Speculative Home for Harvey B. Hurd

Harvey Hurd began developing property just northwest of the center of the Village of Evanston in 1889.  One of the first homes he constructed was designed by J. L. Silsbee.  This set the tone for subsequent large homes for Hurd and Hurd Family members, all designed by prominant architects including Dwight Perkins, Myron Hunt, George Maher, and Walter Burley Griffin.   

The home that Silsbee designed was Shingle Style, similar to those that he was completing in the Edgewater suburb, a few miles south of Hurd's development.  Some of the features that make the home unique are it's large-scale windows, recessed balcony at the side gable and what appears to have once been a turret over the porch entry.

Some ornament decorates a panel between the two windows at the front gable and some windows still have their 12 over 1 sash fenestration.  Another important feature on the home is an open "piazza" that extends across the front of it.  It is a feature seen on many of Silsbee's buildings.  He believed that covered verandas created a dark appearance and blocked natural light from entering the structure so he argued for open piazzas with a movable awnings.  These allowed for more natural light and air in the building.  The wall around the piazza in the Hurd home is clad in shingles and is designed so that the element to blend in with the overall building composition.    

A major alteration to the home is a two-story addition on the north side of the structure.  It was designed by architects Tallmadge & Watson. and put on in 1925.   The home is in very good condition and is a good example of Silsbee's Shingle Style work.

Monument for Elias Leavenworth

Now that I look on the past few entries, I think the blog is getting rather dismal: an array of demolished or severely altered buildings.  It leaves the correct impression that most of Silsbee's buildings are gone but doesn't really celebrate those fine structures that are still standing.  This entry is a relatively "unknown" work by the architect but a real gem that you can get very close to and touch.

While working on the mortuary chapel for Oakwood Cemetery, Joseph Silsbee worked closely with cemetery director and notable Syracuse businessman and politician, Elias Leavenworth.  Leavenworth had some strong opinions about how the chapel should look and spent over a year visiting chapels for similar use across the country.  Silsbee must have made a big impression on Leavenworth.  The year that the chapel was completed, it was announced that Silsbee was working on a monument for Leavenworth himself.   

The Leavenworth-Forman Monument sits on a prominent hill in Dedication Valley, the oldest and most distinguished part of Oakwood Cemetery. The design incorporates the names of four families: Leavenworth, Forman, Alexander, and Mather.  These are the surnames of the parents of Elias' wife, Mary, as well as his own.  Mary Leavenworth's father was Syracuse founder Joshua Forman and her mother was Mary Alexander.  Elias' mother was Lucinda Mather.  The site has historical significance for the City of Syracuse as it is the resting place of one of it's founding fathers as well as one of it's most important citizens.        

Constructiuon on the monument was completed in 1882.  The design of the monument is a personal rendition of Gothic architecture in the vein of contemporaries like Frank Furness or James Renwick.  It is a massive stone structure and practically every surface and architectural element is treated with rich carving and detail.    

Decorative elements like the carved stone scuppers, granite colonnades, and richly carved capitols and pediments have many similarities to those on the Oakwood Chapel as well as the White Memorial Building, both earlier examples of Silsbee's work in the Gothic idiom.

It is made of Onondaga limestone with granite trim and detail.  It is a pavillion-type memorial with an outer structure engraves with the names of each of the families.  This forms a canopy over a red granite monument further memorializing the family entombed there.  The monument has some damage and is in need of attention but it does not deter from the remarkable nature of a work and you can still experience it in much the same way that it was meant to be experienced when it was constructed.

Residence for Henry Ward Beecher

In 1876, preacher and American celebrity, Henry Ward Beecher began plans for a summer home.  The home was to be the embodiment of his ideals and was to sit amongst a lavish garden containing specimens of every flower and vegetable he could grow in the climate.  Early plans on the home were reported to be started by renowned New York architect Richard Morris Hunt but by 1877, Beecher was visiting Syracuse to inspect the work of an up and coming architect named Joseph Lyman Silsbee.   

Beecher's summer home had a commanding view of the Hudson River Valley from a hilltop on the edge of town of Peekskill, N.Y.  Though it was reported that Beecher personally oversaw all of the details of the work, Silsbee was responsible for the overall design as well as the design of all of the interiors and custom furnishings.  Firms from Syracuse and Ithaca were brought in to execute the wood work. 

