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This makes me sad! Had these lying around for some years. All of this great good ol' Polaroid 600 film wasted, when I was testing a broken SX-70. I really miss this film.
1619 Broadway, Theater District, Manhattan
Since its construction in 1930-31, the 11-story Brill Building has been synonymous with American music – from the last days of Tin Pan Alley to the emergence of rock and roll. Occupying the northwest corner of Broadway and West 49th Street, it was commissioned by real estate developer Abraham Lefcourt who briefly planned to erect the world’s tallest structure on the site, which was leased from the Brill Brothers, owners of a men’s clothing store. When Lefcourt failed to meet the terms of their agreement, the Brills foreclosed on the property and the name of the nearly-complete structure was changed from the Alan E. Lefcourt Building to the, arguably more melodious sounding, Brill Building. Designed in the Art Deco style by architect Victor A. Bark, Jr., the white brick elevations feature handsome terra-cotta reliefs, as well as two niches that prominently display stone and brass portrait busts that most likely portray the developer’s son, Alan, who died as the building was being planned. A remarkable number of tenants have been music publishers, but the building is also notable for attracting an evolving roster of songwriters, booking agents, vocal coaches, publicity agents, talent agents, and performers. As the popularity of big band music and jazz increased, many performers leased offices in the building, including Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, and Nat King Cole. By the early 1960s, more than 160 tenants were involved in the music industry. While not every artist associated with the so-called “Brill Building sound” actually worked at 1619 Broadway, these creative men and women produced some of early rock and roll’s most beautifully-crafted and memorable songs. Also contributing to the building’s reputation have been various commercial tenants, including such fashionable restaurants as Jack Dempsey’s and the Turf, and a succession of vast second floor nightclubs, including the Hurricane, Club Zanzibar and Bop City, where jazz briefly gained a prominent midtown venue and a wider audience in the 1940s.
DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS
Few office buildings in New York City are as closely associated with a single profession as the Brill Building. Built on speculation at the start of the Great Depression, during 1930-31, for the next half-century this 11-story Art Deco-style structure was synonymous with popular music and entertainment. A succession of tenants, including music publishers, talent agents, songwriters, and nightclubs, have contributed to the building’s legendary status. Not only were more than 160 music-related businesses based here by the early 1960s but music historian Ian Inglis has written that these talented artists brought “a new professionalism and maturity to rock and roll,” leading to the increased presence of women as performers and producers, as well as the development of the “singer-songwriter” – artists who compose and record their own material.
And Ken Emerson, author of Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era, observed: “The music publishers and songwriters who worked there routinized the creation and production of rock ‘n’ roll. They smoothed the rough edges . . . Reigning in the unruliness of rock ‘n’ roll made it safe for teenage America and profitable in the mass marketplace.”3 During this period, the Brill Building became the unofficial center of pop music in the United States. While not all of the artists and companies associated with the so-called “Brill Building sound” actually leased space here, such myths demonstrate the structure’s longstanding importance, from its early ties to Tin Pan Alley and the Big Band era to the present day.
The Site
The Brill Building occupies the northwest corner of Broadway and West 49th Street. It was named for the Brill Brothers – Samuel, Max and Maurice – who operated a Manhattan chain of men’s clothing stores for more than five decades. Founded by Samuel and Maurice Brill in late 1886, their first store was located in lower Manhattan at 45 Cortlandt Street, near Church Street. The Brills began leasing the Broadway site in 1909 and a branch opened here in October 1910. The New York Times reported:
The steady growth of Times Square and the adjoining streets as the business centre of Manhattan is proved this morning by the opening of a new clothing store . . . it covers half the block on the Broadway side and 75 feet in Forty-ninth Street.
The site was originally owned by Archibald D. and Albertina Russell, who conveyed it to the financiers Moses Taylor and Percy R. Pyne (1857-1929) in 1919. The Ruspyn Corporation was established following Pyne’s death and the lease with the Brill Brothers was extended 85 years. This set the stage for a sublease to the 1619 Realty Corporation, which agreed to erect a building of at least six stories, valued at more than $400,000. In addition, the contract stipulated that any plans be approved by the Brills.
Plan and Construction
On October 3, 1929, three weeks before the stock market crash, Lefcourt announced plans to build the world’s tallest structure at the northwest corner of Broadway and 49th Street. Representing an investment of $30 million, the Chicago Tribune reported:
An arrangement already settled between the builder and his client, said to be one of
the largest business institutions in the country, is that the building shall not be less
than the height announced.
Not only would the 1,050-foot tower be much taller than the 538-foot Lefcourt-Colonial Building – the firm’s tallest project to date – but it would also have surpassed two of the city’s loftiest structures: the 1,046-foot Chrysler Building (completed May 1930, a designated New York City Landmark) and the 927-foot Manhattan Company Building (a designated New York City Landmark). In the weeks that followed, Lefcourt may have become uneasy about such ambitious plans. Though he remained publicly optimistic about the real estate market, a December 1929 article made no mention of the Brill Building’s height.16 This suggests that he had difficulty financing the tower or that the original height was being reconsidered, and subsequently, reduced.
Despite a tough economic climate, the project eased forward. Lefcourt and the 1619 Realty Company finalized the purchase of the lease from the Brill Brothers in January 1930 and in March 1930 plans (NB 46-1930) for a much lower structure were submitted to the Department of Buildings. The New York Times commented: “No definite statement could be obtained yesterday regarding the reason for changing the plans.”17 Bark was identified as the architect and the owner was the Ruspyn Corporation, with Percy P. Pyne as president. It was described as ten stories tall, with a penthouse, stores, bank and offices. The estimated cost was modest, $1 million. Initially called the Alan E. Lefcourt Building, construction began in May 1930 and the exterior work was completed in late November 1930.
Design
The Brill Building is a handsome example of the Art Deco style.
Especially popular with New York City real estate developers from the mid-1920s to the early 1930s, it grew out of Beaux Arts classicism and included decorative elements associated with structures erected at the Paris Exposition des Arts Decoratifs & Industriels of 1925, as well as other European styles. Prior to this period, American architects tended to find inspiration in historical forms, borrowing ideas not only from classical sources, but also from medieval and Byzantine models, as illustrated in such designated New York City Landmarks as: the New York Times Building (various architects, begun 1912) on West 43rd Street, the American Radiator Building (Raymond Hood, 1923-24) on West 41st Street, and the Bowery Savings Bank (York & Sawyer, begun 1921-23) on East 42nd Street. In contrast to subsequent architectural trends, particularly following the Second World War, Art Deco buildings are frequently distinguished by low decorative reliefs, vivid colors, and unusual materials.
Times Square has relatively few buildings of this style. This can be explained by the fact that most theaters were completed before 1925 when variants of neo-Classicism were at the height of popularity. With few sites open to development, only a small group of neighborhood structures would reflect the new fashion; surviving examples include: the Manufacturer’s Trust Bank (Dennison & Hirons, 1927-28, now a theater and stores) at the northwest corner of Eighth Avenue and 43rd Street; the Film Center Building (Ely Jacques Kahn, 1928-29, a designated Landmark Interior) at 630 Ninth Avenue; the Edison Hotel (Herbert J. Krapp, 1930-31) on West 47th Street; and the McGraw-Hill Building (Raymond Hood, 1930-31, a designated New York City Landmark), at 330 West 42nd Street.
In designing the Brill Building, Bark divided the Broadway and 49th Street facades into three distinct sections: a three-story base, a seven-story shaft, and penthouse. These elevations are faced with mainly white brick but the base, the central window bays, and the top story incorporate light-colored terra-cotta reliefs. This cast material was favored by early 20th-century architects as a less costly but attractive substitute for carved ornament. While some architects used it extensively, covering entire facades, as in the Woolworth Building (Cass Gilbert, 191013, a designated New York City Landmark), in most instances it was used selectively to enhance specific architectural features and to enrich setbacks on the upper floors. Though the source of this building’s terra cotta has yet to be identified, it may have been produced by the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company (active 1907-43), which supplied similar decorative reliefs to several contemporary buildings in Times Square.
This Brill Building has mostly conventional, one-over-one fenestration, but the three-story base is almost entirely glazed with a distinctive combination of gridded and fixed window panes.
The main entrance was positioned at the center of the Broadway facade, opening to a small foyer and a deep hallway that leads to an elevator lobby along the west side of the building. Though the width of the entrance is relatively narrow, Bark used eye-catching materials to highlight it. Three gleaming brass-finished doors are flanked by polished black granite piers, topped with brass cruciform details that extend up and slightly cover the base of the second-story windows. The elaborate door surround features a grid of windows that resembles a ziggurat. These windows illuminate the foyer and provide visual support for the niche that contains a bust. Set on a pedestal, flanked by elaborate scrollwork and ascending panels incorporating slim vertical reliefs, the brass sculpture sits in an elaborate faceted niche, crowned by a keystone. The John Hartell Company is likely to have been responsible for executing these dazzling features since it recently had collaborated with Bark on the Lefcourt-Colonial Building.
At the corner of each facade, above the storefronts, the outermost window bays are flanked by double-height pilasters. These flat, brown pilasters are crowned by square reliefs that suggest capitals, a device frequently used by contemporary architects. Between the second and third floors is a continuous band of polychrome (bluish gray and pink) terra-cotta reliefs. Aligned with each set of metal-framed windows, these panels are divided into three sections. The distinctive treatment of these floors suggests that the interior spaces were designed for a specific purpose. Not only would these decorative elements attract attention to the lower floors but the continuous fenestration permitted generous views south toward the heart of Times Square.
To gently lead the eye up both elevations, Bark used recessed terra-cotta panels above the three center window bays. These white panels contain foliate reliefs, crowned by a wave-like horizontal band that functions as a window sill. To cap the uppermost windows, a narrower panel was used. Less tall than the rest, it has clipped corners that when viewed together with the brick pilasters suggest curtains being pulled open. At this level, the architect also added six raised terra-cotta circles above the three side window bays. The 11th floor penthouse, recessed from 49th Street and disguised by a stepped gable, incorporates a large masonry or terra-cotta bust set into a niche, flanked by round arched windows. This massing is decorative – not only does it hide the penthouse but this feature recalls the developer’s original intent to construct a much taller structure since taller buildings were generally required to have setbacks.
Roof-top signs also contribute to the Brill Building’s character and its historic role in Times Square. Since as early as 1934, it has served as a platform for a steel framework that supports colorful illuminated signs. Long-term advertisers have included Camel cigarettes (1934) and Budweiser beer (c. 1958). Set atop the penthouse, at an angle to Broadway, these multi-story billboards face south and enjoy great visibility.
The Portrait Busts
Above the Broadway entrance, incorporated into the brass window surround, is a small niche displaying a bust. This sculpture, as well as the slightly larger masonry (possibly terra cotta) bust installed at the penthouse level, has frequently been interpreted as a portrait of Alan E. Lefcourt, for whom the building was originally named and who died two months before the architect filed plans with the Department of Buildings. In both busts, the subject is portrayed as dressed in a three-piece suit and tie. Whereas the head in the 11th-floor niche faces directly forward, the brass bust is turned slightly to the left.
