land near Prestefelde, and at their request, gave them, on his death bed, cloathing, and they performed service for him as for a monk.

 

Uulmer, the tenant of Arnulf de Hesdine, by the advice of Adelold, brother of Baldwin, monk of St. Andrew, accepted the benefit of that society, and gave to it his whole tithe, worth ten shillings yearly. Robert de St. Armand gave his tithes of Neschendene and Borstelle to St. Andrew's priory. These several tithes were confirmed to the priory by various bishops of Rochester; by Theobald, archbishop, and Ralph, prior, and the convent of Canterbury. They remained part of the possessions of the priory till their dissolution in 1540; three years after which they were settled on the new founded dean and chapter of Roter, where they still remain.

 

The PARISH of St. MARGARET, is Rochester, is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese and deanry of Rochester. The church is situated at the south extremity of St. Margaret's-street; it consists of one nave and two chancels on the south side of much later date than the church. That towards the east end was built and long supported by the family of Lee, of Great Delce, whose remains lie in a large vault under this chancel; but since the alienation of their mansion here, the repair of this part of the fabric has devolved on the parishioners. The chancel, at the east end of the church, belongs to the appropriator, who consequently repairs it. At the west end of the church is a tower, containing five bells; it is entirely covered with ivy to the top of it, which makes a most beautiful and picturesque appearance. Against the east wall, in the south chancel, is the antient bust of a man in robes, with a coronet on his head. (fn. 38) In the reign of king Charles II. a coronet, set round with precious stones, was dug up in this church yard; and the report of the parish has been, that one of our Saxon kings was buried here.

 

Among other monuments and inscriptions in this church are the following: In the chancel, a brass for Syr James Roberte Preess, obt. Sep. 24, 1540. A monument, arms, Head, impaling quarterly a chevron between three hawks belled or, for Francis Head, esq. eldest son of Sir Richard Head. bart. obt. 1678; he married the only daughter of Sir George Ent. In the north window, Argent. three crosses bottony fitchee sable, and argent on a bend quarterly, an efcallop gules. In a pew, partly in the chancel and partly in the nave, Argent on a bend gules, between two peliers, three swans proper. In the nave, a brass for Tho. Cod. vicar, a benefactor to the steeple of this church, obt. Nov. 1465. In the chancel, south of the rectors, a monument, arms, Argent, a right hand couped sable, impaling Lee, for Thomas Manly, esq the third son and heir of George Manly, of Lach, esq. he married Jane, second daughter of Richard Lee, esq. of Delce, and left one only son and two daughters, obt. 1690. In the east window, arms of Lee, Azure on a fess cotized, or three leopards heads gules. In a chapel, west of the Lee chancel, in the east wall, a bust of a person with a crown on his head, much defaced. (fn. 39)

 

At the time of bishop Gundulph's coming to the see of Rochester, and for almost a century afterwards, this church or chapel of St. Margaret, for it is frequently mentioned by both names, was accounted only as an appendage to the parochial altar of St. Nicholas in the cathedral, and the one underwent the same changes as the other; (fn. 40) and Walter, bishop of Rochester, in 1147, confirmed the above mentioned parochial altar, together with this church of St. Margaret, which belonged as a chapel to it, to the monks of this priory, and appropriated it to them. This grant was set aside by bishop Gilbert de Glanville, in the beginning of the reign of king Richard I. who not only separated this church from the altar of St. Nicholas, and divested the monks of all manner of right to it; but on the foundation of his hospital at Stroud about the same time, he gave, in pure and perpetual alms, among other premises, this church of St. Margaret to the master and brethren of it, and appropriated it to them, reserving only half a marc yearly to be paid to the priory, in lieu of the oblations which the monks used to receive from it. (fn. 41)

 

The monks by no means acquiesced in this gift, but seized every opportunity of asserting their right to this church, and after several appeals to the pope from time to time, and confirmation and decrees made in favour of each party, (fn. 42) the dispute seems to have been finally settled in 1255, when the pope adjudged, that this church of St. Margaret, with all its appurtenances, should for the future belong to the prior and chapter of Rochester; accordingly from the above time they kept possession of it.

 

From the time of bishop Walter's appropriation of the profits of the parochial altar of St. Nicholas, with this church appendant to it, to the prior and convent, to the divesting them of it by bishop Glanville, it is likely, instead of a curate being appointed, the duty of this parish was discharged by some member of the society, as it was probably afterwards, whilst in the possession of the hospital, by one of the priests of that foundation; however, within a few years after the convent recovered the permanent possession of St. Margaret's, a vicar was certainly appointed, for William Talevez occurs by that title in 1272.

 

The vicars seem to have had only a yearly stipend from the convent for their pains, for more than a century afterwards; but in 1401, the prior and chapter came into a composition with the vicar for the endowment of this church; in which they agreed, that the vicar and his successors should for the future have, for their maintenance, and the support of the burthens therein mentioned, a mansion with its appurtenances, to be assigned for the vicarage of it, and the accustomed and entire altarage of it, and all the small tithes of the three manors of Nessenden and Great and Little Delce, and of all goods and lands, except the tithes of mills, within the parish, and except the tithes, great, small, and mixed, arising from the lands, cattle, and other things belonging to the religious; and that he and his successors should have three quarters of wheat with three heaps, and three quarters of barley with three heaps, to be taken yearly at their barn, at the times therein mentioned, and the tithes of sheaves, which should arise in gardens not cultivated with the plough; and that the vicar and his suc cessors, content with the above portion, should not demand any thing further of the religious or their successors; and further, that he and they should undergo, at their own proper costs and charges, the burthens of repairing, maintaining, and new building, as often as need should be, the buildings, with their appurtenances, and all other things belonging to the said mansion, with its appurtenances, as well as all things belonging to the celebration of divine services, and the administration of the sacraments and sacramentals to the parishioners, and the finding of bread and wine, lights, books, vestments, and other ornaments necessary to the celebration of divine services, which of custom or right ought to belong to the secular rectors of this church; and also the procurations and subsidies, according to the taxation of his and their portion; but all other things whatsoever, belonging or which in future should belong to this church, as well as all tithes whatsoever, arising or to arise from the lands and possessions of the prior and convent within the parish, even though they should be let or sold to laymen, they the said prior and convent should take and have, who should likewise maintain and repair the chancel, except as before excepted, at their own proper costs and charges. Notwithstanding the stipulation of the vicar for himself and his successors, not to require any increase of their portion from the prior and convent, Edmund Harefelde, vicar of this church, did not consider this clause as obligatory upon him; for in 1488, he petitioned the bishop for an augmentation of his vicarial portion, who decreed, that the vicar and his successors should yearly receive, as the portion of his vicarage, from the prior and convent, five marcs in money; and out of the tithes and profits of this church, appropriated to the prior and convent, four quarters of wheat with four heaps, and four quarters of barley with four heaps, to be taken yearly at their barns of the Upper court, in Harreat, with liberty of entry and distress on the parsonage on non-payment; and he decreed, that the endowment of the vicarage, over and above the portion above mentioned, should be as follows, that the vicar for the time being should have the mansion of the vicarage of this church, with the garden adjoining, for his habitation, which they used to have of old time there, and then had; and all manner of oblations whatsoever within the bounds of the parish, and all manner of tithes whatsoever, as of hay, lambs, wool, mills, calves, chicken, pigs, geese, ducks, eggs, bees, honey, wax, cheese, milk, the produce of the dairy, flax, hemp, pears, apples, swans, pidgeons, merchandizes, fisheries, pastures, onions, garlics, and saffrons whatsoever arising and coming; and also the tithes of sheaves in gardens, whether cultivated with the plough or dug with the foot, increasing within the parish; and the tithes also of firewood, woods, thorns, silva cedua, as well as of all billets, faggots, and fardels whatsoever, within the limits of the parish; and he further decreed, that the burthens of repairing, amending, and new building the mansion, with every appurtenance belonging to it, and the celebration and ministration of the sacraments and the sacramentals to the parishioners, of the finding of bread and wine, and lights to the church, either of right or custom due, should belong to and be borne by the vicar and his successors, as well as all episcopal burthens of the said church, according to the taxation of his portion. But that the burthen of repairing and amending the chancel of the church, as well within as without, as also the finding and repairing of books, vestments, and other ornaments, for the celebration of those divine rights, which of old, either by right or custom, belonged to the rectors of the church, should in future be borne by the prior and convent and their successors, at their own proper charge and expence; and that all other burthens, ordinary and extraordinary, of the vicarage, and to the vicar belonging, by reason of tha same, except as before excepted, should belong to him and his successors, to be borne and supported at his and their own proper costs and charges; saving to the bishop and his successors, a right of augmenting and diminishing this vicarage, and of correcting, amending, and explaining the above decree, whenever he or they should think it expedient so to do; and saving to himself and his successors, all episcopal right, (fn. 43) &c.

 

The appropriation of this church, and the patronage of the vicarage, continued part of the possessions of the prior and convent till the dissolution of the monastery, in 1540, when it was surrendered into the king's hands, who three years after, by his dotation charter, settled this appropriation and vicarage on his new founded dean and chapter of Rochester, where they remain at this time.

 

Adjoining to the north wall of the church yard is a piece of ground, which has probably belonged to the vicars of this parish ever since their first institution here; an antient court roll mentions their being possessed of it in the year 1317.

 

In the 5th year of king Edward III. John de Folkstan, vicar of St. Margaret's, held a messuage, with its appurtenances, adjoining to the church yard, by the assignment of the prior and convent, with the ordination of the bishop, as belonging to the portion of his vicarage; which messuage, with its appurtenances, was held of the master and brethren of the hospital of Stroud, by fealty, and the service of two shillings yearly, and also the payment of twelvepence to them, after the death of each vicar. (fn. 44)

 

The vicars, I am told, now hold this piece of land of the dean and chapter, as of their manor of Ambree, on their paying a small acknowledgment.

 

The vicarage house being from age become irreparable, was taken down, with an intention of erecting a convenient and substantial dwelling in the room of it; for which purpose Mr. Lowth, the late vicar, for several years deposited an annual sum with the dean and chapter, towards defraying the charges of it; and about 1781, erected on this spot a neat and convenient house, built of brick and sashed, with proper offices adjoining, for the use of himself and his successors, vicars of this parish. By an agreement between John Ready, vicar of it, and the dean and chapter, the former, in consideration of several benefits and benevolences done to him by the latter, consented to take an annual payment of 5l. 6s. 8d. instead of the pension in money and corn, granted by the composition made in 1488. Some recompence indeed has since been made for this unjust bargain by the dean and chapter, who have settled on it a larger augmentation than on any other church in their patronage. The vicarage of St. Margaret is valued in the king's books at 10l. and the yearly tenths at 1l. (fn. 45)

 

¶In the survey, taken after the death of Charles I. in 1649, of the church livings within this diocese, by the powers then in being, on the intended abolition of deans and chapters, it was returned, that there were belonging to this rectory or parsonage, a parsonagehouse, two barns, one stable, and other houshings, and also certain tithes, profits, &c. belonging to it, together with certain glebe land, called Court-hill and Court hill marsh, containing together nine acres, and and one marsh, lying in the parish of St. Nicholas, Rochester, called Cow marsh, with the waste ground called salts, containing together seven acres, and all that piece of ground called Upper court, alias Hogshaw, containing one acre; in all seventeen acres, worth together 130l. per annum, viz. the house and lands, 12l. per annum, and the tithes 118l. per ann. all which were let, among other premises, by Henry King, late dean of the cathedral church of Rochester, by his indenture, in 1639, to George Newman, esq. for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent, for Preestfield and Stroud marsh, of 4s. 4d. per annum, and for all the other premises twelve quarters of wheat, heaped, making together the yearly rent of 31l. 1s. 8d. Next the vicarage was, in like manner surveyed, and returned at the yearly value of 30l. (fn. 46)

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol4/pp153-182

LEGO Star Wars : Super Star Destroyer - Executor

“To Thomas Fermor, Knight, a man of generosity towards scholars, mercy and goodness towards his people, admirable piety towards all men, the kindly lord of this estate, and the excellent founder of a school. In perpetual memory of himself and his beloved wife Brigitta, his executors, in accordance with his will, have with tears erected this monument. He died in the year of our Lord 1580, the 8th day of August”.

Thomas was the 4th son of Richard Fermor and Anne Browne www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/11131090304/ of Easton Neston

Thomas followed his father entering the Grocers’ Company and becoming a merchant of the staple after some time at the Inner Temple. He was MP for Brackley 1553 & Shropshire 1558. He was High Sheriff of Shropshire 1558–59 and Recorder of Bridgnorth 1561-1580

Thomas inherited the estates (including Somerton) from his uncle William Fermor in 1552 www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/11287970666/ previously he had married 2 heiress wives

 

He m1 Frances 1530-1570 heiress daughter of Thomas Hoord of Horde Park or Bridgnorth, Widow of Edward Raleigh of Farthinghoe

 

He m2 1571 Bridget d1580 co-heiress daughter of Henry Bradshaw of Halton www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/11448504594/ ,.Widow of Henry White d1572 1st son of Thomas White 1566 of South Warnborough www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/11293999484/ having already 3 daughters

1. Agnes m Thomas Scudamore

2. Jane m Henry Ferrers

3. Philippa m Walter Giffard of Brewood www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/9239795743/ & Chillington

 

Children of John and Bridget Bradshaw

1. John dsp1625 www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/11293141116/ m Cecily daughter of Henry Compton of Brambletye, East Grinstead by Cecily Sackville (Cecily m2 Henry Arundel Baron Arundell of Wardour )

2. Richard 1643 www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/11288100453/ m Cornelia d1654 daughter of Sir William son of Sir Thomas Cornwallis of Brome 1518-1604 and wife Anne Jerningham www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/9392457045/ by Lucy daughter of John Neville, 4th Lord Latymer www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/2313867321/ and Lucy Somerset www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/2316107831/

3. Mary m Francis heir of Edmund Plowden (parents of Mary wife of Henry Kervill of Wiggenhall St Mary Norfolk www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/2Z1PA7 )

 

Bridget inherited Halton and Wendover manors from her father

Thomas was a catholic but ‘large-hearted and tolerant of opinions differing from his own’ as well as being ‘obedient to existing authorities’. He entrusted the education of his son Richard to a Catholic kinsman George Shirley of Staunton Harold who was also to take care of his only surviving daughter Mary and see her ‘bestowed in marriage to a man in like sort inclined’"

Thomas lived at the manor house built by his uncle, his first act on arriving here was to found a school. He also built a chapel specifically for catholic worship and a priest’s residence in the grounds of the old castle and set aside land for burials. During the reign of Elizabeth I the laws against Catholics were tightened so that they could no longer hold public assemblies, including attending mass. The chapel therefore fell into disuse He then installed a private chapel in his manor house which remained the centre of Catholicism in the village for more than a century after the Fermors left. Catholicism did not prevent Thomas from continuing to support the parish church financially or from specifying burial in the Fermor chapel there in his will of 15 June 1580..

The original contract for his tomb's design and erection funded by £40 willed by Thomas, still exists. Dated 20 September 1581 it was made between Thomas’s executors and Richard and Gabriell Roiley of Burton upon Trent. ‘…ye said Richard and Gabriell Roiley… shall and will worke, make, laye, and place, artificially substantially durably and decently in or on ye uppermost p’te of ye said Tumbe… a very faire decent and well p’portioned picture or portraiture of a gentleman representing ye said Thomas Fermor wth furniture and ornaments in armour, and about his necke a double cheyne of gold wth creste and helmette under his head, wth sword and dagger by his side, and a lion at his feete and in or on the uttermoste parte of the uppermost parte of the said Tumbe a decent and p’fect picture or portraiture of a faire gentlewoman wth a Frenchehood, edge and abilliment, with all other apparell furniture jewells ornamentes and things in all respects usuall, decent, and seemly, for a gentlewoman"’.

 

Thomas’s son Richard c1625 moved his seat from Somerton to Tusmore, which he had bought at some point before 1612 with monies accumulated by his father’s executors during their trusteeship.

 

www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member...

www.flickr.com/photos/13706945@N00/8553588352/

Picture - church site somertonoxon.co.uk/?page_id=225

www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member...

305 Broadway, Civic Center, Downtown Manhattan, New York City, United States of America

 

Civic Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

 

The 13-story (plus basement) Mutual Reserve Building (1892-94), located on the northwest corner of Broadway and Duane Street, is one of New York City's most significant examples of a tall late-19th-century office building designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque Revival style. The two designed facades feature granite and limestone cladding, rusticated piers, foliate carving, and arcaded base and upper sections. The architect, William H. Hume, was best known in his day for commercial and institutional work, and this is his most important extant commission.

 

The building is notable as an early steel cage- framed structure in New York, constructed just prior to the full development of the skyscraper. The builder was the eminent Richard Deeves, while the prominent consulting structural engineer was Frederick H. Kindl, chief engineer of the Carnegie Steel Co. The Mutual Reserve Building was owned, until 1920, by the grandchildren of the immensely wealthy Boston merchant shipping magnate and shipbuilder, William F. Weld.

 

The initial principal tenant of the building was the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association, launched in 1881 with the intention of offering life insurance at cost and called by King's Handbook of New York in 1892 "the largest purely mutual natural-premium life-association in the world." Mutual Reserve only lasted until 1909, however,

 

and the structure was re-named the Langdon Building. It has housed many other tenants, including firms and organizations associated with the publishing and paper trades, as well as many lawyers' offices, and was the first long-term home of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (1967-80). The original main and auxiliary entrances on Broadway were altered and eliminated, respectively (c. 1923). The Mutual Reserve Building is also significant as a survivor among the 19th-century insurance industry buildings along Broadway in this vicinity, which include the Home Life Insurance Co. Building (1892-94, Napoleon le Brun & Sons), No. 256, and New York Life Insurance Co. Building (1894-99, Stephen Decatur Hatch with McKim, Mead & White), No. 346.

 

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

 

William F. Weld Estate

 

The Mutual Reserve Building was commissioned by the Estate of William F. Weld. One of America's most successful merchant shipping magnates and shipbuilders, William Fletcher Weld (1800-1881), the proprietor of William F. Weld & Co. in Boston, operated one of the largest fleets in the country, including the Senator (1833), one of the largest ships of its era. His trade was centered in the Canary Islands, East and West Indies, Manila, and Singapore. Merchants in both Boston and New York City had created immense wealth based on commerce with Europe, the Caribbean, and Asia starting in the 18th century - participation in the trans-Atlantic "triangular trade" became an integral part of both cities' economies. These merchants were significant in this highly lucrative Europe-Africa-Americas shipping network that traded enslaved workers from Africa and the Caribbean, manufactured goods, and products from the Caribbean, such as sugar, rum, molasses, tobacco, rice, and cotton. Located closer to the West Indies, New York eventually surpassed Boston in the domination of the northern Atlantic coastal trade. This trade, in turn, spurred a number of profitable local industries, such as shipbuilding and food processing, particularly sugar refining, distilling molasses into rum, and the conversion of tobacco into snuff.

 

William F. Weld also invested in the construction of railroads, and became sole agent of the English firm of Thompson & Forman, producer of iron rails. After he retired from business in 1861, according to a biographical sketch, he "devoted himself largely to real estate, purchasing and building stores and warehouses in Boston and New York, a policy he directed, in his will, should be carried out by his trustees." He left an estate estimated to be about $21 million which, after various family and charitable bequests, was left to his four grandchildren (the two granddaughters when they reached the age of 25): William Fletcher Weld, Jr. (1855-1893), Charles Goddard Weld (18571911), Mary Bryant Pratt (later Sprague, then Brandegee)(1871-1956), and Isabel Weld Perkins (later Anderson)(1876-1948). His son, William Gordon Weld (1827-1896), grandson William F. Weld, Jr., and Samuel Johnson were the original executors of the estate.

 

In May 1888, the Weld Estate (on behalf of the four Weld grandchildren) purchased a lot for $350,000 at the northwest corner of Broadway and Duane Street, and in 1890 acquired a tiny adjacent interior lot. The Estate commissioned the construction of a speculative office building (the Mutual Reserve Building) in 1892. Following the death of William F. Weld, Jr., in 1893 and the transferral of Charles G. Weld's interest in 1901, this property was held by the trustees of Mary Bryant Pratt Sprague and Isabel Weld Perkins Anderson. It was transferred solely to Mary Bryant Pratt Brandegee in 1907. In 1891, Mary Bryant Pratt had married Charles Franklin Sprague (18571902), a wealthy Boston lawyer who, after his marriage, was said to have been the wealthiest man to serve in Congress. In 1904, Mary (called by the New York Times "one of the richest young widows in the country") married Edward Deshon Brandegee, a wholesale clothing manufacturer from Utica, New York. Mary Brandegee retained the 305 Broadway property until 1920.

 

The Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association

 

The original principal tenant of the Weld Estate's office building at 305 Broadway was the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association, which signed a 40-year lease for its home office that officially began on June 1, 1894. The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported in January 1892 that the rent would be "on a per cent basis of the total cost of the building, together with a percentage of the valuation -- $500,000 we believe -- of the land." According to an 1894 report, Mutual Reserve had contributed $408,297 towards the lease and the building's construction and furnishing. William H. Hume, the architect selected to design their headquarters, was listed as a director of the Association in an obituary.

 

Incorporated in 1875 and launched in 1881 with the intention of offering life insurance at cost, the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association was called by King's Handbook of New York in 1892 "the largest purely mutual natural-premium life-association in the world." Offering reduced premiums that allowed many people to be able to afford the cost of insurance, Mutual Reserve became one of the largest and most popular life insurance companies, with branches in Canada and Europe. The Association was previously located in the Potter Building on Park Row, and its founder and president was Edward Bascom Harper (1842-1895), who was succeeded in 1895 in the new building by Frederick A. Burnham. In 1892, the firm had $225 million worth of insurance coverage "in force", and by 1895 its coverage rose to $300 million.

 

Reports began to circulate by 1896, however, about a significant decrease in business, the depletion of reserves, rapid losses due to death benefit payouts, and excessive executive salaries, and the affairs of the Association were under investigation for several years. In 1902, the firm was re-incorporated as the Mutual Reserve Life Insurance Co., a "purely mutual life insurance institution" and New York's third largest. Complaints continued about the company's solvency, and after further investigations, indictments were made against Mutual Reserve's president and vice-president. The lease at 305 Broadway was renewed in 1908 at $60,000 a year, but the company was placed under receivership that year, then-president Archibald C. Haynes filed for bankruptcy, and former president Burnham was found dead, a possible suicide. The Mutual Reserve Life Insurance Co. was fully defunct by 1911.

 

The Mutual Reserve Building

 

Plans for the 13-story (plus basement) Mutual Reserve Building were filed by architect William H. Hume in June 1892, to cost an estimated $730,000. Construction began at the end of that month, but was ultimately greatly delayed due to steel and granite strikes. The builder, the eminent Richard Deeves, stated that "the Mutual Reserve Building... was about a year and a half under construction, but then we lost at least eight months in consequence of the strike at the Carnegie Iron and Steel Works." The Mutual Reserve Building was steel cage framed: the prominent consulting structural engineer, Frederick H. Kindl chief engineer of the Carnegie Steel Co., wrote that "this method of construction, that is, using steel beams and columns for framework, and supporting the walls at each floor level, has only of late been introduced extensively. ... Mutual Reserve Building... [is] of similar construction...." The stone contractor, Hanlein & Co., also executed the extensive Romanesque style ornamental carving. Dedicated on June 14, 1894, the building was officially completed in September.

