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RECORD   AND   GUIDE





June 30, 1906





another, because Allegheny, lying across the Allegheny River
from Pittsburg, is connected witb tbe latter by several bridges.
The consolidation will make Pittsburg one of the wealthiest
cities in the Union, and in connection with this matter it may
be mentioned that a large amount of Pittsburg capital has been
invested in Long Island, N. Y., realty. The Wheatly Hills Land
Company, of which M. W. Byrne, United States District Attorney
of New York, is one of the directors, has paid $600,000 for the
Albemarle Stock Farm and the M. C. Meagher tract of three
hundred acres—properties which are situated in a fast develop¬
ing part of Long Island and bave a frontage of five thousand
feet on tbe Long Island Railroad and adjoins the holdings of
W. K. Vanderbilt, Clarence Mackay and Jobn S. Phipps. In the
autumn tbe whole property is to be plotted and otherwise im-
'proved. When capitalists of otber cities invest in what may be
called undeveloped territory in the vicinity of New York, it cer¬
tainly is strong evidence of their belief in its appreciation of
value in tbe near future.





Mr. Stanford White.

THE death of Mr. Stanford White calls attention in the most
painful and disagreeable way to the work which bas been
accomplished during the last twenty-five years by him and the
otber members of his firm. Few people who are not architects,
or who are not specially interested in architecture, realize bow
much Mr. White and his associates have contributed to the
existing appearance of New York City, and still fewer realize
how far-reaching and beneficial the effect of their work has
been. It is to be hoped and expected that the remaining
members of tbe firm, aided by the able assistants whom they
have recently associated,with themselves, will continue to carry
on the work for many years to come; but, in any event, the
death of Mr. White cannot be passed by without some attempt
to describe what the firm of McKim, Mead & White have
accomplished for the architecture of New York, as well as in
general for American architecture. It is the intelligent and
appreciative New Yorker who should be particularly grateful to
thein, because it is in New York that most of their work has
been achieved, and because the buildings erected from their
designs in this city have helped amazingly to give New York
an architecture expressive of its metropolitan position among
other American cities. It has been an architecture, which
possessed distinction, style and effectiveness, and no otber
American architectural firm, either in New York or elsewhere,
has succeeded in reaching a similar result to anything like so
complete an extent.

One bas only to repeat the list of the conspicuous buildings
which have been erected from their designs in-New York City in
order to appreciate how much they have contributed in mere
bulk to the' attractive appearance of the city. Let us take, for
instance. Fifth avenue alone, which is becoming more and
more the typical and most conspicuous New York thoroughfare.
A pedestrian starting at Washington Square would have behind
him the Judson Memorial Church and the Washington Memo¬
rial Arch—two Of their earliest New York edifices. In the
neighborhood of Sixteenth street he would pass the "Judge"
Buildiug, to which four stories have recently been added with¬
out entirely obscuring the merit of the original design. As he
reaches Madison Square he would see in the tower of Madison
Square Garden, one of their earliest buildings; and in the
Parkhurst church one of their latest- A few blocks farther
north he would come upon the bank building of the Knicker¬
bocker Trust Company, which has already provoked so much
imitation; the Gorham Building, and the Tiffany Building—an
edifice wbicb has aroused more popular interest than any simi¬
lar building ever erected in New York City- Just north of
Forty-Second street he would come upon a nest of McKim,
Mead & White's work. In the first place, there is the Sherry
Bui-lding, and on the_side streets, immediately adjoining, the
Century Club house and that of the Harvard Club, with its
splendid dining hall. Still farther north be would reach the
residences recently erected for Delancey Kane and W. K, Van¬
derbilt, Jr,, and' at Fifty-fifth street bis eyes would be gratified
by the University Club bouse, which ranks very high in the
scale of their work; and a little beyond tbe buildings of the
Metropolitan and Harmonic Glubs. This in itself is a tolerably
long list of important buildings, but many more would have to
be added before the catalogue of the firm's work, even in New
York, would be anything like complete. The building erected
by the Goelet estate at Twentieth street and Broadway, wbicb
has' suffered" from the same' sort of alterations as the old
"Juilge" Building, is among their very best business structures.
The "Herald" Building had its day of popularity; the new
Morgan Library, in Thirty-sixth street, is among their most





