EVERGREEN HABS MD-1167 (Evergreen Museum & Library) MD-1167 4545 North Charles Street Baltimore Independent City Maryland PHOTOGRAPHS HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior 1849 C Street NW Washington, DC 20240-0001 ADDENDUM TO: HABS MD-1167 EVERGREEN MD-1167 (Evergreen Museum & Library) 4545 North Charles Street Baltimore Independent City Maryland PHOTOGRAPHS PAPER COPIES OF COLOR TRANSPARENCIES WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA REDUCED COPIES OF MEASURED DRAWINGS FIELD RECORDS HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior 1849 C Street NW Washington, DC 20240-0001 HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY Addendum to EVERGREEN (Evergreen Museum & Library) HABS MD-1167 Location: 4545 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD, 21210. Evergreen House, today known as Evergreen Museum & Library, is situated on an estate of twenty-six acres, nestled between the campuses of The College of Notre Dame of Maryland and Loyola University Maryland. The house is set back from the road in a wooded landscape and is accessed by a long entrance road. The house is located at latitude 39.3483333, longitude -76.621111 (WGS84 39˚ 20‘54‖, 76˚ 37‘16‖ W) and the coordinates were obtained through Google in 2009. The UTM coordinates for the property boundary line as delineated for the National Register of Historic Places are: (Zone) 18 E 360440 N 4356620; 18 E 360460 N 4356340; 18 E 360180 N 4356320; 18 E 360160 N 4356580. Present Owner: The Johns Hopkins University, since 1942. Present Occupant: The John Work Garrett Library, part of The Johns Hopkins University‘s Sheridan Libraries; the Evergreen House Foundation; and Evergreen Museum & Library. Present Use: Museum, Library, and arts center. Significance: Evergreen is best known as the home of the Ambassador John Work Garrett (1872-1942) and his wife Alice Warder Garrett (1877-1952) who made their estate into an artistic and cultural center soon after inheriting the property in 1920. The Garretts invited a series of artists and designers to live and work in the house, and in exchange these creative individuals left their mark on the Garrett family home. In 1922, for example, the Theater (T1) at Evergreen was repurposed by the architect Laurence Hall Fowler (1876-1971) from an earlier gymnasium and was decorated by the Russian artist and set designer Léon Bakst (1866-1924). Miguel Covarrubius‘s (1904-57) panel paintings in the Reading Room (120) document the diplomatic career of John W. Garrett, while at the same time became an important interior feature of the house. While the residency of John W. Garrett and Alice Warder Garrett may have given the house its lasting renown, the importance of the building is not limited to their tenancy. Indeed, perhaps the greatest architectural significance of the house is the manner in which it reflects the accretion of architectural forms over the course of the century spanning roughly 1850 to 1950. Constructed in 1858 by the Baltimore carpenter and builder John W. Hogg (1813-1871) for a Baltimore entrepreneur and lottery dealer named Stephen Broadbent (dates unknown), the classical revival- styled house is a manifestation of prevalent architectural trends that favored elements of both the Greek Revival and Italianate modes of design. Subsequent additions to the house, completed in the 1880s by T[homas] Harrison Garrett (1849-1888) and his wife Alice Dickinson Whitridge Garrett (1851-1920), reflected the eclectic interests of the nineteenth-century Romantic era and EVERGREEN HABS No. MD-1167 (page 2) significant remnants of their aesthetic predilections remain. The Garretts‘ first changes to the house were made following the designs of the prolific Baltimore architecture firm of J.A. & W.T. Wilson [John Appleton Wilson (1851-1927); William Thomas Wilson (1850-1907)]. Working with the combined local advice of the architect Charles L. Carson (1847-91) and the firm of P. Hanson Hiss and Company, as well as the nationally-renowned New York interior design firm of Herter Brothers (1864-1906), the Garretts altered the house to reflect their interests in Asian decorative arts and prevailing eclectic trends. They also worked extensively on the landscape of the estate, consulting Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903). Following the death of T. Harrison Garrett, the house was left unoccupied for nearly a decade until Alice Whitridge Garrett returned to it in 1895.1 She carried out significant alterations between 1899 and 1906. In this third stage of development, Alice Whitridge Garrett responded to the architectural standards for country homes established by the influential success of McKim, Mead and White2 and the wide-spread popularity of revivalist architectural styles. She worked with the architect J. Lawrence Aspinwall (d. 1936), of the New York firm Renwick, Aspinwall and Owen (1895- 1905),3 to create a new formal entrance to the house, and also with the Baltimore architect Paul Emmart (1866- ca. 1930) to design formal dressing rooms (B3, B4) for guests arriving at Evergreen. She once again consulted with the firm of