ORAL HISTORY of JOHN AUGUR HOLABIRD Interviewed by Susan S
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ORAL HISTORY OF JOHN AUGUR HOLABIRD Interviewed by Susan S. Benjamin Compiled under the auspices of the Chicago Architects Oral History Project The Ernest R. Graham Study Center for Architectural Drawings Department of Architecture The Art Institute of Chicago Copyright © 1993 Revised Edition © 2003 The Art Institute of Chicago This manuscript is hereby made available to the public for research purposes only. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publication, are reserved to the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries of The Art Institute of Chicago. No part of this manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of The Art Institute of Chicago. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface iv Outline of Topics vi Oral History 1 Selected References 194 Appendix: Curriculum Vitæ 195 Index of Names and Buildings 196 iii PREFACE Surrounded by four generations of memorabilia, John Holabird and I recorded his recollections in six sessions from October 29 to December 3, 1992. We sat in the library of his home of forty years, a wonderful 1872 house in Chicago filled with books, family photos and drawings. The overwhelming sense was one of continuity. And this is appropriate, for John, who retired from the firm in 1987, is the last in the line of Holabirds at Holabird and Root. With warmth and humility he shared his family memories, his love of the theater and many stories that reveal the persona of the office. In discussing the firm’s beginnings in the 1890s as Holabird and Roche through his own handsome design for the pavilion at Ravinia Park, one hundred years of history came alive during our sessions. This oral history will augment the fine work of Robert Bruegmann who, in 1991, published a three-volume illustrated catalog of the work of Holabird and Roche and Holabird and Root up to 1940. Until this publication, only journal articles and book chapters had been written about one of Chicago’s oldest, most significant, prolific and widely respected firms. But research continues, and through the availability of the firm’s archives at the Chicago Historical Society, information will continue to be uncovered. John’s memoirs will provide information on recent years and form an important personal component to the growing body of knowledge on the firm. Our sessions were taped on six ninety-minute cassettes which have been transcribed, edited and reviewed to maintain the flow, tone and spirit of the narrative. Selected references that I found particularly helpful in preparing this oral history are included. John Holabird’s oral history was sponsored by the Department of Architecture at the Art Institute of Chicago and funded through the generous support of Harold Schiff of Schal Associates. This oral history is available for study in the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at The Art Institute of Chicago. My special thanks for assistance on the project goes to Marcia Fergestad Holabird for her gracious hospitality, to Betty Blum, the Department of Architecture, for her sound advice and constant encouragement and to Diane Richard and Lorraine Dezik of the Tavern Club of Chicago for the invaluable background material they provided me. For their intelligent and thoughtful care in transcribing, my thanks go to TapeWriter, Inc., whose attention and iv skill helped shape this document. Most of all, I thank John Holabird, as will future historians, for generously sharing his recollections. Susan S. Benjamin December 1993 In 2003, funding allowed us to scan, reformat, and make this entire text available on The Art Institute of Chicago's website, www.artic.edu. Annemarie van Roessel deserves our thanks for her masterful handling of this phase of the process. Betty J. Blum Director, CAOHP Chicago, 2003 v OUTLINE OF TOPICS Family Background 1 At the Tavern Club 13 Chicago Buildings 16 About Carl Milles 18 More About Family 19 The Office of Holabird & Root 21 Art Work and Architecture 27 Graham, Anderson, Probst & White 33 At the Century of Progress International Exposition 35 John Fugard 37 Designing Stage Sets 40 At Harvard 42 In the United States Army 50 Following Military Service 56 Teaching 58 Back to Holabird & Root 62 During the Depression 67 Century of Progress International Exposition Revisited 68 More About the Depression 70 Public Housing and Other Jobs 73 Working with Helen Geraghty 76 More About Holabird & Root 82 The Army and Harvard 83 American Institute of Architects Activities 85 About Mies van der Rohe 86 Holabird & Root Revisited 91 About Helmuth Bartsch 92 About Bernard Bradley 95 Holabird & Root Collection at the Chicago Historical Society 96 Francis Parker School 99 About Other Jobs 