The White Memorial Building

 

By 1876 a transformation was occurring in the city of Syracuse.  Along the Erie Canal and its main thoroughfare, Salina Street, small Italianate and vernacular storefronts were giving way to large office buildings in more sophisticated Gothic and Greek Revival designs.  Joseph Silsbee's Syracuse Savings Bank, the largest building to be built in the city at the time, was nearing completion and the architect was just awarded a second commission for an equally impressive structure by the White family.      

The White family owned the Syracuse National Bank and the new structure was built by Horace K. and Andrew Dickson White to house the family business and to commemorate the family patriarch, Asa White.  Andrew Dickson White, president of Cornell University, had a keen interest in architecture and with inspiration by John Ruskin and other aesthetic theoreticians of the day, he and Silsbee planned the grand High Victorian Gothic structure.  

Much like the Syracuse Savings Bank Building, the White Building is an excellent example of this style of structure.  It was said that the building was modeled after buildings in Manchester, England.  Though it doesn't seem to ape any particular Manchester building, with it's soaring roof lines, Gothic arches and use of varied materials, it is tempting to imagine Silsbee as a young architect a few years earlier, touring Manchester and viewing the works of fellow Unitarian, Thomas Worthington and other proponents of the "new" style. 

The White Memorial Building is constructed of an iron frame with iron beams supporting clay tile and concrete floors.  The exterior of the structure is clad primarily in a red brick from New Jersey.  Ohio sandstone, Onondaga limestone, white and black brick provided contrast and detail.  The white brick, from Milwaukee, was a novelty at the time and the White Memorial Building was the first structure in Syracuse where it was used.  All of the exterior masonry work is set in a black mortar which adds to the rich texture and appearance of the masonry surface.

The ornament on the structure is varied.  Abstract references to classical architecture are seen in support columns.  Foliate motifs on the building have a more Medieval appearance and are carved into banding and accent stones.  Whimsical creatures bearing resemblance to lions and birds of pray whimsically add to the macabre nature of the style. 

The exterior is further ornamented with brick work and English tile accents above the storefronts and below the cornice at the top floor.  The building was constructed by mason John Moore, who was a Silsbee client himself.  He also constructed the Syracuse Savings Bank building.  Though the White Building is more modest in size and budget, the richness of material and detail seemed to be an attempt by the architect and builder to match the complexity and beauty of that earlier structure. 

Though the building is in excellent shape and still has a commanding presence in Syracuse's downtown landscape, the appearance of the building has changed over time.  The building has been enlarged, with an additional story added where there was once only a series of roof dormers.  The roof itself has also been changed.  Though the unique iron cresting still exists, the variegated slate roof has been removed and no longer has the rich polychrome patterning.

The context of the structure has also changed.  When constructed, the building had a prominent location, facing Vanderbilt Square, the location of one of Syracuse's main train stations.  Trains would travel east down what is now Washington Street and would stop in front of the building.

The building entry, with it's elaborate decoration and memorial plaque once faced busy Vanderbilt Square and set the tone for the overall structure.  By the time of it's completion in 1877, Silsbee was well established as a prominent New York architect.  Much credit for this distinction can be given to the consistency of quality work that the White Memorial Building exemplifies.  The White Memorial Building can also be credited with giving Silsbee his start in Chicago.  Local lore has it that upon existing a train at Vanderbilt Square and seeing this structure, a prominent Chicago businessman demanded that he know who the architect was.  After visiting Silsbee in his office at the Syracuse Savings Bank Building, a few blocks away, he was promptly hired for work in the growing metropolis in the Midwest.

The Syracuse Savings Bank Building

When Silsbee won the competition for a new bank building in Syracuse, New York he was residing in the city for about a year.  It was early 1875 and he had completed work on several large public commissions under architect Horatio Nelson White and was at work on several small commissions of his own.  He was teaching in the Architecture Department at Syracuse University and was also making his mark with charities and in the city's social circles but he had yet to earn any major commissions on his own.  Not only was this Silsbee's first major commission but it was perhaps the largest construction project being undertaken in Upstate New York aside from the New York State capitol.  With great surprise, the design for this significant work was handed to a young architect instead of one of the established firms from New York, Rochester, Boston and Syracuse also competing for the project.  Even before it was completed, in 1877, publicity surrounding the structure put Silsbee at the forefront of architecture and design in Upstate New York and his office was filled with commissions both large and small.    