 

Hume's design for the Mutual Reserve Building was comparable to, and undoubtedly influenced by, architect R.H. Robertson's first tall commercial structure completed two years earlier, the nine-story Lincoln Building (1889-90), 1-3 Union Square West. The architectural vocabulary of both buildings was influenced by the Richardsonian Romanesque style, named after one of America's greatest architects, Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886), who created an American interpretation of the Romanesque based on French and Italian prototypes. His Trinity Church (187377), Boston, as well as his many libraries and other buildings, firmly established Richardson's professional reputation and launched the popularity and influence of the style.

 

Following Richardson's precedent, many architects employed it in the 1880s and 90s for a wide variety of building types, ranging from mansions to courthouses, university structures, and railroad stations, and including some tall office buildings. The style was characterized by its appearance of massiveness and such features as rockfaced masonry and round-arched fenestration. In this period, as architects in New York City were still grappling with appropriate ways to design tall office structures and early skyscrapers, two features were commonly employed: multiple-story arcades on facades, and a tripartite base-shaft-capital arrangement associated with the classical column. The designs of both the Lincoln and Mutual Reserve Buildings merged these features through a horizontal layering of sections (an effect criticized by some contemporary architectural critics).

 

The Mutual Reserve Building's two designed granite- and limestone-clad facades are arranged with a six-story base, with arcades up to the fifth story, and rusticated piers; a six-story planar mid-section; and a one-story rusticated upper section with an arcade of windows and a tall balustraded parapet. Intricate Romanesque style foliate carving appears on such areas as the arches, column capitals, and cornices. King's Handbook (1892) had speculated that the proposed structure "will be one of the finest office-buildings in the city... the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association... is contributing a masterpiece of architecture to its artistic aspect." An observer at the New York Herald-Tribune in November 1893 expounded on the "model new office building" and its amenities:

 

The handsome new building of the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association... has aroused the admiration of all who have seen it. ... The exterior of the building is of a dignified and attractive Romanesque style of architecture. The material employed is Indiana limestone, which has given a rich architectural effect. The building is one of the best types of the new steel buildings, and is built in the most substantial manner. It is, in fact, a tremendous steel frame inclosed in a handsome stone casing, while the partitions and floors are of fire-proof brick. ... The building is provided with every convenience that skill and modern invention can give. Four swift-running Otis elevators will give the most rapid communication between the highest and lowest parts of the building. The offices will be heated by steam and lighted by electricity throughout, while the plumbing, ventilating and sanitary arrangements have received the most careful study. The unusually desirable situation of this building has enabled the architect, William H. Hume, to make all the offices light and well ventilated from the street, while large courts give good light to the other rooms in the building. All the windows of the building are the largest size.

 

After its completion, the New York Times in 1895 touted "this massive and impressive structure" as "an instance of genuinely fire-proof construction" that "closely approached the ideal of safe construction," while the National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (1897) noted that "towering above all the other buildings in its vicinity, its stately walls fittingly represent the solidity and permanence of the business for which it was erected." Mutual Reserve's slogan, "Founded Upon a Rock," seemed to mimic the solid Romanesque style of its home office. The firm occupied the second through fourth stories.

 

Not only is the Mutual Reserve Building one of New York City's most significant examples of a tall office building designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque Revival style, the structure is also notable as a survivor among the 19th-century insurance industry buildings along Broadway in

 

this vicinity, which also include the Home Life Insurance Co. Building (1892-94, Napoleon le Brun & Sons), No. 256, and New York Life Insurance Co. Building (1894-99, Stephen Decatur Hatch with McKim, Mead & White), No. 346.

 

Architect: William H. Hume

 

William Henry Hume (1834-1899), born in New York City, began an architectural practice here in 1855. Examples of his early commercial work in contemporary styles may be seen at 62 and 66 Perry Street (1866); 53 Lispenard Street (1867-68); 313 Church Street (1868-70); and 83-87, 89, and 66 Grand Street (1872, 1877, 1885), in the Greenwich Village, SoHo-Cast Iron, and Tribeca East Historic Districts. By the 1880s, Hume was receiving some highly noteworthy commercial and institutional commissions, including: the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society Asylum (1881-84; demolished), Broadway and West 136th Street; B. Altman Store addition (1887), 615-629 Sixth Avenue; Hotel Normandie (1887; demolished), Broadway and 38th Street; Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank (1887-89; demolished), 49-51 Chambers Street; Masonic Home and School (c. 1890; demolished), Utica, New York; H.C.F. Koch & Co. Store (1890-91), 132-140 West 125th Street; North River Savings Bank (1892; demolished), 266 West 34th Street; and Lotus Club (1893; demolished), 556 Fifth Avenue.

 

Hume designed William Waldorf Astor's 17-story New Netherland Hotel (1891-93; demolished), Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, touted as the world's tallest hotel at the time and an early steel cage-framed structure. The firm of William H. Hume & Son, formed in 1894 with Frederick Thomas Hume (1859-1934), was responsible for the Scotch Presbyterian Lecture Hall (1895; demolished), Central Park West and 95th Street; First Church of Christ Scientist (1896; demolished), 137 West 48th Street; Spingler Building (1896-97), 5 Union Square West; and Simpson, Crawford & Simpson Co. Store (1900-02), 635-649 Sixth Avenue. The firm continued until around 1910. The Mutual Reserve Building was one of the Hume's finest commissions and is his most important extant work.

 

Builder Richard Deeves and Consulting Engineer Frederick H. Kindl

 

The builder of the Mutual Reserve Building, Richard Deeves (1837-1919), was born in Dublin, Ireland, came to the United States in 1850, apprenticed as a mason with George S. Dixon, and soon became a builder, establishing his own firm in 1869. An early specialty was gasworks structures. He was responsible for the construction of countless notable residences, commercial buildings, and skyscrapers, examples of which included the Temple Court Building (1881-83, Silliman & Farnsworth), 3-9 Beekman Street (where he maintained an office); Randall Memorial Chapel and Music Hall (1890-92, Robert W. Gibson; chapel demolished), Sailors' Snug Harbor, Staten Island; and the Manhattan Life Insurance Co. Building (1893-94, [Francis H.] Kimball & [G. Kramer] Thompson, with engineer Charles Sooysmith; demolished), 64-66 Broadway. Richard Deeves & Son, with J[ohn]. Henry Deeves, "mason builders and general contractors," was formed by 1895. One of its projects was the American Seamen's Friend Society Sailors' Home and Institute (1907-08, William A. Boring), 505-507 West Street. Richard Deeves had his office in the Mutual Reserve Building from its completion until at least 1914.

 

Frederick Henry Kindl (1863-1914), born in Austria, immigrated to the United States as a boy in 1873, and graduated from the Case School of Applied Science (1884), Cleveland. After working as an engineer in Chicago for several years, he moved to Pittsburgh, where he became Structural and Chief Engineer of the Carnegie Steel Co. Kindl is considered one of the seminal

 

pioneers of the American steel-framed tall building and skyscraper, a field in which he specialized as a consulting engineer nationally.

 

The Tall Office Building in New York City in the 1880s-90s

 

During the 19th century, commercial buildings in New York City developed from four-story structures modeled on Italian Renaissance palazzi to much taller skyscrapers. Made possible by technological advances, tall buildings challenged designers to fashion an appropriate architectural expression. Between 1870 and 1890, nine- and ten-story buildings transformed the streetscapes of lower Manhattan between Bowling Green and the City Hall area. During the building boom following the Civil War, building envelopes continued to be articulated largely according to traditional palazzo compositions, with mansarded and towered roof profiles.

 

Beginning in the later 1870s, tall buildings were characterized by flat roofs and a free, varied grouping of stories, often in the form of multi-storied arcades, within the facades. The period of the late 1870s into the 1890s was also one of stylistic experimentation in which commercial and office buildings in New York incorporated diverse influences, such as the Queen Anne, Victorian Gothic, Romanesque, and neo- Grec styles, French rationalism, and the German Rundbogenstil, under the leadership of such architects as Richard M. Hunt and George B. Post. Beginning around 1890, architects began producing tall building designs that adhered to the tripartite base-shaft-capital arrangement associated with the classical column, a scheme that became commonly employed in New York.

 

New York's early tall buildings -- including the seven-and-one-half-story Equitable Life Assurance Co. Building (1868-70, Gilman & Kendall and George B. Post) at Broadway and Cedar Street, the ten-story Western Union Building (1872-75, George B. Post) at Broadway and Liberty Street, and the ten-story Tribune Building (1873-75, Richard M. Hunt) on Park Row (all now demolished) -- incorporated passenger elevators, iron floor beams, and fireproof building materials. Fireproofing was of paramount concern as office buildings grew taller, and by 1881-82 systems had been devised to "completely fireproof' them. Cage construction, employed in the 1880s in tall buildings in New York and Chicago, was characterized by the Record and Guide as

 

a frame work of iron or steel columns and girders which carry the floors only, and do not carry the outer walls. In the cage construction the outer walls are independent walls, from the foundation to the extreme top, sustaining themselves only, and therefore, the walls are made less in thickness than if they had to bear the floors as in ordinary buildings such walls would have to do.

 

Ever taller skyscrapers were permitted by the increasing use and refinement of the metal skeleton frame, in which the metal columns and girders support both the floors and the outer (curtain) walls. In addition, several hybrid structural forms were used in tall buildings, such as the combination of both masonry and metal for interior vertical supports.

 

In 1888-89, New York architect Bradford Lee Gilbert used iron skeleton framing for the first seven stories of the 11-story Tower Building at 50 Broadway (demolished). As steel skeleton framing was adopted for tall buildings in New York, architects and engineers introduced caisson foundations which carried the weight of the skeleton frame down to bedrock. Kimball & Thompson's seminal 17-story (plus tower) Manhattan Life Insurance Co. Building (1893-94, with engineer Charles Sooysmith; demolished) was the tallest building yet constructed in the city and is credited with being the first skyscraper with a full iron and steel frame, set on pneumatic concrete caissons.

 

This was followed by the American Surety Co. Building (1894-95, Bruce Price, also with Sooysmith), 100 Broadway, which was the first New York skyscraper with a full steel frame, set on pneumatic concrete caissons. The cage-framed Mutual Reserve Building utilized the successful design and construction techniques of its predecessors, just prior to the full development of the skyscraper. It is interesting to note that, while the Mutual Reserve Building was nearing completion, the building committee of the American Surety Co. visited the structure and expressed the intention to construct something similar.

 

Other Early Tenants

 

The Arkwright Club, for drygoods merchants, was one of the earliest Mutual Reserve Building tenants, having signed a lease in 1893 for one of the top stories at $90,000 (to 1899). Undoubtedly drawn to the location nearby the then-center of New York's publishing and newspaper industries, the Mutual Reserve Building drew a number of firms and organizations associated with the publishing and paper trades, such as Hubbell Publishing Co. (c. 1894-1915), West Virginia Pulp & Paper Co. (1894-1909), Hollingsworth & Whitney Co., paper manufacturer (c. 1899-1911), Marcus S. Bulkley, paper buyer (1901), American Paper & Pulp Association (c. 1906-08), and Stationers Association ofNew York (c. 1907-11). Other tenants included the Co-Operative Building Bank (1894), Spanish Benevolent Society of New York (c. 1896-1902), Mutual Mercantile Agency (pre-1901), Miller Bros. Cutlery Co., pocket cutlery and pens (c. 1903-15), and Hapgoods, "National Organization of Brain Brokers" (c. 1905-14).

 

The Langdon Building and Later Ownership History and Tenants

 

By 1909, with the demise of the Mutual Reserve company, No. 305-309 Broadway was renamed the Langdon Building, most likely after the owner's son, the stockbrocker John Langdon Brandegee. In 1920, the Times announced the purchase of the property (from Mary Brandegee) for about $2 million by the Broadway-John Street Corp. (Elias A. Cohen, president), which intended to remodel it to lease as "high-grade offices for lawyers" who, according to the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, "are being crowded out of the financial district by the insistent demand from banks and business concerns willing to pay rentals which are prohibitive to lawyers." Lawyer tenants already in the building formed the Office Tenants League to protest eviction and expected exorbitant rents. The building was transferred in 1921 to a group of investors that included Isidor and Charlotte Mishkind, Fred and Cecilia Mishkind Broverman, Joachim S. Van Wetzel, Warren and Marguerite Watson, and Edward J. and Beatrice Lewis. In 1923, the central auxiliary entrance on Broadway was removed (Schwartz & Gross, architects). The building was conveyed in 1940 to the Downtown Renting Co. (Elias A. Cohen, president) and in 1945 to the Broaduane Corp. (Elias A. Cohen, president).

 

Two authors mentioned the building's unsavory reputation within the legal profession, one referring to it as "the 'Den of Forty Thieves,' reflecting the appearance... and the snobbish opinion of lawyers located elsewhere on lower Broadway... [and] because the structure was regarded as a law office slum." The other called the building one of the centers in the 1920s of the faked American "personal injury underworld." Various other tenants included Herman J. Hegt, Inc., metals dealer (c. 1919-20); George F. Hardy, mill architect and consulting engineer (c. 1914-20); Lithographers International Protective and Beneficial Association of the United States & Canada (c.

 

1914-15); Earle E. Liederman/ Progressive Exerciser Co., one of America's early physical culture mail-order businesses (1922-30); Wall Street Synagague (1929); and Jewish Forum Association, publisher of The Jewish Forum (1944). By 1950, the building began to house a number of state government agencies.

 

In 1957, the property was conveyed to the 305 Broadway Co. (Sylvan Lawrence and Seymour Cohn, partnership), and was purchased in 1959 by Broadway Duane Associates (Louis and Joseph Lefkowitz, general partners) and leased back to the 305 Broadway Co. The building was transferred in 1969 to the 305 Broadway Corp. (Louis Lefkowitz, president), then in 1975 back to the 305 Broadway Co., which merged the lease and fee of the property. It was owned in 1980 by 305 Broadway, Limited Partnership (Herman Abbott, president, of Abbott Corp., general partner), and since 1982 by Reade Broadway Associates. The former Mutual Reserve Building has housed a number of New York City agencies, including the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (1967-80) as its first long-term home.

 

Description

 

Historic: 13-story (plus basement) corner Richardsonian Romanesque Revival style office building clad in granite and limestone on main facades, with carved foliate ornament; six-story base, with arcades up to the fifth story, and rusticated piers; six-story planar mid-section; one-story rusticated upper section with arcade of windows and tall balustraded parapet; paired windows on Broadway and end bays on Duane Street, and tripartite windows on the rest of Duane Street facade, divided by stone piers, columns, or colonnettes; small rectangular windows inserted at top of building (1909, William H. Hume & Son)

 

Alterations: shopfronts (originally single-pane glass with bulkheads and sign bands), signage, and rolldown gates; two-story main Broadway entrance (originally elaborately ornamental with round-arched entrance) re-built in flattened form, with rectangular entrance and transom, non- historic doors, and rectangular second-story window bay (c. 1923); two-story central auxiliary Broadway entrance (originally with steps and round-arched transom) eliminated and replaced with shopfront and rectangular second-story window bay (1923); windows with anodized aluminum sash (originally one-over-one double-hung wood sash)

 

Western and Northern Side Elevations: unarticulated brick cladding, pierced by windows

 

- From the 2011 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (Jan. 17, 2023) U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen give a presentation to Fabien Cousteau, executor and founder of Proteus Ocean Group (POG), and members of his team on their capstone project. The midshipmen are working with Proteus as part of their final capstone project. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jordyn Diomede)

Although she was a Loyalist, she lived to see her son, George Washington, become President of the United States of America.

 

From what I have read, she would have applied for Food Stamps and all entitlements she could had they been available:

 

"Mary Washington was by no means poor despite the fact that she petitioned the Government of Virginia claiming to be destitute."

 

Her son, George, purchased her a fine house in Fredericksburg, where she lived from 1772 until her death in 1789. In her will, Mary Washington left George the majority of her lands and appointed him as her executor.

Launceston.

Fearing the French might establish a settlement there, Governor King of NSW in 1804 sent Colonel William Paterson to set up a town at Port Dalrymple in the north of VDL. It is now Georgetown on the coast. It was a difficult site so Paterson moved to the confluence of the South Esk and Tamar Rivers in 1806. Paterson called the place Launceston after the birth town of Governor King. The settlement struggled but in 1813 it was declared a free port to international shipping and the town slowly progressed. Most building in the 1820s was on the wharf where men like Reibey had their own wharves. A large penitentiary was built to provide convicts to build the town but the main early structure is the Paterson Barracks and Commissariat Store in St Johns Street which was erected in 1828. It is an austere, solid stone three storey structure. The other early building is St John’s Anglican Church which opened in 1825. It was a replica of the original St David’s neo-classical church in Hobart. Between 1901-11 the church was incorporated into a new St John’s and only the entrance porch remains visible attached to a Victorian gothic church!

 

The early town relied on flour mills, breweries and the wool trade for its prosperity. Two early settlers, John Batman and John Fawkner established a village across Bass Strait in 1835 called Melbourne. The arrival of the western railway in 1871 boosted the town as did two major mineral discoveries which made Launceston boom. They were the tin deposits at Mount Bischoff in the west in 1871 and gold at Beaconsfield in 1877. The wool industry was still flourishing and Waverley Woollen Mills were established in the 1870s and still operate today. By the 1880s Launceston was prosperous and held an International Exhibition in 1891. The Albert Hall was built at a cost of £14,000 to house the exhibition. Tasmanian producers exhibited as did companies from England, Germany, Austria, France, the USA and New Zealand. The competition with Hobart was strong even in those days and in 1894 Hobart also held an International Exhibition. (Melbourne had had an International Exhibition in 1880/81.)

 

The next factor to develop the city was the availability of cheap hydro electricity from the late 1930s which saw Coats Paton threads and textiles establish in the city ( they closed in 1997 and moved to Wangaratta in Vic.) and the railway workshops for the whole of Tasmania were built at Inveresk just outside the city centre( also now closed.) Launceston also became the first city in Australia lit by hydro-electricity back in 1895 from a generator on the river above Cataract Gorge. Big employers in Launceston today are Boags breweries, Waverley Mills and the education sector- a university campus as well as the Australian Maritime College for training mariners. Greater Launceston has a population of over 100,000 people.

 

Examples of the boom period of Launceston can still be seen in the outstanding late 19th century Customs House, the impressive neo-classical Town Hall, the charming 1891 Queen Victoria Museum (the city venue) and the fine stores and buildings in the CBD. The boom period also saw some grand private houses built along the hill tops of the city.

 

Franklin House.

Convicts built this good example of a Georgian style house in the village of Franklin. Next door is St James’ Anglican Church built in 1845. Franklin House was built for a local brewer and innkeeper in 1838 but in 1842 it was sold to Mr W. Hawkes who converted it into a school for boys. The school operated until 1866 when the house changed owners. It had a succession of owners until the National Trust bought it in 1860. Note the fine porch with Ionic Greek columns, the wonderful fan light above the door with an elliptical central piece of glass, and the string course across the facade to separate the two levels of the building. Inside the house is known for its extensive use of Australian red cedar for the doors, architraves, door frames etc. The complex has a pleasant coffee shop and gardens.

 

Cataract Gorge.

The South Esk River tumbles through Cataract Gorge. The whole area is a nature reservoir, just a few minutes from the centre of Launceston. The first bridge was put across the gorge in 1867. It has been a pleasure garden for the citizens of Launceston for a long time. A chair lift takes people across the first basin on the South Esk River.

‘Here lyeth in hope and expectation of that joyful day of the resurrection, when the Saviour of the whole World shall appear in power and judgment, to awake all those who have slept in him, to be pertakers of the everlasting blessedness of his eternal kingdom, Sir Wymond Carye of Snettesham in the county of Norfolk Kt. sometime of Thremhall Priory in Essex, first branch of that family of the Carys which is descended from Edmund Beanford, duke of Somerset, and so from John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster, erected by his only brother, Sir Edward Carye of Aldenham in Hertfordshire, master and treasurer of his majesties jewels and plate, and of Sir Henry Carye of C — in Bucks, son and heir of the said Sir Edward Carye joynt executor of the last will of Sir Wymond Carye, who lived about 75 years, & in peace and happiness and in the comfortable testimony of a good conscience and stedfast faith in Christ, died April 3, 1612.’

Lying on a huge monument flic.kr/p/tWipyH in the Emmanual chapel of the north transept which he had reduced c1597 along with the demolition of the chancel, is Sir Wymond Carye 1612.

Born in 1537, he was the eldest son of Vice Admiral Sir John Cary 1552 of Hunsdon & Cockington & Joyce daughter of Sir Edmund Denny of Cheshunt and 2nd wife Mary daughter and coheir of Robert Troutbeck of Bridge Trafford, Chester. Well connected, Joyce was the widow of William Walsingham and mother of Sir Francis Walsingham spymaster for Queen Elizabeth . She was also the sister of Anthony Denny, groom of the stool to Henry Vlll who m Joan Champernowne, cousin to Katherine Ashley née Champernowne, the governess of the future Queen Elizabeth

Through his father Wymond was the nephew of William Carey 1st husband of Mary Boleyn sister of Queen Anne Boleyn

 

Sir Wymond who was knighted at Whitehall in 1604, had rented the lordship of the manor from the Crown under Queen Elizabeth and James I, it was later acquired outright by his nephew Sir Henry Carye in 1614.

 

Aged at least 50, he m Catherine Jernegan coheiress daughter of John Jernegan of Somerleyton who was the widow of Henry Crane 1586 of Chilton, Suffolk with a son Robert Crane 1643 flic.kr/p/nD5wiM

Wymond & Catherine had no children

HOWEVER a Sir Wymond Carye styled " Lord Warden of ye Stanneries, Master of ye First Fruits Office, & Knight of ye Bath" fathered a child Jayne Davys who was the mother of Mary wife of Sir Gilbert Prynne 1627 of Chippenham flic.kr/p/61UL8F

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carey_(courtier) - Church of St. Mary Snettisham Norfolk

  

Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

 

The two stables at Nos. 130 and 132 West 18th Street — units of an original row of thirteen brick-fronted stables erected in 1864-66 of which nine survive — were joined in 1907 to create the present building. Though joined at the ground story, the two facades retain their individual identity at the second story and remain largely intact. Designed in a round-arched utilitarian style related to the German Rundbogenstil. they feature a mix of Romanesque and Renaissance Revival details.

 

Each unit of the 130-132 West 18th Street building has a tripartite triumphal arch composition which focuses on a central bifurcated Renaissance arch at the second story. Originally built for wealthy businessmen, the two stables had several prominent owners, among them Civil War hero, Major Theodore K. Gibbs, and Nathaniel McCready, founder of the Old Dominion Steamship Line. As a component of one of the two uniformly designed mid-nineteenth-century private carriage house groups remaining in Manhattan, the 130-132 West 18th Street Stables Building is a rare survivor.

