VOL. XX. No. 6. DECEMBER, 1906. WHOLE No. 99,

KENYON Cox

The Story cf the Synagogue Illustrated 464 ABRAM S. ISAACS

Converse Manor The Estate of Mr. E. C. Converse, Greenwich, Conn. Donn Barber, Architect Illustrated 481

A House on a Cliff The Residence of Mr. Livingston

Jenks, Russian Hill, San Francisco Myron Hunt, Architect Illustrated 489

A Successful Country House Alteration The House of Mr. Grafton St. L Abbott, Concord, Mass.

Philip B. Howard, Architect Illustrated 503

Notes and Comments 511 University of the Fenway Fine Arts Exhibi- tionSummer Use of Chicago's Small Parks- Injury to Buildings in Golden Gate Park-Im- provement of Albany Park Plans in Providence Municipal Art in Syracuse Memorials in Parks Studies in Architecture by Reginald Bloom- field, A. R. A.

C. W. SWEET. Publisher R.W. REINHOLD, Business Mgr. H.W.DESMOND, Editor H. D. CROLY, Associate Editor

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Vol. XX DECEMBER, 1906 No. 6

Rembrandt

It is perhaps natural and inevitable William the Silent or for Ter Borch? ' that we who are artists or are especially In Amsterdam, in the year 1669, died in interested in art should seem to over- poverty and obscurity a worn out and rate the importance of art to the world prematurely aged bankrupt who left at large. We can hardly expect others nothing "but some linen and woolen gar- to share our conviction that art is the ments and his painting materials," and only thing that really matters, the only was buried at a cost of thirteen florins. expression of the human spirit which To-day we, of another race, speaking endures. And yet it is true that art, in another tongue, living in a country some of its many forms, has preserved to which has grown great in what was then us all that we care for of the nations and almost an unknown wilderness beyond the civilizations of the past. The Greeks the sea, are met together to celebrate the had an art more consummate, in many three hundredth anniversary of the birth directions, than any other the world has of Rembrandt. seen; and in virtue of that art they are The world is often slow to recognize to-day a living influence, and their the greatness of the mightiest genius, thoughts and their ideals are at the foun- and the countrymen and contemporaries dation of the thoughts and ideals of the of this unsuccessful painter cared no civilized world. The Carthagenians more to preserve any record of his life were the founders of a mighty empire, than did the countrymen and contempo- had no art and when Rome they ; raries of the prosperous playwright, Wil- iviped out that empire their influence liam Shakespeare. Like that of Shakes- at forever is disappeared once and with peare, the biography of Rembrandt a heir power. Consider Rome herself, the mass of guesses and conjectures or of "nighty organizer, the mistress of the trivial and improbable anecdotes and world, the nation of soldiers and states- legends. We cannot even be sure of his nen rather than of artists, and ask your- name, for we do not know why or by selves whether even Roman law and what right he called himself Van Ryn; R.oman institutions impressed themselves nor of the year of his birth, for there as deeply upon the consciousness of men seems to be about as much evidence that as it 1606. have Roman letters and Roman archi- it was 1607 or 1608 as that was ecture whether Virgil and Horace are What is really known may be told not our more certainly our rulers and briefly. aw givers than Augustus and Justinian. Rembrandt Harmensz Rembrandt The little country of Holland played, the son of Harmen was born on the n her day, a great part in the world. She 1 5th of July, in one of the years just produced, also, a band of painters whose named, in the town of Leyden, of a re- He art, within its limits, was very perfect. spectable lower-middle-class family. na- Does the world, to-day, care more for was enrolled in the university of his he studied there An address delivered at the celebration of the Tri- tive city, but how much centennial of Rembrandt's birth, held at the Brook- can His bent toward 'yn Institute of Arts and Sciences, June 4th, 1906. we only guess. Copyright, 1906, by "THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD COMPANY." All rights reserved. Act of Congress of March 3d, 1878. Entered May 22, 1902, as second-class matter, Post Office at New York, N. Y., THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 440

