Illuminati

Edward F Caldwell & Co., est. 1895, manufactured custom-made lighting fixtures for America’s leading architects and designers including McKim Mead & White, Carre & Hastings and Cass Gilbert. An early innovator in electric lighting, the firm combined the new technology with traditional ornamental metalwork. Working into the mid-20th century, their commissions included many public buildings including The White House, The New York Public Library and Radio City Music Hall.

Over 35,00 photographs and drawings from the company’s archives are available from
The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Library’s online digital database.

Aiken-Rhett House, Charleston, SC - Pt. II

Photo by TheGoodReverend via Flickr

After Frances Rhett donated the Aiken-Rhett house to the Charleston Museum in 1975, work began to protect and stabilize the dilapidated building. The museum installed a new roof and rebuilt the piazzas which had become unsafe. From 1982 until 1989, the house was open for tours until Hurricane Hugo slammed into Charleston destroying the chimneys and several outbuildings, pouring rain into Harriet’s bedroom that the family had worked so hard to preserve.

The Charleston Museum continued it's restoration efforts, rebuilding the chimneys and outbuildings. However, attendance began to dwindle and the museum was forced to close the house for tours in 1993.

The house remained closed until Historic Charleston Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the architecture and cultural character of Charleston, took over ownership in 1995.

The HCF reopened the house for tours and soon after developed an integrated plan of conservation and restoration. Exterior components such as the shutters, windows and doors were restored to protect the interior historic fabric in it's original condition.

Photo by Gross & Daley Photo

Photo by megnificence via flickr

Photo by megnificence via flickr

Photo by megnificence via flickr

Photo by Rick Rhodes, HCF

Photo Carrroll Ann Bowers, HCF

The most striking change has been to the exterior. In 2006, the weathered masonry walls were given an application of deep yellow lime wash and stenciled white lines were applied to simulate stone blocks, returning the house to it’s 1858 appearance when the Aikens did their last alterations. The lime wash is not only decorative, it adds a protective and breathable coating to the masonry.

The Aiken-Rhett house is located at 48 Elizabeth Steet in Charleston, SC and is open 7 days a week. A self-guided audio tour takes visitors through each room, from basement to parlors and into the carriage house and servant’s quarters. One of the most unique house tours you’ll ever see and highly recommended.

Le Monde Créole - Joel Pickford

Parlange Plantation

Julie de Ternant - Parlange Plantation

Slave Allee - Evergreen Plantation

Columns - Evergreen Plantation

Fountain - Evergreen Plantation

Interior - Evergreen Plantation

Branch - Slave Quarters - Evergreen Plantation

Breakfast Window - Evergreen Plantation

Since 1995, photographer Joel Pickford has been photographing the architecture, people and places of southern Louisiana. His series “Le Monde Creole” captures the unique beauty of the region. He is currently working on a documentary film “Bayou Blues: A Photographer’s Journey in South Louisiana.”

Aiken-Rhett House, Charleston, SC - Pt. I

Photos via Library of Congress

“Through closed shutters the tendrils of vines reached in from outside. Broken chains of prisms hung from chandeliers. Rotting silk drapery clung to gilded poles. Silver hardware had turned black, and a heavy black dust covered everything and hung in the air, so thick in one room that they could not breathe.” - Henry Wiencek, “Old Houses”

So was the Aiken-Rhett house when the curator from the Charleston Museum entered the neglected mansion accompanied by two decedents of the family that had lived in the house for 150 years. The last occupant of the house, Frances Rhett, had moved out of the house three years prior, and had recently donated the house to the museum. Her late husband, I’on Rhett and his brother Andrew Burnet Rhett, Jr., occupied the house (with staff) as bachelors for many years, spurning any ideas of modernization, living just like their ancestors had.

1830's Entrance Hall - Photo via Library of Congress

The fourteen room mansion was built in 1817 by John Robinson, a wealthy merchant, who only lived in the house for a short time until he was forced to forfeit it to his creditors when several of his ships were lost at sea.  One of the creditors, William Aiken, took possession of the house until he was killed in a carriage accident and the house passed to his son William Aiken, Jr.