 

These stable rows reflect a period in the city's developmental history when private carriage houses began to be erected some blocks away from their owners' homes, on streets devoted almost exclusively to private stables and commercial liveries. An early manifestation of this trend, which became common practice during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, the West 18th Street row was one of the most extensive of the period and contained unusually large and handsomely decorated stables.

 

The Tonnele Estate and the Development of the Private Stables on West 18th Street

 

Once part of the eighteenth-century farm of Peter Warren, the lots on the south side of West 18th Street between Sixth Avenue and the old Warren Road to the west were acquired by John Tonnele around 1817.

 

Senior partner in the firm of Tonnele & Hall, the country's leading dealer in wool, Tonnele had extensive real estate holdings in Manhattan including large tracts on Sixth Avenue, 14th and 15th, and 17th and 18th Streets.

 

In his will of 1846, Tonnele divided his real estate among his family, giving them the option of selling the property and investing the proceeds in trust for their heirs. A total of thirty-two lots on West 17th and 18th Streets were left to his daughter Susan G. Hall. In March of 1863, she and the executors of the estate, her husband Valentine G. Hall and his brother George Hall, began selling her lots which were then occupied by small dwellings and wood shanties.

 

As the area was semi-industrial in character, with a brewery located on the north side of 18th Street and the Weber piano factory occupying the northeast corner of Seventh Avenue and 17th Street, the Halls must have regarded the lots as unsuitable for first-class residential or commercial development. However, the lots' proximity to the fashionable Fifth Avenue residential district north of Union Square must have made them seem ideal for private stables and apparently they were offered for sale as such. By 1867, all the former Tonnele Estate lots on 17th and 18th Streets were occupied by private stables with restrictive covenants on the properties prohibiting their conversion to factories or commercial livery stables.

 

Stables were a necessity during the period when private urban transportation was limited to horses and carriages.3 While the majority of New Yorkers rented or boarded their horses in large commercial stables, the very wealthy maintained private stables. (Since private stables invariably provided storage space for carriages, the terms carriage house and private stable are used interchangeably hereafter.)

 

Traditionally, these were located directly behind their owners' houses, sometimes facing onto the less desirable street front of a through-the-block lot. By the mid-nineteenth century, carriage-house rows developed to serve a few of the city's most exclusive streets.

 

Remnants of these stable rows survive at 127 and 129 East 19th Street, originally part of a group of stables serving the houses on Gramercy Park South and Irving Place, * and at 57 Great Jones Street, the sole survivor of a long row of stables which once backed onto the mansions on the north side of Bond Street between Broadway and Lafayette Street.

 

Around 1860, carriage houses began to be erected a few blocks from their owners' homes, on convenient but less fashionable streets, where land costs were lower and where the noises and smells associated with stables would not mar the character of a residential neighborhood. Eventually a number of streets in Manhattan were devoted almost exclusively to private and livery stables.

 

These included East 35th and East 36th Streets between Lexington and Third Avenues (developed largely in the 1860s and 1870s), East 73rd Street between Lexington and Third Avenues (stables erected between 1883 and 1904), and West 58th Street between Broadway and Seventh Avenue (stables erected c. 1885-1905)

 

The twenty-nine stables erected on the former Tonnele Estate in the 1860s, extending from 121 to 143 West 17th Street and from 112 to 146 West 18th Street, were an early example of this type of development and together formed one of the most extensive groups of private stables built in Manhattan in the 1860s.

 

It should be noted that throughout the 1860s, most of the private carriage houses on these "stable streets" were commissioned on an individual basis and that speculatively built rows were a rarity.

 

Perhaps the most extensive speculative development was Sniffen court, a group of ten private carriage houses on a blind alley off East 36th Street, erected in 1864 for four investors by local builder John Sniff in, and subsequently sold to wealthy residents of Murray Hill.

 

Although uniform in design, the row from 122 to 146 West 18th Street was created through a combination of small-scale speculative development and individual commissions. in May and June of 1864, Elisha Brooks, a partner in the successful Brooks Brothers clothing firm, purchased the lots from 122 to 126 West 18th Street and had three identical stables erected on the site.

 

As work was proceeding on the Brooks stables, Susan Hall and her children agreed to use part of the proceeds from the sale of the lots on 18th Street to build a stable at 128 West 18th Street which would be retained for the family's use.

 

Though commissioned by a different client, this stable was identical in plan and design to the recently completed Brooks stables. By 1866, the nine remaining lots extending from 130 to 146 West 18th Street had been sold. Their new owners also had stables erected which followed the articulation established by the Brooks stables creating a uniform row of thirteen stables.

 

This would suggest that Brooks had made the plans for his stables available to the other owners and/or that the same builder or architect was commissioned for all thirteen buildings. The result was one of the most extensive stable rows in the city, containing unusually large and handsomely decorated buildings whose owners included a number of New York's wealthiest and most prominent citizens, among them Samuel F.B. Morse who was the original owner of the stable at 144 West 18th Street (demolished).

 

The stable at 130 West 18th Street was constructed in 1864-65 for Wilmot Johnson, a resident of Albany, who owned a coal company with offices in New York at 111 Broadway.

 

Soon after its completion Johnson sold the stable to Walter S. Gurnee, a midwesterner who had made a fortune in the tannery business and railroads in Chicago before moving to New York in 1863 where he operated an investment banking firm and served on the board of several mining and metal processing companies.

 

Gurnee retained the 18th Street stable for three years while he was living at 33 West 20th Street. The stable was then purchased by Henry T. Helmbold, described by nineteenth-century diarist George Templeton Strong as a "sporting druggist [who] is said to have acquired a vast fortune by pictorial advertisements."14 Helmbold also retained the stable for about three years, selling it in 1871 to Major Theodore K. Gibbs, who resided nearby at 62 West 21st Street.

 

A descendent of a prominent and wealthy Rhode Island family, Theodore Kane Gibbs was born in Newport in 1840. His father William Charming Gibbs was a leader in the public affairs of the state who had served as a member of the state assembly, chief magistrate, and governor from 1820 to 1824.

 

Theodore K. Gibbs was raised in Newport and entered the army as a young man during the Civil War. He served with distinction, was twice wounded, and twice decorated for bravery. Following the war, he enlisted in the regular army and while stationed on Staten Island married Virginia Barrett. The Gibbses maintained homes in New York and on Gibbs Avenue in Newport.

 

They were active in society and were known for "giving liberally of their large means."

 

The stable at 132 West 18th Street was built in 1864-65 for John R. Garland, a broker who headed his own firm on William Street and resided at 28 West 21st Street.

 

In 1868, the building was acquired by Nathaniel L'Hommedieu McCready, president of the Old Dominion Steamship Line, who lived at 10 West 22nd Street.

 

A leader in the shipping industry in New York, McCready had entered the business in 1840 at the age of nineteen, organizing his cwn firm, the N.L. McCready Company, which he ran successfully until 1865. He then formed a partnership with Livingston, Fox & Company, owners of several steamship lines. In 1867, he organized the Old Dominion Line which operated a fleet of steamships between New York and the Virginia ports of Norfolk, Newport News, Richmond, and West Point. McCready served as president of the line until his death in 1887; he was also president of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad for fourteen years.

 

Following her husband's death Caroline Waldron McCready retained ownership of 132 West 18th Street which continued to function as a private stable. In 1895, the building was remodeled to accommodate horses on the second floor. Four years later Mrs. McCready sold the building to Theodore K. Gibbs who retained ownership of both 130 and 132 West 18th Street until his death in 1906.

 

The Design of the 130 and 132 West 18th Street Stables

 

Originally units of a stable row, the stables at 130 and 132 West 18th Street are characteristic of nineteenth carriage house design as adapted to a narrow urban lot. Typically, such stables would have been divided into two major ground-floor spaces — a front room for carriages and a rear room with stalls for horses.

 

The front portion of the second floor would have contained quarters for the coachman or grocsn, while the rear would have been used as a hayloft. Windows were restricted to the front of the building to spare neighbors the sights and smells associated with horses, but two large skylights provided additional light to the second-floor roams.

 

The facades of the two buildings were designed in a round-arched utilitarian style derived from the German Rundbogenstil (round-arch style) . The Rundbogenstil evolved in Germany in the 1820s among a group of progressive architects who sought to create a synthesis of classical and medieval architecture by drawing on historic precedents in the round-arched Byzantine, Romanesque, and Renaissance styles.

 

Transmitted to this country through the immigration of German and Central European architects in the 1840s, as well as through architectural publications, the Rundbogenstil tended to be conflated with other mid-nineteenth century round-arched styles such as the Romanesque and Renaissance Revivals.

 

Among the major American examples of the round-arched style are Charles Blesch and Leopold Eidlitz's St. George's Church (1846-56) on Stuyvesant Square at 16th Street, Alexander Saeltzer's Astor Library (1849-53, later additions 1859, 1881), at 425 Lafayette Street, and Thomas Tefft's Union Depot, Providence, R.I. (1847, demolished). The style is reflected in the design of the West 18th Street stables by the choice of materials (unstuccoed brick and locally available sandstone), by the emphasis on flat wall surfaces, and by the clear definition of architectural elements.

 

The meshing of classical and medieval motifs is apparent in the tripartite composition for each unit, which recalls both a Roman triumphal arch and the elevation of a medieval nave arcade, and in the incorporation of such details as the Renaissance-inspired cornice and diamond-pointed keystones and the Romanesque-inspired arcades and rusticated bands.

 

The chief feature of each facade is a large central arch containing a pair of inscribed arches and a bull's-eye tympanum. This motif, which was thought by nineteenth-century theorists to have originated in northern Italy during the Romanesque period and was widely used during the Renaissance, became a hallmark of the nineteenth-century round-arched styles, both here and in Germany.

 

Interestingly, the only other remaining group of mid-nineteenth century carriage houses in Manhattan, located at Sniffen Court, is also designed in a round-arched style and features a triumphal arch composition with arched windows and doors flanking a central two-story arch. At 18th Street, the stables are larger and more elaborate in design.

 

In addition to its ties to the round-arched style, the design of the stables at 130 and 132 West 18th Street is distinguished by its skillful super imposition of recessed and projected planes. The double-height arcade of each facade, carried on slender projected piers, is on a forward plane, while the wall membrane with its door and window openings is recessed. A series of horizontal moldings break forward over the piers to unite the two planes.

 

The moldings at the arches' imposts at the second story form the capitals for two pilaster orders (a major order which articulates the piers, and a minor order which frames the windows). In addition to their function in the design of these individual units, the repeated use of horizontal elements and the alternation of large and small arches are important elements in creating a strong sense of rhythm and harmony within the row.

 

Description

 

Two components of a uniformly designed stable row were joined in 1907 to create the building at 130-132 West 18th Street which has a frontage of forty-three feet on West 18th Street and has been extended from its original depth of eighty-one feet to occupy the entire length of its ninety-two-foot-deep lot. Though joined on the ground story, the two facades retain much of their individual identity. Faced with brick and brownstone they are designed in a round-arched style that incorporates Romanesque and Renaissance details.

 

Each facade is organized in a tripartite triumphal arch composition that focuses on a double-width center bay. At the ground story, the bays are articulated by projected piers. Originally, the wide center bay of each building contained a pair of wood carriage doors, the eastern bay had an arched entrance, and the western bays had an arched window.

 

The arches were ornamented by diamond-pointed keystones and stone bands ran across the facade at the sill, watertable, impost, and cornice lines. Today, the eastern bay (at No. 130) remains relatively intact, although the entrance has been enlarged somewhat to accommodate a metal door. In the center bay of No. 130 the paired carriage doors have been replaced by two arched windows with metal grilles; the windows are supported by a wood bulkhead and surmounted by multipane transoms. At watertable level the stone bands ornamenting the piers have been cut flush with the brickwork.

 

When No. 130 and No. 132 were joined in 1907, the end piers in the west bay at No. 130 and the east bay of No. 132 were removed to create a vehicle entrance. At that time cast-iron supports were installed next to the brick piers and steel girders were inserted above the old center bay at No. 130 and new vehicle entrance (new occupied by wood infill and a metal door). ,The girders are currently covered with stucco, as are the rusticated blocks above the piers. The cornice that separated the two stories has been removed.

 

On the western portion of the facade (at No. 132) the ground story has been extensively altered. In addition to the changes in the east bay, the piers flanking the original vehicle entrance have been replaced and a steel beam has been inserted above the entrance.

 

This necessitated the removal of the stone cornice which once capped the first story; the area above the vehicle entrance is now stuccoed. In the west bay, the arched surround has been removed and the window opening has been enlarged to create a doorway. The Weill surface is covered with sheet metal. The opening contains a metal and glass door surmounted by narrow transom. The paired carriage doors in the center bay have also been replaced by a garage door.

 

The second story of the facade at 130 West 18th Street remains virtually intact. Here the piers carry an arcade in which the center arch is both wider and taller than the flanking arches. The arches are set-off by stone diamond-pointed keystones and stone sills beneath the windows. Stone bands, which break forward over the piers at the impost line of the arches, form the capitals for two pilaster orders — a major order articulating the arcade and a minor order framing the windows.

 

A small pilaster bisects the center bay into a pair of arched windows which are topped by a molded wood surround that features a central bull's-eye. All of the window openings contain original wood frames and four-over-four double-hung sash. This section of the facade is crowned by a simple molded brick entablature.

 

On the second story of the portion of the facade at No. 132 the articulation of the facade at No. 130 is repeated. The facade remains largely intact; however, only the east window bay retains its original sash and a fire escape has been added at the west window.

 

Subsequent History

 

In the 1870s and 1880s, the neighborhood to the east of the stables on 18th Street, which had once been exclusively residential, became the heart of New York's chief shopping district as the retail trade expanded along Broadway, Sixth Avenue, and 14th and 23rd Streets. At least two of the stables were sold to neighboring businesses in the 1880s and by the first decade of the twentieth century all were being used for commercial or manufacturing purposes. This change in the character of the neighborhood was coupled with the advent of the automobile.

 

The forerunners of the modern automobile had developed in Europe in the last decades of the of the nineteenth century.

 

By the 1890s horseless carriages were being manufactured in the United States, and in the first decade of the twentieth century they became a major means of transport for the rich. In 1907, the year following the death of Theodore K. Gibbs, the buildings at 130 and 132 West 18th Street were acquired by the Metropolis Security Company and leased to T.J. Gerome for conversion to an automobile repair garage.

 

At that time the buildings were joined and a portion of the front wall was taken dcwn and supported on steel beams. The inclusion of a drafting room on the second floor gives some indication of how very specialized auto repair must have been during this period. From documents filed with the Department of Buildings,23 it would appear that the building remained in use as a garage through the mid-twentieth century.

 

Fires in 1914 and 1946 made alterations to the ground story necessary; however, the second story is largely intact. Today, the 130-132 West 18th Street stables building is a component of one of the two remaining mid-nineteenth century carriage house groups in Manhattan and is distinguished by its design which provides a notable example of the round-arched style as applied to a utilitarian building type.

 

- From the 1990 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

LEGO Star Wars : Super Star Destroyer - Executor

Shown here is an image from an exhibit about the history of the Indian School at the College of William and Mary, on display from February 18-21, 2011 for a conference for the Virginia Indian Nations Summit on Higher Education and Native American Student Association Summit on Higher Education at the School of Education building.

 

The following is taken from the label text for this exhibit:

 

Although the English colonists in Virginia attempted to establish an Indian School as early as 1618, it was with the death of British scientist Sir Robert Boyle in 1691, that an Indian School at the College of William & Mary became a real possibility. Between 1695 and 1697, William & Mary President James Blair signed an agreement with the executors of Boyle’s will to invest funds in an estate in Yorkshire, England known as Brafferton. The rents generated annually paid the College 90 pounds to support the Indian School. The main purpose of the school was to educate students who would then attempt to convert other members of their tribes to Christianity.

 

The Governors of Virginia attempted to enroll students by convincing Virginia’s American Indian tribes that their sons would learn to read and write as well as the English colonists. When that failed to generate students, William & Mary resorted to buying their pupils from local Native Americans who captured the boys from other tribes. While the Indian School failed to convert many pupils to Christianity, it was beneficial for those students who were able to use their extensive knowledge gained from living in Williamsburg to assist their tribes in defending their way of life against the English colonists. Enrollment at the school reached a high of 24 students in 1712, declined to 8 by 1754, and remained at that level until the school closed in 1777 as a result of the American Revolution.

 

Excerpts from meetings of the William & Mary faculty with references to the Indian School and requests for funds for the library to support the education of the students. Reproductions of the 10 August 1732 Faculty Minutes, Faculty Assembly Records, UA 133

 

An account from the Indian School for Doctors James and William Carter for medical services provided to students. Reproduction of an account for James and William Carter, Brafferton Estate Collection, UA 113, Acc. 1994.009

 

As seen on this page from the Bursar’s account book, from 1771 to 1776, the Indian School at William & Mary enrolled five students. The Manor of Brafferton Account from the Bursar’s Book, Office of the Bursar, UA 72, Acc. 1983.122

 

The 1782 Frenchman’s Map shows the Brafferton building in relation to the rest of the town of Williamsburg. The map is so-named because it was drafted by an unknown Frenchman probably stationed with Rochambeau's army during the American Revolution. The original Frenchman’s Map is also owned by William & Mary. Reproduction of the 1978 Reprint of the Frenchman’s Map of Williamsburg, Virginia, Mss. Acc. 2009.002

 

Account from William & Mary for clothing for pupils of the Indian School, 1773. Account for Clothing from the Indian School, Brafferton Estate Collection, UA 113, Acc. 2011.068

 

Color portrait of Virginia Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood, 1736. “Alexander Spotswood: Portrait of a Governor,” Walter Havighurst, F234.W7 W7.

 

Photograph of a portrait of Sir Robert Boyle, British scientist and the benefactor of the Indian School at William & Mary. Photograph of an oil portrait of Sir Robert Boyle owned by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, University Archives Photograph Collection, UA 8

 

When the English colonists were unable to find pupils for the Indian School, colonial officials negotiating treaties with Virginia’s American Indian tribes attempted to convince them to send their sons to the school. Transcripts from “The Official Letters of Governor Spotswood…” and “Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia,” University Archives Subject File Collection, UA 9

 

Alexander Spotswood, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia from 1710 to 1722, was a strong supporter of the Indian School and frequently requested additional money to sustain the school. Memorial of Alexander Spotswood’s Letter to the Bishop of London, 1712, Brafferton Estate Collection, UA 113, Acc. 1994.009

 

Initially, classes for students were held in temporary quarters around Williamsburg and then later in the College’s Wren Building. In 1723, William & Mary used funds from the Boyle estate to fund a new building, named The Brafferton, to house the Indian School. Shown here is a photograph of an engraving found in the Bodleian Library in England showing the three College buildings (l to r): the Brafferton, Wren Building, and President’s House, circa 1740. Reproduction of the Bodleian Plate photograph of Wren Yard, University Archives Photograph Collection, UA 8

 

From the Special Collections Research Center, Earl Gregg Swem Library at the College of William and Mary. See swem.wm.edu/scrc/ for further information and assistance.

Memo to A Paton, Esq., from Edgar Jones, Executor to Alfred Jones, regarding Denbeigh Lodge, dated 1917.

Louis Rothman arrived from Russia in 1887 and married his Russian born wife in 1893 the late 19th Century in the East End of London, [his brother and early business partner Marx Rothman {d. 1938, Eastbourne) married in 1894] and ran a tobacco business eventually at 5A Pall Mall from 1900 in partnership with Abraham Melinski [q.v.].The Rothman family lived here in Evering Road [no 220] in 1901. Louis died on December 15 1925 at 9 Mandeville Place, W1, leaving £25,605 7s 8d in his will; Executors were Sydney Rothman, tobacco manufacturer, Harry Wyner,restaurateur and Harry Burford Judge, solictor. The names "Rothmans of Pall Mall" Rothmans King Size became world famous - "the passport to international smoking pleasure" By 1911, the Rothman family had moved to the strongly jewish area of Cricklewood at 222 Walm Lane, his partner Melinski living not far away at no 194, described as a cigarette factory manager. Another associate, Marcus Weinberg [ died Hackney 1923] was living at 1 Ryder Street, Pall Mall in 1901 , born about 1859 in Russia, wife Rebeccah. along with a professor of Languages Albert Finkelstein, aged 50. Historyw of Rothmans of Pall Mall here: www.fundingunTerse.com/company-histories/rothmans-uk-hold... Harry Wyner was involved with several patents concerning filter tips etc , at 5 and 5A Pall Mall, SW1. www.patentmaps.com/assignee/harry_wyner_1.html

Another well known name in very comfortable Evering Road in 1881 [at death] was Harper Twelvetrees [no 223] whose name survives in the huge Twelvetrees Park development, industrial and subsequently also residential in Stratford where his Imperial Chemical Works [laundry chemicals] was located.

c1517-c1573 Nicholas Powtrell second son of John Powtrell of West Hallam by Margaret co-heiress daughter of John Strelley of Strelley (and younger brother of Thomas www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member... )

m1 Anne daughter of Walter Rodney of Stoke Rodney by Elizabeth daughter of Edward Compton (Elizabeth m2 Sir John Chaworth www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/9518954070/ )

(her sister Elizabeth m his brother Thomas ) (her brother Maurice aged 9 at his father's death was "carelessly brought up by his guardian Sei'jeant Powtrell", married while under age a blacksmith's daughter, after divorce from whom he re-married Joan, daughter of Sir Thomas Dyer of Somerford )

Children

1. Nicholas dsp

m2 ?

Pre 1554 Nicholas bought part of the manor here from Sir Edward Stanhope and built the hall.

In 1546 he was appointed to the recordership of Nottingham and also MP for Nottingham 3 times. In November 1554 he was one of a number of MPs prosecuted in the King’s bench for absenting themselves without licence. In 1557 he was fined 53s.4d and his absence was held to be deliberate and inexcusable: His public career showed no advancement during the remainder of Mary’s reign, but evidence against him coincided with his leaving the recordership

At the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth he was made serjeant-at-law and a judge at Lancaster, and for several years he was busy on commissions in his home county and further north until ending abruptly c1565 and thereafter he disappeared almost completely from public life. He was not yet an old man, but he could have been an ailing one, or perhaps he paid the penalty for recusancy, not on his own account but on his family’s, - in 1564 the archbishop of York omitted to categorize him—but his nephew’s house at West Hallam had become a refuge for Catholic priests:

During his earlier career Powtrell was associated with the Willoughbys of Wollaton from whom he received an annuity and although not one of his servants he performed services for the Manners Earls of Rutland.

In 1573 he bought land from William Thornehill, gent in the manors of Cassalls and Claworth, 25 messuages, 12 cottages, etc. there and in Heyton, Clarebrough, Wheatley, Wieston Gringley super montem, Saunby, Dole and Deckingham, Nottinghamshire, for £220.