carefully studied designs; the Woman's Athletic Club, on Madi¬
son avenue, bas certain novel characteristics; and many good
judges consider the Library of Columbia College, on Morning¬
side Heights, to be the most monumental and effective of alf
their buildings. This list does not pretend to be exhausted.
There are in particular many private dwellings, such as those
of tbe late W. C, Whitney, Henry W. Poor, Charles T. Barney,
H. B. Hollins, which are worthy of special comment, particu¬
larly for tbeir interiors. But what a loss it would be to New
York City in case the buildings mentioned above had been
designed by inferior hands.

The work of McKim, Mead & White has always possessed
the peculiarity of being both popular and meritorious. Archi¬
tecture is an art which is so little understood in this country
tbat many really successful buildings go unnoticed except by a
few persons who possess some technical knowledge; but the
work of McKim, Mead & White has suffered less from this
cause than the work of any other architectural firm. And
there were excellent reasons why they were able to combine an
unusually bigb standard of achievement with an unusually
large amount of popular appreciation. Their success in this
respect was not owing to tbe fact that tbey courted popularity,
because McKim, Mead Sc Wbite have been unique in the extent
to which they insisted upon having their own way. It was
rather due to tbeir facility of representing while at the same
time improving the prevalent architectural taste of the last
twenty-five years. Architecture does not mean to Americans
buildings which are perfect in mass, proportion and detail; it
means tbe sort of buildings to which they have been accus¬
tomed in their European travels—buildings which possess an
historical atmosphere and associations. This was the one
prevailing American architectural tradition—the desire to have
certain familiar historical memories and associations aroused
by our important buildings. And just as McKim, Mead &
White were the first American architects to turn it to good
account, so they remain the architectural firm which has con¬
tinued to use it persistently and effectively.

Many of their designs are deliberate adaptations from specific
European buildings, but tbeir borrowing has been done witb good
sense and with right feeling. They bave not borrowed indis¬
criminately or unintelligently. The architecture of the Renais*
sanee has been tbe source of most of tbeir designs, and they
showed the excellent judgment in limiting to this extent the
area within which they looked for suggestions. For many
reasons the Renaissance is both the most available and the
most promising period from which modern American archi¬
tecture can take its start; and McKim. Mead & White were the
first architects to stand consistently for this idea. It has deter-
mined the general tendency of their work and bas had much to
do with its great success, but it must be immediately added
tbat if tbeir imitation of the Renaissance had been lifeless it
would also have been far less influential. What they have
sought to borrow was not certain forms, but certain effects.
They have exhibited a genuine sympathy witb the spirit of the
architecture of tbe Renaissance and a genuine understanding of
its characteristic merits and opportunities, Tbey bave brought
what is both freshness of feeling and intellectual insight into
the revival of old forms, just as did the architects of the Renais¬
sance themselves; and that is the chief reason why their work
has been so meritorious as well as so influential. They have
given an original and an effective rendering of the most avail¬
able architectural tradition which we Americans could borrow,
and they have consequently deserved their success. At the
present time they have reached the position of being tbe repre¬
sentative American firm of architects, and tbe work which tbey
have begun will be carried on not only by the remaining mem¬
bers of tbe firm, but by tbe many excellent designers who have
either accepted tbeir lead or have graduated from their office-





Shall Brooklyn be Held Back for Jersey?

(Letter from Calvin Tomkins to the Bridge Commissioner,
accoi'ipanying a report on passenger transportation be¬
tween lower Manhattan,  Brooklyn and  the Bronx.)

Dear Sir—The conclusions of this report are based on the
following assumptions:

That it is unwise to connect the two bridges either by an ele¬
vated or by a subway loop.                                   ■

That the correct principle of passenger transportation between
Brooklyn and Manbaltan is to conduct the traffic of each bridge
transversely across Manhattan, thus affording convenient access
to every norlh and south line of transit in that borough.

That before authorizing a double deck structure in Park Row
and the Bowery, the Bridge Commissioner and the Board of
Estimate ascertain and publish tbe terms and duration of the