Figurative sculptures, set into niches and roundels, were an important part of the ecclesiastical tradition in Europe, used on church facades to represent saints and occasionally religious patrons. In the late 19th century, terra-cotta sculptures of historical figures were sometimes used to decorate the exteriors of institutional structures, such as the six large portrait heads on the Brooklyn Historical Society (1878-81, part of the Brooklyn Heights Historic District) by Olin Levi Warner, and a series of portrait busts portraying figures from antiquity and physicians on the Deutsches (German) Dispensary (1883-84, a designated New York City Landmark), 137 Second Avenue, Manhattan.
In terms of commercial structures, the print dealer Frederick Keppel embellished the facade of 4 East 39th Street (George B. Post, 1904) with the “first permanent memorial” to the painter James McNeil Whistler,19 as well as a portrait of Rembrandt van Rijn, and above the entrance to the Gainsborough Studios (1907-8, a designated New York City Landmark), 222 Central Park South, is a bust of the 18th-century English portrait and landscape painter. In Times Square, at least two buildings display portraits connected to the performing arts: the elaborate north entrance to the Lyric Theater (Victor Hugo Koehler, 1903, now the Hilton Theater), 214 West 43rd Street, includes portraits of the light opera composer Reginald De Koven, for whom it was built, as well as Gilbert & Sullivan, and the south facade of the I. Miller Shoe Store (1926, a designated New York City Landmark) contains three full-length portraits, set into gilt niches.
Chosen by popular vote, these sculptures represent leading actresses in their most famous theatrical roles.
The busts on the Brill Building are especially unusual because of their personal nature. When former New York governor Samuel Tilden built his house on Gramercy Park (Vaux & Radford, 1881-84, a designated New York City Landmark), he decorated the lower facade with small brownstone portraits of his favorite authors. While caricatures of individuals are sometimes incorporated as building details, such as the architect, owner, and engineer flanking the elevators in the Woolworth Building, the central and conspicuous placement of the two busts on the Brill Building is notable. Born in 1912, Alan E. Lefcourt gained some notoriety at the age of twelve when his father, Abraham, gave him ownership of a $10 million office building, to be erected at the southwest corner of Madison Avenue and 34th Street. Abraham reportedly said that he wished to “inculcate in his son . . . a sense of thrift and responsibility.”
Alan, however, was unable to enjoy the financial returns anticipated by his father – a victim of anemia, he died in February 1930.
The only known contemporary account that mentions the brass bust appeared in November 1932, as part of Abraham Lefcourt’s New York Times obituary: “Alan died, he put up an eight-story building with his son’s bust over the entrance.”21 In 1990, David Dunlap speculated that the penthouse niche displays the “bust of the developer, Abraham E. Lefcourt.” More recently, in 1999, New York Times reporter Daniel B. Schneider wrote: “The subject of the two busts is uncertain . . . Evidence suggests that the one on the 11th floor is Abraham E. Lefcourt, the building’s developer, and that the other, is his son.”22 Such interpretations may be based on the fact that both died early, well before average age. While it seems likely that the brass portrait is, in fact, a memorial bust, the other bust was installed by September 1930 – more than two years before Abraham’s untimely death, suggesting that it, too, represents the son, or, perhaps, an idealized male tenant.
Music Tenants
A rental office opened in September 1930. With “new automatic-stop, high-speed elevators” and plans for a ground floor shopping lobby, early leases were reportedly signed with “public utility companies, law firms, certified public accountants and other professional interests.”23 Despite confident accounts in the press, a great many units remained vacant. Contemporary telephone directories list relatively few tenants and a 1934 photograph shows a two-story-high banner advertising “OFFICES” across windows along the east edge of the 49th Street facade. Furthermore, many windows were without shades or blinds, suggesting that considerable space remained available.24
The Brill Building was planned as “executive office space” with floors that could be subdivided.25 When this initial strategy failed, smaller spaces were created and leased – the kinds of offices that appeal to wide variety of businesses. It was under these circumstances that the popular music industry found a new base in New York City, from the last years of Tin Pan Alley to the dawn of rock and roll. Phone directories indicate there were approximately 100 entertainment-related tenants in 1940, and as many as 165 by 1962. These included an evolving roster of songwriters, music publishers, booking agents, vocal coaches, publicity agents, talent managers, and performers.
Early tenants tended to be music publishers, some with ties to Tin Pan Alley. They included the T. B. Harms Company,26 one of the earliest American firms to profit from the sale of sheet music to musical stage shows; Mills Music Inc.,27 headed by Jack and Irving Mills (aka Joe Primrose), a major independent publisher of sheet music and jazz recordings; Famous Music, established in 1928 by Famous-Lasky Pictures (later Paramount Pictures) to produce and publish songs from film musicals; Southern Music Company, founded by music scout and engineer Ralph S. Peer in 1928; Crawford Music Corporation (B. G. De Sylva, Lew Brown & Ray Henderson); and lyricist/composer Irving Caesar, one of the building’s longest tenants, who wrote more than 700 songs and continued to lease space until the 1970s.
According to the Times Square Alliance, of more than 1200 songs performed on the popular radio and television program Your Hit Parade (1935-58), 404 songs, about a third, originated with Brill Building tenants.29 Other 1930s tenants included numerous attorneys; Hyman Caplan, a boxing promoter; theater producer George Choos; as well as the management offices of the Ben Bernie, Earl J. Carpenter, and George Olsen orchestras.30
As the popularity of jazz and big bands grew in the late 1930s, many popular groups, some with ties to music publishers in the building, leased offices in the Brill Building, including Cab Calloway, Tommy Dorsey (aka the Embassy Music Corporation, 11th story penthouse), and Duke Ellington. Ben Barton, a former vaudevillian, founded the Barton Music Corporation in 1943. A close friend of Frank Sinatra, who performed with Dorsey’s orchestra in the early 1940s, Barton’s firm published and controlled much of the singer’s best-known compositions, as did a related tenant, Sinatra Songs, until the mid-1960s.31 Vocalists Nat King Cole and Louis Prima had offices here in the 1950s, as did the influential radio disk jockey Alan Freed, Roost (later Roulette) Records, the music publishing companies Charles K. Harris and Harry von Tilzer, and the celebrated songwriting team of (Johnny) Burke & (Jimmy) Van Heusen.
The heyday of the Brill Building was during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Not only were there more music-related tenants here than at any other time, but these tenants helped make rock and roll music part of the American mainstream. Music historian Ian Inglis wrote: “it is one of the few buildings whose name many readily evoke a particular period or circumstance – along with, for example, the Cavern, Graceland, Studio 54, and Harlem’s Apollo Theater” (1913-14, a designated New York City Landmark and Interior). Though not every artist, songwriter, and producer associated with the building, particularly Aldon Music, actually leased offices here, a remarkable number did. In his 2003 essay on the building’s legacy, Inglis summarized:
Stylistically, its innovations can be credited with much of the responsibility for the increased presence of women as performers and producers of popular music, and for the development of the singer-songwriter. Industrially, its working practices and policies informed many of the changing emphases – and responses to them – characterizing the organization and implementation of the commercial operations of popular music. Creatively, it has been seen as a major source of inspiration for performers and musicians within a variety of popular music genres.34
One of the most significant tenants during this period was Hill & Range Songs, founded by Jean and Julien Aberbach in 1948. Located in the 11th-story penthouse, this publishing company had numerous subsidiaries, including Big Top, Rumbalero and Gladys Music. Among the talented songwriters on their staff were (Jerry) Leiber & (Mike) Stoller, who wrote numerous hit songs for Elvis Presley and other artists, as well as the songwriting team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman – all members of the Rock and Roll and Songwriters Hall of Fame.35 Red Bird Records, specializing in “girl groups,” was founded by Leiber & Stoller and was based on the ninth floor during the mid-1960s. Other memorable songwriting tenants included the team of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, who were associated with Red Bird and other recording labels.
Composer Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David met at Famous Music in 1957 and together would write more than one hundred songs for films and Broadway productions, as well as the singers Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick, and Tom Jones. David recalled:
The preponderance of songwriters were in the Brill Building, the energy was in the Brill Building, the publishers were there, and if you had to be someplace else, you always wound up back at the Brill sometime during the day.
[he and Bacharach] started out in New York and met almost every day in the Brill building for about 17 years . . . It was still filled with music publishers when we were there. We wrote in the same little room with an upright piano. Eventually, we moved back and forth between New York and Los Angeles.39
Starting the late 1960s and 1970s, the number of tenants in the entertainment industry began to decline – many moved to Los Angeles – with only a fraction remaining today.40 They include: Charing Cross Music, Paul Simon Music; Sound One, an audio post-production facility; KMA Music, a recording studio; Saint Nicholas Music, founded by songwriter Johnny Marks in 1949 and specializing in popular holiday songs; and Broadway Video, an entertainment company and film distributor founded in 1979 by television/film producer Lorne Michaels.
Commercial Tenants
The base was planned for retail use, with street level shops and related tenants on the second and third floors. One of the first businesses to sign a lease was Joseph Hilton & Sons, a chain of men’s clothing stores. To be located at the corner of 49th Street, the New York Times reported: “This lease, one of the largest that has been closed for many months in the Times Square district” was valued at almost $1 million.41
Hilton & Sons, however, never moved into the building and this space became part of a much larger store operated by Brill Brothers, the property’s lessee. Their clothing store opened in August 1932, with ample display windows, shaded by retractable awnings, extending along both Broadway and 49th Street. On opening day, an advertisement boasted that it was:
Distinctively a “man’s store” . . . a shopping place all his own . . . in all New York there are few men’s stores so fine . . . so modern . . . so satisfying. Men who know you, and know what you want will make you feel “at home” as soon as you enter. May we have the pleasure of showing you around? 42
During the 1930s, the company had as many as four branches, with stores at 49 Cortlandt Street, Seventh Avenue and 35th Street, and 41st Street, near Madison Avenue. Max D. Brill (18661938) retired in 1930 and Samuel Brill (b. 1859) died in 1931, leaving Maurice Brill (18691951) as head of the business. Brill Brothers closed in spring 1940 and the corner space was leased to the Turf Restaurant.43
Because of the proximity to Times Square and the second location of Madison Square Garden (Eighth Avenue and 50th Street, demolished), many of the new tenants were involved in the entertainment industry. Though the ground floor was planned for stores, the earliest tenant to open was actually a pair of movie theaters operated by the Trans-Lux Movies Corporation. Located to the right of the Broadway entrance, the New York Times said it was:
Constructed in modern style, with a silver and black design, the two houses have
turnstiles instead of doormen, daylight projection, and other innovations.
