sign in sign up
<<
Home , Alexander Jackson Davis, Ithiel Town, Jay Estate, Jay Heritage Center, John Cox Stevens

FOUNDATION CORNER

ALEXANDER JACKSON DAVIS: ARCHITECT OF STATION 10

WITH THE FIRST CLUBHOUSE TURNING 175 THIS YEAR, CURATOR OF COLLECTIONS ALICE DICKINSON LOOKS BACK AT THE MAN BEHIND THE ENDURING BUILDING.

In 1845, Commodore John Cox Stevens commissioned (1803-1892) to build the Yacht Club’s first clubhouse, now known as Station 10. Davis was one of the country’s leading architects and is credited with popularizing a distinctly American interpretation of British county houses and landscapes. An important component of his picturesque style was the Gothic Revival, popular in U.S. domestic architecture from roughly the 1840s to the 1860s. One hundred and seventy-five years after its construction, Station 10 survives not just as NYYC’s first clubhouse but also as a fascinating example of Davis’ work.

Born in , Davis apprenticed in the print trade before training to become an artist at the American Academy of the Fine Arts, the New-York Drawing Association, and the Antique School of the National Academy of Design. With encouragement from leading artists and friends, such as Rembrandt Peale and , Davis shifted his focus to architecture and to becoming a leading architectural illustrator and draftsman. In 1826, Davis went to work for architects

On July 15, 1845, the opened its first clubhouse, one year after its founding. The one-room Gothic Revival building was designed by noted architect Alexander Jackson Davis and built on land owned by Commodore John Cox Stevens in Hoboken, N.J.

In 1868, in search of more space, the Club moved to The Winding Road Clifton, Staten to Harbour Court Island, and left the original clubhouse Nestled on the lawn at Harbour Court, Station 10 for the time being, has become an indelible part of the Newport Harbor where it was used landscape. But the original clubhouse took a long and circuitous path from Elysian Fields to its current home. by a handful of other organizations. UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL, NYYC ARCHIVES CHAPEL HILL, NYYC CAROLINA AT UNIVERSITY OF NORTH

10 NEW YORK YACHT CLUB FOUNDATION CORNER

Ithiel Town and Martin E. Thompson. Town’s expertise, mentorship and contacts served Davis well, and he was promoted to partner three years later. Town & Davis designed a number of significant houses and civic buildings, including the State House (1827-1831), Indiana’s State Capital (1831-35), the Custom House of New York City (1833-1842) and the (1842) in Hartford, Conn. Davis worked primarily on his own after their architectural partnership dissolved in 1835. A significant early solo project was Knoll (1838) in Tarrytown, N.Y.; the house was rebuilt as in 1864.

While Davis was already known for his architecture and a publication of his own, his next collaboration would disseminate his style and designs even further. In 1839, Davis began working with A. J. Downing (another Alexander Jackson) on a series

In 1864, A.J. Davis was commissioned by George Merritt to Visit www.nyycfoundation.org to make a enlarge Knoll, the house in Tarrytown, N.Y., he had built for the charitable contribution, and to learn more Paulding family between 1838 and 1842. In essence, he created about the historic buildings of the New York a new house, Lyndhurst, the greatest house in the late Gothic Yacht Club. Your support is crucial in preserving Revival style still standing. Davis was known for skilled water- our past and safeguarding our future. color renderings such as this one.

In 1904, the land in Hoboken was purchased by the Railroad and the building given back to the Club, which moved it to the foot of Landing Road (now Morgan Memorial Park) in Glen Cove, N.Y., to serve as Station 10. It replaced an earlier Station 10 that operated in Glen Cove from 1896 to 1904. The station was within walking distance of a trolley that made regular stops at the LI Railroad station; it was also within a short distance to the hotel The Hall. A.J. DAVIS/THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NYYC ARCHIVES NYYC MUSEUM OF ART, METROPOLITAN DAVIS/THE A.J.

NEW YORK YACHT CLUB 11 FOUNDATION CORNER

of publications. Davis designed and illustrated Downing’s work. In addition to illustrating Downing’s periodical The Horticulturalist, they collaborated on a number of books, including Cottage Residences (1842) and the wildly popular The Architecture of Country Houses (1850). These were architectural pattern books, meant to be used by homebuilders. They included detailed descriptions of different types of residences, floorplans, recommended landscaping and fitting architectural details. The Architecture of Country Houses even included a section with recommendations for furniture. Davis and Downing were tastemakers, and their publications served as prescriptive literature, shaping middle-class taste and style. Widely disseminated, these volumes helped popularized the Gothic Revival style.

