Searching for Silsbee: Trump's Mess (this is not a political post)

I came across an image on Google today that "inspired" me to write this post. I've been collecting information about the earliest structures that were built for Solvay Process and have been trying to determine the architects of those structures. The company went through a couple building spurts from 1881 to 1893 that produced a lot of interesting structures but that's all for another post.

While looking at some street views, I came across the current images of Edward Trump's home on West Genesee Street. Trump had this place built in 1888. At 133 years old, it is remarkable that it is still there but the place is a complete mess. Trump had some work done on the home to make it more appropriate for entertaining in 1899. At some point in the 1950's or 60's, the place was cut up into apartments, the incredible front porch was filled in, and the shingle-clad home was covered in aluminum siding. I like to look on the bright side, thinking that the aluminum is protecting the shingles beneath but that doesn't make the home look any less shitty.

This past summer, two major features of the home were removed. The historic multi-pane windows were replaced with ones that look nothing like the original and the grand arch and recessed porch were infilled. Now before you spout out clichés about how I should have bought the house if I wanted it preserved, I get it - I am one of those few peoples that look at our role in this world as caretakers of beautiful things, like nice nature and parks and nice buildings - and a lot of others just don't see things that way. Someone else bought it and they can slather it in feces if that's what they wanted. I just think it is unfortunate and a bit depressing to see nice things go away.

Current view of the Trump House.

I am not sure that folks really know about the Trump house or appreciate it. I grew up near the structure and even delivered newspapers at one point to the folks at the Trump carriage house but when I was younger, I never gave the history of the place much thought. I've learned quite a bit about the place since and have come to appreciate the home very much. To that end, I thought I'd put this out there: I think that the Trump Home just might be the most interesting surviving structure designed by J. L. Silsbee. Its history has a lot of things that I am drawn to, from its industrial heritage and connection to local history to its high style design and incredible craftsmanship.

Edward Trump was a head engineer with the Solvay Process Company, about a mile north of this home, not far from the shores of Onondaga Lake. William Cogswell, with the financial assistance for Rowland Hazard, started the company by entering into an agreement with Belgian chemist, Ernest Solvay, to use Solvay's process to manufacture Soda Ash. Syracuse was an ideal place because the two main ingredients used for the process, brine, and limestone, were plentiful there. I've written about Silsbee's involvement in the construction of the plant's earlies structures HERE.

Lithograph from 1885 depicting the structures designed by Silsbee for the Solvay Process Company, Geddes, NY.

J. L. Silsbee maintained connections to the Syracuse and the Solvay area in particular after he left Syracuse to live in Chicago in 1885. Silsbee and Frederick R. Hazard, the eventual head of Solvay Process, were brothers in law, married to sisters Anna and Dora Sedgwick respectively. His most notable work in those later years was the incredible estate he designed for Frederick and Dora in 1892. The main home is gone but pieces of the old Upland Farm estate are still intact. A popular local landmark is the gatehouse at the corner of Orchard Road and West Genesee streets only a short distance west of the Trump home.

The main house at Upland Farm, home of Frederick and Dora Hazard built in 1891-92 but now demolished.

The Upland Farm gatehouse as seen from West Genesee Street.

The home that Trump had Silsbee design is remarkable in several ways. It was designed in the Shingle Style, a style that was very popular at the time and a style Silsbee was well known for. The neighborhood where Silsbee lived, Edgewater, was filled with homes designed by him in this style. Unfortunately none of them survives but several good examples still exist in Buffalo, NY that were designed by he and his partner James Marling.

There are some good examples of Silsbee Shingle Style homes scattered across the country. There is a nice home for a Treasurer of Oberlin College still standing in Oberlin, there is a simple home for a Judge in northern Illinois, and even a speculative home like those from his own Edgewater in Evanston, Illinois. A great example of a very well cared for home of this type can be seen in William & Mary Bull's house in Quincy, Illinois.

William & Mary Bull House, Quincy, Illinois (1886).

While it might be in terrible shape, the home is still a great example of Silsbee's work in this style. Several hallmarks of Silsbee's take on the style are visible in Trump's home. It had an elaborate open porch at the base, recessed arched porch at the second floor, and is capped with a grand hipped roof. The siting of the home and the way that the overall structure seems to grow out of the hill that it is perched on is particularly unique. This kind of siting was not possible in the Midwest where many of Silsbee's other homes are located. It is singular in this respect.

One of the reasons why this home might be of interest to folks is its relation to Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright mentions his experiences in Silsbee's office in his Autobiography and while he didn't work on Trump's home, the Trump home is precisely the kind of work that he would have had his hands on there. This style of architecture was also what Wright's uncle, Jenken Lloyd Jones, embraced when he hired Silsbee for a family chapel in Wisconsin and then his own Chicago church.

Unity Chapel, Spring Green, Wisconsin. Designed for the Jones family by Silsbee in 1885.

Frank Lloyd Wright history buffs might also be interested in Trump's barn/carriage house. The structure is similar to the Charnley and Sullivan stables that once stood in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. It has been altered but retains its somber typical shingle style color scheme and much of its whimsical character.

The Trump stables and carriage house.

The Trump home may also have been a factor in precipitating architect Irving Gill's move to Chicago. Gill is probably the most famous architect to come out of Syracuse. A Lafayette, NY native, Gill was educated in Syracuse and at the time of the Trump home's construction, he was working for former Silsbee partner Ellis Hall. It is enticing to think that Hall might have helped as superintendent of work on the Trump home but that can't be proven. What we do know is that when the home was completed, Irving Gill moved to Chicago and began working in Silsbee's office. He followed Wright's pattern and took a job with Louis Sullivan about a year later. All of this gets pretty esoteric and there is a limited audience these days for obscure architects but hopefully local lack of interest doesn't diminish the richness of the home's design heritage.

The Trump Home in 2018.

Even though it has been muddled, there is still a lot of great detail on the home. Corbels and pieces of ornament stills tick out of the aluminum cladding. The beautiful carved columns are also still in place on parts of the porch and porte cochere. The interior also still has several of the original fireplaces. The main fireplace in the library is fantastic, with Silsbee's trademark brick cladding and elaborate overmantle. Hopefully these elements are preserved for years to come because even more than the exterior, they show the roots of interior design elements that all of his former employees (Wright, Maher, Elmslie, etc.) pick up on and are lauded for.

Detail of original porch columns.

What got lost this summer was a common motif on Silsbee homes. Like a signature, it is one of those elements that almost immediately defines the building as uniquely his. It is also emblematic of this type of architecture where there seemed to be a constant play between interior and exterior spaces. It is the kind of thing that folks just don't do very often today because it complicates construction and creates a difficult maintenance condition. It is unfortunate that we lost it.