The Trans-Lux opened in May 1931, with one screen devoted to short features and the other to sound newsreels. To celebrate the opening, U.S. President Herbert Hoover wired Courtland Smith, the sponsor:
I extend congratulations on the opening of your New York theatres. The showing of new pictures throughout the country cannot but be educational and instructive. The bringing of world events into the lives of great numbers of our people will serve to promote better understanding and closer world relations.45
In late 1937 the theaters closed and the space was leased to Jack Dempsey.46 It was one of several businesses owned by the famed prize fighter, who held the world’s heavyweight title from 1919 to 1926. With a streamlined storefront and interior, napkins described the “Broadway Bar and Cocktail Lounge” as “The Meeting Place of the World.”47 Dempsey remained a prominent celebrity and the restaurant attracted both fans and musicians. It stayed at this location until 1974, when it closed following a dispute with the building’s new owner. At this time, the New York Times described it as “one of the last survivors of the Damon Runyon era of Broadway.”48
In 1940, the large corner space became the Turf Restaurant, operated by Jack Joseph Amiel and Arnold Ruben. One location in a small chain, it gained particular notoriety in 1951 when Amiel’s horse, Count Turf, won the Kentucky Derby. The restaurant specialized in lobster and steak (often called Surf and Turf), as well as cheesecake. Amiel, who later became a part owner of Jack Dempsey’s, sold his interest in 1957 and the Turf closed in 1963. Popular with songwriters and musicians, Duke Ellington was a frequent customer at the Turf and aspiring actor Sidney Poitier worked as a dishwasher – his first job in New York City – during 1943.
Since about 1974 the corner storefront has been leased to Colony Records, also known as the Colony Record Center. Founded by Harold S. (Nappy) Grossbardt and Sidney Turk by 1948, the store was formerly located at Broadway and 52nd Street, where it developed a reputation as a gathering place for musicians. In recent decades, Colony has specialized in vintage records, sheet music, karaoke software, and souvenirs devoted to the theater district.
Nightclubs
The vast second floor was initially leased to the Paradise, a popular cabaret. Reached by stairs, located directly left of the Broadway entrance, it covered approximately 15,000 square feet and held as many as a thousand people. Planned by the celebrated architect and interior designer Joseph Urban, the cost of construction was estimated at $500,000.49 Large signs, obscuring the second-floor windows and projecting at an angle over the corner, claimed it was “America’s foremost restaurant” with the “world’s most beautiful girls.” Floorshows, sometimes called “Paradise Parades,” were accompanied by such well-known performers as the Paul Whiteman Orchestra and Glenn Miller.50
During the 1940s, this space housed a succession of clubs associated with the growing popularity of jazz. Some Harlem nightspots opened midtown locations, offering big band music and later bebop. The Paradise closed in late 1939 or 1940 and became the Hurricane, with “palm trees, tropical flora and fauna” evoking the Pacific Ocean island of Tahiti.51 Operated briefly by lawyer David J. Wolper, who reportedly received ownership as part of a 1942 financial settlement with a gangster, it had a troubled existence, marred by suspicious fires and “stench bombs.”52 Duke Ellington headlined at the Hurricane during 1943 and 1944 and some of these performances were aired nationally on the Mutual and Columbia Broadcasting Systems.
Club (Café) Zanzibar occupied the second floor from approximately 1944 to 1948. Ellington frequently performed here, as well, as did the Nat King Cole Trio, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, the Ink Spots, and Louis Jordan.53 In 1949 it became Bop City, managed by Ralph Watkins, formerly of the Royal Roost, a legendary jazz venue. He told the United Press that his staff would dress in “bop fashion,” wearing berets and polka-dot ties and that “some will sport goatees, which are popular among bop players.”54 It debuted with Artie Shaw and Ella Fitzgerald on April 14, 1949; subsequent headliners included Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra, and Sarah Vaughan. The club also maintained an enlightened policy of hiring “mixed waiters,” meaning waiters of different races.55 Despite presenting celebrated performers, Bop City struggled to find a consistent audience and closed in 1950 or 1951. In subsequent years, it functioned as the Avalon Ballroom, closing around 1966.
Later History
The Ruspyn Corporation sold the building to the Inch Corporation, later known as Breecom, in 1966.56 Allan Rose’s AVR Realty Company sold it to Murray Hill Properties and Westbrook Partners in 2007, who sold the property to Stonehenge Partners, Inc. (with INVESCO Real Estate of Dallas, Texas) in November 2007.
The Brill Building has been featured in a handful of feature films, including The House on 92nd Street (1945) and the Sweet Smell of Success (1957), in which the gilt lobby appears, as well as in several Woody Allen productions: Broadway Danny Rose (1984), Hollywood Ending (2002), and Anything Else (2003).57
Description
The 11-story Brill Building, 1619 Broadway, is located at the northwest corner of Broadway and West 49th Street. On Broadway, the facade is divided into three sections: a three-story base, a seven-story shaft, and a single-story penthouse. The main entrance is located at the center of the ground story. Flanked by polished black granite piers, capped with elaborate brass metal work, the entrance features three brass doors with glass panels and handles on the left, surmounted by a sign for the building in capital letters set against a black background, gridded glass windows configured like a ziggurat, and a richly-decorated niche for the bust of the developer’s son set on a pedestal. The stores, located on either side of the Broadway entrance, have non-historic display windows and non-historic illuminated signage. The south storefront has a corner entrance, opening onto both Broadway and 49th Street. Established by 1964, this angled configuration incorporates cast-concrete piers.
The second and third stories have large windows flanked by pairs of masonry piers at either end. Each pier, as well as the simple cornice that extends above the third-story windows is tinted brown, suggesting the use of a non-historic coating. The second floor windows are slightly taller than the third story. Between the floors are pink, yellow, and blue terra-cotta reliefs. Each window bay is divided into three sections. The wide center section contains a single fixed panel above a multi-pane sash. The vertical side windows are arranged in six-over-six or nine-overnine grids. The northernmost window on the second floor has been replaced by a non-historic, tripartite ventilation grille, with horizontal metal louvers. On the third floor, the third window bay from the corner of 49th Street has been altered by the replacement of the center fixed-panel and-sash with horizontal metal louvers.
The fourth through the eleventh floors are faced with white brick. There are nine pairs of one-over-one windows across each floor, flanked by continuous piers. The three pairs of windows at the center of the facade are crowned by white foliate terra-cotta reliefs that incorporate a sill on top. Above the tenth floor, these terra-cotta reliefs have no sill and feature concave corners. In contrast, the three pairs of side windows display no ornamentation other than small circular reliefs above the tenth story. The top of the stepped penthouse level is trimmed with thin bands of terra-cotta relief. At center is an elaborate faceted niche, trimmed with terra cotta, that displays a possibly limestone bust on a projecting pedestal. To either side are small arched windows, with stone or terra-cotta sills.
The West 49th Street facade faces south. The base and upper floors are similar to the Broadway facade, with identical white brick and terra-cotta embellishments. The west end of the ground story, which incorporates a secondary entrance and loading area, is non-historic. Above the tenth story are small circular reliefs, as well as a raised parapet at center. Near or at the west end of the 2nd, 5th, and 8th floors, the windows have been replaced with metal ventilation grilles.
The south end of the west (rear) facade is visible from 49th Street. Here, due to the curved east corner of the tan brick Ambassador Theater (1919-21), two rows of windows can be seen, as well as a blank brick wall that steps up toward the center of the building, and a single metal pipe on the roof. Two windows on the eighth floor contain ventilation grilles.
The north facade is simply treated and partly visible from Broadway and 50th Street, where the upper floors can be seen above the adjoining building, as well as part of the west (rear) facade, including an engaged structure with a single window, possibly containing stairs. To the south, at the rear of the 11th story penthouse, are two additional floors. The east and north-facing facades contain simple windows with industrial sash. The rest of the north facade (fifth to tenth floor) incorporates four sets of windows; the outer sets are grouped in pairs, the inner two sets, in groups of three. At the center of this facade is a projecting rectangular chimney shaft. Between the west pair of windows, a single metal pipe extends the full height of the façade. Most are three-over-three industrial sash, except where projecting metal ventilation ducts have been installed. On the lower floors, beside the roof of the adjoining building, the windows have vertical security bars.
Air conditioning units have been installed in a small number of windows, as well as some horizontal ventilation grilles. Two electric lights are attached to the center of the facade, below the seventh floor, directed down onto the adjoining roof. On the roof, set at a slight angle to Broadway, is a metal framework that displays two illuminated non-historic signs facing north and south.
- From the 2010 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
I have been to Throwley on at least three previous occasions, the fourth was going to be during Ride and Stride in September, but another crawler told me it had failed to open as per the list.
St Michael and All Angles is a large and from the outside and interesting looking church, looked like it had a story to tell. So, last week, I contacted the wardens through the CofE A church Near You website, I got a reply and a date and time agreed for Saturday morning.
We arrived 15 minutes early, and it was as locked as ever, but on a fine if frosty morning took the time to study the church ad churchyard, and saw yet more fine details we had missed previously.
Dead on time the warden arrived, and was very welcoming indeed. They loved to have visitors she said. Now I know how to contact them, I can see that.
She was clearly proud of the church, and rightly so, most impressive was the south chapel with a pair of kneeling couples on top of chest tombs, staring at each other for all eternity.
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St Michael & All Angels is the parish church of Throwley. The first church on the site was probably built between 800 and 825. This would have been a small wooden structure, barely distinguishable from a farm building.
After the Norman Conquest in 1066 this was replaced by a Romanesque stone structure.
This was still small, but as the population of the parish increased the church was enlarged, until in about 1510 it reached its present size. Since then its appearance has changed little, although an extra storey was added to the tower - now far seen - in the 1860s.
The church has an elaborate Romanesque west entrance; its east window in the chancel, by Curtis, Ward & Hughes of Soho, London, is a memorial to Throwley men who gave their lives in the First World War.
In the Harris chapel is the church's newest stained-glass window, commemorating Dorothy Lady Harris who died in 1981. It was designed and executed in the Canterbury Cathedral Workshops by Frederick Cole (see pictures on left).
The church has more than its fair share of fine 16th to 19th century monuments, mainly to members of the local Sondes and Harris families, and these are all described.
www.faversham.org/community/churches/throwley.aspx
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TQ 95 NE THROWLEY THROWLEY
ROAD
(west side)
4/181
Church of
St. Michael
and All
24.1.67 Angels
GV I
Parish Church. C12, C13 north chapel, C14 south chapel, C15
nave arcades, restored 1866 and tower heightened. Flint and
plain tiled roofs. Chancel, north and south chapels, nave and
aisles, south tower and south porch. West doorway, C12, with
attached shafts and 3 orders, the outer panelled with X's on
circles, the centre roll moulded with the blocks offset and
alternately projecting, the inner with more X's on circles,
with 2 offset buttresses either side of doorway. South aisle
with plinth, string course and parapet, 3 offset buttresses and
C15 Perpendicular windows. South tower of 2 stages with square
south-eastern stair turret and C16 moulded brick surround
sundial. Water spouts on each corner in the 4 Evangelical
symbols. Half-timbered C19 south porch, south doorway with
rolled and double hollow chamfered surround, and outer surround
with label and quatrefoil spandrels. North aisle under 1 roof
with nave, with C15 fenestration, and C19 chimney to north west.