The Syracuse Savings Bank Building is Silsbee's best known design.  It has been featured in numerous publications about architectural history and stands in a highly visible and often photographed location in the center of the city of Syracuse.  Immediately after it was constructed, it became a local tourist attraction with it's steam-powered elevator and breathtaking observation area in the tower.  It was designed to be a conspicuous symbol for banking in the growing city and according to contemporary newspaper accounts, it lived up to all expectations.  It has transcended its initial use and is a well known physical landmark and point of reference.  It is an icon for the city of Syracuse and with its location on the primary civic square, it has served as a backdrop for innumerable historic gatherings and public events.    

The Syracuse Savings Bank an excellent example of the High Victorian Gothic style, composed of pointed arches, foliate ornament and other Venetian Gothic inspired elements accent a polychromed stone facade.  The coloring on the building is unique in its lightness with a main body of warm cream-colored Ohio sandstone and red New Jersey sandstone accents.  The structure is massive and takes up an entire city block.  Small steep-roofed pavillions at each corner help to anchor it and give it breadth on the front, at Clinton Square.  It is topped with a single tower that was designed as a cohesive part of the main building block below.  Silsbee's own office was located in two rooms at the base of the tower, on the fifth floor.    

The ornament on the building is organic in nature.  The High Victorian Style was still new to America but it was the style of choice in England and was made popular there by theoretician John Ruskin.  Antecedents of the overall building composition with a soaring tower over the main structure of the building can be seen in lantern towers placed over church transepts in Medieval cathedrals.  With it's dominant central tower and polychromy, it is also difficult not to draw comparisons between the Syracuse Savings Bank and Harvard's Memorial Hall.  Silsbee would have been living in Boston at the time of the Memorial Hall's construction and was likely also working for it's architect, William Robert Ware.      

The decorative program of the interior included a significant amount of marble wainscot, tile floors, and elaborate woodwork continuing Gothic, foliate and fanciful aquatic motifs.  Unfortunately the richly decorated interiors were all updated in 1929.  The exterior has been altered as well.  Though it still retains it's overall appearance, a significant amount of detail has been removed.  The stone base was re-cut, eliminating the rock-faced appearance.  Much of the main entry was altered with the removal of exterior light posts, steps, and carving, eliminating much of the human scale.  Elaborate ironwork and weather vanes are also gone as is the polychromed copper roof and carved copper crestings.  Original photos depicting the changes can be found at Syracuse Then and Now.  Regardless of these changes, the building has stood the test of time and continues to inspire those that see it.   

Office Building for the Gary Land Company

Some of Joseph Silsbee’s buildings are admired for their design features and physical appearance. Others are known because they played a vital role in a place’s history.  This building is better known for the latter of these. In 1906, The United States Steel Company began building a new plant and town along the shores of Lake Michigan. Named after steel company founder Elbert Gary, Gary, Indiana boasted a population of over 55,000 by 1920.

Most of the early structures were built by the steel company and sold through its subsidiary, the Gary Land Company. Silsbee was one of the earliest architects hired by the company to design commercial, residential, industrial, and public structures for the new city.

He designed this structure for the Gary Land Company in 1906 and had satellite architectural offices in the building for several years.  It served as a place to conveniently oversee work on his designs in the rapidly growing city of Gary. Also known as the Phillips Building, it was the Land Company's headquarters and the center of real estate activity in the city.

It is a simple commercial structure that once had a pronounced first floor with stone base and trim.  A main entry with a rounded pediment supported by columns punctuated the south (6th Ave.) side of the building.  Above is a simple stepped parapet.  The most notable detail on the building is the corbelling used to create window recesses and to support a stone cornice that wraps around the south and west sides of the building. From the face of the window to the cornice, the corbeling steps out fifteen times. It is a subtle yet beautiful detail that some folks might not notice.  

The Chicago Telephone Building

In 1888, Silsbee designed a building for the Chicago Telephone Company.  Now demolished, it housed offices for the company, control and switch rooms, and telephone apparatus. Joseph Silsbee is not the first architect that comes to mind when you think of the design of Chicago office buildings.  He is more commonly discussed in relation to the homes he designed, particularly those that he did while Frank Lloyd Wright and George Maher were employed in his office. 

Stylistically, the building is a departure from the Gothic structures he designed about a decade earlier in Syracuse, NY but the quality of design and attention to detail are the same. It was a seven-story iron structure with interior decorative ironwork clad in brick and terra cotta.  The building had Romanesque and Queen Anne elements and a clarity of design that can easily be compared with the finest buildings designed at the same time by Sullivan, Root, and others. A drawing of the building appeared in the local building journal, the Building Budget, and was signed by Geo. W. Maher.