BRYN ATHYN HISTORIC DISTRICT Page 1 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK NOMINATION NPS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 BRYN ATHYN HISTORIC DISTRICT Page 1 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form 1. NAME OF PROPERTY Historic Name: Bryn Athyn Historic District Other Name/Site Number: Pitcairn Residences (Cairnwood, Cairncrest, Glencairn) and Bryn Athyn Cathedral 2. LOCATION Street & Number: Huntingdon Pike and Cathedral Road Not for publication: N/A City/Town: Bryn Athyn State: PA County: Montgomery Code: 091 Zip Code: 19009 3. CLASSIFICATION Ownership of Property Category of Property Private: X Building(s): Public-Local: District: X Public-State: Site: Public-Federal: Structure: Object: Number of Resources within Property Contributing Noncontributing 14 3 buildings sites 7 structures objects 21 3 Total Number of Contributing Resources Previously Listed in the National Register: 6 Name of Related Multiple Property Listing: NPS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 BRYN ATHYN HISTORIC DISTRICT Page 2 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form 4. STATE/FEDERAL AGENCY CERTIFICATION As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, I hereby certify that this ____ nomination ____ request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property ____ meets ____ does not meet the National Register Criteria. Signature of Certifying Official Date State or Federal Agency and Bureau In my opinion, the property ____ meets ____ does not meet the National Register criteria. Signature of Commenting or Other Official Date State or Federal Agency and Bureau 5. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that this property is: ___ Entered in the National Register ___ Determined eligible for the National Register ___ Determined not eligible for the National Register ___ Removed from the National Register ___ Other (explain): Signature of Keeper Date of Action NPS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 BRYN ATHYN HISTORIC DISTRICT Page 3 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form 6. FUNCTION OR USE Historic: RELIGION Sub: religious facility DOMESTIC single dwelling secondary structure Current: RELIGION Sub: religious facility SOCIAL meeting hall RECREATION & CULTURE Sub: museum 7. DESCRIPTION Architectural Classification: Late Gothic Revival Beaux Arts Romanesque Revival Bungalow/Craftsman MATERIALS: Foundation: Granite Walls: Granite, limestone, sandstone Roof: Slate, tile, Monel Other: Brick, concrete, Monel, copper, bronze NPS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 BRYN ATHYN HISTORIC DISTRICT Page 4 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form Summary The Bryn Athyn Historic District comprises an exceptional and enduring essay of the American Arts and Crafts Movement embodied in three family residences of the John Pitcairn family and the Bryn Athyn Cathedral of the Swedenborgian faith, all built between 1892 and 1938. Under the Pitcairn patronage, resident artists established workshops in the medieval tradition for all arts and crafts of the building trade. The resulting architecture dominates the rural landscape of this faith-based community. The district has national significance equal to contemporaneous Arts and Crafts architecture of such noted educational family-centered institutions as George Booth’s Cranbrook Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan (NHL, 1989) and the individuality of Henry Chapman Mercer’s Fonthill, Moravian Tile Works, and Mercer Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania (NHL, 1985). The use of craft shops equates with the well-known utopian commercial endeavors at the Roycroft Campus in East Aurora, New York (NHL, 1986), and Gustav Stickley’s Craftsman Farms in Parsippany, New Jersey (NHL, 1990). The Bryn Athyn Historic District emerged as a unique architectural composition during a fertile period of Arts and Crafts production in America, thus embodying beliefs in the virtues of nature and natural materials and personal fulfillment through the production and appreciation of handcrafted architecture and art. Describe Present and Historic Physical Appearance. Site Introduction The Bryn Athyn Historic District lies seventeen miles north of Philadelphia within the Borough of Bryn Athyn, Lower Moreland, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It consists of slightly over thirty-seven acres of land formerly owned by John Pitcairn, founder of Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company and supporter of the Swedenborgian faith and an educational system derived from writings of the Swedish scientist, philosopher, and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772). The landscape features three family residences plus the Bryn Athyn Cathedral of the General Church of the New Jerusalem built for the residential community of Bryn Athyn that developed south of the family tract. With the exception of one contributing building, the district is bounded on the east by Huntingdon Pike (PA Route 232), on the south partly by Quarry Road, and on the west and north by a wooded fringe that borders agricultural land. Cathedral Road (formerly Paper Mill Road) transects the district going northwest from Huntingdon Pike. The topography of the district is marked by two significant hills running east to west that rise above the residential community. They became the locations for sequential construction of the buildings. The district includes thirteen contributing buildings, seven contributing structures, and three non-contributing buildings. It retains national architectural significance under Criterion 4 for the Arts and Crafts Movement methods, sensibilities, and materials used in the construction of the four major buildings and their associated outbuildings and structures designed and built between 1892 and 1938 by the Pitcairn family principally through their own workshops. The buildings are John Pitcairn’s Cairnwood; Bryn Athyn Cathedral; Harold Pitcairn’s Cairncrest, and Raymond Pitcairn’s Glencairn. The main losses in the district are the greenhouses of Cairnwood and Cairncrest. Notably, one of the smaller contributing buildings is the original wood-frame Metal Shop, later enlarged with other shops moved to the site. This building complex represents the typical historic craft shops used in construction and contributes to the physical integrity of the district. John Pitcairn’s estate, Cairnwood, designed in 1892 by Carrère & Hastings, represents the Beaux-Arts tradition and is on the upper hill to the east. The two-and-a-half-story mansion with twenty-eight rooms, outbuildings, and an estate wall were all constructed of orange-spotted Roman brick and limestone, American woods and other products, and Pittsburgh Plate Glass. Philadelphia contractors and local artisans carried out the construction. In 1911, a Philadelphia firm added a chauffeur’s residence, garages, and studio across the Huntingdon Pike in the same style and materials, but Raymond Pitcairn specifically designed Arts and Crafts features for his studio rooms. Cairnwood now serves conference and event space following a restoration in NPS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 BRYN ATHYN HISTORIC DISTRICT Page 5 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form 2001. Bryn Athyn Cathedral stands on the lower hill to the east and is a Gothic Revival church of granite and limestone initiated in 1914 on a design by Ralph Adams Cram. It was completed by 1929 with changes under the direction of Raymond Pitcairn. He engaged an international workforce in the medieval guild tradition to use local stone and timber, an especially durable metal (Monel), and various preindustrial construction methods that included the on-site manufacture of pot-metal stained glass. The Cathedral and its two added towers, halls, stone terracing, and over forty-eight stained glass windows reflect symbolism of the Swedenborgian faith and masterful individualized workmanship of the Bryn Athyn Craft Shop artisans. While the Cathedral was still under construction, local architects Weatherill P. Trout and Llewellyn R. Price designed Cairncrest in 1926 for son Harold, an aviator and aeronautical engineer instrumental in the development of the helicopter. Harold’s residential complex stands on the lower hill north of the Cathedral and is a two-and-a-half story neo- Romanesque towered building with allied outbuildings. The exterior features traditional stone masonry with little adornment, but walls, ceilings, and floors crafted with a mixture of twentieth-century construction materials (block, tile, poured concrete, plaster) and medieval timber work, wood paneling, elegant metal work, and handmade floor and wall tiles. Surfaces are decoratively and colorfully painted or carved with birds, animals, or plant life by the Cathedral workshops in the Arts and Crafts mode. Cairncrest currently serves the administrative offices of the General Church of the New Jerusalem and its bishop with only minor alterations for