North and south chapels with C14 cusped 'Y' tracery fenestration,
with hollow chamfered and ogee drip moulds. Chancel east
window C19 curvilinear style. Interior: 2 bay nave arcades,
double hollow chamfered arches on octagonal piers. C12 single
arches to north and south eastern bay, that to south recessed
and double chamfered through tower wall. Barrel roof.
Chamfered arch on corbels from south aisle to tower, itself
with corbel table on south wall, and triple arch through to south
chapel C19 chancel arch. Chancel with 2 bay double chamfered
arcade to north chapel with octagonal capitals on round piers, and
single double chamfered arch on round responds to south chapel.
Fittings: hollow chamfered piscina and sedile in window reveal in
chancel and cusped recess in north wall. C19 reredos and altar
rail. Cusped piscina and four centred arched wall recess in
south chapel. Choir stalls, some C19, the four on the south C15
with carved misericords. Monuments: south chapel C16 chest tomb,
with shields in panelled sides, moulded plinth, lozenge-shaped
flowers, fluting and frieze. Chest tomb, Sir George Sondes,
Earl of Faversham, d.1677. Black marble with blank panelled sides.
Inscription on the top panel (made 1728). Standing monument,
Sir Thomas Sondes, died 1592. Marble tomb chest, gadrooned with
achievements on side panels. Kneeling alabaster figures of
knight and his Lady on opposite sides of central prayer desk,
carrying inscription. Mary Sondes, died 1603. Smaller and
identical to Sir Thomas Sonde's monument, with 2 adults and 2
infant sons and daughters on either side of sarcophagus. Misplaced
scrolled and enriched carved achievement on floor to east of
those monuments. Wall plaque, Captain Thomas Sondes, died 1668.
Black and white marble, with draped apron, swagged and draped
sides with military trophies. Broken segmental pediment with male
bust. Signed W.S. (B.0.E. Kent II, p.477 suggests William Stanton).
North chapel C16 chest tomb, moulded plinth, panelled sides with
shields (1 panel reset in south chapel south wall). Early C16
tomb recess with moulded jambs, with rope work, crenellated,
with late Perpendicular motifs in spandrels, and tomb with 3
panelled recesses with 2 shields on each panel. Wall plaque,
Charles Harris, d.1814, by Flaxman. White plaque on white
background; dead soldier lifted from the grave by Victory, with
palms and cannon in background. Statue, to George, first Lord
Harris, life size soldier with sword and plans, on four foot
plinth. By George Rennie, 1835. Nave, wall plaque, Stephen
Bunce, d.1634. Black plaque on coved base and apron. Foliated
sides. Scrolled nowy cornice and pediment with achievement.
(See B.O.E. Kent II, 1983, 476-7.)
Listing NGR: TQ9883454254
www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-176587-church-of-st-m...
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LIES the next parish north-eastward from Stalisfield. It is called in the record of Domesday, Trevelei, in later records Truley and Thruley, in Latin ones Trulega and Truilla; it is now written both Throwley and Throwleigh.
THROWLEY is mostly situated on high ground, it is a more pleasant and open country than that last described, for though wild and romantic among the hills and woods, it is not so dreary and forlorn, nor the soil so uncomfortable, being much drier. Besides it has a more chearful and brighter aspect from the width of the principal valley which leads through it, from north to south, whence the hills rise on each side, with smaller delves interspersed among them. There is a good deal of wood-ground, mostly of beech, interspersed at places with oak and hazel, with some good timber trees of oak among them, especially in the northern and southern parts; much of the former belongs to the dean and chapter of Canterbury. The soil is mostly chalk, the rest a heavy tillage land of red cludy earth, the whole mixed with quantities of flint stones. There are some level lands, especially in the disparked grounds of Throwley park, which are tolerably good, much more so than those in the other parts of the parish; on the east side of the park are the foundations of the antient seat of the Sondes's, with the church close to them, the whole lying on high ground, with a good prospect of the surrounding country; not far from it is Town place, now only a farm-house. There is no village, excepting the few houses in Abraham-street may be so called, the rest of the houses, which are mostly cottages, standing dispersed throughout it, either single, or built round the little greens or softalls, of which there are several in different parts of the parish. On a larger one of these called Wilgate-green, there is a house belonging to the estate of Mr. Philerenis Willis's heirs, and another larger antient one, which with the estate belonging to it, was formerly the property of the Chapmans, and sold by them to Christopher Vane, lord Barnard, in 1789, gave it, with his other estates in this county, to David Papillon, esq. of Acrise, the present owner of it. (fn. 1)
There was a family named Wolgate, from whose residence here this green seems to have taken its name of Wolgate, or Wilgate-green. After they had remained here for some generations they ended in a daughter, for Mr. Ralph Wolgate dying in 1642, his daughter Anne married Mr. William Genery, and entitled him to her father's possessions here, at Posiers, in Borden, and other parts of this county. The Woodwards seem afterwards to have possessed their estate here, several of whom lie buried under a tomb in Throwley church-yard.
About half a mile distant south-westward from Wilgate-green, in Abraham-street, there is a seat, called, from its high situation and expensive prospect, BELMONT; it was built in the year 1769, by Edward Wilks, esq. storekeeper of the royal powdermills at Faversham, who inclosed a paddock or shrubbery round it, and occasionally resided here, till he alienated it in 1779 to John Montresor, esq. the present proprietor, who resides in it.
THE BEECH TREE flourishes in the greatest plenty, as well single to a large size, as in stubs in the coppice woods, which consist mostly of them, as well in these parts as they do in general on the range of chalk hills throughout this county, in some places extending two or three miles in width, and in others much more. The large tracts of ground in this and other counties, overspread with the beech-tree, the random situation of their stubs, and other circumstances which occur in viewing them, are strong proofs of their being the indigenous growth of this island, notwithstanding Cæfar's premptory assertion, in his Commentaries, of there being none here in this time. The Britons, he says, had every material for use and building, the same as the Gauls, excepting the fir and the beech. The former there is positive proof of his being grossly mistaken in, which will in some measure destroy that implicit credit we might otherwise give to his authority, as to the latter; indeed, the continued opposition he met with from the Britons, during his short stay here, assorded him hardly a possibility of seeing any other parts of this country than those near which he landed, and in the direct track through which he marched to wards Coway-stakes; too small a space for him to form any assertion of the general products of a whole country, or even of the neighbouring parts to him. Of those he passed through, the soil was not adapted to the growth of the beech tree; from which we may with great probability suppose, there were none growing on them, nor are there any throughout them, even at this time, a circumstance which most likely induced him to suppose, and afterwards to make the assertion beforementioned.
The slints, with which the cold unfertile lands in these parts, as well as some others in this county, are covered, have been found to be of great use in the bringing forward the crops on them, either by their warmth, or somewhat equivalent to it. Heretofore the occupiers of these lands were anxious to have them picked up and carried off from their grounds, but experiencing the disadvantage of it in the failure of their crops, they, never practice it themselves, and submit to the surveyors of the highways taking them off with great reluctance.
In the parish there are quantities of the great whitish ash coloured shell snail, which are of an unusual large size; they are found likewise near Darking, in Surry, and between Puckeridge and Ware, in Hertsordshire. They are not originally of this island, but have been brought from abroad, many of them are at this time observed in different parts of Italy.
MR. JACOB, in this Plantœ Favershamienses, has enumerated several scare plants observed by him in this parish, besides which, that scarce one, the Orchis myodes, or fly satrition, has been found here, growing on the side of the path, in a small wood, midway between the church and Wilgate green.
THIS PLACE, at the taking of the general survey of Domesday, about the 15th years of the Conqueror's reign, was part of the possessions of Odo, bishop of Baieux, and earl of Kent, the king's half brother, under the general title of whose lands it is thus described in it:
Hersrid holds Trevelai. It was taxed at three sulings. The arable land is eight carucates. In demesne there is one, and twenty-four villeins, with five borderers having six carucates and an half. There is a church, and five servants. Wood for the pannage of twenty bogs, and in the city three houses of thirty-two pence. In the time of king Edward the Conssessor it was worth seven pounds, and afterwards six pounds. Ulnod held it of king Edward.
On the bishop of Baieux's disgrace, about four years afterwards, this among his other estates, became consiscated to the crown.
After which it was held of the king in capite, by barony, by Jeffry de Peverel, and together with other lands made up the barony of Peverel, as it was called, being assigned to him for the defence of Dover-castle, for which purpose he was bound to maintain a certain number of soldiers from time to time for the desence of it, and to repair and defend at this own charge a particular tower or turret there, called afterwards Turris Gattoniana, or Gatton's tower.
In the reign of king Henry III. Robert de Gatton, who took his name from the lordship of Gatton, in Surry, of which his ancestors had been some time owners, was in possession of the manor Thrule, and died in the 38th year of that reign, holding it by knight's service of the king, of the honor of Peverel, by reason of the escheat of that honor, &c. (fn. 2) He was succeded in it by this eldest son Hamo de Gatton, who resided here, and served the office of sheriff in the 14th year of Edward I. His eldest son of the same name left one son Edmund, then an instant, who afterwards dying under age, his two sisters became his coheirs, and divided his inheritance, of which Elizabeth entitled her husband William de Dene to this manor, and all the rest of the estates in Kent; and Margery entitled her husband Simon de Norwood to Gatton, and all the other estates in Surry.
William de Dene had a charter of free warren for his lands in Thurley, in the 10th year of Edward II. He died anno 15 Edward III. then holding this manor by the law of England, as of the inheritance of Elizabeth his late wife deceased, of the king in capite, as of the castle of Dover, by knight's service, and paying to the ward of that castle. His son Thomas de Dene died possessed of it in the 23d year of that reign, leaving four daughters his coheirs, of whom Benedicta, the eldest, married John de Shelving, and entitled him to this manor, on whose death likewise without male issue, his two daughters became his coheirs, of whom, Joane married John Brampton, alias Detling, of Detlingcourt, and Ellen married John de Bourne, the former of whom, in his wife's right, became possessed of this manor. He lest only one daughter Benedicta his heir, who carried it in marriage to Thomas at Town, who was possessed of much land about Charing, and bore for his arms, Argent, on a chevron, sable, three crosscrostess, ermine, which coat is in the windows of Kennington church, impaled with Ellis, of that place. He removed hither in the reign of Henry VI. and built a feat for his residence in this parish, about a quarter of a mile from the church, which he named, from himself, Town-place, soon after which he died, leaving his possessions to his three daughters and coheirs, of whom Eleanor was married to Richard Lewknor, of Challock; Bennet to William Watton, of Addington, and Elizabeth to William Sondes, of this parish and of Lingfield, in Surry, in which county his ancestors had been seated as early as the reign of Henry III. at Darking, where their seat was named, from them, Sondes-place. (fn. 3) Upon the division of their inheritance, the manor of Throwley was allotted to William Sondes, and Town-place, with the lands belonging to it in Throwley, to Richard Lewknor, who sold it to Edward Evering, the eldest son of Nicholas, third son of John Evering, of Evering, in Alkham, and his daughter and heir Mary marrying in 1565, with John Upton, of Faversham, entitled him to this estate, which he very soon afterwards alienated to Shilling, from whom it as quickly afterwards passed by sale to Anthony Sondes, esq. of this parish, whose ancestor William Sondes, on the division of the inheritance of the daughters and coheirs of Thomas at Town as before mentioned, had become possessed of the manor of Throwley, and the antient mansion of it, in which he afterwards resided, and dying in 1474, anno 15 Edward IV. was buried in the north chapel of this church, though he ordered by his will a memorial for himself to be put up in the church of Lingfield. The family of Sondes bore for their arms, Argent, three blackmores heads, couped, between two chevronels, sable, which, with the several quarterings borne by them, are painted on their monuments in this church.