William Aiken, Jr., a wealthy planter and future governor of South Carolina, with his wife Harriet where to have the greatest influence on the appearance of the Aiken-Rhett house. Beginning in the 1830’s, they oversaw an extensive redesign of the house in the Greek Revival style. The first floor was divided into double parlors and the entrance was moved from the wide front porches (know in Charleston as piazzas) to the side, where an elegant marble entrance hall was built.

Photo - Michael Eastman

In the 1850’s, the Aikens once again redecorated, this time in the Rococo Revival style. A gallery was built to display the artwork acquired from the family’s travels throughout Europe and a large portrait of Harriet Aiken, by George Whiting Flagg, was installed in the second parlor, so large that a window was blocked off to accommodate the life-sized painting.

William Aiken passed away in 1887, followed by his wife in 1892. At Harriet’s death, her daughter Henrietta began a custom that was followed by successive members of the family, her mother’s room was simply shut-off, her belongings left untouched.

Henrietta and her husband, Major A.B. Rhett, raised their family in the house. When Henrietta passed away it was divided between her children and their heirs. Burnet Rhett, Jr and his brother I’on Rhett, followed by his wife Frances were the last occupants of the house. Little by little, rooms not needed were closed and left for time to take it’s course.

Harriet's bedroom

The Art Gallery

The Back Staircase
Photos via The Library of Congress

Malplaquet Revisited

For those who can’t get enough of Malplaquet house, Tim Knox will be lecturing on how he and his partner, Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, saved this magnificent house from demolition and filled it with wondrous objects from their years of collecting. He’ll be in Los Angeles on March 23rd and in San Franciso March 24th. For tickets and information, visit Sir John Soane’s Museum Foundation.

Photograph by James Mortimer via World of Interiors

Photograph by James Mortimer via World of Interiors

Photograph by James Mortimer via World of Interiors

The Cotton District

In the small college town of Starkville, Mississippi, Dan Camp, part architect/part builder/part visionary, has quietly been creating an unique community based on the principles of traditional architecture.

Starting in 1969, with a plan to build affordable housing for the local students, Dan built his first buildings in a neglected section of town on the site of a former cotton mill. Working from sketches he made from his travels throughout the South, Dan built his classically inspired buildings using local workers that produced the windows, doors, millwork and shutters.

Forty years later, “The Cotton District” continues to evolve into a highly desirable mixed-use community with a yearly arts festival that draws thousands. Enjoying nearly 100 percent occupancy, Dan is now including commercial spaces in his new structures, hoping to persuade the students to stay and open their own businesses.

Dan Camp's residence - A Charleston inspired Single House

Shutters, brick and stucco

"The Temple"

"The Four Apostles"

"The Pool House"

"The Treasurer"

"Rue Du Grand Fromage" named after the famous cheese produced by the university.

Page from Mr. Camp's sketchbook

Favorite Shops NYC- Hudson City Antiques

Hudson City Antiques, 150 & 154 Ninth Avenue, is an excellent source for period lighting, antique frames, furniture (English, American, Arts & Crafts, etc.) and prints.

They are currently having a “downsizing” sale at the 154 Ninth Avenue location with a great selection of fantastic finds ready to take home.

1. Nautilus lamp - brass lamp with original nautilus shell - sadly already sold.
2. 19th c. Oval Gilt Frame with original glass - contact for price.
3. Print in original oak frame, "Prudential Insurance Home Office, Newark, New Jersey, 1909" - contact for price.

Vintage New York Postcards

image from the Walker Evans Collection via yahoo

"Walker Evans and the Picture Postcard", based on a collection of 9,000 postcards by the American photographer, will be on exhibit from February 3 - May 25, 2009 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Here are a few of my favorites that I've collected over the years. I particularly like the night time ones.