Having no issue, In his will of Sept. 1579 he recited an indenture drawn up in the previous year leasing the manor of Egmanton and lands in Laxton, Tuxford and Weston to his niece Julian and her husband William Mason, two of his executors; he had afterwards granted these properties to a group of feoffees, including his cousin Thomas Markham, to his own use and on his death to that of Markham and his heirs. He had made a similar arrangement for the disposal of other lands in north Nottinghamshire, intending at that time to disinherit his nephew Walter Powtrell, because of "the untrue and slanderous reports and of the unnatural dealing that he and his wife have and do daily use towards me". In his will, however, Powtrell declared his ‘"readiness ... to die in charity towards them and all the world", and in the hope that his nephew’s son would prove "more wise, honest ... and of better judgment"’ he granted these lands to Thomas Markham to the use of Walter and his heirs. His household goods, articles of silver and other valuables Powtrell left to relatives, including his nephews the Masons and the Stringers, and he made several monetary bequests to his servants. William Dabridgecourt and Thomas Markham were appointed supervisors.

After his death his attempt to disinherit his nephew in favour of his couisin Thomas Markham of Ollerton provoked a dispute between Walter Powtrell and the executors; In June 1584 the administration of the will was granted to Walter Powtrell as next of kin, but in March 1587 this was revoked and probate was granted to the executors

www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member... - Church of St Mary Egmanton Nottinghamshire

These views of the Hollytrees Museum in Colchester from the High Street. Saw this side after leaving The Minories. Also home of the Visitor Information Centre.

  

Hollytrees Museum is a free to visit, publicly owned museum in the centre of Colchester and close to Colchester Castle. It is situated in an eighteenth-century house ("Hollytrees"), which was used as a private residence until 1929, when it became a museum.

 

The first house on the site, known as "Symnells" after its owner, was later bought by the Shaw family, and passed from John Shaw to John Shaw III and John Shaw IV. When he died a minor, the house passed into chancery; his mother Jane Lessingham bought it but soon died. The modern house was constructed in for Elizabeth Cornelisen, who had bought the site from Lessingham's executors and promptly tore down the existing structure in poor condition. Construction commenced on 10 May 1718 at a cost of £630 plus brickwork and tiling; the total refurbishment was estimated to have cost £2000. She died soon after, bequeathing the house to her niece, Sarah Creffeild (née Webster), who left it to her second husband Charles Gray. It was, at that time, known as "Esqr Creffield's [sic]". Possession of the house reverted to the Creffeilds; through Thamer Creffeild to James Round, who left to his brother Charles, who left it to his son Charles Gray Round, who left to it to his nephew James Round. The Rounds finally sold it to the Corporation of Colchester in 1922, a purchase paid for privately by Viscount Cowdray and his wife. It became a museum in 1929.

 

The house is known as Hollytrees after two holly trees planted in the grounds by Charles Gray in 1729 and is now a free to visit museum serving the centre of Colchester and specialising in local history. It is a grade I listed building.

  

Grade I Listed Building

 

Holly Trees (Museum)

  

Listing Text

 

1. HIGH STREET

995 (North Side)

TL 9925 SE 5/111 Holly Trees (Museum)

24.2.50.

I

 

2.

A fine early C13 brick building, standing back from the road in its own

grounds - now part of the Municipal Castle Park. Good ironwork railings

with gate to the street. Built circa 1717-18, it was formerly the home

of Charles Gray (1696-1783) MP for Colchester and owner of the Castle

estate; he lived here over 60 years. The west wing was added in 1748, by

James Deane. The main building is of 3 storeys and basement, red brick

with rubbed brick dressings, parapet to front and rear elevations.

Both elevations have a 5-window range of double hung sashes with glazing

bars, segmental heads. The front has a fine central doorcase with flat

hood, carved consoles. Fluted pilasters, semi-circular fanlight, 6-panel

door, iron handrail to flight of steps to door. The west wing is of 3

storeys, but at a lower level, with cut brick rustications to the ground

floor, 1st floor window with moulded brick pediment and architrave,

Venetian window on garden elevation, brick bands. Many original interior

features.

  

Listing NGR: TL9996025268

 

This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.

Description

 

1. HIGH STREET

995 (North Side)

TL 9925 SE 5/111 Holly Trees (Museum)

24.2.50.

I

 

2.

A fine early C13 brick building, standing back from the road in its own

grounds - now part of the Municipal Castle Park. Good ironwork railings

with gate to the street. Built circa 1717-18, it was formerly the home

of Charles Gray (1696-1783) MP for Colchester and owner of the Castle

estate; he lived here over 60 years. The west wing was added in 1748, by

James Deane. The main building is of 3 storeys and basement, red brick

with rubbed brick dressings, parapet to front and rear elevations.

Both elevations have a 5-window range of double hung sashes with glazing

bars, segmental heads. The front has a fine central doorcase with flat

hood, carved consoles. Fluted pilasters, semi-circular fanlight, 6-panel

door, iron handrail to flight of steps to door. The west wing is of 3

storeys, but at a lower level, with cut brick rustications to the ground

floor, 1st floor window with moulded brick pediment and architrave,

Venetian window on garden elevation, brick bands. Many original interior

features.

  

Listing NGR: TL9996025268

  

The entrance to the museum is round the back in Castle Park. To the right was the Wetzler Garden.

College Point, Queens

 

The Herman A. and Malvina Schleicher House is located in College Point, in north central Queens. It stands on an unusual circular site that was created c. 1906 when the original 14-acre estate was subdivided into building lots and became part of the surrounding street grid. Morris A. Gescheidt, a German-born painter and architect, was responsible for the building’s neo-classical design. Two-and-a-half stories tall, this large red brick house has four visible facades that display elements associated with the Italianate and Second Empire styles, including a mansard roof, segmental arch windows, and quoins. Active in New York City from the late 1840s to the 1860s, Gescheidt also built a factory structure for College Point’s leading citizen, the industrialist Conrad Poppenhusen, in 1854.

 

These developments coincided with the introduction of regular ferry service, resulting in the construction of many residences by German immigrants, particularly in the north section of the village where owners enjoyed views of the East River and Long Island Sound. Two contemporary newspapers commented on Gescheidt’s handsome design; while one writer listed it as among several “elegant residences . . . under contract” in the area, the Flushing Journal called it “another gem of a residence.” The Schleicher House was originally situated at the west end of a walled compound that incorporated out buildings and landscaped carriage paths.

 

Though relatively little is known about the Schleicher family, census records indicate that Herman had Prussian parents and was a successful merchant, involved in the sale of dry goods, stationary, and coal. He shared the house with his wife Malvina, four children, and three servants. Following his death in 1866, the building was acquired by Kenneth G. White, who owned considerable property in the area and is often identified as an attorney and law clerk. In 1890, the house was sold to developer William K. Aston who leased it to John Jockers, a former Schleicher employee. For about a decade, Jockers operated the structure as the 11-room Grand View Hotel. Divided into apartments in 1923, there are currently seven units in the building. Despite changes, the 1857 Schleicher House has many notable characteristics; not only is it one of the oldest houses in College Point but it is one of the earliest surviving structures in New York City to feature a mansard roof.

 

College Point, Queens

 

The Schleicher House was constructed in 1857, during the decade when College Point was transformed from mostly meadows and farmland to a compact village of factories and homes. Located on a peninsula in north central Queens, College Point extends into the East River and adjoins Flushing Bay. It was named for St. Paul’s College, which opened in 1839. Located on the site of present-day MacNeil Park, the seminary lasted for less than a decade, closing in 1847. At the time, the area to the south was known as Strattonport and Flammersburg. These neighborhoods were named for businessman Eliphalet Stratton (1745-1831) who purchased 320 acres from descendents of the English merchant and slave owner William Lawrence (1622-1680) in 1789,3 and real estate developer John A. Flammer, who acquired 141 acres from the Stratton estate in 1851 and subdivided the property into 80 building lots. These villages then merged and were incorporated as College Point in 1867 or 1870.

 

Regular ferry service between Manhattan and the village started in the 1850s and plans were soon developed to construct a paved causeway, linking the peninsula to Flushing. These transit improvements attracted a growing number of residents, from several hundred in 1853 to 2,200 in 1860. More than half were foreign born, including nearly a thousand from Germany. The rest were mainly Irish. Because the majority of early residents were originally German, College Point was sometimes referred to as the “Little Heidelberg.” Conrad Poppenhusen, the town’s best-known citizen, was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1813.

 

He immigrated to the United States in 1843, forming a partnership with H. C. Meyer in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to produce consumer products from whale bones. When demand declined, he sought new opportunities, acquiring a license from the American inventor Charles Goodyear, who held various patents for the vulcanization of rubber. In July 1853, he toured College Point to inspect “eligible locations” for his new company and in September 1854 laid the cornerstone for the “India Rubber Comb Company,” with at least six hundred people in attendance. Among various attendees were several men who would later be associated with the Schleicher residence: M. Gescheidt, the architect; A. Schleicher, either his father, Arthur, or the owner himself; and of course, the owner of the factory, Poppenhusen – Schleicher’s neighbor and co-executor of his will.

 

Herman A. Schleicher (c. 1827-1866)

 

Relatively little is known about Herman A(lvin) Schleicher. Born in New York City to Prussian immigrants in the late 1820s, documents indicate that during his brief life he lived in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and possibly Long Island. He married Malvina (born Prussia, c. 1830) in the late 1840s or early 1850s and they produced four children: Herman, Julia, Frederick, and Walter.5 Schleicher was a successful merchant who was involved in several areas of business, including the sale of hardware, stationary, and coal. In the 1860s, he was identified as: a partner in Schleicher, Walkinshaw & Co., a local importer of dry goods, a trustee of the Mercantile Insurance Company, a director of the St. Nicholas Bank on Wall Street, and a director of the Germania Fire Insurance Company. Schleicher also served with Poppenhusen on Flushing’s first board of education, starting in 1858, and was listed as one of College Point’s top ten income tax payers in 1866.

 

Schleicher died suddenly at the age of 39 in July 1866 and several months later, in November 1866, his dry goods firm consigned a “valuable” collection of European and American paintings to the Leeds Art Galleries in Manhattan.7 Though it can not be confirmed, it seems likely it was Schleicher’s art collection. Irwan Von Auw and Conrad Poppenhusen, both of College Point, served as the executors of his will.8 His funeral took place in Brooklyn and he is buried in a family plot at Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, beside Arthur (d. 1859), Herman

(d. 1906), and Waldemar (d. 1922) Schleicher.

 

Morris A. Gescheidt (d. 1871)

 

The Schleicher House was designed by the architect Morris (Moritz) Albert Gescheidt. His name appears on a rendering of the building in the collection of the Poppenhusen Institute, located in College Point. Little is known about Gescheidt, who immigrated to New York in 1837. He was probably born in Dresden and studied at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, starting in 1831. According to the Dictionary of Artists in America, he was active as an “architectural painter” in Rome from 1834 to 1836 and may have been the artist who exhibited “views of two Italian churches” at the National Academy of Design in New York in 1838.

 

Gescheidt began to practice architecture in the early 1840s, locating his office at 11 Wall Street. He built at least one additional structure in College Point, a 300- by 40-foot brick factory (1854-55) for Conrad Poppenhusen. He may also have designed Poppenhusen’s house (c. 1857, demolished after 1905) which stood within view of the Schleicher House, near 12th Avenue and College Avenue (now College Place), and incorporated similar architectural elements. In 1860-61, Gescheidt built part of a five-story brick warehouse with cast-iron details for Henry J. Meyer at 393 Greenwich Street (part of the Tribeca West Historic District, Manhattan), near N. Moore Street.

 

Meyer was the son of H(einrich) C(hristian) Meyer, who employed Poppenhusen at his Williamsburg factory in the 1840s. Gescheidt lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on South 3rd Street, and owned property at Castleton, Staten Island, including a “fine mansion house,” which was sold as part of a “mortgage sale” in 1871. Gescheidt died around this time and was listed in various New York State court proceedings in October 1871 as “deceased.”

 

The Schleicher Estate

 

In March 1857, Malvina Schleicher acquired 14 acres from Herman A. Funke, a business associate of Conrad Poppenhusen. The land was directly across from Funke’s own residence and adjoined properties owned by Poppenhusen and his son, H. C. Poppenhusen. Located in College Point’s exclusive north section, approximately 100 feet above sea level, residents of the area enjoyed panoramic views and summer breezes. Gescheidt may have been involved in laying out the grounds, which is known from a site plan dating from before 1866 in the collection of the Poppenhusen Institute.

 

The house was sited near the west end of the parcel, near what is now College Point Boulevard, and was formerly known as 13th Avenue. Many houses were currently under construction in the area: three or four “elegant residences” were described as “under contract” in January 1857, and in August 1857 the Flushing Journal reported that “Joseph Stonebank has just completed an elegant mansion for Conrad Poppenhusen, Esq. and is erecting another gem of residence for Mr. Schleicher in the same section.”12 Stonebank was a successful carpenter and builder in College Point from the 1850s to 1870. He reported an income of $15,000 in 1860 and built his family a 13-room house with such conveniences as speaking tubes, gas, bells, as well as hot and cold running water.

 

The Schleicher House originally stood at the end of tree-lined, semi-circular drive. The rear elevation faced east, toward a sloping, almost circular lawn, ringed by trees. South of the house stood a “back” house or privy, suggesting that at the time of construction the bathrooms were not served by running water. To the north of the house, from west to east, was planned a large vegetable garden with rows of fruit trees, a coach house and stable, a hen house, and duck yard. There were also asparagus beds and winding carriage paths that led to an oval pond at the northeast corner of the estate, near present-day 125th or 126th Street. At the center of the pond was a small island, reached by a bridge. Here stood a small “summer” pavilion and “back” house.

 

Design of the Schleicher House

 

Among various houses erected in College Point during the mid-19th century, the Schleicher House is the last substantial one to survive. Landscape architect A. J. Downing, who published The Architecture of Country Houses in 1850, wrote:

The villa – the country house, should above all things, manifest individuality. It should say

something of the character of the family within – as much as possible of their life and history, their

tastes and associations, should mould and fashion themselves upon its walls.

  

Gescheidt’s stately design blends Italianate and French Second Empire Style features. Inspired by recent developments in Europe, these features, as well as the materials selected by the architect, helped distinguish the house, as well as some its neighbors, from College Point’s agrarian roots. Built of red brick, the exterior was originally covered with light-colored stucco that created the impression that it was constructed of large stone blocks. Other notable classical revival elements included paired columns, slightly arched windows, and a continuous projecting wood cornice. In the decade prior to the Civil War, such decorative treatments became defining characteristics of row houses in New York and Brooklyn, as well as in larger free-standing mansions.

 

Downing also observed that the “Italian style is one that expresses not wholly the spirit of country life nor of town life, but something between both, and which is mingling of both.”15 This may explain why many surviving examples of this architectural style in New York City, including the Schleicher House, were built in once-suburban areas, including: the Phelps-Stokes House (1852-53) in Murray Hill, Manhattan, the Litchfield Villa (1854-57) in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, and the Benjamin Pike House (1858) in Astoria, Queens – all designated New York City Landmarks.

 

In contrast to Italianate houses, which often display flat or low pitch roofs, the Schleicher House was distinguished by a squat mansard punctuated by dormer windows on four sides. Perhaps the earliest surviving structure with this roof treatment in New York City, it was named for the 17th century French architect Francois Mansart who frequently used this type of construction in residential designs.16 Revived in France during the 1830s, it became particularly popular under the rule of Napoleon III (1852-70) and was a characteristic feature of the Second Empire Style.

 

Mansard roofs generally slope inward from all sides and provide additional interior space at the attic level. Such practical solutions were also present in Germany and Austria, where roofs were “raised to a very great pitch, on the account of the great quantity of snow that falls.”

 

Detlef Lienau, who studied architecture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, has been credited with introducing the Second Empire Style in New York City, in his 1850-52 residence (demolished) for the French merchant Hart M. Schiff. Located on the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 10th Street, his brick-and-brownstone design was widely praised – it incorporated many architectural features employed by Gescheidt, including corner and wall quoins, a tiled mansard roof, and elaborately-decorated dormers.

 

The Schleicher House is 2½ stories tall. Oriented toward the west, to face the setting sun, the main elevation is divided in two sections. The larger, main section was designed in a symmetrical manner, with a wide front porch reached by stairs that were flanked by wood railings and balusters. The balusters curved outward, with the steps getting wider close to the ground. The porch incorporated four pairs of Ionic columns. Directly above the stairs, Gescheidt included a rounded pediment that displayed a small medallion relief.

 

This feature softened the facade’s rectilinear character and echoed the shape of the arched window openings. Each story was divided into three bays, including large windows on the parlor floor, pairs of arched, eight-pane windows on the second floor, and single dormers at the attic level aligned with the windows below. As completed in 1857, all of first and second floor windows probably had wood shutters and the dormers were flanked by decorative brackets. The recessed north section (left) was divided into two bays, each with eight-pane windows. This wing was likely to have contained the kitchen, and the adjoining interior space, to the rear (east), served as a dining or breakfast room.

 

The rear facade faced east, where a sloping lawn descended to landscaped grounds. Less formal in character, this elevation has an irregular profile, with two projecting bays. Each was designed to suggest a Second Empire Style pavilion, crowned by a nearly independent mansard. As built, the original raised wood porch extended across three of the four bays. Though no 19th century photograph has been located that shows the east facade in detail, it can be assumed that the columns and fenestration resembled the west facade.

 

Along with the nearby Poppenhusen mansion, the Schleicher House helped popularize the Second Empire Style in College Point. A photograph taken from the mansard roof of the Poppenhusen Institute in 1880 looking northeast, shows numerous buildings executed in this style, including a large number of houses.19 Today, most of these buildings have been lost or what survives has been significantly altered.

 

Subsequent History

 

Following Schleicher’s death, the house was sold in 1870 to Kenneth G. White for $40,000. White, who served as a clerk in the Federal Circuit Court as well as a United States Commissioner, owned the house for less than two decades and it may be his family and friends who occupy the west porch in a circa 1872 photograph. The house was then acquired by Henry C. and Margaret Cronkright who sold it to the New York City developer William B. Aston (d. 1919) in 1892. Contemporary maps show that both White and Aston owned multiple lots in the vicinity and may have assembled these parcels with the intention to subdivide.

 

In May 1892, it became the Grand View Hotel and Park, providing “First-class accommodations to summer boarders and private parties.” Ten miles from Manhattan, Sunday and summer excursionists arrived by hourly ferry, on railroads from Hunter’s Point in Long Island City, and by trolley. Famous for beer gardens, boating facilities and scenic drives, it was estimated that on weekends the town’s population would double or triple. The hotel’s manager was John Jockers, a long-time employee of the Schleicher family. Born in Germany in 1836, he immigrated to New York City in 1853 and after a brief period working for Conrad Poppenhusen was hired by Schleicher.

 

In the 1870 United States Census, he described himself as a gardener, and in the 1880 Census, a coachman. In later years he was also identified as the “superintendent of the residence and grounds . . . where he laid out the grounds and improved them with the assistance of a number of workmen.”21 The hotel was said to offer “eleven light and airy sleeping rooms” and “the dining accommodations are ample to meet all demands, while the service is above the average found in this vicinity.”22 What remained of the Schleicher estate was described as a “beautiful park” where guests could play lawn tennis and croquet.

 

Jockers probably leased the house from Aston who planned to divide the property into building lots. In 1893, 100 lots were put up for sale, but few were actually sold. Some were purchased by 1896 but it was not until 1906 that the majority of lots, approximately 11 acres, were finally sold. During this period, the surrounding street grid was cut through the site, isolating the house at the center of four streets. Two years later, in 1908, the house itself appeared at auction and was described as occupying “an exactly circular plot, 110 feet in diameter, at North Fourteenth Street and Schleicher Court.”

 

Ownership of the Schleicher House changed several times over the next decades. In 1910, it was described as being “occupied for years by foreigners of the poorest class and is in very bad repair.”24 In 1923 major alterations by owner A. Szczur were approved by the Queens Department of Buildings.25 These changes are likely to have involved the legal conversion of the house into multiple units, the addition of fire escapes on the east facade, and the modification of the east porch into a second entrance with stairs. A researcher for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) observed in 1938 that the house “still stands and is run as a tenement.”

 

Photographs of the building, taken in 1957, show a significant loss of stucco on the exterior. Eva Rohan, the previous owner, acquired the building from Peter Stella in 1971. It was awarded a Queensmark for architectural and historical significance from the Queens Historical Society in 1997. A series of wood brackets, set below the cornice, were removed in the 1990s or possibly later. The house is currently divided into seven apartments, with about 14 tenants.

 

Description

 

The Herman A. and Malvina Schleicher House is located at 11-41 123rd Street in College Point, in north central Queens. Situated on a circular parcel, this freestanding house stands at the intersection of 13th Avenue and 123rd Street, one block east of College Point Boulevard. Non-historic chain-link fencing, partially covered with vines, encloses and divides the property, which is planted with bushes and a few older trees. To the east and west, stone steps rise toward non-historic concrete paths that lead to the entrances. Two-and-a-half stories tall, this large red brick house features a raised basement and a steep mansard roof with projecting dormer windows. All of the aluminum-frame windows are non-historic. The dormers have been modified but retain their original shape and projection. The roof is covered with non-historic black shingles. From a distance, a large central brick chimney is visible.

 

The main (west) facade faces 13th Avenue, toward College Point Boulevard. The facade is asymmetrical; the north section contains two bays, each with single windows, and the south section is divided into three bays, each with two windows. The first (parlor) floor of the south section has a large enclosed porch, reached by non-historic concrete stairs with painted pipe railings. The beed board paneling, brown wood shingles, one-over-one white metal windows and fixed clerestories are non-historic, but the brick bases with horizontal recesses, the painted Ionic composite wood columns that support the porch and flank the entrance, and the general contours appear to be historic.

 

The arched, second-story windows share a single stone sill, and are framed by raised brickwork that rises from each end of the sill. Below the projecting cornice, the brackets have been removed, revealing rectangular recesses, painted white. The roof has three dormer windows, aligned above the paired windows. The northern edge of the west facade has brick quoins. A horizontal stone element (painted white) extends between the base of the porch and the north edge of the house. Below this element, two basement windows are visible. At the second story, the south (right) window has been filled with brick. The roof has a single window, aligned between the first and second story windows. Beneath the wood porch is the original areaway, with basement windows, reached by brick steps on the north side. Most of the stone and brick inside the areaway is painted white. To the right of the door is an oval window.

 

The north facade faces 123rd Street, towards 11th Avenue. Each window is framed with raised brickwork that rises from wide stone sills. The fenestration is asymmetrical, with a wide space between the center and west (right) windows. Between the center and east (left) window, a metal pipe extends up the wall and through the projecting cornice. The roof has a single dormer at center and a brick chimney stack with a recessed decorative pattern to the right (west).

 

The east facade faces 13th Avenue, towards 124th Street. Divided into four bays, an entrance is located in the center-left bay. Reached by non-historic stairs, flanked by non-historic brick walls and wood columns, the wood entrance doors and transom are historic but the wood pediment is probably not. A raised horizontal stone element (painted white), between the basement and the first floor, originally framed a wide porch and is visible in the south and north bays. The center-left bay projects out from the main body of the house, with angled side windows. Both windows have been significantly altered: the first story is partially filled with brick and the second story is entirely enclosed with brick. The south (left) bay is served by an iron fire escape that descends from a dormer window on the roof to the second floor window and then continues down to the south facade.