Frederick Law Olmsted to enhance the landscape plan of the estate.4 With the additions and alterations completed between 1922 and 1942 by John W. Garrett and Alice Warder Garrett, largely in conjunction with the Baltimore architect Laurence Hall Fowler (1876-1971), features of the house were altered to reflect the influence of prevailing early twentieth-century tendencies, fusing aspects of the Colonial Revival with the aesthetic influences of Covarrubius and Bakst. Finally, in addition to its relevance within the development of national architectural trends, Evergreen is of particular value to the history of Baltimore architecture. From its construction by a local builder through the alterations largely carried out by Fowler in the twentieth century, Evergreen is the product of Baltimore designers and craftsman rather than the work of distant, 1 During these years AG lived in Princeton, New Jersey, where her sons were attending the University. She also traveled overseas during this interval. 2 Papers for Robert Garrett and Sons list a billiard room designed for Robert Garrett‘s townhouse by McKim, Mead and White, but one never existed in the house. The design parallels Evergreen‘s billiard room, so it is possible the firm consolidated its bills for both brothers. 3 J. Lawrence Aspinwall joined James Renwick‘s firm in 1875. He quickly rose from draftsman to partner, and the firm became known as Renwick, Aspinwall and Russell in 1883. Renwick‘s nephew William also was an architect, and he joined the firm in 1890. Two years later the firm was renamed Renwick, Aspinwall and Renwick. After the elder Renwick died in 1895, the firm became known as Renwick, Aspinwall and Owen. Its successor was Renwick, Aspinwall and Tucker. 4 By this time, however, Olmsted had died and his sons guided the firm. EVERGREEN HABS No. MD-1167 (page 3) nationally-renowned designers. Its history offers insight into such important local figures as Samuel H. Adams (d. 1882) and John F. Adams (dates unknown), Baltimore contractors who owned the house prior to T. Harrison Garrett, as well as Charles L. Carson, P. Hanson Hiss, and Laurence Hall Fowler. In large part due to the rich archival materials retained by the Garrett family, the history of design and subsequent renovations at Evergreen contributes to an understanding of the architectural community active in Baltimore from ca. 1850 to ca. 1950. Abbreviations used throughout the report: AG = Alice Whitridge Garrett AWG = Alice Warder Garrett BAF = Baltimore Architecture Foundation EH = Evergreen House Archives EHF = Evergreen House Foundation JHUSC = The Johns Hopkins University Special Collections JWG = John Work Garrett LC = The Library of Congress MdHS = The Maryland Historical Society THG = T. Harrison Garrett Historian(s): Julia A. Sienkewicz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009, with Virginia B. Price, HABS. Project Information: Field work was undertaken by HABS architects Mark Schara, Alexander Matsov, and Daniel J. De Sousa, and by architectural technician William Marzella (University of Cincinnati) in summer 2009. The project historian was Julia A. Sienkewicz (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), who was assisted with research by Virginia B. Price of HABS. Virginia B. Price wrote the architectural description section of the report. The large format photographs were taken by James Rosenthal, HABS Photographer, with assistance from Renee Bieretz, HABS/HAER/HALS Photographer. The documentation of Evergreen was sponsored by the Evergreen House Foundation and The Johns Hopkins University and funded through grants from the Middendorf Foundation, Inc., the France-Merrick Foundation, Inc., The Richard C. von Hess Foundation, and the Evergreen Museum & Library Advisory Council. The project was facilitated by James Abbott, Director and Curator, Evergreen Museum & Library, as well as by Catherine C. Lavoie, Chief, Historic American Buildings Survey, and Mark Schara, HABS Architect and Project Supervisor. HABS is a division within the Heritage Documentation Programs, Richard O‘Connor, Chief. Access on- site was made possible by Abbott as well as by Ben Renwick, Nancy Powers, and Elsworth Roberts, all of whom graciously allowed their schedules to be interrupted. Acknowledgements: Sincere thanks are due to a range of individuals and institutions without whom elements of this history would never have been discovered. In particular, the helpful references and resources of the curator and staff of Evergreen, of the Baltimore Architecture Foundation, Michele Clark at the Olmsted Historic Site, Nancy Perlman at the Loyola/Notre EVERGREEN HABS No. MD-1167 (page 4) Dame Library, and the broad knowledge of the librarians at the Maryland Historical Society, all contributed significant aspects to this research. Special thanks are due to members of the Garrett family who shared their knowledge and archival resources, among them Mr. James R. Garrett, President of the Evergreen House Foundation. Notes: Room Numbers: Numbers assigned to the rooms of Evergreen for the 1986 Historic Structure Report are given in parenthesis throughout the text.