Images by The Architecturalist

Historic American Buildings Survey - Georgia

Historic American Buildings Survey - Georgia

The Historic American Buildings Survey was established in 1933 as part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” program to provide work for architects and surveyors whose jobs were affected by the Great Depression. Their job was to survey, draw and photograph America’s historic structures from the grandest to the most humble.

In Georgia, Atlanta architect P. Thornton Marye was appointed district officer of the project. With photographer, Sandy Sanders he traveled statewide measuring and photographing the state’s architectural treasures.

The handsome hand-lettered volume of their collaboration has been reproduced online by the Georgia Tech Collection. Despite being made for utilitarian purposes, their is something hauntingly beautiful about the photographs showing the homes and public buildings in all states of repair.

The Old Medical College - Augusta

Bulloch Hall - Augusta

The Blount House - Haddock

Westover - Milledeville

Westover - Milledeville

Johnson House - Clinton-Near-Gray

Lowther Hall - Clinton-Near-Gray

Minis House - Savannah

Bona Fide Bulb

Photo from Rural Missouri

For the architectural purist: authentic carbon filament light bulbs. Made by John and Lynda Casey in their small workshop in rural Missouri. These replicas of Thomas Edison’s bulbs are made with filaments from carbonized cotton fibers instead of the more modern tungsten filaments found in cheaper reproductions. The Caseys have provided bulbs for several films and historic homes including the Thomas Edison and Henry Ford Winter Estates Museum. Bulbs are available from their web site.

Merry Christmas!

Glory above Sanctuary, Christ Church Spitalfields

Malplaquet House

Tim Knox, director of Sir John Soane's Museum and Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, a landscape architect, live in Malplaquet House in London's East End. Built in 1740 for a wealthy merchant, the 20 plus room mansion survived the Blitz and being chopped up into various shop spaces before being rescued by the Spitalfields Trust from demolition.

Tim and Todd acquired the mansion in 1998 and began an extensive stabilization preserving as much of the historical fabric as possible. They then began filling the rooms with their vast collection of religious artifacts, taxidermy animals and other curiosities acquired from the markets and auction houses of England.

A chimneypiece, constructed of plaster by set designer Christopher Hobbs, holds a commanding position in the Sarcophagus room. Allegorical figures representing Africa and North America, where Tim and Todd were raised, support the cornice. In the center are portraits of the owners and a human skull found by the sculptor in the rubble of an old YMCA.

Portraits of nuns line the walls and taxidermy animals peer from under heavy Victorian furniture.

A stained-glass window depicting the Crucifixion provides privacy in the bathroom.

Outside, Todd has filled the garden with ancient tree ferns and religious statuary.

Photographs via Barry Lewis Photography

Thierry Despont - Through the Moon Door

Architect Thierry Despont’s current exhibition, Through the Mood Door, featuring these curious mechanical oddities, will be on display at the Marlborough Gallery Chelsea through November 18th.

Architectural Hero...Gaston Callum

Photograph by Gastom Callum via Oxford American

In the mid 1990’s, Gaston Callum began photographing the forgotten plantation houses, farm houses and vernacular buildings of his native South. Realizing that time was quickly running out for these neglected properties he founded Southland Historic Preservation with the goal to document and stabilize these historic buildings. After stabilization, the properties are sold with historic covenants to ensure that buyers do a sympathetic restoration. Successes include properties in Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Materials from buildings that cannot be saved are sold in lots that include photos of the original installations.

Available properties are listed on the SHP website, some with videos documenting their rescue. Gaston continues to photograph buildings and is currently working on a book of endangered North Carolina architecture.

Favorite Places ...The Garconieres - Houmas House Plantation

Houmas House

Two story hexagonal brick and stucco structures built as bachelor's quarters, presumably to keep the peace and quiet in the main house, consisting of a sitting room downstairs and an upstairs bedroom. 

Library of Congress, Richard Koch photographer

Measuring the east garconiere for the Historic American Buildings Survey, April 1936.