Bertram Goodhue Index, Avery Library, Columbia University
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1 BERTRAM GOODHUE INDEX, AVERY LIBRARY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY NOTE: The following is a representative example of correspondence to and from Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue that roughly correlates with his activities as Consulting Architect for San Diego’s Panama-California Exposition. In addition, selections from magazine articles about the Exposition are included. A more complete file of Panama-California Exposition material can be obtained by consulting the “Amero Collection” in the San Diego Historical Society Research Archives. While, of necessity, photographs in the original articles have been omitted, the text of many of the articles is more readable in the present format than in copies at the Research Archives. I have taken the liberty of punctuating, or re-punctuating, some of the Goodhue letters. Whether this helps of hinders readers is up to them to decide. Richard W. Amero BGG to Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., 1 pg., TCS Jan. 27, 1910 (Montes: Note 38 – Frederick went to New York City to ask Goodhue & the latter recounted the visit in the following letter: Bertram G. Goodhue (BGG) to FLO, 1-04-11, p. 3, JF 4052, OA, MDLC) Box 1 Myron Hunt to Bertram G. Goodhue, 1 pg., TLS June 14, 1910 Box 1 Myron Hunt to Bertram G. Goodhue, 1 pg., TLS June 14, 1910 BGG to Myron Hunt, 3 pg., TCS July 22, 1910 (Olmsted Bros. approved as landscape architects of Exposition Dec. 9, 1910) Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. to BGG, 1 pg., TLS Dec. 21, 1910 I have your letter of the 19th and the illustrations. I am sending some of them to Norton. It is my impression that nothing definite will be decided about the architects of the Panama hotel for several months. They have not even decided definitely whether it is to be built at all. About the San Diego matter, I have written to my brother, as I told you, and I am awaiting a reply as to the situation there. 1 2 Very truly yours, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. to BGG, 1 pg., TLS Dec. 24, 1910 My hopes are shattered by a telegram from my brother in response to one from me inquiring about the chances for getting you in on the San Diego Exposition. He wires: “No show for Goodhue” Also, a letter from my brother received this morning, makes it apparent that there are a number of features about the situation in San Diego that will tend to make it no bed of roses from the designing point of view, whatever it may be horticulturally. I need hardly say that I am greatly disappointed. Very truly yours, Montes: Note 40 – BGG to FLO, 1 p., JF 4051, CIA, MDLC) Dec. 28, 1910 I can’t tell you how much I am grieved by your brother’s telegram, the very curtness of which lends it force. I suppose it means that they have got some incapable local talent for the job, which was, I suppose, no more than could be expected, since human nature in California is very much like human nature everywhere, only perhaps more so. I am sorry too for the San Diegans because I consider myself quite a shark on the sort of stuff (Spanish Colonial style) they ought to have and am pretty familiar with California conditions. I wrote the Bishop a letter after sending him a telegram. It is a shame to make a fool of him for I am sure that the minute he received the telegram, he began to work for me. Thank you, however, for thinking of me. Always yours, 1911 Washington Hotel, Colon, Panama Canal Zone Joseph H. Johnson (Bishop) to BGG, 1 pg., TLS Jan. 2, 1911 2 3 I am devotedly attached . to Gill, who is by far the best architect in San Diego . I have frequently said to him that I thought he was a faddist . but should he be out of the way, I need hardly say that of all the men in the United States, you are the man to whom I would turn and for whom I would be pleased to use my influence. Elmer Grey to BGG, 2 pgs., TLS Jan. 4. 1911 Oliver: Grey replied on January 4, 1911, that he had enlisted the help of his former partner Myron Hunt, and noted that two men were being considered for the position, John Galen Howard of Berkeley and Gill. Grey respected Howard’s executive abilities but not his design capability and he felt that Gill hadn’t “a broad enough outlook.” Your letter of December 26th came to hand this morning. With regard to the position in San Diego, I just learned this morning what you probably already know --- that the other two men after the post are John Galen Howard and Architect Irving Gill, of San Diego. I have considerable respect for Mr. Howard’s competency for such a position --- not on account of his designing ability but on account of his reputation as an executive and diplomat. But Mr. Gill --- I like the man personally but he seems to me to be not at all a big enough man for the position. Mr. Hunt, to whom I have just telephoned regarding the matter, agrees with me. I haven’t any strings on the situation whatever but Mr. Hunt thinks he might have. He is going to telephone to a man in San Diego who may be a good one and ask him whether he wishes my professional advice on the subject, in which case he will give it to him. Now I am going to offer you some information which may be of infinitesimal value, and may be worthless. The Bishop thinks a good deal of Mr. Gill. He has spoken to me about him twice (not in connection with the post however). My idea of the man is that he is one who puts his whole soul into his work and that this is what impressed the Bishop, but that he hasn’t a broad enough outlook for such a position as the Exhibition one. If you don’t build the church in Santa Barbara, who will? A Happy New Year to you. Yours truly, Signed: Elmer Grey P.S. (later): Hunt’s San Diego friend has just wired him asking whether you were in Los Angeles. In reply Hunt wired saying you were in New York and sending him by mail a portion of the letter you wrote me. Olmsted Brothers to BGG, 1 pg. Jan. 4, 1911 3 4 Dear Sir: We have received today the following telegram from Mr. John C. Olmsted. “May get Goodhue employed. Wire his next visit to Los Angeles.” Will you therefore notify us in advance of your next visit to Los Angeles Mr. John C. Olmsted is still in San Diego, California (U. S. Grant Hotel) and as he will probably be there some weeks longer, you might, in case of an early visit to Los Angeles, wish to wire him direct. In that case, please advise this office also. Yours very truly, Signed: Olmsted Brothers (January 5, 1911 - Frank P. Allen, Jr. appointed Director of Works.) BGG to Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., 3 pgs. Jan. 5, 1911 My dear Olmstead: I have just dictated a night telegram, which like all such things only adumbrates the facts. Late last night I was overjoyed at being called up by your brother, who was in the Pennsylvania station, just about taking a train to Pittsburg, and who told me that you had telegraphed him. I may as well confess I was put on tenterhooks of anticipation that your brother first talked over the San Diego matter with me and plunged into equal despair when the first information came that there was no considering me came from you. As no doubt your brother has already written you, just after I first talked with him, I, with his permission, sent a telegram and letter to my great and good friend, the Bishop of the Diocese of Los Angeles. Bishop Johnson would be a good man in any community. Added to this, he has a school in San Diego. Both in my telegram to him and in the letter with which I followed it, I explained the case as fully as I could and asked him bluntly to support me if he felt that in his conscience he could. California, or to be more exact, Montecito, Cal., as you may or may not know, I regard as a sort of second home --- at any rate, I have a small pied-a-terre there in the 4 5 shape of ten acres of land on the Pacific slope of the Santa Ynez mountains, quite worthless for agricultural purposes but, as it happens, the most wonderful site in the world for a castle in Spain, which I hope one day to erect. I believe I am going to build a church at Santa Barbara and, of course, have a church, as yet only half finished, at South Pasadena, beside the Gillespie villa and gardens at Montecito, not to mention Bishop Johnson’s own cathedral in Los Angeles. I am sending you with this a copy of the ARCHITECTURAL RECORD, just out devoted to the work of C. G. & F. and call your attention to the illustrations on pages 14- 15-16-20-21-22-75-77-80 and 81 and to the text on page 41, where Schuyler has made out a pretty strong case for me and given the best reasons why I may be regarded as a desirable man for the job.