 

Along the edge of this bay is a metal pipe, painted white. The windows in the center-right bay are identical to the south bay. The north bay also projects from the main body of the house, with angled side windows. It is served by an iron fire escape that descends from the dormer window on the roof to both center and south windows on the second floor and then down to a landing set between the center and south windows on the first floor. Both of the center windows have been filled with brick. At the basement level, there is a squat, one over-one-window. The side windows are one-over-one aluminum windows. Extending the full length of the east facade is a deep areaway with windows, reached by stairs with a single iron railing along the south side. Below first story entrance is a single door to the basement, flanked by small windows, with prominent lintels and sills, and the original vertical bars.

The south facade faces 123rd Street, toward 14th Avenue.

 

The first and second floors have four window openings. A pair of windows on the second floor has been filled with brick. On the roof is a single dormer window, flanked by brick chimney stacks, decorated with arched recessed patterns. A metal pipe extends up from inside the right half of the west (left) chimney. Between the center and west (left) windows on the first floor, a gray television dish is attached to the wall. Between the base and the first story, a raised white horizontal element (probably painted stone) extends the full length of the facade. The basement has four windows, aligned with the windows above. The center pair has been filled with brick. At the west edge of the facade, a white metal pipe extends up the wall and through the projecting cornice.

 

- From the 2009 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Titan SIlver, 20x9.5 +18 NR, 2x10.5 +43 SL

LEGO Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer Fleet

Detail - Probably Mary Magdalene

Right Foy;

Left : Sellack

After the chancel east wall was rebuilt in 1673, a new stained glass window was inserted, www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/k83927 a paler version of the one at Sellack www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/mjptuK placed in 1630 which is made up of 15c, 16c & 17c glass.

The wall repair and window were gifted by John Abrahall the greatest lay benefactor of the village. Dated 1675, it was delayed by his defaulting executors. - Church of St Mary, Foy, Herefordshire

Headless John Chapman alias Barker 1582 stands opposite his wife Julyann www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/518008283/ daughter of Thomas Derehaugh of Badingham

John was the son of Richard Barker of Nayland dc1561 and wife Alice 1560

Children

3 sons www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/518008245/ and 3 daughters www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/517963650/

1. Edmund the heir

2. John

3. Anthony dsp 1594

1. Ann m Thomas Barker of Colchester

2. Dorothy m Frederick Johnson of Ipswich

3. Elizabeth m .... Smythe

 

Will = "my capital messuage with all my lands in Sibton and Yoxford to Edmund, with remainder to son John, then to son Anthony and lastly to the next male to the common law. To Edmund after the decease of my brother Thomas Barker my houses and lands in Peasenhall To John lands in Blaxhall and Farnam and meadow in Bedhall. To Anthony at 21 houses and lands in Aldburgh, Haslewood, Saxmundham and Standfield. My daughters Elizabeth and Dorothy. To my brother Thomas Chapman alias Barker my house in Peasenhall named New Inn. To Ann Barker of Colchester the whole sum of £10 and no more, to be paid by my son Edmund. My sons to be executors

 

- Sibton church Suffolk

305 Broadway, Civic Center, Downtown Manhattan, New York City, United States of America

 

Civic Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

 

The 13-story (plus basement) Mutual Reserve Building (1892-94), located on the northwest corner of Broadway and Duane Street, is one of New York City's most significant examples of a tall late-19th-century office building designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque Revival style. The two designed facades feature granite and limestone cladding, rusticated piers, foliate carving, and arcaded base and upper sections. The architect, William H. Hume, was best known in his day for commercial and institutional work, and this is his most important extant commission.

 

The building is notable as an early steel cage- framed structure in New York, constructed just prior to the full development of the skyscraper. The builder was the eminent Richard Deeves, while the prominent consulting structural engineer was Frederick H. Kindl, chief engineer of the Carnegie Steel Co. The Mutual Reserve Building was owned, until 1920, by the grandchildren of the immensely wealthy Boston merchant shipping magnate and shipbuilder, William F. Weld.

 

The initial principal tenant of the building was the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association, launched in 1881 with the intention of offering life insurance at cost and called by King's Handbook of New York in 1892 "the largest purely mutual natural-premium life-association in the world." Mutual Reserve only lasted until 1909, however,

 

and the structure was re-named the Langdon Building. It has housed many other tenants, including firms and organizations associated with the publishing and paper trades, as well as many lawyers' offices, and was the first long-term home of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (1967-80). The original main and auxiliary entrances on Broadway were altered and eliminated, respectively (c. 1923). The Mutual Reserve Building is also significant as a survivor among the 19th-century insurance industry buildings along Broadway in this vicinity, which include the Home Life Insurance Co. Building (1892-94, Napoleon le Brun & Sons), No. 256, and New York Life Insurance Co. Building (1894-99, Stephen Decatur Hatch with McKim, Mead & White), No. 346.

 

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

 

William F. Weld Estate

 

The Mutual Reserve Building was commissioned by the Estate of William F. Weld. One of America's most successful merchant shipping magnates and shipbuilders, William Fletcher Weld (1800-1881), the proprietor of William F. Weld & Co. in Boston, operated one of the largest fleets in the country, including the Senator (1833), one of the largest ships of its era. His trade was centered in the Canary Islands, East and West Indies, Manila, and Singapore. Merchants in both Boston and New York City had created immense wealth based on commerce with Europe, the Caribbean, and Asia starting in the 18th century - participation in the trans-Atlantic "triangular trade" became an integral part of both cities' economies. These merchants were significant in this highly lucrative Europe-Africa-Americas shipping network that traded enslaved workers from Africa and the Caribbean, manufactured goods, and products from the Caribbean, such as sugar, rum, molasses, tobacco, rice, and cotton. Located closer to the West Indies, New York eventually surpassed Boston in the domination of the northern Atlantic coastal trade. This trade, in turn, spurred a number of profitable local industries, such as shipbuilding and food processing, particularly sugar refining, distilling molasses into rum, and the conversion of tobacco into snuff.

 

William F. Weld also invested in the construction of railroads, and became sole agent of the English firm of Thompson & Forman, producer of iron rails. After he retired from business in 1861, according to a biographical sketch, he "devoted himself largely to real estate, purchasing and building stores and warehouses in Boston and New York, a policy he directed, in his will, should be carried out by his trustees." He left an estate estimated to be about $21 million which, after various family and charitable bequests, was left to his four grandchildren (the two granddaughters when they reached the age of 25): William Fletcher Weld, Jr. (1855-1893), Charles Goddard Weld (18571911), Mary Bryant Pratt (later Sprague, then Brandegee)(1871-1956), and Isabel Weld Perkins (later Anderson)(1876-1948). His son, William Gordon Weld (1827-1896), grandson William F. Weld, Jr., and Samuel Johnson were the original executors of the estate.

 

In May 1888, the Weld Estate (on behalf of the four Weld grandchildren) purchased a lot for $350,000 at the northwest corner of Broadway and Duane Street, and in 1890 acquired a tiny adjacent interior lot. The Estate commissioned the construction of a speculative office building (the Mutual Reserve Building) in 1892. Following the death of William F. Weld, Jr., in 1893 and the transferral of Charles G. Weld's interest in 1901, this property was held by the trustees of Mary Bryant Pratt Sprague and Isabel Weld Perkins Anderson. It was transferred solely to Mary Bryant Pratt Brandegee in 1907. In 1891, Mary Bryant Pratt had married Charles Franklin Sprague (18571902), a wealthy Boston lawyer who, after his marriage, was said to have been the wealthiest man to serve in Congress. In 1904, Mary (called by the New York Times "one of the richest young widows in the country") married Edward Deshon Brandegee, a wholesale clothing manufacturer from Utica, New York. Mary Brandegee retained the 305 Broadway property until 1920.

 

The Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association

 

The original principal tenant of the Weld Estate's office building at 305 Broadway was the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association, which signed a 40-year lease for its home office that officially began on June 1, 1894. The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported in January 1892 that the rent would be "on a per cent basis of the total cost of the building, together with a percentage of the valuation -- $500,000 we believe -- of the land." According to an 1894 report, Mutual Reserve had contributed $408,297 towards the lease and the building's construction and furnishing. William H. Hume, the architect selected to design their headquarters, was listed as a director of the Association in an obituary.

 

Incorporated in 1875 and launched in 1881 with the intention of offering life insurance at cost, the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association was called by King's Handbook of New York in 1892 "the largest purely mutual natural-premium life-association in the world." Offering reduced premiums that allowed many people to be able to afford the cost of insurance, Mutual Reserve became one of the largest and most popular life insurance companies, with branches in Canada and Europe. The Association was previously located in the Potter Building on Park Row, and its founder and president was Edward Bascom Harper (1842-1895), who was succeeded in 1895 in the new building by Frederick A. Burnham. In 1892, the firm had $225 million worth of insurance coverage "in force", and by 1895 its coverage rose to $300 million.

 

Reports began to circulate by 1896, however, about a significant decrease in business, the depletion of reserves, rapid losses due to death benefit payouts, and excessive executive salaries, and the affairs of the Association were under investigation for several years. In 1902, the firm was re-incorporated as the Mutual Reserve Life Insurance Co., a "purely mutual life insurance institution" and New York's third largest. Complaints continued about the company's solvency, and after further investigations, indictments were made against Mutual Reserve's president and vice-president. The lease at 305 Broadway was renewed in 1908 at $60,000 a year, but the company was placed under receivership that year, then-president Archibald C. Haynes filed for bankruptcy, and former president Burnham was found dead, a possible suicide. The Mutual Reserve Life Insurance Co. was fully defunct by 1911.

 

The Mutual Reserve Building

 

Plans for the 13-story (plus basement) Mutual Reserve Building were filed by architect William H. Hume in June 1892, to cost an estimated $730,000. Construction began at the end of that month, but was ultimately greatly delayed due to steel and granite strikes. The builder, the eminent Richard Deeves, stated that "the Mutual Reserve Building... was about a year and a half under construction, but then we lost at least eight months in consequence of the strike at the Carnegie Iron and Steel Works." The Mutual Reserve Building was steel cage framed: the prominent consulting structural engineer, Frederick H. Kindl chief engineer of the Carnegie Steel Co., wrote that "this method of construction, that is, using steel beams and columns for framework, and supporting the walls at each floor level, has only of late been introduced extensively. ... Mutual Reserve Building... [is] of similar construction...." The stone contractor, Hanlein & Co., also executed the extensive Romanesque style ornamental carving. Dedicated on June 14, 1894, the building was officially completed in September.

 

Hume's design for the Mutual Reserve Building was comparable to, and undoubtedly influenced by, architect R.H. Robertson's first tall commercial structure completed two years earlier, the nine-story Lincoln Building (1889-90), 1-3 Union Square West. The architectural vocabulary of both buildings was influenced by the Richardsonian Romanesque style, named after one of America's greatest architects, Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886), who created an American interpretation of the Romanesque based on French and Italian prototypes. His Trinity Church (187377), Boston, as well as his many libraries and other buildings, firmly established Richardson's professional reputation and launched the popularity and influence of the style.

 

Following Richardson's precedent, many architects employed it in the 1880s and 90s for a wide variety of building types, ranging from mansions to courthouses, university structures, and railroad stations, and including some tall office buildings. The style was characterized by its appearance of massiveness and such features as rockfaced masonry and round-arched fenestration. In this period, as architects in New York City were still grappling with appropriate ways to design tall office structures and early skyscrapers, two features were commonly employed: multiple-story arcades on facades, and a tripartite base-shaft-capital arrangement associated with the classical column. The designs of both the Lincoln and Mutual Reserve Buildings merged these features through a horizontal layering of sections (an effect criticized by some contemporary architectural critics).

 

The Mutual Reserve Building's two designed granite- and limestone-clad facades are arranged with a six-story base, with arcades up to the fifth story, and rusticated piers; a six-story planar mid-section; and a one-story rusticated upper section with an arcade of windows and a tall balustraded parapet. Intricate Romanesque style foliate carving appears on such areas as the arches, column capitals, and cornices. King's Handbook (1892) had speculated that the proposed structure "will be one of the finest office-buildings in the city... the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association... is contributing a masterpiece of architecture to its artistic aspect." An observer at the New York Herald-Tribune in November 1893 expounded on the "model new office building" and its amenities:

 

The handsome new building of the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association... has aroused the admiration of all who have seen it. ... The exterior of the building is of a dignified and attractive Romanesque style of architecture. The material employed is Indiana limestone, which has given a rich architectural effect. The building is one of the best types of the new steel buildings, and is built in the most substantial manner. It is, in fact, a tremendous steel frame inclosed in a handsome stone casing, while the partitions and floors are of fire-proof brick. ... The building is provided with every convenience that skill and modern invention can give. Four swift-running Otis elevators will give the most rapid communication between the highest and lowest parts of the building. The offices will be heated by steam and lighted by electricity throughout, while the plumbing, ventilating and sanitary arrangements have received the most careful study. The unusually desirable situation of this building has enabled the architect, William H. Hume, to make all the offices light and well ventilated from the street, while large courts give good light to the other rooms in the building. All the windows of the building are the largest size.

 

After its completion, the New York Times in 1895 touted "this massive and impressive structure" as "an instance of genuinely fire-proof construction" that "closely approached the ideal of safe construction," while the National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (1897) noted that "towering above all the other buildings in its vicinity, its stately walls fittingly represent the solidity and permanence of the business for which it was erected." Mutual Reserve's slogan, "Founded Upon a Rock," seemed to mimic the solid Romanesque style of its home office. The firm occupied the second through fourth stories.

 

Not only is the Mutual Reserve Building one of New York City's most significant examples of a tall office building designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque Revival style, the structure is also notable as a survivor among the 19th-century insurance industry buildings along Broadway in

 

this vicinity, which also include the Home Life Insurance Co. Building (1892-94, Napoleon le Brun & Sons), No. 256, and New York Life Insurance Co. Building (1894-99, Stephen Decatur Hatch with McKim, Mead & White), No. 346.

 

Architect: William H. Hume

 

William Henry Hume (1834-1899), born in New York City, began an architectural practice here in 1855. Examples of his early commercial work in contemporary styles may be seen at 62 and 66 Perry Street (1866); 53 Lispenard Street (1867-68); 313 Church Street (1868-70); and 83-87, 89, and 66 Grand Street (1872, 1877, 1885), in the Greenwich Village, SoHo-Cast Iron, and Tribeca East Historic Districts. By the 1880s, Hume was receiving some highly noteworthy commercial and institutional commissions, including: the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society Asylum (1881-84; demolished), Broadway and West 136th Street; B. Altman Store addition (1887), 615-629 Sixth Avenue; Hotel Normandie (1887; demolished), Broadway and 38th Street; Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank (1887-89; demolished), 49-51 Chambers Street; Masonic Home and School (c. 1890; demolished), Utica, New York; H.C.F. Koch & Co. Store (1890-91), 132-140 West 125th Street; North River Savings Bank (1892; demolished), 266 West 34th Street; and Lotus Club (1893; demolished), 556 Fifth Avenue.

 

Hume designed William Waldorf Astor's 17-story New Netherland Hotel (1891-93; demolished), Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, touted as the world's tallest hotel at the time and an early steel cage-framed structure. The firm of William H. Hume & Son, formed in 1894 with Frederick Thomas Hume (1859-1934), was responsible for the Scotch Presbyterian Lecture Hall (1895; demolished), Central Park West and 95th Street; First Church of Christ Scientist (1896; demolished), 137 West 48th Street; Spingler Building (1896-97), 5 Union Square West; and Simpson, Crawford & Simpson Co. Store (1900-02), 635-649 Sixth Avenue. The firm continued until around 1910. The Mutual Reserve Building was one of the Hume's finest commissions and is his most important extant work.

 

Builder Richard Deeves and Consulting Engineer Frederick H. Kindl

 

The builder of the Mutual Reserve Building, Richard Deeves (1837-1919), was born in Dublin, Ireland, came to the United States in 1850, apprenticed as a mason with George S. Dixon, and soon became a builder, establishing his own firm in 1869. An early specialty was gasworks structures. He was responsible for the construction of countless notable residences, commercial buildings, and skyscrapers, examples of which included the Temple Court Building (1881-83, Silliman & Farnsworth), 3-9 Beekman Street (where he maintained an office); Randall Memorial Chapel and Music Hall (1890-92, Robert W. Gibson; chapel demolished), Sailors' Snug Harbor, Staten Island; and the Manhattan Life Insurance Co. Building (1893-94, [Francis H.] Kimball & [G. Kramer] Thompson, with engineer Charles Sooysmith; demolished), 64-66 Broadway. Richard Deeves & Son, with J[ohn]. Henry Deeves, "mason builders and general contractors," was formed by 1895. One of its projects was the American Seamen's Friend Society Sailors' Home and Institute (1907-08, William A. Boring), 505-507 West Street. Richard Deeves had his office in the Mutual Reserve Building from its completion until at least 1914.

 

Frederick Henry Kindl (1863-1914), born in Austria, immigrated to the United States as a boy in 1873, and graduated from the Case School of Applied Science (1884), Cleveland. After working as an engineer in Chicago for several years, he moved to Pittsburgh, where he became Structural and Chief Engineer of the Carnegie Steel Co. Kindl is considered one of the seminal

 

pioneers of the American steel-framed tall building and skyscraper, a field in which he specialized as a consulting engineer nationally.

 

The Tall Office Building in New York City in the 1880s-90s

 

During the 19th century, commercial buildings in New York City developed from four-story structures modeled on Italian Renaissance palazzi to much taller skyscrapers. Made possible by technological advances, tall buildings challenged designers to fashion an appropriate architectural expression. Between 1870 and 1890, nine- and ten-story buildings transformed the streetscapes of lower Manhattan between Bowling Green and the City Hall area. During the building boom following the Civil War, building envelopes continued to be articulated largely according to traditional palazzo compositions, with mansarded and towered roof profiles.

 

Beginning in the later 1870s, tall buildings were characterized by flat roofs and a free, varied grouping of stories, often in the form of multi-storied arcades, within the facades. The period of the late 1870s into the 1890s was also one of stylistic experimentation in which commercial and office buildings in New York incorporated diverse influences, such as the Queen Anne, Victorian Gothic, Romanesque, and neo- Grec styles, French rationalism, and the German Rundbogenstil, under the leadership of such architects as Richard M. Hunt and George B. Post. Beginning around 1890, architects began producing tall building designs that adhered to the tripartite base-shaft-capital arrangement associated with the classical column, a scheme that became commonly employed in New York.

 

New York's early tall buildings -- including the seven-and-one-half-story Equitable Life Assurance Co. Building (1868-70, Gilman & Kendall and George B. Post) at Broadway and Cedar Street, the ten-story Western Union Building (1872-75, George B. Post) at Broadway and Liberty Street, and the ten-story Tribune Building (1873-75, Richard M. Hunt) on Park Row (all now demolished) -- incorporated passenger elevators, iron floor beams, and fireproof building materials. Fireproofing was of paramount concern as office buildings grew taller, and by 1881-82 systems had been devised to "completely fireproof' them. Cage construction, employed in the 1880s in tall buildings in New York and Chicago, was characterized by the Record and Guide as

 

a frame work of iron or steel columns and girders which carry the floors only, and do not carry the outer walls. In the cage construction the outer walls are independent walls, from the foundation to the extreme top, sustaining themselves only, and therefore, the walls are made less in thickness than if they had to bear the floors as in ordinary buildings such walls would have to do.

 

Ever taller skyscrapers were permitted by the increasing use and refinement of the metal skeleton frame, in which the metal columns and girders support both the floors and the outer (curtain) walls. In addition, several hybrid structural forms were used in tall buildings, such as the combination of both masonry and metal for interior vertical supports.

 

In 1888-89, New York architect Bradford Lee Gilbert used iron skeleton framing for the first seven stories of the 11-story Tower Building at 50 Broadway (demolished). As steel skeleton framing was adopted for tall buildings in New York, architects and engineers introduced caisson foundations which carried the weight of the skeleton frame down to bedrock. Kimball & Thompson's seminal 17-story (plus tower) Manhattan Life Insurance Co. Building (1893-94, with engineer Charles Sooysmith; demolished) was the tallest building yet constructed in the city and is credited with being the first skyscraper with a full iron and steel frame, set on pneumatic concrete caissons.

 

This was followed by the American Surety Co. Building (1894-95, Bruce Price, also with Sooysmith), 100 Broadway, which was the first New York skyscraper with a full steel frame, set on pneumatic concrete caissons. The cage-framed Mutual Reserve Building utilized the successful design and construction techniques of its predecessors, just prior to the full development of the skyscraper. It is interesting to note that, while the Mutual Reserve Building was nearing completion, the building committee of the American Surety Co. visited the structure and expressed the intention to construct something similar.

 

Other Early Tenants

 

The Arkwright Club, for drygoods merchants, was one of the earliest Mutual Reserve Building tenants, having signed a lease in 1893 for one of the top stories at $90,000 (to 1899). Undoubtedly drawn to the location nearby the then-center of New York's publishing and newspaper industries, the Mutual Reserve Building drew a number of firms and organizations associated with the publishing and paper trades, such as Hubbell Publishing Co. (c. 1894-1915), West Virginia Pulp & Paper Co. (1894-1909), Hollingsworth & Whitney Co., paper manufacturer (c. 1899-1911), Marcus S. Bulkley, paper buyer (1901), American Paper & Pulp Association (c. 1906-08), and Stationers Association ofNew York (c. 1907-11). Other tenants included the Co-Operative Building Bank (1894), Spanish Benevolent Society of New York (c. 1896-1902), Mutual Mercantile Agency (pre-1901), Miller Bros. Cutlery Co., pocket cutlery and pens (c. 1903-15), and Hapgoods, "National Organization of Brain Brokers" (c. 1905-14).

 

The Langdon Building and Later Ownership History and Tenants

 

By 1909, with the demise of the Mutual Reserve company, No. 305-309 Broadway was renamed the Langdon Building, most likely after the owner's son, the stockbrocker John Langdon Brandegee. In 1920, the Times announced the purchase of the property (from Mary Brandegee) for about $2 million by the Broadway-John Street Corp. (Elias A. Cohen, president), which intended to remodel it to lease as "high-grade offices for lawyers" who, according to the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, "are being crowded out of the financial district by the insistent demand from banks and business concerns willing to pay rentals which are prohibitive to lawyers." Lawyer tenants already in the building formed the Office Tenants League to protest eviction and expected exorbitant rents. The building was transferred in 1921 to a group of investors that included Isidor and Charlotte Mishkind, Fred and Cecilia Mishkind Broverman, Joachim S. Van Wetzel, Warren and Marguerite Watson, and Edward J. and Beatrice Lewis. In 1923, the central auxiliary entrance on Broadway was removed (Schwartz & Gross, architects). The building was conveyed in 1940 to the Downtown Renting Co. (Elias A. Cohen, president) and in 1945 to the Broaduane Corp. (Elias A. Cohen, president).