His descendant, Anthony Sondes, esq. of Throwley, in the 31st year of Henry VIII. procured his lands in this county to be disgavelled, by the act then passed, and died in 1575, having married Joane, daughter of Sir John Fineux, chief justice of the king's bench, by whom he had two sons, Thomas and Michael, and two daughters.
He was succeeded by his eldest son Sir Thomas Sondes, sheriff anno 22 Elizabeth, who founded the school in this parish. He died in 1592, leaving issue only by his second wife, one daughter Frances, married to Sir John Leveson, so that on his death without male issue, his only brother Sir Michael Sondes, of Eastry, succeeded to this manor and seat of his ancestors, in which he afterwards resided. He was sheriff in the 26th year of queen Elizabeth's reign, and died in the 16th year of king James I. having had by his first wife Mary, only daughter and heir of George Fynch, esq. of Norton, six sons and six daughters.
Sir Richard Sondes, the eldest son, resided at Throwley, where he died in the 8th year of Charles I. having had by his two wives a numerous issue, of both sons and daughters. He was succeeded in this manor and seat, with the rest of his estates, by his eldest son Sir George Sondes, who was made a knight of the Bath at the coronation of king Charles I. soon after which he began to rebuild his seat of Lees-court, in Sheldwich, and fixed his residence there, under the description of which a more particular account of him and his descendants may be seen. Not long after which this seat was entirely pulled down, and the park adjoining to it disparked. The foundations of the former still remain, and the disparked lands still retain the name of Throwley park.
Sir George Sondes was afterwards created Earl of Faversham, Viscount Sondes, of Lees court, and Baron of Throwley, whose two daughters became his coheirs; Mary was married to Lewis, lord Duras, marquis of Blanquefort, and afterwards earl of Faversham, and Katherine to Lewis Watson, esq. afterwards earl of Rockingham, who each successively, in right of their respective wives, inherited this manor and estate, which has since descended in like manner as Lees-court, in Sheldwich, to the right hon. Lewis-Thomas, lord Sondes, and he is the present possessor of this manor, with Town-place and the estate belonging to it. Acourt baron is held for this manor.
The denne of Toppenden, alias Tappenden, in Smarden, in the Weald, is an appendage to the manor of Throwley, and is held of it.
WILDERTON, alias Wolderton, called also in antient deeds Wilrinton, is a manor in this parish, which was once part of the possessions of the eminent family of Badlesmere, of which Bartholomew de Badlesmere was possessed of it in the reign of Edward II. of whom, for his services in the Scottish wars, he obtained in the 9th year of it many liberties and franchises for his different manors and estates, among which was that of free-warren in the demesne lands of this manor of Wolrington. (fn. 4) Having afterwards associated himself with the discontented barons, he was taken prisoner, and executed in the 16th year of that reign. By the inquisition taken after his death, which was not till anno 2 Edward III. at which time both the process and judgement against him was reversed, it was found that he died possessed of this manor, among others, which were then restored to his son Giles de Badlesmere, who died in the 12th year of Edward III. s. p. being then possessed of this manor. Upon which his four sisters became his comanor fell to the share of Margery, wife of William, manor fell to the share of Margery, wife of William, lord Roos, of Hamlake, who survived her husband, and died in the 37th year of Edward III. possessed of it, as did her grandson John, lord Roos, in the 9th year of Henry V. leaving no issue by Margaret his wife, who survived him, and had this manor assigned to her as part of her dower. She afterwards married Roger Wentworth, esq. whom she likewise survived, and died anno 18 Edward IV.
On the death of John, lord Roos, her first husband, s. p. the reversion of this manor, after her death, became vested in Thomas his next surviving brother and heir, whose son Thomas afterwards became a firm friend to the house of Lancaster, for which he was attainted anno 1 Edward IV. and his lands were consiscated to the crown.
On the death of Margaret, the widow of Roger Wentworth, esq. the manor of Wulrington, but whether by grant or purchase, I have not found, came into the possession of Richard Lewknor, of Challock, owner likewise of Town-place, as before-mentioned, who sold it to Edward Evering, already mentioned before, whose daughter and heir Mary marrying in 1565 with Mr. John Upton, of Faversham, entitled him to it. He joined with his brother Nicholas Upton, in 1583, in the sale of the manor-house, with all the demesne lands belonging to it, excepting one small piece called the manor-croft, and a moiety of the ma nor, which, from its situation, from that time was known by the name of NORTH-WILDERTON, to Anthony Terry, of North Wilderton, yeoman, upon whose death it came to his four sons, Arnold, William, Thomas, and George Terry, who in 1601 made a partition of their father's estates, in which this manor was allotted to Arnold Terry, and William his brother, from whom it descended to Anthony Terry, of Ospringe, who in 1689 sold it to Mr. Thomas Knowler, of Faversham, who devised it to his sister Abigail for her life, and after her death to John Knowler, gent. of Ospringe, in fee. She afterwards married John Bates, and they, together with John Knowler above-mentioned, about the year 1694, joined in the sale of it to Mr. Edward Baldock, of Aylesford, and Bennet his wife. He survived her, and by deed of gift in 1717, vested the fee of it in his son Edward Baldock, who passed it away to Mr. Thomas Greenstreet, of Norton, whose niece Elizabeth marrying with Mr. Thomas Smith, of Gillingham, entitled him to this manor, which has been since sold to John Montresor, esq. of Belmont, in this parish, the present owner of it. A court baron is held for this manor.
There was antiently a chapel at this manor of Wilrintune, as appears by a charter, dated anno 1217, lately in the treasury of St. Bertin's monastery at St. Omers, concerning the privilege of a bell to it.
BUT THE REMAINING MOIETY of the manor, with a small crost called the manor-croft, lying at the west end of Hockstet green, remained with John Upton, and thenceforward acquired the name of SOUTH, alias GREAT WILDERTON. After whose death it came to his eldest son John Upton, who died possessed of it in 1635, and was buried with his ancestors in Faversham church. They bore for their arms, Quarterly, sable, and or; in the first and fourth quarters, a cross flory, argent, each charged with a trefoil, azure. (fn. 5)
John Upton, his eldest son, inherited this manor, and at his death in 1664, by his will gave it to his daughter Anne, wife of Charles Castle, gent. who in 1688 devised it to her brother-in-law George Naylor, and George White, the former of whom becoming solely possessed of it, in 1705 devised it to his nephew Mr. John Dalton, gent. of St. Edmundsbury, for his life, and afterwards to his son Thomas Dalton, and his issue, in consequence of which it descended to Benjamin Shuckforth, of Diss, in Norfolk, who in 1741 sold it to Mr. Giles Hilton, of Lords, in Sheldwich, on whose death it descended to his three sons, John, William, and Robert Hilton, the youngest of whom, Mr. Robert Hilton, as well as by the devise of his two elder brothers, afterwards became the sole proprietor of this manor. He died in 1782, and his son Mr. John Hilton, of Sheldwich, as next in the entail, succeeded to it, and is the present possessor of it.
IN THE REIGN of king Stephen there was AN ALIEN PRIORY established in this parish, as a cell to the Benedictine abbey of St. Bertin, at St. Omers, the capital of Artois, in Flanders, William de Ipre, in 1153, having given this church, with that of Chilham, to it for that purpose; which gift was confirmed by king Stephen the same year, as it was by the several archbishops afterwards, and by the charters of Henry II. and III. The charter of this gift was till lately in the treasury of the monastery of St. Bertin, as were all the others hereafter mentioned relating to this church and priory.
There are very few formal foundations of these cells, the lands of them being usually granted to some monastery abroad, as an increase to their revenues, after which, upon some part of them they built convenient houses, for the reception of a small convent. Some of these cells were made conventual, having a certain number of monks, who were mostly foreigners, and removeable at pleasure, sent over with a prior at their head, who were little more than stewards to the superior abbey, to which they returned the revenues of their possessions annually; others were permitted to chuse their own prior, and these were entire societies within themselves, and received their revenues for their own use and benefit, paying perhaps only a yearly pension as an acknowledgement of their subjection, or what was at first the surplusage to the foreign house.
The cell at Throwley was of the former sort, for which reason, during the wars between England and France, as their revenues went to support the king's enemies, these kind of houses were generally seized on by the king, and restored again upon the return of a peace. (fn. 6)
In the 25th year of king Edward I. Peter, prior of Triwle, as it was spelt in the record, made fine to the king at Westminster, and had a privy seal for his protection, by which he had the custody of his house and possessions committed to his care, to retain them during the king's pleasure, answering to his exchequer for the profits of them, according to the directions of him and his council.
The scite of this priory was that of the parsonage of the church of Throwley, which, with that of Chilham, seems to have been all their possessions in this kingdom. These were valued in the 8th year of king Richard II. anno 1384, each at forty pounds annually, and their temporalities at 20s. 6d. at which time the parsonage of Throwley was become appropriated to this cell, and a vicarage was endowed in it. In which situation this priory remained till the general suppression of the alien priories throughout England, in the 2d year of Henry V. anno 1414, which was enacted in the parliament then held at Leicester, and all their houses, revenues, &c. were given to the king and his heirs for ever. (fn. 7)
This priory, with its possessions, seems to have remained in the hands of the crown till Henry VI. in his 22d year, settled them on the monastery of Sion, in Middlesex, founded by his father Henry V. with which they continued till the general suppression of religious houses, this being one of those greater monasteries dissolved by the act of the 31st year of king Henry VIII. How this priory was disposed of afterwards by the crown, may be further seen hereafter, under the description of the parsonage of the church of Throwley.
The only remains left of this priory are some few foundations, and two walls of flint, which support a building, standing behind the parsonage-house and garden.
THERE IS A FREE SCHOOL in this parish, the house of which is situated adjoining to the church-yard, which was founded by Sir Thomas Sondes, who died in 1592, who by his will devised a house and six poundes per annum to the master of it, to dwell in, and as a recompence for his pains; but having charged his executors and not his heirs to the fulfilling of this bequest, and charged the payment of the above sum, among other charitable legacies, on several leasehold estates, the terms of which expired in his nephew Sir Richard Sondes's time, and the house having tumbled down for want of repairs, Sir George Sondes, son of Sir Richard above-mentioned, thought it unreasonable, as he had none of the estates, that he should be bound to maintain the school; however, he voluntarily paid the master his salary, and gave him a house to live in, both which have been continued by the possessors of Throwley manor to this time, as far as I can learn, as of their own free gift.