STATION 10 Commodore John Cox Stevens commissioned Davis to design a club building to be placed on Stevens’ land in Hoboken. As John Davis and partner designed the castle, above, Rousmaniere points out in his 2009 Club history, the Stevens which is the oldest of the four buildings that make up the family were clients of Davis’, commissioning him to build a Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Conn. Construction on mansion for John Cox Stevens in New York City and another for this primary building began in 1842, and the museum Edwin Stevens on the Hoboken bluffs. opened July 31, 1844. Interestingly, the club building sought by Stevens was not a boathouse or a clubhouse, but a mixed-use dining space. The structure was completed in just five days and opened to the membership on July 15, 1845. Days later the Club held its first race.

By the 1940s, with smaller yachts coming into favor, the Club no longer needed a Glen Cove station. In 1949, the Club loaned Station 10 to Mystic Seaport. COURTESY OF THE WADSWORTH ATHENEUM, COURTESY OF MYSTIC SEAPORT OF MYSTIC COURTESY ATHENEUM, OF THE WADSWORTH COURTESY

12 NEW YORK YACHT CLUB FOUNDATION CORNER

On July 16, the New York Herald ran the following description of Station 10, and buildings like it, have been described using a the building (as quoted in Rousmaniere, 2009): variety of terms, including Gothic Revival, and Picturesque. Davis evokes Gothic architecture particularly “At the entrance to the Elysian Fields, amid a grove of trees, was in his treatment of the windows and doors. On either end of the erected a wooden half Gothic and Swiss building of about 40 feet long clubhouse there is a diamond-shaped window under the eaves by 20 wide, and 30 high, having four large diamond pointed windows that follows the roofline. The arched transom window over the on each side, and large doors at each end. On the outside, around the doors evokes a cathedral window. This is further emphasized by building, is a piazza of about five feet wide, where a segar or cheroot the lattice window pattern used on all the windows and doors. [sic] may be enjoyed in the shade, without being an annoyance to any The vertical board and batten siding of Station 10 is another one. At the back is erected ample cooking apparatus. The building is element associated with the Gothic Revival and the adaption of intended as a dining room for the Yacht Club, and such other large European Gothic stone architecture to smaller-scale domestic and respected bodies as may wish to adjourn to this spot on a like architecture in wood. occasion.” Davis’ design for Station 10 displays many iconic Gothic Revival Station 10 features a steeply pitched gable roof, which flares out features associated with the style, including the steeply pitched at the bottom. The ornate detail following the roofline is called a roofline, decorated bargeboards, and the cathedral-shaped and bargeboard or vergeboard in period literature. It is a decorated board leaded windows. Interestingly, a similar building was constructed attached to the gables to add support and to act as a decorative in 1849 for another founding Club member: Dr. John Clarkson element. Similar bargeboards were illustrated throughout Cottage Jay. The cottage was situated on his waterfront property in Rye, Residences and Davis’ publications around this time. N.Y. While it was dismantled decades ago, the , stewards of the , is in the process of raising funds to reproduce the building as it appeared on the property.

Visit www.nyycfoundation.org to make a Station 10 serves as an embodiment of its time: the first clubhouse charitable contribution, and to learn more for a young New York Yacht Club, and a fascinating example of an about the historic buildings of the New York uniquely American style. Yacht Club. Your support is crucial in preserving —Alice Dickinson our past and safeguarding our future.

SOURCES: In 1999, the original Downing, Alexander Jackson. clubhouse, which Cottage Residences. Wiley & served 23 years in Putnam, 1842. Available on the Internet Archive. Hoboken, 45 in Glen Cove as Station 10, and Dowing, Alexander Jackson. The Architecture of Country Houses. D. 50 on exhibit at Mystic Appleton & Company and Geo S. Seaport, made its final Appleton, 1850. Available on the voyage to Harbour Internet Archive.

Court, where it stands Peck, Amerlia. “Alexander Jackson as an important artifact Davis (1803-1892).” In Heilbrunn and reminder of the Timeline of Art History. New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-. Club’s origins. Rousmaniere, John. The New York Yacht Club: A History, 1844-2008. New York Yacht Club and Seapoint Books, 2009.

__. “Guide to the Alexander Jackson Davis Architectural Drawing Collection.” The New-York Historical Society.

Material from A. J. Davis is held by the Avery Library at , , New-York Historical Society, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. DAN NERNEY, NYYC ARCHIVES NYYC NERNEY, DAN

NEW YORK YACHT CLUB 13