 

Two authors mentioned the building's unsavory reputation within the legal profession, one referring to it as "the 'Den of Forty Thieves,' reflecting the appearance... and the snobbish opinion of lawyers located elsewhere on lower Broadway... [and] because the structure was regarded as a law office slum." The other called the building one of the centers in the 1920s of the faked American "personal injury underworld." Various other tenants included Herman J. Hegt, Inc., metals dealer (c. 1919-20); George F. Hardy, mill architect and consulting engineer (c. 1914-20); Lithographers International Protective and Beneficial Association of the United States & Canada (c.

 

1914-15); Earle E. Liederman/ Progressive Exerciser Co., one of America's early physical culture mail-order businesses (1922-30); Wall Street Synagague (1929); and Jewish Forum Association, publisher of The Jewish Forum (1944). By 1950, the building began to house a number of state government agencies.

 

In 1957, the property was conveyed to the 305 Broadway Co. (Sylvan Lawrence and Seymour Cohn, partnership), and was purchased in 1959 by Broadway Duane Associates (Louis and Joseph Lefkowitz, general partners) and leased back to the 305 Broadway Co. The building was transferred in 1969 to the 305 Broadway Corp. (Louis Lefkowitz, president), then in 1975 back to the 305 Broadway Co., which merged the lease and fee of the property. It was owned in 1980 by 305 Broadway, Limited Partnership (Herman Abbott, president, of Abbott Corp., general partner), and since 1982 by Reade Broadway Associates. The former Mutual Reserve Building has housed a number of New York City agencies, including the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (1967-80) as its first long-term home.

 

Description

 

Historic: 13-story (plus basement) corner Richardsonian Romanesque Revival style office building clad in granite and limestone on main facades, with carved foliate ornament; six-story base, with arcades up to the fifth story, and rusticated piers; six-story planar mid-section; one-story rusticated upper section with arcade of windows and tall balustraded parapet; paired windows on Broadway and end bays on Duane Street, and tripartite windows on the rest of Duane Street facade, divided by stone piers, columns, or colonnettes; small rectangular windows inserted at top of building (1909, William H. Hume & Son)

 

Alterations: shopfronts (originally single-pane glass with bulkheads and sign bands), signage, and rolldown gates; two-story main Broadway entrance (originally elaborately ornamental with round-arched entrance) re-built in flattened form, with rectangular entrance and transom, non- historic doors, and rectangular second-story window bay (c. 1923); two-story central auxiliary Broadway entrance (originally with steps and round-arched transom) eliminated and replaced with shopfront and rectangular second-story window bay (1923); windows with anodized aluminum sash (originally one-over-one double-hung wood sash)

 

Western and Northern Side Elevations: unarticulated brick cladding, pierced by windows

 

- From the 2011 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

On the way back from Oxfordshire, I thought about stopping off somewhere to take some church shots.

 

I'm sure Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey and Sussex have fine churches just off the motorway, but one had stuck in my head, back in Kent, and that Hever.

 

What I didn't realise is how hard it was to get too.

 

I followed the sat nav, taking me off the motorway whilst still in Sussex, then along narrow and twisting main roads along the edge of the north downs, through some very fine villages, but were in Sussex.

 

Would I see the sign marking my return to the Garden of England?

 

Yes, yes I would.

 

Edenbridge seemed quite an unexpectedly urban place, despite its name, so I didn't stop to search for an older centre, just pressing un until I was able to turn down Hever Road.

 

It had taken half an hour to get here.

 

St Peter stands by the gate to the famous castle, a place we have yet to visit, and even on a showery Saturday in March, there was a constant stream of visitors arriving.

 

I asked a nice young man who was directing traffic, where I could park to visit the church. He directed me to the staff car park, meaning I was able to get this shot before going in.

 

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Near the grounds of Hever Castle, medieval home of the Bullen family. Sandstone construction with a nice west tower and spire. There is a prominent chimney to the north chapel, although this is not the usual Victorian addition, but a Tudor feature, whose little fireplace may be seen inside! The church contains much of interest including a nineteenth-century painting of Christ before Caiphas by Reuben Sayers and another from the school of Tintoretto. The stained glass is all nineteenth and twentieth century and includes a wonderfully evocative east window (1898) by Burlisson and Grylls with quite the most theatrical sheep! The south chancel window of St Peter is by Hardman and dated 1877. In the north chapel is a fine tomb chest which displays the memorial brass of Sir Thomas Bullen (d. 1538), father of Queen Anne Boleyn. Just around the corner is a typical, though rather insubstantial, seventeenth-century pulpit with sounding board.

 

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Hever

 

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HEVER.

SOUTH-EASTWARD from Eatonbridge lies Hever, called in the Textus Roffensis, and some antient records, Heure, and in others, Evere.

 

This parish lies below the sand hill, and is consequently in that district of this county called The Weald.

 

There is a small part of it, called the Borough of Linckbill, comprehending a part of this parish, Chidingstone, and Hever, which is within the hundred of Ruxley, and being part of the manor of Great Orpington, the manerial rights of it belong to Sir John Dixon Dyke, bart. the owner of that manor.

 

THE PARISH of Hever is long, and narrow from north to south. It lies wholly below the sand hills, and consequently in the district of the Weald; the soil and face of the country is the same as that of Eatonbridge, last described, the oak trees in it being in great plently, and in general growing to a very large size. The river Eden directs its course across it, towards Penshurst and the Medway, flowing near the walls of Hever castle, about a quarter of a mile southward from which is the village of Hever and the parsonage; near the northern side of the river is the seat of Polebrooke, late Douglass's, now Mrs. Susannah Payne's; and a little farther, the hamlets of Howgreen and Bowbeach; part of Linckhill borough, which is in the hundred of Ruxley, extends into this parish. There is a strange odd saying here, very frequent among the common people, which is this:

 

Jesus Christ never was but once at Hever.

 

And then he fell into the river.

 

Which can only be accounted for, by supposing that it alluded to a priest, who was carrying the bost to a sick person, and passing in his way over a bridge, sell with it into the river.

 

Hever was once the capital seat and manor of a family of the same name, whose still more antient possessions lay at Hever, near Northfleet, in this county, who bore for their arms, Gules, a cross argent. These arms, with a lable of three points azure, still remained in the late Mote-house, in Maidstone, and are quartered in this manner by the earl of Thanet, one of whose ancestors, Nicholas Tuston, esq. of Northiam, married Margaret, daughter and heir of John Hever of this county. (fn. 1)

 

William de Heure. possessed a moiety of this place in the reign of king Edward I. in the 2d of which he was was sheriff of this county, and in the 9th of it obtained a grant of free warren within his demesne lands in Heure, Chidingstone, and Lingefield.

 

Sir Ralph de Heure seems at this time to have possessed the other moiety of this parish, between whose son and heir, Ralph, and Nicholas, abbot of St. Augustine's, there had been, as appears by the register of that abbey, several disputes concerning lands in Hever, which was settled in the 4th year of king Edward I. by the abbot's granting to him and his heirs for ever, the land which he held of him in Hever, to hold by the service of the fourth part of a knight's fee.

 

William de Hever, in the reign of king Edward III. became possessed of the whole of this manor, and new built the mansion here, and had licence to embattle it; soon after which he died, leaving two daughters his coheirs; one of whom, Joane, carried one moiety of this estate in marriage to Reginald Cobham, a younger son of the Cobhams of Cobham, in this county; (fn. 2) whence this part of Hever, to distinguish it from the other, acquired the name of Hever Cobham.

 

His son, Reginald lord Cobham, in the 14th year of that reign, obtained a charter for free warren within his demesne lands in Hever. (fn. 3) He was succeeded in this manor by his son, Reginald lord Cobham, who was of Sterborough castle, in Surry, whence this branch was stiled Cobhams of Sterborough.

 

The other moiety of Hever, by Margaret, the other daughter and coheir, went in marriage to Sir Oliver Brocas, and thence gained the name of Hever Brocas. One of his descendants alienated it to Reginald lord Cobham, of Sterborough, last mentioned, who died possessed of both these manors in the 6th year of king Henry IV.

 

His grandson, Sir Thomas Cobham, sold these manors to Sir Geoffry Bulleyn, a wealthy mercer of London, who had been lord mayor in the 37th year of king Henry VI. He died possessed of both Hever Cobham and Hever Brocas, in the 3d year of king Edward IV. leaving by Anne, his wife, eldest sister of Thomas, lord Hoo and Hastings, Sir William Bulleyn, of Blickling, in Norfolk, who married Margaret, daughter and coheir of Thomas Boteler, earl of Ormond, by whom he had a son and heir, Thomas, who became a man of eminent note in the reign of king Henry VIII. and by reason of the king's great affection to the lady Anne Bulleyn, his daughter, was in the 17th year of that reign, created viscount Rochford; and in the 21st year of it, being then a knight of the Garter, to that of earl of Wiltshire and Ormond; viz. Wiltshire to his heirs male, and Ormond to his heirs general.

 

He resided here, and added greatly to those buildings, which his grandfather, Sir Geoffry Bulleyn, began in his life time, all which he completely finished, and from this time this seat seems to have been constantly called HEVER-CASTLE.

 

He died in the 30th of the same reign, possessed of this castle, with the two manors of Hever Cobham and Brocas, having had by Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk, one sonGeorge, executed in his life time; and two daughters, Anne, wife to king Henry VIII. and Mary, wife of William Carey, esquire of the body, and ancestor of the lords Hunsdon and the earls of Dover and Monmouth.

 

On the death of the earl of Wiltshire, without issue male, who lies buried in this church, under an altar tomb of black marble, on which is his figure, as large as the life, in brass, dressed in the robes of the Garter, the king seised on this castle and these manors, in right of his late wife, the unfortunate Anne Bulleyn, the earl's daughter, who resided at Hever-castle whilst the king courted her, there being letters of both extant, written by them from and to this place, and her chamber in it is still called by her name; and they remained in his hands till the 32d year of his reign, when he granted to the lady Anne of Cleves, his repudiated wife, his manors of Hever, Seale, and Kemsing, among others, and his park of Hever, with its rights, members, and appurtenances, then in the king's hands; and all other estates in Hever, Seale, and Kemsing, lately purchased by him of Sir William Bulleyn and William Bulleyn, clerk, to hold to her during life, so long as she should stay within the realm, and not depart out of it without his licence, at the yearly rent of 931. 13s. 3½d. payable at the court of augmention. She died possessed of the castle, manors, and estates of Hever, in the 4th and 5th year of king Philip and queen Mary, when they reverted again to the crown, where they continued but a short time, for they were sold that year, by commissioners authorised for this purpose, to Sir Edward Waldegrave and dame Frances his wife; soon after which the park seems to have have been disparked.

 

This family of Waldegrave, antiently written Walgrave, is so named from a place, called Walgrave, in the county of Northampton, at which one of them was resident in the reign of king John, whose descendants afterwards settled in Essex, and bore for their arms, Per pale argent and gules. Warine de Walgrave is the first of them mentioned, whose son, John de Walgrave, was sheriff of London, in the 7th year of king John's reign, whose direct descendant was Sir Edward Waldegrave, who purchased this estate, as before mentioned. (fn. 5) He had been a principal officer of the household to the princess Mary; at the latter end of the reign of king Edward VI. he incurred the king's displeasure much by his attachment to her interest, and was closely imprisoned in the Tower; but the king's death happening soon afterwards, queen Mary amply recompensed his sufferings by the continued marks of her favour and bounty, which she conferred on him; and in the 4th and 5th years of that reign, he obtained, as above mentioned, on very easy terms, the castle and manors of Hever Cobham and Brocas; and besides being employed by the queen continually in commissions of trust and importance, had many grants of lands and other favours bestowed on him. But on the death of queen Mary, in 1558, he was divested of all his employments, and committed prisoner to the Tower, (fn. 6) where he died in the 3d year of queen Elizabeth. He left two sons, Charles, his heir; and Nicholas, ancestor to those of Boreley, in Essex; and several daughters.

 

Charles Waldegrave succeeded his father in his estates in this parish; whose son Edward received the honour of knighthood at Greenwich, in 1607, and though upwards of seventy years of age, at the breaking out of the civil wars, yet he nobly took arms in the king's defence, and having the command of a regiment of horse, behaved so bravely, that he had conferred on him the dignity of a baronet, in 1643; after which he continued to act with great courage in the several attacks against the parliamentary forces, in which time he lost two of his sons, and suffered in his estate to the value of fifty thousand pounds.

 

His great grandson, Sir Henry Waldegrave, in 1686, in the 1st year of king James II. was created a peer, by the title of baron Waldegrave of Chewton, in Somersetshire, and had several offices of trust conferred on him; but on the Revolution he retired into France, and died at Paris, in 1689. (fn. 7) He married Henrietta, natural daughter of king James II. by Arabella Churchill, sister of John duke of Marlborough, by whom he had James, created earl of Waldegrave in the 3d year of king George II. who, in the year 1715, conveyed the castle and these manors to Sir William Humfreys, bart. who that year was lord mayor of the city of London. He was of Barking, in Essex, and had been created a baronet in 1714. He was descended from Nathaniel Humfreys, citizen of London, the second son of William ap Humfrey, of Montgomery, in North Wales, and bore for his arms two coats, Quarterly, 1st and 4th, sable, two nags heads erased argent; 2d and 3d, per pale or and gules, two lions rampant endorsed, counterchanged.

 

He died in 1735, leaving by his first wife, Margaret, daughter of William Wintour, of Gloucestershire, an only son and heir, Sir Orlando Humfreys, bart. who died in 1737, having had by Ellen, his wife, only child of colonel Robert Lancashire, three sons and two daughters; two of the sons died young; Robert, the second and only surviving son, had the castle and manors of Hever Cobham and Brocas, and died before his father possessed of them, as appears by his epitaph, in 1736, ætat. 28.

 

On Sir Orlando's death his two daughters became his, as well as their brother's, coheirs, of whom Mary, the eldest, had three husbands; first, William Ball Waring, of Dunston, in Berkshire, who died in 1746, without issue; secondly, John Honywood, esq. second brother of Richard, of Mark's-hall, who likewife died without issue, in 1748; and lastly, Thomas Gore, esq. uncle to Charles Gore, esq. M.P. for Hertfordshire; which latter had married, in 1741, Ellen Wintour, the only daughter of Sir Orlando Humfreys, above mentioned.

 

They, with their husbands, in 1745, joined in the sale of Hever-castle and the manors of Hever Cobham and Hever Brocas, to Timothy Waldo. He was descended from Thomas Waldo, of Lyons, in France, one of the first who publicly opposed the doctrines of the church of Rome, of whom there is a full account in the Atlas Geograph. vol. ii. and in Moreland's History of the Evangelical Churches of Piedmont. One of his descendants, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, to escape the persecution of the duke D'Alva, came over to England, where he and his descendants afterwards settled, who bore for their arms, Argent a bend azure, between three leopards heads of the second; of whom, in king Charles II.'s reign, there were three brothers, the eldest of whom, Edward, was knighted, and died without male issue, leaving two daughters his coheirs; the eldest of whom, Grace, married first Sir Nicholas Wolstenholme, bart. and secondly, William lord Hunsdon, but died without issue by either of them, in 1729. The second brother was of Harrow, in Middlesex; and Timothy, the third, was an eminent merchant of London, whose grandsons were Edward, who was of South Lambeth, esq. and died in 1783, leaving only one daughter; and Timothy, of Clapham, esquire, the purchaser of this estate, as above mentioned, who was afterwards knighted, and died possessed of it, with near thirteen hundred acres of land round it, in 1786; he married, in 1736, Miss Catherine Wakefield, by whom he left an only daughter and heir, married to George Medley, esq. of Sussex, lady Waldo surviving him is at this time intitled to it.

 

The castle is entire, and in good condition; it has a moat round it, formed by the river Eden, over which there is a draw bridge, leading to the grand entrance, in the gate of which there is yet a port cullis, within is a quadrangle, round which are the offices, and a great hall; at the upper end of which, above a step, is a large oak table, as usual in former times. The great stair case leads up to several chambers and to the long gallery, the cieling of which is much ornamented with soliage in stucco; the rooms are all wainscotted with small oaken pannels, unpainted. On one side of the gallery is a recess, with an ascent of two steps, and one seat in it, with two returns, capable of holding ten or twelve persons, which, by tradition, was used as a throne, when king Henry VIII. visited the castle. At the upper end of the gallery, on one side of a large window, there is in the floor a kind of trap door, which, when opened, discovers a narrow and dark deep descent, which is said to reach as far as the moat, and at this day is still called the dungeon. In a closet, in one of the towers, the window of which is now stopped up, there is an adjoining chamber, in which queen Anne Bulleyn is said to have been consined after her dis grace. The entrance to this closet, from the chamber, is now by a small door, which at that time was a secret sliding pannel, and is yet called Anne Bulleyn's pannel.

 

In the windows of Hever-castle are these arms; Argent, three buckles gules, within the garter; a shield of four coasts, Howard, Brotherton, Warren, and Mowbray, argent three buckles gules; a shield of eight coats, viz. Bulleyn, Hoo, St. Omer, Malmains, Wickingham, St. Leger, Wallop, and Ormond; and one, per pale argent and gules, for Waldegrave. (fn. 8)

 

It is reported, that when Henry VIII. with his attendants, came to the top of the hill, within sight of the castle, he used to wind his bugle horn, to give notice of his approach.

 

There was a court baron constantly held for each of the above manors till within these forty years, but at present there is only one, both manors being now esteemed but as one, the circuit of which, over the neighbouring parishes, is very extensive.

 

SEYLIARDS is an estate here which extends itself into the parishes of Brasted and Eatonbridge, but the mansion of it is in this parish, and was the antient seat of the Seyliards, who afterwards branched out from hence into Brasted, Eatonbridge, Chidingstone, and Boxley, in this county.

 

The first of this name, who is recorded to have possessed this place, was Ralph de Seyliard, who resided here in the reign of king Stephen.

 

Almerick de Eureux, earl of Gloucester, who lived in the reign of king Henry III. demised lands to Martin at Seyliard, and other lands, called Hedinden, to Richard Seyliard, both of whom were sons of Ralph at Seyliard, and the latter of them was ancestor to those seated here and at Delaware, in Brasted. (fn. 9)

 

This place continued in his descendants till Sir Tho. Seyliard of Delaware, passed it away to John Petley, esq. who alienated it to Sir Multon Lambarde, of Sevenoke, and he died possessed of it in 1758; and it is now the property of his grandson, Multon Lambarde, of Sevenoke, esq.

 

Charities.

A PERSON gave, but who or when is unknown, but which has time out of mind been distributed among the poor of this parish, the sum of 10s. yearly, to be paid out of land vested in the churchwardens, and now of that annual produce.

 

The Rev. JOHN PETER gave by will, about 1661, the sum of 10s. yearly, to be paid for the benefit of poor farmers only, out of land vested in the rector, the heirs of Wm. Douglass, and the heirs of Francis Bowty, and now of that annual produce.

 

The Rev. GEORGE BORRASTON, rector, and several of the parishioners, as appears by a writing dated in 1693, purchased, with money arising from several bequests, the names of the donors unknown, except that of WILLIAM FALKNER, to which the parishioners added 15l. a piece of land, the rent to be distributed yearly among the poor of the parish, vested in the rector and churchwardens, and of the annual produce of 3l. 12s.

 

Rev. THOMAS LANCASTER, rector, gave by will in 1714, for buying good books for the poor, and in case books are not wanting for the schooling of poor children at the discretion of the mimister, part of a policy on lives, which was exchanged for a sum of money paid by his executor, being 20l. vested in the minister and churchwardens.

 

SIR TIMOTHY WALDO gave by will in 1786, 500l. consolidated 3 per cent. Bank Annuities, one moiety of the interest of which to be applied for the placing of some poor boy of the parish apprentice to a farmer, or some handicraft trade, or to the sea service, or in cloathing such poor boy during his apprenticeship, and in case no such poor boy can be found, this moiety to be distributed among such of the industrious poor who do not receive alms. The other moiety to be laid out in buying and distributing flannel waistcoats, or strong shoes, or warm stockings, among such of the industrious or aged poor persons inhabiting within this parish, as do not receive alms, vested in the Salters Company.

 

HEVER is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and being a peculiar of the archbishop, is as such within the deanry of Shoreham. The church, which stands at the east end of the village, is a small, but neat building, consisting of one isle and two chancels, having a handsome spire at the west end of it. It is dedicated to St. Peter.

 

Among other monuments and inscriptions in it are the following:—In the isle is a grave-stone, on which is the figure of a woman, and inscription in black letter in brass, for Margaret, wife of William Cheyne, obt. 1419, arms, a fess wavy between three crescents.—In the chancel, a memorial for Robert Humfreys, esq. lord of the manor of Heaver, only son and heir of Sir Orlando Humfreys, bart. of Jenkins, in Effex, obt. 1736. Against the wall is a brass plate, with the figure of a man kneeling at a desk, and inscription in black letter for William Todde, schoolmaster to Charles Waldegrave, esq. obt. 1585.—In the north chancel, an altar tomb, with the figure on it at large in brass, of Sir Thomas Bullen, knight of the garter, earl of Wilcher and earl of Ormunde, obt. 1538. A small slab with a brass plate, for ........ Bullayen, the son of Sir Thomas Bullayen.—In the belsry, a stone with a brass plate, and inscription in black letter in French, for John de Cobham, esquire, obt. 1399, and dame Johane, dame de Leukenore his wife, and Renaud their son; near the above is an antient altar tomb for another of that name, on which is a shield of arms in brass, or, on a chevron, three eagles displayed, a star in the dexter point. These were the arms of this branch of the Cobhams, of Sterborough-castle. (fn. 10)

 

This church is a rectory, the advowson of which belonged to the priory of Combwell, in Goudhurst, and came to the crown with the rest of its possessions at the time of the surrendry of it, in the 7th year of king Henry VIII. in consequence of the act passed that year for the surrendry of all religious houses, under the clear yearly revenue of two hundred pounds. Soon after which this advowson was granted, with the scite of the priory, to Thomas Colepeper, but he did not long possess it; and it appears, by the Escheat Rolls, to have come again into the hands of the crown, and was granted by the king, in his 34th year, to Sir John Gage, to hold in capite by knights service; who exchanged it again with Tho. Colepeper, to confirm which an act passed the year after. (fn. 11) His son and heir, Alexander Colepeper, had possession granted of sundry premises, among which was the advowson of Hever, held in capite by knights service, in the 3d and 4th years of king Philip and queen Mary; the year after which it was, among other premises, granted to Sir Edward Waldegrave, to hold by the like tenure.

 

Charles Waldegrave, esq. in the 12th year of queen Elizabeth, alienated this advowson to John Lennard, esq. of Chevening, and being entailed to his heirs male, by the last will of Sampson Lennard, esq. his eldest son, under the word hereditament possessed it, and it being an advowson in gross, was never disentailed by Henry, Richard, or Francis, lords Dacre, his descendants, so that it came to Thomas lord Dacre, son of the last mentioned Francis, lord Dacre, afterwards earl of Sussex, in 1673, and at length sole heir male of the descendants of John Lennard, esq. of Chevening, above mentioned; and the same trial was had for the claim of a moiety of it, at the Queen's-bench bar, as for the rest of the earl's estates, and a verdict then obtained in his favour, as has been already fully mentioned before, under Chevening.