The present right hon. lord Sondes appoints the schoolmaster as such during pleasure, and pays him a salary of twelve pounds per annum, besides which, he allots him an house and garden, worth about six pounds per annum, which his lordship repairs from time to time, and for which no parochial or church-dues are paid. There are at present fourteen boys taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, gratis, in this school, which though taken mostly from the parishes of Throwley, Badlesmere, and Leveland, are not confined to those parishes.
Charities.
CATHERINE, LADY SONDES, gave by will the sum of 40s. a year, to be received yearly on St. Barnabas's day, towards the relief of the poor, payable from a farm in it, called Bell-horn, now belonging to lord Sondes, and now of that annual produce.
THERE WERE three alms-houses in this parish, the gift of one of the Sondes family; one of them was some time since burnt down, and has not been rebuilt, but lord Sondes allows the person nominated to it the value of it in money yearly.
The poor constantly relieved are about thirty, casually double that number.
THROWLEY is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Ospringe.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Michael, consists of three isles and three chancels. The steeple is a square tower, and stands in the centre of the south side of it, in which there is a peal of six bells, given in 1781, at the expence of Mr. Montresor, of Belmont. In the south isle is a memorial for Francis Hosier Hart, gent. obt. 1761, leaving three daughters, Mary, Elizabeth, and Diana Hosier. In the middle isle is a small monument for Stephen Bunce, esq. of this parish, one of the Antients of New-Inn, who died there in 1634, and was buried in St. Clement's church, London. In the middle chancel there are two stalls of wood, which are not fixed, and in the north isle three more of the like sort, joined together, with a desk before them, which seem to have been removed from the chancel, and were both intended for the use of the religious of the priory here. In the middle of this chancel is a memorial for Dr. Thomas Horsemonden, patron and rector of Purleigh, in Essex, prebendary of Lincoln, &c. who died anno 1632. In the north and south chancel are several monuments for the family of Sondes, with their essigies, arms and quarterings; one of them in the latter, a plain altar tomb of black marble for Sir George Sondes, earl of Faversham, his lady and descendants; many more of this family, as appears by the parish register, are buried in the vault underneath, but the family of Watson burying at Rockingham, this vault has not been opened for several years. The north and south chancels above-mentioned belonged, one to the possessors of Throwley manor, the other to those of Townplace, but they both belong now to lord Sondes.
There were formerly in the windows the arms of Sondes, Finch, and Gatton, and in the north window this inscriptin, Pray for the good estate of Alice Martyn, the which did make this window, MCCCCXLV.
In the church yard, at the west end of the north isle, there is a circular door-case of stone, having several bordures of Saxon ornaments carved round it. In the church-yard is an altar tomb for William Woodward, gent. of Wilgate-green, obt. 1681, and Anne his wife.
It appears by the will of William Sondes, esq. anno 1474, that this church had then constantly burning in it lights, dedicated to St. Michael, the Holy Trinity, the Holy Cross, St. Mary, St. Thomas, St. Christopher, St. George, St. Katherine, St. Margaret, St. Mary Magdalen, and St. Nicholas.
An account of the antient patronage of the church of Throwley has already been given, as first belonging to the alien priory here, and then to the monastery of Sion, to the time of the dissolution of the latter in the 31st year of Henry VIII. the year after which, the king granted the rectory, with the advowson of the vicarage of the church of Throwley, to the prebendary of Rugmer, in the cathedral church of St. Paul, London, in exchange for lands belonging to that prebend, to be inclosed within the king's park of Marybone, in pursuance of an act then passed. Since which this parsonage and advowson have continued part of the abovementioned prebend. The former is leased out by the present prebendary to the right hon. lord Sondes, but the advowson of the vicarage he retains in his own hands, and is the present patron of it.
¶There was a rent of 4l. 18s. 4d. reserved from the parsonage by king Henry VIII. nomine decimœ, which was granted by queen Elizabeth, in her third year, to archbishop Parker, among other premises, in exchange for several manors, lands, &c. belonging to that see, which rent still continues part of the revenue of the archbishopric.
A vicarage was endowed here in 1367, anno 42 king Edward III. by archbishop Langham, at which time the chapel of Wylrington belonged to it. (fn. 8)
It is valued in the king's books at 7l. 11s. 8d. and the yearly tenths at 15s. 2d.
In 1578 there were one hundred and eighty communicants here. In 1640 it was valued at forty-five pounds, communicants two hundred and twenty.
The one and only CCTV camera in the area outside where I live and it's a definite fail, hasn't moved since I've been here.
Perhaps they're on the lookout for illegal aliens... ;)
Freightliner's 90043 is seen at Preston station on 04/06/18 having experienced problems between Wigan and Balshaw Lane. 90043 had been pulled off and was dumped in one of the RES sidings to await recovery. 90042 was sat south of the station on the 4S44/1213 intermodal which the pair had hauled from Daventry (originally destined for Coatbridge), which was cancelled en route. An 0S45 light engine move from Daventry coupled to the errant train that evening, and hauled it north to Coatbridge.
I emailed them about this once. I've tried two different browsers. I mean, it's not like I'm getting a network error...I'm getting an Apache error. It's not on my end.
i have tons and tons and TONS of photos to edit and upload
but somehow I always end up posting some crap that i can edit fast just for the sake of posting.
ughh
sorry.
only one more week of school left
and i'm going camping this weekend =D
The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company tower, designed by Pierre L. LeBrun of Napoleon LeBrun & Sons, is a major and memorable evocation of the world-famous campanile in Venice's Saint Mark's Square. Built in 1907-09, the Metropolitan Life tower was for a time, the tallest building in the world. It is also the final and crowning work of a firm, father and sons, whose combined production spanned almost seventy years of American architecture.
The tower was extensively renovated (1960-64) by Lloyd Morgan & Eugene V. Meroni, Architects, successors to Leonard Schultze & Associates, who retained the tower's major features — monumental clock faces, setback arcade, pyramidal spire, cupola, chime and lantern — as well as its original entasis. The tower's site, opposite historic Madison Square Park at 24th Street, is one of the finest settings in the city. For the past eighty years the tower has been both a significant silhouette on the Manhattan skyline and a corporate symbol; the lantern at its top has been called "The light that never fails."
Madison Square Park - a brief history
Few buildings in New York enjoy the spacious and verdant setting Madison Square Park provides the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company home office complex and tower. The park itself had been included by the Street Commissioners in their 1811 Map of Manhattan nearly 180 years ago. Then the park was a reserve of almost 239 acres; it was not pared down to its present seven acres until 1844. Even as the park's size diminished, its historical significance increased; decades before the architecture of commerce came to dominate its borders, Madison Square possessed a rich civic, military, social and cultural history.
With the onset of the War of 1812, President James Madison mobilized troops and the site, a temporary home to upstate volunteers, became "Camp Madison," a likely source for the square's name. Today only commemorative monuments remain, echos of American military victories. The Fifth Avenue Hotel, a Republican Party stronghold, opened in 1858 and the park opposite became a pantheon of the party's most revered public servants from New York; with bronze statues of Secretary William H. Seward, Senator Roscoe Conkling, and President Chester A. Arthur.2 To the east, Madison Avenue, insulated by the park, became a fashionable residential enclave.
On the corner of 24th Street was the Madison Square Presbyterian Church (1854). From its pulpit the Reverend Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst marshaled the moral indignation that ended Boss Tweed's domination of municipal government.
In the 1880s and 1890s the Madison Square area became a theatrical center. Steele McKay built the Madison Square Theatre in 1880 and the Lyceum Theatre in 1885. In 1890 McKim, Mead & White's famous Madison Square Garden (demolished in 1924) opened at the northeast corner of Madison and East 26th Street on the site where P.T. Barnum formerly had his Monster Classical & Geological Hippodrome, and Gilmore's Garden had sheltered boxing demonstrations and the annual National Horseshow.
In the same year Joseph F. Knapp, the president of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, initiated the first of many property acquisitions the company would make on Madison Square when the houses on the Square's east side were purchased. With the exception of Dr. Parkhurst's church, the whole block front was demolished to build the company's new headquarters, an eleven-story office building faced with Tuckahoe marble, designed by Napoleon LeBrun & Sons. Considered in retrospect, it was the entertainment industry's encroachment that prompted residents to move further uptown, but it was the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's new and solid presence which re-stabilized Madison Square's eastern border. In 1896 the State of New York erected the marble courthouse for the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court (James Brown Lord, architect), a designated New York City Landmark, on the northeast corner of Madison and 25th Street. Knapp's vision of the square prepared the site for the next chapter in its history, the growth of corporate giants.
History of Metropolitan Life
Metropolitan Life began as the National Union Life & Limb Insurance Company in 1863, but was split into two separate companies, the National Life Insurance Company and the National Travellers Insurance Company, in 1866. In 1868 the company's charter and its name were changed to Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.4 At this time the life insurance industry in this country was already dominated by several well-established companies. The agency system was well-developed and the principal policy plans of today — straight life, endowment, annuity and term insurance — were already in use.
Metropolitan Life's first president, Dr. John Richardson Dow, who served from 1866 until his death in 1870, was a retired physician of ample means. Like Dow, the majority of the stockholders and directors were Brooklyn residents, well known to one another. Metropolitan Life was first located in offices at 243 Broadway. In 1870 the company moved to 319 Broadway. It was at this time that the Hildise Bund, a sizeable society of German-speaking wage earners organized about 1870, approached Metropolitan Life seeking coverage for its membership. The Bund collected weekly premiums from its members and transmitted them quarterly to Metropolitan Life. It was this German business which pulled Metropolitan Life through the Panic of 1873.
Joseph Fairchild Knapp, Metropolitan Life's second president from 1871 until his death in 1891, had formerly been a principal in the Major & Knapp Engraving, Manufacturing and Lithographing Company. Metropolitan Life's growth required more space and in 1876 the company leased the five-story Wilson B. Hunt building at the corner of Park Place and Church Street (now demolished). In 1879 Knapp initiated Industrial insurance, an area previously ignored in the United States. Industrial insurance had been introduced by the Prudential Assurance Company of London; Knapp was so impressed with Prudential's succesp that he imported English agents to train Metropolitan Life's employees.
Metropolitan Life and its Home Offices
As well as mastering the insurance business, Knapp appears to have understood the value of architectural imagery. Knapp must have been aware of the new Second Empire style Equitable Life Building (1868-70) on Broadway. Knapp commissioned the architectural firm of Napoleon LeBrun & Son to undertake the renovation of Metropolitan Life's new home on Park Place. LeBrun had demonstrated his skill in this fashionable commercial style already. In 1870 LeBrun won the Masonic Lodge competition with his solid Second Empire design. LeBrun brought the two simple Italianate elevations of the Wilson B. Hunt building up to date.