105 vi Madison-Canal Long Lines Telephone Building 111 Clients 120 Preservation 123 Holabird & Root Buildings Worldwide 125 Tavern Club Remodelings 129 Personal and Professional Changes 132 About William Holabird 133 Obtaining Jobs 135 Liability 141 Starchitects 144 Restoration, Renovation and Additions 147 Office Staff at Holabird & Root 152 Opinions About the Good and the Not So Good 155 Cultural and Civic Activities 158 On Becoming a Fellow and Fellowship Activities 170 More About Civic Activities and Issues 175 The Future of Holabird & Root 180 Chicago’s Architectural Future 182 John Holabird’s Contribution 184 John Holabird’s Future 185 Crusade for Chicago River Development 187 vii John Augur Holabird Benjamin: Today is October 29, 1992, and I’m with John Augur Holabird, Jr., in his home at 2715 North Pine Grove in Chicago. Now retired, Mr. Holabird is the sole surviving family member of the firm of Holabird and Root, and before that Holabird and Roche, recognized worldwide for not only the significant role it played in the development of the skyscraper but for the breadth of its achievements in the firm’s hundred-plus-year history. John, you have had a long and fascinating career with memories that reach farther back than your lifetime. Your memories touch on the world of your grandfather, William Holabird, founder of the firm of Holabird and Roche, and his colleagues. I have read a great deal and heard you speak about your father and your work, so I know there are many wonderful stories to tell about the development of the incredible firm of Holabird and Root, the successor firm to Holabird and Roche. There is considerable information to be learned about you and your contributions in theater as well as in architecture. What I’ve read is basically the skeleton of information. What we would all like to know is the flesh that fits on the skeleton—your impressions and feelings, the information often not found in books; the hows and whys as well as the whos, whats, whens and wheres. May we go back to the beginning and your childhood and talk about those people and places that shaped your growth as a person and as an architect? Holabird: My grandfather, William, died when I was barely three, I think, so my recollections of him as a person are just that he was absolutely huge. He was six-foot-five, and I think must have weighed close to 300 pounds, although when he went to West Point he was six-foot-five and had a twenty-inch waist, or something like that. People used to swell up in middle age. I don’t know how their wives or tailors kept up with them. Anyway, he scared me to death because he was so big. He called me Starry Eyes. According to my mother, when Grandfather Holabird looked at me as a baby, he said, “Well, there’s no 1 Hackett in him, thank goodness.” That was my mother’s maiden name. My younger sister was brunette and very much Hackett. His father was a quartermaster officer in the army. He had been in the Quartermaster Corps in the Civil War in New Orleans under the notorious General Butler, who had gotten so angry with the southern belles at New Orleans that he said if they weren’t off the street by seven o’clock they would consider them whores. That upset the South immeasurably. Anyway, Great-grandfather was in the Quartermaster Corps, and New Orleans was in charge of the cotton market because the Union Army had captured it. I have a feeling that part of the family fortune—or at least they got started in—came from side-betting on cotton futures, which I don’t really understand, but he must have. Later on he became quartermaster general, and Camp Holabird in Maryland, close to Baltimore, is named for him. He was one of the first people who got proper specifications for army goods that were submitted to the quartermaster. There is a book out on that, and very interesting. My father said he was responsible for the campaign hat and the pup tent, among other great things. Anyway, Grandfather was an army brat. He went to West Point from St. Paul. He told my father he’d been a brilliant cadet. Evidently they keep all the records at West Point, and when my father was a cadet, he checked it out, and he said yes, he was. He was really top-drawer, but he rode across the river from West Point to Garrison, where I guess there were bars, and somebody found out and tossed him out. I guess he was not a yearling but a second-classman by that time. But since his father was a West Point graduate, and the then-president, I think, was either Grant or Hayes and they were both West Point, he got back in. That’s what West Point does for you, I hear. But meanwhile, he met my grandmother, who was one of eleven Augur children of General Augur of the Civil War, and he decided that he was so much in love that even though he was back at West Point, he then resigned.