 

The earl of Sussex died possessed of it in 1715, (fn. 12) whose two daughters, his coheirs, on their father's death became entitled to this advowson, and a few years afterwards alienated the same.

 

It then became the property of the Rev. Mr. Geo. Lewis, as it has since of the Rev. Mr. Hamlin, whose daughter marrying the Rev. Mr. Nott, of Little Horsted, in Sussex, he is now intitled to it.

 

In the 15th year of king Edward I. this church of Heure was valued at fifteen marcs.

 

By virtue of a commission of enquiry, taken by order of the state, in 1650, issuing out of chancery, it was returned, that Hever was a parsonage, with a house, and twelve acres of glebe land, which, with the tithes, were worth seventy-seven pounds per annum, master John Petter being then incumbent, and receiving the profits, and that Francis lord Dacre was donor of it. (fn. 13)

 

This rectory was valued, in 1747, at 1831. per annum, as appears by the particulars then made for the sale of it.

 

It is valued, in the king's books, at 15l. 17s. 3½d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 10s. 8¾d. It is now of the yearly value of about 200l.

 

¶The priory of Combwell, in Goudhurst, was endowed by Robert de Thurnham, the founder of that house, in the reign of king Henry II. with his tithe of Lincheshele and sundry premises in this parish, for which the religious received from the rector of this church the annual sum of 43s. 4d.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol3/pp190-202

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The Shipley Art Gallery is an art gallery in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England, located at the south end of Prince Consort Road. It has a Designated Collection of national importance.

 

Origins

The Shipley Art Gallery opened to the public in 1917. This was made possible by a bequest from wealthy local solicitor and art collector, Joseph Ainsley Davidson Shipley (1822–1909).

 

Shipley was a rather enigmatic person about whom little is known. He was born in Gateshead, near High Street. He was a solicitor in the Newcastle firm of Hoyle, Shipley and Hoyle. From 1884 until his death, he leased Saltwell Park House, now known as Saltwell Towers. Shipley's main passion was art and collecting paintings. He bought his first painting when he was sixteen and by the time he died he had amassed a collection of some 2,500 paintings.

 

On his death, Shipley left £30,000 and all his pictures to the City of Newcastle, which was to build a new gallery to house the collection. This was to be known as "The Shipley Bequest". Current belief within local history circles is that Shipley’s will expressly banned Newcastle’s art gallery as a recipient of the bequest, but this assertion must be dismissed: since the foundation stone of the Laing Art Gallery was laid only in August 1901 and the gallery opened in October 1904, the institution did not yet exist in 1900, when Shipley’s will was compiled. Shipley’s will did, in fact, declare that ‘the Art Gallery to be erected in Higham Place will not be and shall not be regarded as an Art Gallery within this trust’, owing to its being ‘too small’, but he conceded that if it ‘shall be capable of being enlarged so as to render it capable of holding all, then I direct my Trustees to raise the sum of £30,000 out of my residuary estate and pay the same to the treasurer of the gallery to be applied in or toward such enlargement as aforesaid’. It was only following a lengthy process that Gateshead Municipal Council was offered the collection. As it was impossible to house all of the paintings, 359 of the pictures recommended by the executors of Shipley's will were selected. A further group was then added by the Gateshead Committee, bringing the total to 504.

 

In 1914, after the sale of the remaining paintings, work began on the new art gallery. The building, which was designed by Arthur Stockwell, M.S.A. of Newcastle, opened on 29 November 1917. The stone entrance portico is distyle in antis – four Corinthian-style stone columns flanked by solid pilasters. These are surmounted by two sculptured figures, one representing the Arts and the other Industry and Learning, by W. Birnie Rhind, RSA. of Edinburgh.

 

Pevsner described the art gallery as a "bold arrangement of a brick central block and lower wings containing galleries". The building was designated as Grade II listed in 1982.

 

Present gallery

The original 504 paintings represented all the main European schools from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Since 1917, the collection has been added to, and now comprises some 10,000 items.

 

The gallery holds a strong collection of 16th and 17th century Dutch and Flemish paintings, as well as 19th century British works, watercolours, prints, drawings and sculpture. Also featured are items of local interest, which include the popular painting by William C. Irving ((1866–1943) of "Blaydon Races" (1903) and a 1970 street scene of Redheugh Crossroads by Gateshead-born Charlie Rogers.

 

Since 1977 the gallery has become established as a national centre for contemporary craftwork. It has built up one of the best collections outside London, which includes ceramics, wood, metal, glass, textiles and furniture. The Shipley is home to the Henry Rothschild collection of studio ceramics. In 2008, the Shipley opened its Designs for Life gallery which showcases the gallery's collections of contemporary craft and design. The Gallery also hosts a varied programme of temporary exhibitions and has a strong partnership with the V&A Museum in London.

 

The Shipley Art Gallery is managed by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums on behalf of Gateshead Council.

 

Gateshead is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, The Glasshouse International Centre for Music and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. The town shares the Millennium Bridge, Tyne Bridge and multiple other bridges with Newcastle upon Tyne.

 

Historically part of County Durham, under the Local Government Act 1888 the town was made a county borough, meaning it was administered independently of the county council.

 

In the 2011 Census, the town had a population of 120,046 while the wider borough had 200,214.

 

History

Gateshead is first mentioned in Latin translation in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People as ad caput caprae ("at the goat's head"). This interpretation is consistent with the later English attestations of the name, among them Gatesheued (c. 1190), literally "goat's head" but in the context of a place-name meaning 'headland or hill frequented by (wild) goats'. Although other derivations have been mooted, it is this that is given by the standard authorities.

 

A Brittonic predecessor, named with the element *gabro-, 'goat' (c.f. Welsh gafr), may underlie the name. Gateshead might have been the Roman-British fort of Gabrosentum.

 

Early

There has been a settlement on the Gateshead side of the River Tyne, around the old river crossing where the Swing Bridge now stands, since Roman times.

 

The first recorded mention of Gateshead is in the writings of the Venerable Bede who referred to an Abbot of Gateshead called Utta in 623. In 1068 William the Conqueror defeated the forces of Edgar the Ætheling and Malcolm king of Scotland (Shakespeare's Malcolm) on Gateshead Fell (now Low Fell and Sheriff Hill).

 

During medieval times Gateshead was under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Durham. At this time the area was largely forest with some agricultural land. The forest was the subject of Gateshead's first charter, granted in the 12th century by Hugh du Puiset, Bishop of Durham. An alternative spelling may be "Gatishevede", as seen in a legal record, dated 1430.

 

Industrial revolution

Throughout the Industrial Revolution the population of Gateshead expanded rapidly; between 1801 and 1901 the increase was over 100,000. This expansion resulted in the spread southwards of the town.

 

In 1854, a catastrophic explosion on the quayside destroyed most of Gateshead's medieval heritage, and caused widespread damage on the Newcastle side of the river.

 

Sir Joseph Swan lived at Underhill, Low Fell, Gateshead from 1869 to 1883, where his experiments led to the invention of the electric light bulb. The house was the first in the world to be wired for domestic electric light.

 

In the 1889 one of the largest employers (Hawks, Crawshay and Company) closed down and unemployment has since been a burden. Up to the Second World War there were repeated newspaper reports of the unemployed sending deputations to the council to provide work. The depression years of the 1920s and 1930s created even more joblessness and the Team Valley Trading Estate was built in the mid-1930s to alleviate the situation.

 

Regeneration

In the late noughties, Gateshead Council started to regenerate the town, with the long-term aim of making Gateshead a city. The most extensive transformation occurred in the Quayside, with almost all the structures there being constructed or refurbished in this time.

 

In the early 2010s, regeneration refocused on the town centre. The £150 million Trinity Square development opened in May 2013, it incorporates student accommodation, a cinema, health centre and shops. It was nominated for the Carbuncle Cup in September 2014. The cup was however awarded to another development which involved Tesco, Woolwich Central.

 

Governance

In 1835, Gateshead was established as a municipal borough and in 1889 it was made a county borough, independent from Durham County Council.

 

In 1870, the Old Town Hall was built, designed by John Johnstone who also designed the previously built Newcastle Town Hall. The ornamental clock in front of the old town hall was presented to Gateshead in 1892 by the mayor, Walter de Lancey Willson, on the occasion of him being elected for a third time. He was also one of the founders of Walter Willson's, a chain of grocers in the North East and Cumbria. The old town hall also served as a magistrate's court and one of Gateshead's police stations.

 

Current

In 1974, following the Local Government Act 1972, the County Borough of Gateshead was merged with the urban districts of Felling, Whickham, Blaydon and Ryton and part of the rural district of Chester-le-Street to create the much larger Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead.

 

Geography

The town of Gateshead is in the North East of England in the ceremonial county of Tyne and Wear, and within the historic boundaries of County Durham. It is located on the southern bank of the River Tyne at a latitude of 54.57° N and a longitude of 1.35° W. Gateshead experiences a temperate climate which is considerably warmer than some other locations at similar latitudes as a result of the warming influence of the Gulf Stream (via the North Atlantic drift). It is located in the rain shadow of the North Pennines and is therefore in one of the driest regions of the United Kingdom.

 

One of the most distinguishing features of Gateshead is its topography. The land rises 230 feet from Gateshead Quays to the town centre and continues rising to a height of 525 feet at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Sheriff Hill. This is in contrast to the flat and low lying Team Valley located on the western edges of town. The high elevations allow for impressive views over the Tyne valley into Newcastle and across Tyneside to Sunderland and the North Sea from lookouts in Windmill Hills and Windy Nook respectively.

 

The Office for National Statistics defines the town as an urban sub-division. The latest (2011) ONS urban sub-division of Gateshead contains the historical County Borough together with areas that the town has absorbed, including Dunston, Felling, Heworth, Pelaw and Bill Quay.

 

Given the proximity of Gateshead to Newcastle, just south of the River Tyne from the city centre, it is sometimes incorrectly referred to as being a part of Newcastle. Gateshead Council and Newcastle City Council teamed up in 2000 to create a unified marketing brand name, NewcastleGateshead, to better promote the whole of the Tyneside conurbation.

 

Economy

Gateshead is home to the MetroCentre, the largest shopping mall in the UK until 2008; and the Team Valley Trading Estate, once the largest and still one of the larger purpose-built commercial estates in the UK.

 

Arts

The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art has been established in a converted flour mill. The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, previously The Sage, a Norman Foster-designed venue for music and the performing arts opened on 17 December 2004. Gateshead also hosted the Gateshead Garden Festival in 1990, rejuvenating 200 acres (0.81 km2) of derelict land (now mostly replaced with housing). The Angel of the North, a famous sculpture in nearby Lamesley, is visible from the A1 to the south of Gateshead, as well as from the East Coast Main Line. Other public art include works by Richard Deacon, Colin Rose, Sally Matthews, Andy Goldsworthy, Gordon Young and Michael Winstone.

 

Traditional and former

The earliest recorded coal mining in the Gateshead area is dated to 1344. As trade on the Tyne prospered there were several attempts by the burghers of Newcastle to annex Gateshead. In 1576 a small group of Newcastle merchants acquired the 'Grand Lease' of the manors of Gateshead and Whickham. In the hundred years from 1574 coal shipments from Newcastle increased elevenfold while the population of Gateshead doubled to approximately 5,500. However, the lease and the abundant coal supplies ended in 1680. The pits were shallow as problems of ventilation and flooding defeated attempts to mine coal from the deeper seams.

 

'William Cotesworth (1668-1726) was a prominent merchant based in Gateshead, where he was a leader in coal and international trade. Cotesworth began as the son of a yeoman and apprentice to a tallow - candler. He ended as an esquire, having been mayor, Justice of the Peace and sheriff of Northumberland. He collected tallow from all over England and sold it across the globe. He imported dyes from the Indies, as well as flax, wine, and grain. He sold tea, sugar, chocolate, and tobacco. He operated the largest coal mines in the area, and was a leading salt producer. As the government's principal agent in the North country, he was in contact with leading ministers.

 

William Hawks originally a blacksmith, started business in Gateshead in 1747, working with the iron brought to the Tyne as ballast by the Tyne colliers. Hawks and Co. eventually became one of the biggest iron businesses in the North, producing anchors, chains and so on to meet a growing demand. There was keen contemporary rivalry between 'Hawks' Blacks' and 'Crowley's Crew'. The famous 'Hawks' men' including Ned White, went on to be celebrated in Geordie song and story.

 

In 1831 a locomotive works was established by the Newcastle and Darlington Railway, later part of the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway. In 1854 the works moved to the Greenesfield site and became the manufacturing headquarters of North Eastern Railway. In 1909, locomotive construction was moved to Darlington and the rest of the works were closed in 1932.

 

Robert Stirling Newall took out a patent on the manufacture of wire ropes in 1840 and in partnership with Messrs. Liddell and Gordon, set up his headquarters at Gateshead. A worldwide industry of wire-drawing resulted. The submarine telegraph cable received its definitive form through Newall's initiative, involving the use of gutta-percha surrounded by strong wires. The first successful Dover–Calais cable on 25 September 1851, was made in Newall's works. In 1853, he invented the brake-drum and cone for laying cable in deep seas. Half of the first Atlantic cable was manufactured in Gateshead. Newall was interested in astronomy, and his giant 25-inch (640 mm) telescope was set up in the garden at Ferndene, his Gateshead residence, in 1871.

 

Architecture

JB Priestley, writing of Gateshead in his 1934 travelogue English Journey, said that "no true civilisation could have produced such a town", adding that it appeared to have been designed "by an enemy of the human race".

 

Victorian

William Wailes the celebrated stained-glass maker, lived at South Dene from 1853 to 1860. In 1860, he designed Saltwell Towers as a fairy-tale palace for himself. It is an imposing Victorian mansion in its own park with a romantic skyline of turrets and battlements. It was originally furnished sumptuously by Gerrard Robinson. Some of the panelling installed by Robinson was later moved to the Shipley Art gallery. Wailes sold Saltwell Towers to the corporation in 1876 for use as a public park, provided he could use the house for the rest of his life. For many years the structure was essentially an empty shell but following a restoration programme it was reopened to the public in 2004.

 

Post millennium

The council sponsored the development of a Gateshead Quays cultural quarter. The development includes the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, erected in 2001, which won the prestigious Stirling Prize for Architecture in 2002.

 

Former brutalism

The brutalist Trinity Centre Car Park, which was designed by Owen Luder, dominated the town centre for many years until its demolition in 2010. A product of attempts to regenerate the area in the 1960s, the car park gained an iconic status due to its appearance in the 1971 film Get Carter, starring Michael Caine. An unsuccessful campaign to have the structure listed was backed by Sylvester Stallone, who played the main role in the 2000 remake of the film. The car park was scheduled for demolition in 2009, but this was delayed as a result of a disagreement between Tesco, who re-developed the site, and Gateshead Council. The council had not been given firm assurances that Tesco would build the previously envisioned town centre development which was to include a Tesco mega-store as well as shops, restaurants, cafes, bars, offices and student accommodation. The council effectively used the car park as a bargaining tool to ensure that the company adhered to the original proposals and blocked its demolition until they submitted a suitable planning application. Demolition finally took place in July–August 2010.

 

The Derwent Tower, another well known example of brutalist architecture, was also designed by Owen Luder and stood in the neighbourhood of Dunston. Like the Trinity Car Park it also failed in its bid to become a listed building and was demolished in 2012. Also located in this area are the Grade II listed Dunston Staithes which were built in 1890. Following the award of a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of almost £420,000 restoration of the structure is expected to begin in April 2014.

 

Sport

Gateshead International Stadium regularly holds international athletics meetings over the summer months, and is home of the Gateshead Harriers athletics club. It is also host to rugby league fixtures, and the home ground of Gateshead Football Club. Gateshead Thunder Rugby League Football Club played at Gateshead International Stadium until its purchase by Newcastle Rugby Limited and the subsequent rebranding as Newcastle Thunder. Both clubs have had their problems: Gateshead A.F.C. were controversially voted out of the Football League in 1960 in favour of Peterborough United, whilst Gateshead Thunder lost their place in Super League as a result of a takeover (officially termed a merger) by Hull F.C. Both Gateshead clubs continue to ply their trade at lower levels in their respective sports, thanks mainly to the efforts of their supporters. The Gateshead Senators American Football team also use the International Stadium, as well as this it was used in the 2006 Northern Conference champions in the British American Football League.

 

Gateshead Leisure Centre is home to the Gateshead Phoenix Basketball Team. The team currently plays in EBL League Division 4. Home games are usually on a Sunday afternoon during the season, which runs from September to March. The team was formed in 2013 and ended their initial season well placed to progress after defeating local rivals Newcastle Eagles II and promotion chasing Kingston Panthers.

 

In Low Fell there is a cricket club and a rugby club adjacent to each other on Eastwood Gardens. These are Gateshead Fell Cricket Club and Gateshead Rugby Club. Gateshead Rugby Club was formed in 1998 following the merger of Gateshead Fell Rugby Club and North Durham Rugby Club.

 

Transport

Gateshead is served by the following rail transport stations with some being operated by National Rail and some being Tyne & Wear Metro stations: Dunston, Felling, Gateshead Interchange, Gateshead Stadium, Heworth Interchange, MetroCentre and Pelaw.

 

Tyne & Wear Metro stations at Gateshead Interchange and Gateshead Stadium provide direct light-rail access to Newcastle Central, Newcastle Airport , Sunderland, Tynemouth and South Shields Interchange.

 

National Rail services are provided by Northern at Dunston and MetroCentre stations. The East Coast Main Line, which runs from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley, cuts directly through the town on its way between Newcastle Central and Chester-le-Street stations. There are presently no stations on this line within Gateshead, as Low Fell, Bensham and Gateshead West stations were closed in 1952, 1954 and 1965 respectively.

 

Road

Several major road links pass through Gateshead, including the A1 which links London to Edinburgh and the A184 which connects the town to Sunderland.

 

Gateshead Interchange is the busiest bus station in Tyne & Wear and was used by 3.9 million bus passengers in 2008.

 

Cycle routes

Various bicycle trails traverse the town; most notably is the recreational Keelmans Way (National Cycle Route 14), which is located on the south bank of the Tyne and takes riders along the entire Gateshead foreshore. Other prominent routes include the East Gateshead Cycleway, which connects to Felling, the West Gateshead Cycleway, which links the town centre to Dunston and the MetroCentre, and routes along both the old and new Durham roads, which take cyclists to Birtley, Wrekenton and the Angel of the North.

 

Religion

Christianity has been present in the town since at least the 7th century, when Bede mentioned a monastery in Gateshead. A church in the town was burned down in 1080 with the Bishop of Durham inside.[citation needed] St Mary's Church was built near to the site of that building, and was the only church in the town until the 1820s. Undoubtedly the oldest building on the Quayside, St Mary's has now re-opened to the public as the town's first heritage centre.

 

Many of the Anglican churches in the town date from the 19th century, when the population of the town grew dramatically and expanded into new areas. The town presently has a number of notable and large churches of many denominations.

 

Judaism

The Bensham district is home to a community of hundreds of Jewish families and used to be known as "Little Jerusalem". Within the community is the Gateshead Yeshiva, founded in 1929, and other Jewish educational institutions with international enrolments. These include two seminaries: Beis Medrash L'Morot and Beis Chaya Rochel seminary, colloquially known together as Gateshead "old" and "new" seminaries.

 

Many yeshivot and kollels also are active. Yeshivat Beer Hatorah, Sunderland Yeshiva, Nesivos Hatorah, Nezer Hatorah and Yeshiva Ketana make up some of the list.

 

Islam

Islam is practised by a large community of people in Gateshead and there are 2 mosques located in the Bensham area (in Ely Street and Villa Place).

 

Twinning

Gateshead is twinned with the town of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen in France, and the city of Komatsu in Japan.

 

Notable people

Eliezer Adler – founder of Jewish Community

Marcus Bentley – narrator of Big Brother

Catherine Booth – wife of William Booth, known as the Mother of The Salvation Army

William Booth – founder of the Salvation Army

Mary Bowes – the Unhappy Countess, author and celebrity

Ian Branfoot – footballer and manager (Sheffield Wednesday and Southampton)

Andy Carroll – footballer (Newcastle United, Liverpool and West Ham United)

Frank Clark – footballer and manager (Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest)

David Clelland – Labour politician and MP

Derek Conway – former Conservative politician and MP

Joseph Cowen – Radical politician

Steve Cram – athlete (middle-distance runner)

Emily Davies – educational reformer and feminist, founder of Girton College, Cambridge

Daniel Defoe – writer and government agent

Ruth Dodds – politician, writer and co-founder of the Little Theatre

Jonathan Edwards – athlete (triple jumper) and television presenter

Sammy Johnson – actor (Spender)

George Elliot – industrialist and MP

Paul Gascoigne – footballer (Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Lazio, Rangers and Middlesbrough)

Alex Glasgow – singer/songwriter

Avrohom Gurwicz – rabbi, Dean of Gateshead Yeshiva

Leib Gurwicz – rabbi, Dean of Gateshead Yeshiva

Jill Halfpenny – actress (Coronation Street and EastEnders)

Chelsea Halfpenny – actress (Emmerdale)

David Hodgson – footballer and manager (Middlesbrough, Liverpool and Sunderland)

Sharon Hodgson – Labour politician and MP

Norman Hunter – footballer (Leeds United and member of 1966 World Cup-winning England squad)

Don Hutchison – footballer (Liverpool, West Ham United, Everton and Sunderland)

Brian Johnson – AC/DC frontman

Tommy Johnson – footballer (Aston Villa and Celtic)

Riley Jones - actor

Howard Kendall – footballer and manager (Preston North End and Everton)

J. Thomas Looney – Shakespeare scholar

Gary Madine – footballer (Sheffield Wednesday)

Justin McDonald – actor (Distant Shores)

Lawrie McMenemy – football manager (Southampton and Northern Ireland) and pundit

Thomas Mein – professional cyclist (Canyon DHB p/b Soreen)

Robert Stirling Newall – industrialist

Bezalel Rakow – communal rabbi

John William Rayner – flying ace and war hero

James Renforth – oarsman

Mariam Rezaei – musician and artist

Sir Tom Shakespeare - baronet, sociologist and disability rights campaigner

William Shield – Master of the King's Musick

Christina Stead – Australian novelist

John Steel – drummer (The Animals)

Henry Spencer Stephenson – chaplain to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II

Steve Stone – footballer (Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa and Portsmouth)

Chris Swailes – footballer (Ipswich Town)

Sir Joseph Swan – inventor of the incandescent light bulb

Nicholas Trainor – cricketer (Gloucestershire)

Chris Waddle – footballer (Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur and Sheffield Wednesday)

William Wailes – stained glass maker

Taylor Wane – adult entertainer

Robert Spence Watson – public benefactor

Sylvia Waugh – author of The Mennyms series for children

Chris Wilkie – guitarist (Dubstar)

John Wilson - orchestral conductor

Peter Wilson – footballer (Gateshead, captain of Australia)

Thomas Wilson – poet/school founder

Robert Wood – Australian politician

305 Broadway, Civic Center, Downtown Manhattan, New York City, United States of America

 

Civic Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

 

The 13-story (plus basement) Mutual Reserve Building (1892-94), located on the northwest corner of Broadway and Duane Street, is one of New York City's most significant examples of a tall late-19th-century office building designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque Revival style. The two designed facades feature granite and limestone cladding, rusticated piers, foliate carving, and arcaded base and upper sections. The architect, William H. Hume, was best known in his day for commercial and institutional work, and this is his most important extant commission.