By re-organizing the ground floor and adding a two-story pavilioned mansard, he established the strong symmetry characteristic of this style. This commission was the first of many that Metropolitan Life awarded to the LeBruns. In 1890 Metropolitan Life purchased the site at 1 Madison Avenue, then so far uptown that no office building had yet been constructed there. Knapp turned again to the LeBrun firm. This eleven-story office block contained a delicately carved program of Italian Renaissance motifs which enriched the reveals and spandrels of windcws and doorways.7 This new building, on its corner site opposite Madison Square Park, did much to establish Metropolitan Life in the eyes and the mind of the public.
John Rogers Hegeman, Metropolitan Life's third president from 1891 until his death in 1919, was an even more avid builder than his predecessor Joseph Knapp. He, too, recognized the value of an impressive home office. During his tenure, the company expanded its complex to the whole block, building the great tower, and initiating its incursion to the adjacent block to the north. In 1894 lots on the south side of East 24th Street, immediately behind the Presbyterian church and tangent to the new home office building, were purchased and subsequently so were lots along East 23rd Street.
A twelve-story addition was constructed on 24th Street. By 1902 the company owned the Lyceum Theatre site and was purchasing the northeast corner of the block. In 1904-05 the new buildings, all from plans prepared by the LeBrun firm, completed the block; except for the northwest corner where the church stood.
Finally, on April 5, 1906, the church site was secured. Dr. Parkhurst had objected to selling, but when Metropolitan Life offered him the more spacious site just across East 24th Street as well, he and his Session accepted. The old church was razed and Metropolitan Life's 700 foot tower was begun, the tallest building in the world, and the LaBruns' final, crowning achievement.
By 1909 all eight of these buildings (the tower included) — all of Block 853 — were complete (Plate 3). Their exterior elevations, adaptations of the building commissioned by Knapp (1890), presented broad, unified eleven- and twelve-story facades along Madison and Park Avenues and 23rd and 24th Streets. While these buildings were linked by a major corridor running east and west from avenue to avenue and minor north-south corridors to both streets, each building had its own elevator shafts. At least six courts — generous light wells — brought light and air to the interior spaces of this block-size warren. As work spaces expanded, the thick party walls may have become obstructions. By the mid-1920s a more centralized structure was needed to house the increasing divisions of a large corporation the size of Metropolitan Life.
Begun in 1952, Morgan & Meroni's reconstruction of the home office complex, or south building as it is now called, and the tower, took place in three stages: the northeastern portion — an angled northwest to southeast diagonal dividing the block, from the tower to the corner of Park Avenue and 23rd Street, for the most part following the system of internal light courts; the southwestern portion; and the tower. Business continued in the old spaces before demolition and in the new as they became accessible. The new home office is a fourteen-story, skeletal steel structure with generous setbacks, faced with ashlar limestone. Though conservative in its conception, stylistically Lloyd Morgan's design draws upon aspects of the Moderne — the symmetry of both the building's mass and its window bays and entrances — as well as upon the tenets of the International Style. (This building is not included within this designation.)
The Architects
Two architectural firms are responsible for the appearance of the Metropolitan Life tower today: Napoleon LeBrun & Sons and Lloyd Morgan & Eugene V. Meroni, Architects. The LeBrun firm served as architects to the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company from 1876 until 1909. Morgan & Meroni received the commission to reconstruct the whole of the original home office complex and to "modernize" the tower in the early 1950s.
Pierre Lassus LeBrun (1846-1924) has not received the attention that he is due, perhaps in part, because the name of the firm, Napoleon LeBrun & Sons, made him, and later his brother Michel, all but anonymous. Little is known of Pierre's formal architectural education. Apparently he was imbued with his father's classical preferences. Napoleon Eugene Charles LeBrun (1821-1901) was born to French emigrant parents in Philadelphia. At fifteen years of age he was placed in the office of classicist Thomas Ustick Walter (1804-1887), where he remained for six years. LeBrun began his own practice in 1841 in Philadelphia but moved to New York in 1864 where the choice in 1870 of his Second Empire style Masonic Temple competition submission did much to establish his reputation.
In the same year his son Pierre joined him and the firm became Napoleon LeBrun & Son. Like his father, Pierre LeBrun was not so much an innovator as he was an adherent to a stylistic consistency at a time of stylistic transition and flux. With but few exceptions this preference was demonstrated in the work of both generations. Father and sons were active members of the new American Institute of Architects.
The firm's work can be divided into two periods, an early one spanning the 1870s into the mid-80s and a later one from the later 1880s until the firm's dissolution in 1909. The earlier is robust. The later work was significantly different. Building elevations became more planar; walls were no longer load bearing. Design of ornament relied solely upon historic prototypes. The first Metropolitan Life building was an example of a new building type given stylistic character through the application of ornament, as is LeBrun's still-extant Home Insurance Company (1893-94) facade on Broadway above Murray Street. This conventional, tall office building is enhanced by the Renaissance style triumphal arch motif applied to its first three stories. The tall, pyramidal copper roof is fronted by a three-story dormer, intelligently crafted from some study storage collection of Renaissance motifs.
While little is known of Pierre LeBrun's architectural education, his three trips abroad in the service of the Willard Architectural Commission are documented. Levi Hale Willard, a wealthy businessman, died in 1883 leaving to the newly founded Metropolitan Museum of Art $100,000 toward the creation of a collection of models and casts illustrative of the art and science of architecture, to be made under the direction of a commission chosen by the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. In his will Willard nominated Napoleon LeBrun as president of the Commission; Willard, a friend, had often discussed with LeBrun the need to cultivate a popular taste for architecture. Pierre LeBrun was appointed the Commission's purchasing agent. The younger LeBrun visited the significant sites and met with the suppliers of casts in Paris, Munich and Rome.
The historical accuracy characterizing the ornament of the LeBruns' later work appears to have been inspired by the Willard Collection.9 Surely, Pierre LeBrun was the partner responsible for the firm's designs in the later phase. Filial duty and affection prompted Pierre and his brother Michel to maintain the firm's name as their father had proudly amended it, first in 1870 and again in 1892. Only someone of Pierre's generation could readily understand the requirements of tall building design; only someone with the historical knowledge gained in acquiring the Willard bequest could know how to appropriately integrate historic detail with a new building type. There is every reason to attribute the designs for these later buildings — and certainly that of the Metropolitan Life Tower — to Pierre L. LeBrun.
In a 1914 history of the company there is a chapter on architecture, and the architecture of the tower in particular. It is written with such authority that the reader may assume that the anonymous author is Pierre LeBrun himself.10 He indicates that the resolution of a skyscraper style depends upon the utilization and reshaping of the elements of past styles. Size, he points out, is the only departure from precedent. To justify the propriety of his tower design he presents two comparisons, a brief survey of the proportions of height to width of towers, his and earlier monuments, and a second historic survey of the proportions of the height of tcwers to the mass of adjacent structures.
The architects responsible for the Metropolitan Life tower renovation in 1960-64 are Lloyd Morgan and Eugene V. Meroni, formerly of Leonard Schultze & Associates. The tower work — the architects called it a "modernization" — was but a P&rt of the complete rebuilding of the home office which commenced in 1951.
Lloyd Morgan (1892-1970) graduated from the Pratt Institute in 1911 and pursued subsequent study at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was awarded the Paris Prize in 1921 and spent the next five years in Europe, studying for a time at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 1926 Morgan joined the firm of Schultze & Weaver which specialized in the design of hotel and office buildings and was made a partner three years later. Outside the office he served as an acting professor of architecture at Yale and New York University and conducted his own classes — the Atelier Morgan — for students who could not afford to attend architectural school. Upon S.F. Weaver's death in 1940, the firm became Leonard Schultze & Associates.
Morgan is credited with designing some of the firm's best known buildings: the Waldorf-Astoria, the Barbizon Plaza and the Pierre Hotel in New York? the Miami Biltmore and the Roney Plaza in Miami Beach. Morgan also designed suburban housing projects, Parklabrea in Los Angeles, Parkmerced in San Francisco, and Parkfairfax near Washington, D.C., all for Metropolitan Life. Eugene V. Meroni graduated from the Mechanics' and Tradesmen's Institute and trained at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design.1 It seems Morgan was the partner responsible for the design of Metropolitan Life. At Schultze's death in 1951, the firm became Lloyd Morgan & Eugene V. Meroni, Architects.
Building Design
John Rogers Hegeman, Metropolitan Life's third president, is generally credited with conceiving the idea of the tower; different versions of his inspirations are recorded and to each a possible date and different set of circumstances can be attached. (Behind them all stands the remembered silhouette of the tall steeple of the Presbyterian Church, sharply rising against the sky, a sharp vertical at 24th Street.) The first version is based upon a composite image attributed to Hegeman himself. Sometime after the Home Life Insurance Building (1893-94) was finished, Hegeman clipped an illustration of its facade and juxtaposed it to the left of an illustration of the new home office, a hint to his architects of what he had in mind.
In the second version, a published description of the tower as it neared completion, it is indicated that a "tower or campanile" had been part of the original plan for this corner. Though it appears that a tower was not on Joseph Knapp's immediate building agenda, a tower became an important component of Hegeman's. The company's aggressive campaign to acquire the remainder of the block, after its initial base was secure, is we 11-documented. But at what stage of the home office's enlargement a tower was projected, or even what form it was to assume, is not.
In his dedicatory remarks in 1909, John Hegeman described the tower as a symbol of integrity.17 Only four years earlier he had endured the inquiries conducted by New York State's Armstrong Committee concerning unethical practices in the insurance industry. Although Metropolitan Life was cleared, Hegeman was indicted, though subsequently exonerated.18 Might he not have seen his tower — the tallest in the world — as a symbol of vindication, both corporate and personal?
According to the final version, the great sixteenth-century campanile in Venice's Piazza San Marco, a landmark much beloved by Hegeman, was the prototype of the Metropolitan Life tower.19 The Venetian campanile made global headlines shortly after 9:50 A.M., July 2, 1902, when it collapsed, crushing Jacopo Sansovino's Loggetta. Despite opinions to the contrary,20 the Venetians rebuilt it; work did not begin until the end of 1908 almost three years after the Metropolitan Life tower was begun. While it is true that the campanile form had been considered as an appropriate expression for the tall office building, it was LeBrun who realized it first. But the news from Venice — the loss of one of that city's most familiar features — produced a great swell of public sentiment. An evocation of the fallen tower, anchored to Manhattan's bedrock, would be understandable. Perhaps, then, it was in the summer of 1902 that the projected Metropolitan Life tower in the form of the great Venetian campanile was conceived in the minds of the company president and his architect.
