Gurdon Randall's Remarkable Practice - Part One

At the time of his death, noted architect H. H. Richardson had ongoing work near his New England home as well as Buffalo, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Chicago, and California. At a high point of his career, Joseph Silsbee had three simultaneously operating offices, in Syracuse, Buffalo, and Chicago. I’ve always been fascinated with architects that attain that sort of geographic reach with their work, particularly at a time when travel and technology made it relatively difficult to do so. It is a sign of success as an architect because it shows the artistic part of the work had broad appeal and that the architect had enough business savvy to manage the work’s execution.

While reading through old newspapers online, I recently came across an article about early architects in Syracuse and it made mention of a Syracuse architect that moved from Syracuse to Chicago. The architect mentioned was Gurdon Randall. Randall’s time in Syracuse was brief. He arrived about 1851 and stayed until about 1856 practicing for about 5 years, just over half the time that Silsbee practiced there several decades later. While he didn’t design any major landmark structures, he had a strong impact on the formation of the city’s commercial center.

Portrait of Gurdon Randall from History of Chicago, 1909.

The article gave a small list of structures that Randall was supposedly associated with: The Corinthian House, Washington Block, Stores adjacent to the Wieting Block, the Myers Block, First Ward Presbyterian Church, and homes for Patrick Lynch and Burr Burton. It also made mention that he designed the old Chicago City Hall, that was lost in the 1871 fire. Knowing that the old City Hall was actually designed by Chicago architect John Van Osdel, I was immediately skeptical of the list but my interest was piqued and I decided to look deeper.

Image of Myers Block and adjacent Grand Opera House on East Genesee Street, Syracuse, from the Early 1900's. The Myers Block was where Gurdon Randall had his office near the end of his tenure in Syracuse. It has not been substantiated if he designed the building or not.  

It didn’t take much digging to find out quite a bit about Gurdon Randall and his career. He arrived in Chicago at a time when that part of the country was seeing an explosion of new towns with relative prosperity. He quickly made a name for himself in the design of public buildings and met the needs of many communities with courthouse and city hall designs as well as the design of public school buildings. He dominated that field of work and would go on to publish two treatises on school and civic building construction.

Randall was a native of Vermont, born near Northfield in 1821. He worked for his father, a millwright and contractor. According to one biography, he eventually became employed as an architect in the Boston office of Asher Benjamin. This would have been near the end of Benjamin’s career and it would have been exposed Randall to Federal style church design as well as work on refined homes for upper class New England families. Benjamin was an educator and author, creating seven pattern books on residential design so his office would have been an excellent training ground for a young architect.

Illustration of a church from Asher Benjamin's The Architect, or, Complete Builder's Guide, published in 1845. 

In about 1845, almost coinciding with Benjamin’s death, Randall returned to his native Vermont and began designing buildings and bridges for early railroad companies. Newspaper accounts of his career in Syracuse indicate that he continued this line of work, executing an engine house and other facilities for the Syracuse & Utica (later New York Central) Railway. There is also evidence that he continued work in Vermont in the same vein, from the Syracuse office.

Machine Shop and Engine House designed by Randall for The Syracuse & Utica Railroad. The Railroad changed ownership and names, explaining the naming conflict. The image is from Ormsby's Syracuse City Directory for 1853-54.

Image of the Rutland, Vermont Railroad Depot, designed by Gurdon Randall in 1856-57. Work on the structure was likely  overseen from Randall's Syracuse office. The single-story structures in the foreground were built after 1900. 

Ads for “G. P Randall, Architect” began to appear in Syracuse newspapers in early 1852. The ads indicate that he could do work in Syracuse and in New York City. The first project I could find evidence of was a three-story brick business block for W. E. Putnam along the Oswego Canal in Phoenix, NY. The list of buildings mentioned earlier indicate that his reputation in Syracuse grew quickly. The list of work from the Syracuse office shows that the growing city gave Randall the opportunity to begin expanding his practice beyond the railroad and church work that he was known for in Vermont, to a wider array of new building types.

In 1853, he begins two significant civic projects. One is the design for offices, including all of the interior furnishings, for the Onondaga County Clerk. The second was a new “Poor House” facility for the City of Syracuse, on Onondaga Road (then the Old Plank Road), just west of present-day Velasko Rd, on the outskirts of town. He designed and oversaw construction of a series of substantial stone structures that served as housing and workhouse in a farm setting. Observations in the summer of 1853 indicate that “the building, now in process of erection, is nearly or quite half completed, and is calculated for the accommodation of three hundred inmates. The work will be substantially done, and when finished, the establishment will be a credit to the city.”

Image of the Onondaga County Poor House as seen in 1878 from W. W. Clayton's History of Syracuse. It was designed by Gurdon Randall in 1853 and opened in 1854.  

Image of the Onondaga County Poor House from Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress). It was designed by Gurdon Randall in 1853 and opened in 1854. 

Before Randall’s arrival, most of Syracuse’s business center was located along Salina Street, the main north to south thoroughfare through town. Development was concentrated on Salina at the railroad and Erie Canal, two transportation routes that ran east to west, a few blocks from each other. The area along Salina Street, south of these railroad, was predominantly residential in Character.

Image of Syracuse in 1840 depicting development along the canal, at Salina Street. 

In 1850, The First Presbyterian congregation constructed a new church on the southeast corner of W. Fayette and S. Salina Streets, a few blocks from the canal. The property of the former church, at the northeast corner of the same intersection was purchased by businessman Henry Dillaye who improved it with a new 5-story building. Dillaye and other businessmen began to develop this corner and adjacent lots. This flurry of building activity essentially shifted the retail center of the city from the canal and along Salina Street south.

Image of the First Presbyterian Church designed by Menard LeFever in 1850. The Washington block can be seen directly to the right of the church. It was designed by Gurdon Randall around 1856.

Gurdon Randall was hired to design two of the business blocks, the Pike Block and the Washington Blocks that are still standing at this area today. Both structures date from approximately 1854-55. The Pike Block is the most prominent, sitting directly on the southwest corner. It is a simple brick 4-story brick structure with rounded window heads and a simple cornice. It has undergone several changes from civic and institutional uses to retail and now as a mixed use apartment and retail structure. 

The Washington Block was developed by Dillaye with business partner Alfred Hovey. It was comprised of four adjacent structures just south of the new First Presbyterian Church. Each storefront was slightly different with strong window surrounds and moldings but the buildings were linked together with a single ornate cornice. While the South Salina facades have all been demolished or removed, a portion of the north façade of the structure still exists, where it abuts the old Woolworth’s Building.

Detail of two of the Washington Block structures in the foreground with the First Presbyterian Church to the left. 

Image of Woolworth's building under construction in the 1950's. The final remaining structure of the Washington Block can be seen to the right. 

Read Part 2 of this post HERE