 

The building is notable as an early steel cage- framed structure in New York, constructed just prior to the full development of the skyscraper. The builder was the eminent Richard Deeves, while the prominent consulting structural engineer was Frederick H. Kindl, chief engineer of the Carnegie Steel Co. The Mutual Reserve Building was owned, until 1920, by the grandchildren of the immensely wealthy Boston merchant shipping magnate and shipbuilder, William F. Weld.

 

The initial principal tenant of the building was the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association, launched in 1881 with the intention of offering life insurance at cost and called by King's Handbook of New York in 1892 "the largest purely mutual natural-premium life-association in the world." Mutual Reserve only lasted until 1909, however,

 

and the structure was re-named the Langdon Building. It has housed many other tenants, including firms and organizations associated with the publishing and paper trades, as well as many lawyers' offices, and was the first long-term home of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (1967-80). The original main and auxiliary entrances on Broadway were altered and eliminated, respectively (c. 1923). The Mutual Reserve Building is also significant as a survivor among the 19th-century insurance industry buildings along Broadway in this vicinity, which include the Home Life Insurance Co. Building (1892-94, Napoleon le Brun & Sons), No. 256, and New York Life Insurance Co. Building (1894-99, Stephen Decatur Hatch with McKim, Mead & White), No. 346.

 

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

 

William F. Weld Estate

 

The Mutual Reserve Building was commissioned by the Estate of William F. Weld. One of America's most successful merchant shipping magnates and shipbuilders, William Fletcher Weld (1800-1881), the proprietor of William F. Weld & Co. in Boston, operated one of the largest fleets in the country, including the Senator (1833), one of the largest ships of its era. His trade was centered in the Canary Islands, East and West Indies, Manila, and Singapore. Merchants in both Boston and New York City had created immense wealth based on commerce with Europe, the Caribbean, and Asia starting in the 18th century - participation in the trans-Atlantic "triangular trade" became an integral part of both cities' economies. These merchants were significant in this highly lucrative Europe-Africa-Americas shipping network that traded enslaved workers from Africa and the Caribbean, manufactured goods, and products from the Caribbean, such as sugar, rum, molasses, tobacco, rice, and cotton. Located closer to the West Indies, New York eventually surpassed Boston in the domination of the northern Atlantic coastal trade. This trade, in turn, spurred a number of profitable local industries, such as shipbuilding and food processing, particularly sugar refining, distilling molasses into rum, and the conversion of tobacco into snuff.

 

William F. Weld also invested in the construction of railroads, and became sole agent of the English firm of Thompson & Forman, producer of iron rails. After he retired from business in 1861, according to a biographical sketch, he "devoted himself largely to real estate, purchasing and building stores and warehouses in Boston and New York, a policy he directed, in his will, should be carried out by his trustees." He left an estate estimated to be about $21 million which, after various family and charitable bequests, was left to his four grandchildren (the two granddaughters when they reached the age of 25): William Fletcher Weld, Jr. (1855-1893), Charles Goddard Weld (18571911), Mary Bryant Pratt (later Sprague, then Brandegee)(1871-1956), and Isabel Weld Perkins (later Anderson)(1876-1948). His son, William Gordon Weld (1827-1896), grandson William F. Weld, Jr., and Samuel Johnson were the original executors of the estate.

 

In May 1888, the Weld Estate (on behalf of the four Weld grandchildren) purchased a lot for $350,000 at the northwest corner of Broadway and Duane Street, and in 1890 acquired a tiny adjacent interior lot. The Estate commissioned the construction of a speculative office building (the Mutual Reserve Building) in 1892. Following the death of William F. Weld, Jr., in 1893 and the transferral of Charles G. Weld's interest in 1901, this property was held by the trustees of Mary Bryant Pratt Sprague and Isabel Weld Perkins Anderson. It was transferred solely to Mary Bryant Pratt Brandegee in 1907. In 1891, Mary Bryant Pratt had married Charles Franklin Sprague (18571902), a wealthy Boston lawyer who, after his marriage, was said to have been the wealthiest man to serve in Congress. In 1904, Mary (called by the New York Times "one of the richest young widows in the country") married Edward Deshon Brandegee, a wholesale clothing manufacturer from Utica, New York. Mary Brandegee retained the 305 Broadway property until 1920.

 

The Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association

 

The original principal tenant of the Weld Estate's office building at 305 Broadway was the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association, which signed a 40-year lease for its home office that officially began on June 1, 1894. The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported in January 1892 that the rent would be "on a per cent basis of the total cost of the building, together with a percentage of the valuation -- $500,000 we believe -- of the land." According to an 1894 report, Mutual Reserve had contributed $408,297 towards the lease and the building's construction and furnishing. William H. Hume, the architect selected to design their headquarters, was listed as a director of the Association in an obituary.

 

Incorporated in 1875 and launched in 1881 with the intention of offering life insurance at cost, the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association was called by King's Handbook of New York in 1892 "the largest purely mutual natural-premium life-association in the world." Offering reduced premiums that allowed many people to be able to afford the cost of insurance, Mutual Reserve became one of the largest and most popular life insurance companies, with branches in Canada and Europe. The Association was previously located in the Potter Building on Park Row, and its founder and president was Edward Bascom Harper (1842-1895), who was succeeded in 1895 in the new building by Frederick A. Burnham. In 1892, the firm had $225 million worth of insurance coverage "in force", and by 1895 its coverage rose to $300 million.

 

Reports began to circulate by 1896, however, about a significant decrease in business, the depletion of reserves, rapid losses due to death benefit payouts, and excessive executive salaries, and the affairs of the Association were under investigation for several years. In 1902, the firm was re-incorporated as the Mutual Reserve Life Insurance Co., a "purely mutual life insurance institution" and New York's third largest. Complaints continued about the company's solvency, and after further investigations, indictments were made against Mutual Reserve's president and vice-president. The lease at 305 Broadway was renewed in 1908 at $60,000 a year, but the company was placed under receivership that year, then-president Archibald C. Haynes filed for bankruptcy, and former president Burnham was found dead, a possible suicide. The Mutual Reserve Life Insurance Co. was fully defunct by 1911.

 

The Mutual Reserve Building

 

Plans for the 13-story (plus basement) Mutual Reserve Building were filed by architect William H. Hume in June 1892, to cost an estimated $730,000. Construction began at the end of that month, but was ultimately greatly delayed due to steel and granite strikes. The builder, the eminent Richard Deeves, stated that "the Mutual Reserve Building... was about a year and a half under construction, but then we lost at least eight months in consequence of the strike at the Carnegie Iron and Steel Works." The Mutual Reserve Building was steel cage framed: the prominent consulting structural engineer, Frederick H. Kindl chief engineer of the Carnegie Steel Co., wrote that "this method of construction, that is, using steel beams and columns for framework, and supporting the walls at each floor level, has only of late been introduced extensively. ... Mutual Reserve Building... [is] of similar construction...." The stone contractor, Hanlein & Co., also executed the extensive Romanesque style ornamental carving. Dedicated on June 14, 1894, the building was officially completed in September.

 

Hume's design for the Mutual Reserve Building was comparable to, and undoubtedly influenced by, architect R.H. Robertson's first tall commercial structure completed two years earlier, the nine-story Lincoln Building (1889-90), 1-3 Union Square West. The architectural vocabulary of both buildings was influenced by the Richardsonian Romanesque style, named after one of America's greatest architects, Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886), who created an American interpretation of the Romanesque based on French and Italian prototypes. His Trinity Church (187377), Boston, as well as his many libraries and other buildings, firmly established Richardson's professional reputation and launched the popularity and influence of the style.

 

Following Richardson's precedent, many architects employed it in the 1880s and 90s for a wide variety of building types, ranging from mansions to courthouses, university structures, and railroad stations, and including some tall office buildings. The style was characterized by its appearance of massiveness and such features as rockfaced masonry and round-arched fenestration. In this period, as architects in New York City were still grappling with appropriate ways to design tall office structures and early skyscrapers, two features were commonly employed: multiple-story arcades on facades, and a tripartite base-shaft-capital arrangement associated with the classical column. The designs of both the Lincoln and Mutual Reserve Buildings merged these features through a horizontal layering of sections (an effect criticized by some contemporary architectural critics).

 

The Mutual Reserve Building's two designed granite- and limestone-clad facades are arranged with a six-story base, with arcades up to the fifth story, and rusticated piers; a six-story planar mid-section; and a one-story rusticated upper section with an arcade of windows and a tall balustraded parapet. Intricate Romanesque style foliate carving appears on such areas as the arches, column capitals, and cornices. King's Handbook (1892) had speculated that the proposed structure "will be one of the finest office-buildings in the city... the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association... is contributing a masterpiece of architecture to its artistic aspect." An observer at the New York Herald-Tribune in November 1893 expounded on the "model new office building" and its amenities:

 

The handsome new building of the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association... has aroused the admiration of all who have seen it. ... The exterior of the building is of a dignified and attractive Romanesque style of architecture. The material employed is Indiana limestone, which has given a rich architectural effect. The building is one of the best types of the new steel buildings, and is built in the most substantial manner. It is, in fact, a tremendous steel frame inclosed in a handsome stone casing, while the partitions and floors are of fire-proof brick. ... The building is provided with every convenience that skill and modern invention can give. Four swift-running Otis elevators will give the most rapid communication between the highest and lowest parts of the building. The offices will be heated by steam and lighted by electricity throughout, while the plumbing, ventilating and sanitary arrangements have received the most careful study. The unusually desirable situation of this building has enabled the architect, William H. Hume, to make all the offices light and well ventilated from the street, while large courts give good light to the other rooms in the building. All the windows of the building are the largest size.

 

After its completion, the New York Times in 1895 touted "this massive and impressive structure" as "an instance of genuinely fire-proof construction" that "closely approached the ideal of safe construction," while the National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (1897) noted that "towering above all the other buildings in its vicinity, its stately walls fittingly represent the solidity and permanence of the business for which it was erected." Mutual Reserve's slogan, "Founded Upon a Rock," seemed to mimic the solid Romanesque style of its home office. The firm occupied the second through fourth stories.

 

Not only is the Mutual Reserve Building one of New York City's most significant examples of a tall office building designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque Revival style, the structure is also notable as a survivor among the 19th-century insurance industry buildings along Broadway in

 

this vicinity, which also include the Home Life Insurance Co. Building (1892-94, Napoleon le Brun & Sons), No. 256, and New York Life Insurance Co. Building (1894-99, Stephen Decatur Hatch with McKim, Mead & White), No. 346.

 

Architect: William H. Hume

 

William Henry Hume (1834-1899), born in New York City, began an architectural practice here in 1855. Examples of his early commercial work in contemporary styles may be seen at 62 and 66 Perry Street (1866); 53 Lispenard Street (1867-68); 313 Church Street (1868-70); and 83-87, 89, and 66 Grand Street (1872, 1877, 1885), in the Greenwich Village, SoHo-Cast Iron, and Tribeca East Historic Districts. By the 1880s, Hume was receiving some highly noteworthy commercial and institutional commissions, including: the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society Asylum (1881-84; demolished), Broadway and West 136th Street; B. Altman Store addition (1887), 615-629 Sixth Avenue; Hotel Normandie (1887; demolished), Broadway and 38th Street; Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank (1887-89; demolished), 49-51 Chambers Street; Masonic Home and School (c. 1890; demolished), Utica, New York; H.C.F. Koch & Co. Store (1890-91), 132-140 West 125th Street; North River Savings Bank (1892; demolished), 266 West 34th Street; and Lotus Club (1893; demolished), 556 Fifth Avenue.

 

Hume designed William Waldorf Astor's 17-story New Netherland Hotel (1891-93; demolished), Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, touted as the world's tallest hotel at the time and an early steel cage-framed structure. The firm of William H. Hume & Son, formed in 1894 with Frederick Thomas Hume (1859-1934), was responsible for the Scotch Presbyterian Lecture Hall (1895; demolished), Central Park West and 95th Street; First Church of Christ Scientist (1896; demolished), 137 West 48th Street; Spingler Building (1896-97), 5 Union Square West; and Simpson, Crawford & Simpson Co. Store (1900-02), 635-649 Sixth Avenue. The firm continued until around 1910. The Mutual Reserve Building was one of the Hume's finest commissions and is his most important extant work.

 

Builder Richard Deeves and Consulting Engineer Frederick H. Kindl

 

The builder of the Mutual Reserve Building, Richard Deeves (1837-1919), was born in Dublin, Ireland, came to the United States in 1850, apprenticed as a mason with George S. Dixon, and soon became a builder, establishing his own firm in 1869. An early specialty was gasworks structures. He was responsible for the construction of countless notable residences, commercial buildings, and skyscrapers, examples of which included the Temple Court Building (1881-83, Silliman & Farnsworth), 3-9 Beekman Street (where he maintained an office); Randall Memorial Chapel and Music Hall (1890-92, Robert W. Gibson; chapel demolished), Sailors' Snug Harbor, Staten Island; and the Manhattan Life Insurance Co. Building (1893-94, [Francis H.] Kimball & [G. Kramer] Thompson, with engineer Charles Sooysmith; demolished), 64-66 Broadway. Richard Deeves & Son, with J[ohn]. Henry Deeves, "mason builders and general contractors," was formed by 1895. One of its projects was the American Seamen's Friend Society Sailors' Home and Institute (1907-08, William A. Boring), 505-507 West Street. Richard Deeves had his office in the Mutual Reserve Building from its completion until at least 1914.

 

Frederick Henry Kindl (1863-1914), born in Austria, immigrated to the United States as a boy in 1873, and graduated from the Case School of Applied Science (1884), Cleveland. After working as an engineer in Chicago for several years, he moved to Pittsburgh, where he became Structural and Chief Engineer of the Carnegie Steel Co. Kindl is considered one of the seminal

 

pioneers of the American steel-framed tall building and skyscraper, a field in which he specialized as a consulting engineer nationally.

 

The Tall Office Building in New York City in the 1880s-90s

 

During the 19th century, commercial buildings in New York City developed from four-story structures modeled on Italian Renaissance palazzi to much taller skyscrapers. Made possible by technological advances, tall buildings challenged designers to fashion an appropriate architectural expression. Between 1870 and 1890, nine- and ten-story buildings transformed the streetscapes of lower Manhattan between Bowling Green and the City Hall area. During the building boom following the Civil War, building envelopes continued to be articulated largely according to traditional palazzo compositions, with mansarded and towered roof profiles.

 

Beginning in the later 1870s, tall buildings were characterized by flat roofs and a free, varied grouping of stories, often in the form of multi-storied arcades, within the facades. The period of the late 1870s into the 1890s was also one of stylistic experimentation in which commercial and office buildings in New York incorporated diverse influences, such as the Queen Anne, Victorian Gothic, Romanesque, and neo- Grec styles, French rationalism, and the German Rundbogenstil, under the leadership of such architects as Richard M. Hunt and George B. Post. Beginning around 1890, architects began producing tall building designs that adhered to the tripartite base-shaft-capital arrangement associated with the classical column, a scheme that became commonly employed in New York.

 

New York's early tall buildings -- including the seven-and-one-half-story Equitable Life Assurance Co. Building (1868-70, Gilman & Kendall and George B. Post) at Broadway and Cedar Street, the ten-story Western Union Building (1872-75, George B. Post) at Broadway and Liberty Street, and the ten-story Tribune Building (1873-75, Richard M. Hunt) on Park Row (all now demolished) -- incorporated passenger elevators, iron floor beams, and fireproof building materials. Fireproofing was of paramount concern as office buildings grew taller, and by 1881-82 systems had been devised to "completely fireproof' them. Cage construction, employed in the 1880s in tall buildings in New York and Chicago, was characterized by the Record and Guide as

 

a frame work of iron or steel columns and girders which carry the floors only, and do not carry the outer walls. In the cage construction the outer walls are independent walls, from the foundation to the extreme top, sustaining themselves only, and therefore, the walls are made less in thickness than if they had to bear the floors as in ordinary buildings such walls would have to do.

 

Ever taller skyscrapers were permitted by the increasing use and refinement of the metal skeleton frame, in which the metal columns and girders support both the floors and the outer (curtain) walls. In addition, several hybrid structural forms were used in tall buildings, such as the combination of both masonry and metal for interior vertical supports.

 

In 1888-89, New York architect Bradford Lee Gilbert used iron skeleton framing for the first seven stories of the 11-story Tower Building at 50 Broadway (demolished). As steel skeleton framing was adopted for tall buildings in New York, architects and engineers introduced caisson foundations which carried the weight of the skeleton frame down to bedrock. Kimball & Thompson's seminal 17-story (plus tower) Manhattan Life Insurance Co. Building (1893-94, with engineer Charles Sooysmith; demolished) was the tallest building yet constructed in the city and is credited with being the first skyscraper with a full iron and steel frame, set on pneumatic concrete caissons.

 

This was followed by the American Surety Co. Building (1894-95, Bruce Price, also with Sooysmith), 100 Broadway, which was the first New York skyscraper with a full steel frame, set on pneumatic concrete caissons. The cage-framed Mutual Reserve Building utilized the successful design and construction techniques of its predecessors, just prior to the full development of the skyscraper. It is interesting to note that, while the Mutual Reserve Building was nearing completion, the building committee of the American Surety Co. visited the structure and expressed the intention to construct something similar.

 

Other Early Tenants

 

The Arkwright Club, for drygoods merchants, was one of the earliest Mutual Reserve Building tenants, having signed a lease in 1893 for one of the top stories at $90,000 (to 1899). Undoubtedly drawn to the location nearby the then-center of New York's publishing and newspaper industries, the Mutual Reserve Building drew a number of firms and organizations associated with the publishing and paper trades, such as Hubbell Publishing Co. (c. 1894-1915), West Virginia Pulp & Paper Co. (1894-1909), Hollingsworth & Whitney Co., paper manufacturer (c. 1899-1911), Marcus S. Bulkley, paper buyer (1901), American Paper & Pulp Association (c. 1906-08), and Stationers Association ofNew York (c. 1907-11). Other tenants included the Co-Operative Building Bank (1894), Spanish Benevolent Society of New York (c. 1896-1902), Mutual Mercantile Agency (pre-1901), Miller Bros. Cutlery Co., pocket cutlery and pens (c. 1903-15), and Hapgoods, "National Organization of Brain Brokers" (c. 1905-14).

 

The Langdon Building and Later Ownership History and Tenants

 

By 1909, with the demise of the Mutual Reserve company, No. 305-309 Broadway was renamed the Langdon Building, most likely after the owner's son, the stockbrocker John Langdon Brandegee. In 1920, the Times announced the purchase of the property (from Mary Brandegee) for about $2 million by the Broadway-John Street Corp. (Elias A. Cohen, president), which intended to remodel it to lease as "high-grade offices for lawyers" who, according to the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, "are being crowded out of the financial district by the insistent demand from banks and business concerns willing to pay rentals which are prohibitive to lawyers." Lawyer tenants already in the building formed the Office Tenants League to protest eviction and expected exorbitant rents. The building was transferred in 1921 to a group of investors that included Isidor and Charlotte Mishkind, Fred and Cecilia Mishkind Broverman, Joachim S. Van Wetzel, Warren and Marguerite Watson, and Edward J. and Beatrice Lewis. In 1923, the central auxiliary entrance on Broadway was removed (Schwartz & Gross, architects). The building was conveyed in 1940 to the Downtown Renting Co. (Elias A. Cohen, president) and in 1945 to the Broaduane Corp. (Elias A. Cohen, president).

 

Two authors mentioned the building's unsavory reputation within the legal profession, one referring to it as "the 'Den of Forty Thieves,' reflecting the appearance... and the snobbish opinion of lawyers located elsewhere on lower Broadway... [and] because the structure was regarded as a law office slum." The other called the building one of the centers in the 1920s of the faked American "personal injury underworld." Various other tenants included Herman J. Hegt, Inc., metals dealer (c. 1919-20); George F. Hardy, mill architect and consulting engineer (c. 1914-20); Lithographers International Protective and Beneficial Association of the United States & Canada (c.

 

1914-15); Earle E. Liederman/ Progressive Exerciser Co., one of America's early physical culture mail-order businesses (1922-30); Wall Street Synagague (1929); and Jewish Forum Association, publisher of The Jewish Forum (1944). By 1950, the building began to house a number of state government agencies.

 

In 1957, the property was conveyed to the 305 Broadway Co. (Sylvan Lawrence and Seymour Cohn, partnership), and was purchased in 1959 by Broadway Duane Associates (Louis and Joseph Lefkowitz, general partners) and leased back to the 305 Broadway Co. The building was transferred in 1969 to the 305 Broadway Corp. (Louis Lefkowitz, president), then in 1975 back to the 305 Broadway Co., which merged the lease and fee of the property. It was owned in 1980 by 305 Broadway, Limited Partnership (Herman Abbott, president, of Abbott Corp., general partner), and since 1982 by Reade Broadway Associates. The former Mutual Reserve Building has housed a number of New York City agencies, including the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (1967-80) as its first long-term home.

 

Description

 

Historic: 13-story (plus basement) corner Richardsonian Romanesque Revival style office building clad in granite and limestone on main facades, with carved foliate ornament; six-story base, with arcades up to the fifth story, and rusticated piers; six-story planar mid-section; one-story rusticated upper section with arcade of windows and tall balustraded parapet; paired windows on Broadway and end bays on Duane Street, and tripartite windows on the rest of Duane Street facade, divided by stone piers, columns, or colonnettes; small rectangular windows inserted at top of building (1909, William H. Hume & Son)

 

Alterations: shopfronts (originally single-pane glass with bulkheads and sign bands), signage, and rolldown gates; two-story main Broadway entrance (originally elaborately ornamental with round-arched entrance) re-built in flattened form, with rectangular entrance and transom, non- historic doors, and rectangular second-story window bay (c. 1923); two-story central auxiliary Broadway entrance (originally with steps and round-arched transom) eliminated and replaced with shopfront and rectangular second-story window bay (1923); windows with anodized aluminum sash (originally one-over-one double-hung wood sash)

 

Western and Northern Side Elevations: unarticulated brick cladding, pierced by windows

 

- From the 2011 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

This is my personal redesign of the midi-scale Imperial-Class Star Destroyer featured in the new Executor SSD set, which I wasn't the most impressed with. Until LEGO makes a modified plate with slope that's 1 stud shorter, this is as good as I can do to "upgrade" this design, but I'm still happy with it.

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While waiting for 75356 to come back in stock on LEGO.com, I've challenged myself to design some ships to go alongside it, all to scale. Here's the first batch of ships, but I'll likely check back here with some more designs soon!

SSR Executor CV01S

Disk/Face: Flat Titan Silver