The Metropolitan Life Tower - Original Design
The Metropolitan Life tower's fifty-story height, articulated as base, shaft and capital - though surmounted with the setback and pyramidal spire of its prototype, and the cupola and lantern - was distinguished by its classical proportions and defined by historical ornamental detail — a reference to Sansovino's Loggetta distinguished the second and third stories (Plate 1). Pierre LeBrun likened the proportions of his tower to those of a Doric column; he had designed the shaft with an entasis — one foot, six inches on the short axis and two feet on the long axis — which the engineers, Purdy & Henderson, duly translated to the steel frame. The tower's elevations were nearly identical and completely faced with White Tuckahoe marble. A concentration of ornamental detail was reserved for the shaft's principal feature, the four great clock faces.
Purdy & Henderson designed the tower's footing and skeletal frame, which is anchored to bed rock at depths varying between twenty-eight and forty-six feet below the curb. Although it was not structurally innovative, the tower attracted attention because it was to be the tallest building in the world.26 The fireproofing of the tower's structure was considered an advance in 1909. Rather than heavy brick, or lighter terra cotta, all of the steel members — columns, girders, girths and windbracing — were encased in concrete carefully packed within wooden forms to eliminate air spaces.27 The tower was the crowning commission of Pierre LeBrun's professional career; he was able to apply his historic erudition to this most challenging of new building types.
The Metropolitan Life Tower- Renovation
Though planned in 1951-52, Morgan & Meroni's renovation of the Metropolitan Life tower did not begin until i960 and was not complete until 1964. For a second time the design of the Metropolitan Life tower was brought into harmony with an adjacent home office building.
Morgan's task was twofold: duplicate the new building's limestone cladding on portions of the tower's surface, and translate its planar character to the tower's four elevations. In the effort to reconcile the tower to the new home office, Morgan removed much of Pierre LeBrun's architectural detail; he chose the areas where ornament had been most concentrated —the base, the shaft quoins, the arcade and spire cupola — but retained the proportions and the entasis, recognizing them as the major defining architectural features of the tower.
It is clear that Morgan appreciated Metropolitan Life's splendid site opposite the Park as well. He massed and scaled the home office building to flatter the tower's 700 foot sweep upward from the curb to its lantern. Rather than repeating the blunt right angle of the tower's old juxtaposition to the original home office building, Morgan had the tower emerge up from behind the three graduated steps of the new building's tenth, eleventh and thirteenth story setbacks.
Description
In plan the tower retains its 75 by 85 foot configuration. The fifty-story Metropolitan Life tower remains articulated in the conventional manner: base, shaft, and capital and from within the arcaded capital rises a setback capped with a pyramidal spire, cupola and lantern. The tower's new two-story base conforms with that of the adjacent new home office building. A polished, light gray granite water table (five feet high) - an extension of the new building's wall base - runs the widths of both the tower's Madison Avenue and East 24th Street elevations and is flush with the tower's limestone cladding. Along Madison Avenue three tall, one-over-one, plate glass show windows light the tower's first story; their thin frames and vertical mul lions are stainless steel.
On 24th Street, two of these show windows flank a broad though unarticulated entrance architrave of the polished granite. Currently this entrance is not in use. The two pairs of doors within the architrave are false; entrance to the tower is gained through the South Building. Like the doors, the tripartite transom above them is framed in stainless steel. The architrave is immediately flanked by two signs, metal with raised letters, the ground painted black: "Metropolitan Life Insurance Company" with the company's logo. The second-story windows in both elevations correspond in width to the show windows below, but they are a fraction of their height (plates 5 & 6). Each is vertically tripartite, the central, single pane is wider than those flanking it, a modified Chicago window. The dividing stainless steel mul lions are broad but the window's stainless steel frames are thin. A simple, forty-five degree angle string course separates the tower's base from its shaft.
Two distinct elements characterize the tower's four shaft elevations, the three attenuated bays of triple window openings contained within the simple corner reveals and the monumental clock faces. The shaft's dominant verticality is modified by the repetition of projecting window sills every second story on only the uneven stories, starting at the third story.
The third-story windows do not extend all the way down to their sills; their lower rails are higher than those on any other story. The fourth-, fifth- and eleventh-story window spandrels are higher than those on other stories (plates 2 & 6).31 At the twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh stories, the triple window openings of the outermost bays are reduced to paired windows.
These, and all of those in the center bay, have been eliminated by the breadth of the clock faces. Each of the shaft's window openings has its own architrave, in section an elaboration of a Vitruvian scroll molding, retained from LeBrun's design. All the windows are of reflective, single-paned glass and framed in stainless steel, and although recessed, the reflective glass sustains Morgan's planar aesthetic..
LeBrun's ornamental detail is retained around the four monumental clock faces (plate 8). The decorative spandrels each contain a shell supported by a pair of reversed dolphins. The clock dials are encircled by marble wreaths of fruits and flowers, ornament which Pierre LeBrun modelled after early Italian Renaissance motifs — the Delia Robbias or Desiderio di Settignano. The dials themselves are reinforced concrete slabs, almost twenty-seven feet in diameter and faced with vitreous turquoise blue and white mosaic tile. The blue tiles create a decorative corona at the center and a border just inside the minute marks.
The hands are built on iron frames, sheathed with copper. The minute hand is seventeen feet from end to end and weighs 1000 pounds; the hour hand measures thirteen feet, four inches and weighs 700 pounds. The numbers, four feet high, are edged in copper. The peripheral minute markers, ten and a half inches in diameter, are edged in copper also. The hands, numerals and minute markers are glazed and are illuminated at night.
Just as the triple bays and clock faces articulate the tower's shaft, the three-story arcades — five arches per elevation — characterize the tower's capital. The twenty-ninth and thirtieth story fenestration serves as a transition from the lower tripartite rhythm to the arcade's pentad above. Ten smaller windows light the twenty-ninth story. On the thirtieth, the ten windows have been arranged in five pairs.
Morgan's preference for the planar is most clearly expressed in the capital, the tower's thirty-first to thirty-fourth stories. The new arcades (plate 9), pared of all of their considerable marble ornament, become flat screens, the ashlar limestone applied as precise voussoirs. The secondary planes of the emerging setback are introduced within the arcade (plate 10). The new limestone balustrades have been greatly simplified and flattened. The comers of each baluster are chamfered.
Five windows, one above each arch, light the thirty-fourth story. The cornice projects now only enough to halt the eye momentarily. The balustrade above, at the thirty-fifth story, shorn of its ornamental balusters and finials, adheres to Morgan's planar aesthetic. The corners of these balusters are articulated with right angle channels (plate 12).
The freestanding portion of the tower's setback — stories thirty-five to thirty-eight — acts as a massive plinth for the pyramidal spire, cupola and lantern above. It is here that the tower's wider north and south and narrower east and west elevations are made evident (Plates l and 2). This is seen clearly in the disparity of the fenestration within the setback's framing reveal. On the north and south elevations the reveal frames six windows — three pairs of two — on each story. Just above the setback's cornice — the thirty-ninth story — there are four small windows on the north and south elevations and three on the east and west. Similarly in the spire. The spire's marble surfaces are articulated with a raised lattice pattern punctuated with four stories of round hooded dormers.
Ten half-round hooded dormers break the latticed stone surface of the north and south elevations, one-above-two above three-above-four. There are seven dormers on the east and west, one-above-one above two-above-three. A broad reveal frames each pyramidal surface? the corner ribs rise to support the quarter-circle bevels of the forty-fifth story viewing platform (Plate 13). On the north and south elevations five long brackets, originally more ornate, support the platform? two eyelet windows between them light the forty-fourth floor. On the east and west four long brackets support the platform and there is but one window between them.
Morgan redesigned LeBrun's ornately carved, viewing platform balustrade. The north and south elevations have four panels of the new cylindrical balusters (plate 14), the east and west have three. The cupola's base, wider on its northern and southern elevations, is the highest and last demonstration of the tower's rectangular plan. The cupola itself is a regular octagon in plan (plate 15). The eight columns, originally Corinthian, of its two-story peristyle (at the forty-sixth and forty-seventh stories) are no longer round but angled to conform with the cupola's octagonal plan and Morgan's planar aesthetic (plate 16). The four bronze bells of the tower's chime (cast at the Meneely Foundry near Troy, New York) are mounted on the forty-sixth story.
The largest, the 7000 pound bell, is mounted on the western projection of the cupola's base; the next to largest, a 3000 pound bell, is mounted on the eastern projection (plate 17). The smaller 2000 and 1500 pound bells, are mounted on the north and south within the peristyle. The forty-seventh story windows, seen through the peristyle, light a circular staircase within the cupola's core. The cupola's entablature, the highest point at which stone is used, is also the sill for the eight half-round hooded dormers in the cupola's gold-colored anodized aluminum dome, the tower's forty-eighth story.
The tower's steel frame continues to the top, though sheathed in the gold anodized aluminum. The topmost platform with its gold anodized aluminum railing is at the forty-ninth story (plate 18). The tower's terminal feature is the octagonal electric lantern —"the light that never fails" — on the fiftieth story (plate 19). It is eight feet in diameter and 700 feet above the sidewalk. After ten in the evening - when the tells cease their chiming until dawn, the lantern blinks each quarter hour.
After dark and until midnight the tower's upper portions are bathed with light, often tinted. The lamps are inobtrusively hidden within the arcade and behind parapets. The quality of this illumination has been remarkably fine, so that the Metropolitan Life tower makes as distinguished a contribution to New York's skyline at night as it does by day.
APPENDIX
The same master clock — a mercurial compensated astronomical clock — which powers the hands on the tower's monumental clock faces as well as the hundreds of clocks throughout the home office, drives the tower's chime bell hammers. Originally each of the four bells was supported on a steel pipe filled with cement grout and sunk into stone-faced, solid concrete, but now the bells rest atop battered sided steel supports (Plate 17). The smallest, the 1500 pound bell — G natural, is struck by a hammer of fifty four pounds. The 2000 pound bell — F natural — is struck by a hammer of sixty-one pounds. The 3000 pound bell — E flat — is struck by a seventy-one pound hammer. The largest, the 7000 pound bell — B flat — is struck by ninety-four pound hammer. There is a fifth hammer of 131 pounds to strike the hours on the 7000 bell.
Of the best known bell foundries in the United States, the Meneely Foundry of Watervliet near Troy, N. Y., is the oldest. An earlier LeBrun-designed church building, the Cathedral Of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia, has a chime peal from the Meneely works. The bronze of the Meneely bells is composed exclusively of seventy-eight part, purest ingot copper which gives their bells their fine and brilliant tone.
The bells of the Metropolitan Life tower chime are struck in quarters — four blows at the quarter hour, eight at the half hour, twelve at the three quarter hour, and sixteen at the hour followed by the hour stroke — from seven o'clock in the morning until ten at night. The tune has a fine but often misunderstood provenance.
- From the 1989 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
Hai guys so I failed my 100 day protect. I'm pretty much so devastated. I have been so busy with year 12, doctor apts and I'm pretty sure I have insomnia. Plus my computer broke. Yes they're not good excuses but it's all I've got. I'm sorry.
This picture is taken from the Mon Tricot Creative Crochet & Hand-Knitting pattern book, Fashion Edition Spring/Summer 1973.
I'm not quite sure what's happening with that pink bikini... Barnacles?
(Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)
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