Scant images of this home exist but illustrations from a construction journal of the period depict a Stick Style structure with a granite base, brick upper stories, and elaborate wood framing and trim.  The home was completed in 1878 and Beecher boasted that no paint was used on the interior.  All of the walls, mantels and woodwork were carried out in cherry with elaborately printed papers being used to cover the remaining walls and ceilings.  This is the earliest evidence of Silsbee's work on a total design and trademark elements like the Queen Anne detailing seen in the mantel pieces would set the tone for later work in this vein. The interiors were not at all unlike those that he did for George and Rebecca Barnes, previously featured in this blog.

The home underwent major renovations in the 1920's by owner, William McFadden.  Except for a small portion at the rear of the home, the entire residence now has the appearance of a Jacobean Estate.   The portions of the building that do exist depict a carefully detailed home with accents of glazed brick and fine masonry work as well as elaborate wood trim and and a variety of shingles.  Due to the notoriety of the owner, the home was given a lot of attention at the time of its original construction and the press featured descriptions of the building and compliments to the architect in newspapers in Boston, New York and across New York State.  

Main Building and Landscape Features for the Pittsburgh Zoo

In May of 1895, Joseph Lyman Silsbee was chosen as architect for a new building and bridge design for the Zoological Gardens for the City of Pittsburgh to be located in the city's Schenley Park.  Several months later, after bidding, the structure's cost exceeded the initial budget.  Local business leader, Christopher Lyman Magee, stepped forward to cover the remainder of the project cost but a new site was stipulated.  By January of 1896, Silsbee had completed plans for sprawling building in Pittsburgh's Highland Park.

The commission came on the heals of and bore a strong resemblance to unbuilt structures that he had designed for Lincoln Park in Chicago.  Both projects included an aviary, aquarium and cages for various animals.  The Pittsburgh Zoo, like most zoos of the period were designed primarily as a showcase for exotic animals and did not have the same function of modern zoos.  Cages were sparse and little attention was given to recreating the animal's natural habitat.

Silsbee's zoo structure was a commanding structure situated in a prominent hilltop location in the park.  A series of terraces and broad stairways create a formal approach to the main building.  Silsbee was responsible for the design of the stairs and likely oversaw the design of the lighting and landscape features as well.  The main building was a sprawling symmetrical brick Romanesque structure with a hipped roof and flanked by two octagonal pavilions attached to the main building with curved colonnades. 

The building was finely detailed and one of the few examples of Silsbee's large-scale civic projects that was actually constructed as well as evidence of Silsbee's role as in urban design and campus planning.  Detailed photos of the structure at the University of Pittsburgh indicate that the clearstory windows were composed of several panes of glass arranged in a cruciform shape.  Crisp arches create openings in the building facade at two end bays.  A copper cornice and gutter with copper-formed anthemion accents surrounds the main structure. The interior, lit with a skylights, was sparse except for display cases and other cages for animals.  The side pavilions had open cages on all sides and were topped with a clay tile roof.  The same kind of detail that was found on the main building can be found in the landscape.  Monumental stone steps and low curving walls form terraces.  These are accented with podiums and a serious of lighting fixtures.  Given Silsbee's flair for the exotic, it would be interesting to know the origin of the griffin light poles that once flanked the main staircase.

With changing attitudes about the role of zoos in our society, came new structures more amenable to the needs of animals.  Sadly, many of the early monumental zoo structures were demolished to make way for subsequent buildings.  Due to their specific design and layout, they were not easy to adaptively reuse as offices or other functional structures so few of these large buildings survive as an educational tool and testament to the careful consideration and resources given to this important cultural institution.     

Frederick Rueckheim Residence

With three different offices, Silsbee could do work in a large geographic area and for a great array of clientele.  Given that he worked at a time of great American prosperity and industrial growth, many of his projects seem to have more value for their historical context then for their design merits.

As a sign that his small candy and popcorn business was becoming a success, entrepreneur and inventor Frederick Fueckheim commissioned Silsbee to design him a home in 1886.  Several years later, Rueckheim and his brother, Louis, introduced Cracker Jacks at Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition.

Rueckheim's home still stands and though it is very modest, it is evident that it is a shadow of its former self.  The outline of a large cornice that was removed can be seen just below the roof.  The shingle cladding in the gables and the cladding of the prominent front bay are both modern and likely lacking the detail that the original home would have had.  Finally, the entry and porch have been altered.  Regardless of its current condition, it stands as a reminder of an inventor that had a huge impact on American food and marketing.