he the house in the Breestraa art must have declared itself early, for bought raat that was never and filled it with he began the study of painting about the paid for, one the collections that in his inven- age of fifteen with a bad painter, figured later. He was fond Jacob van Swanenburch, and is supposed tory eighteen years of his wife and of his to have stayed with that master some work, always busy, from him the master of muc three years. What he learned many pupils, earning we can never know, but in 1624 he went money and spending it lavishly on hi wife and on his collections. He to Amsterdam to study with a painter bough of the Italian- and bric-a-brac of greater reputation, one paintings, engravings and seems izers as they were called, Peter Last- extravagant prices, regular! man, and from him he can have learned in his studio very little, for he stayed less than six months. Yet certain tricks of costuming and that love of oriental to frippery which gives a strange accent much of Rembrandt's work he is sup- posed to have acquired from Lastman. At any rate he returned to Leyden, de- termined "to study and practice painting alone, in his own fashion." His earliest known pictures are of the year 1627, and the earliest etchings of 1628, so that we have three years unaccounted for. Somewhere and somehow he acquired the admirable technical training of the Dutch School, for his early work is neither especially original nor experi- mental, but is soundly executed in the manner of the day. By 1628 he had al- ready become sufficiently well known to attract pupils to his studio, Gerard Don, then fifteen years of age, enrolling him- self in that year as a pupil of the master of twenty-two, and remaining with him three years. In 1631, when Rembrandt went to settle definitely in Amsterdam, he was already a well known painter, and he shortly became the fashionable portrait painter of the day. The next year, when he was not more than twenty-six years old, and may have been only twenty- four, he painted the "Anatomy Lesson," The Descent from the Cross (1633). which set the cap-sheaf on his brief (Pinacothek, Munich.) glory and made him, for a time, the most to have been fleeced by dealers famous of Dutch artists. money-lenders. Titus, the only child;=o At its height his contemporary reputa- his marriage that lived to maturity, was tion seems to have been rather local and born in 1641, and Saskia died in June of never to have reached as far as Antwerp, the next year. In that year, also, he where the splendid Rubens probably painted "The Night Watch," that puz- never heard of him, but it was real zling picture which generations of critics enough. At this time he met Saskia van have fought over, and which Captain Uylenborch, a young woman of a much Frans Banning Cocq and his company, wealthier and better family than his own, for whom it was painted, understood as was welcomed as an aspirant by her rel- little as the rest of the world. It in- atives, and married her in 1634. In 1639 creased, in a manner, his reputation, but REMBRANDT. 44* hardly his popularity. Rembrandt was his own pleasure, for his own improve- too to be and for his becoming original popular ; ment, own self-expression, goes as time went on and his work grew bet- on almost unchecked. Sorrow comes to ter and better, the public neglected him him and it is in his work that he finds more and more. He shut himself up in consolation. Patrons fall away he has his work; made his servant, Hendrickje more time for his own imaginings. Ruin Stopfels, his mistress, and let his finances overtakes him, but he never ceases for a take care of themselves. The crash moment to draw, to etch, to paint. Did came, and in 1657 ne was declared a he even cease for that interval between bankruptba and sold up. From this time 1662 and 1664 when the world was dark- his life became steadily more miserable. est to him, or did he merely neglect to e had no money of his own, and could date what he produced? Certainly he ave none, and the faithful Hendrickje, began again, if not with unbated power, horn it is hoped rather than known he and continued to the end to paint pic- Ihad at last married, formed a partner- tures for which the world seemed to shipsh with Titus to take over his affairs have no use. and make him an allowance. In 1661 he The volume of his work is extraor- painted "The Syndics," perhaps the dinary and its importance not to be over- greatest of his masterpieces, but it does estimated. No scrap of it is entirely neg- not seem to have been much admired. It ligible or insignificant, and often the rud- is likely that his eyes were beginning to est scrawls and hastiest notes of inten- fail, for his etchings cease altogether tion jottings of ideas for pictures never from this year, and from 1662 to 1664 to be undertaken are full of power be- we have no \vork at all from his hand. yond many a finished painting; a power Hendrickje must have died about this so great that one can conceive that this time, though there is no '-record of it. first registry of his vision was sufficient Titus married and died, both in 1668, for him. The picture was there and it and the next year the father sank into mattered nothing whether or not it ever his neglected grave. He left a daughter took on a form more legible to others. by Hendrickje who did not long survive In such an address as this it is impossible him, and in the next generation his pos- to give more than a glance at this vast rity seems to have become extinct. production. Any detailed criticism of This is practically all that is known of individual works would be out of place the external life of the man Rembrandt. and I can only try to convey some notion The record is meagre enough, and we of the character of this great genius and ight wish it were fuller, but in reality of his message to us of another time and t is of little consequence that we do not country. In doing so I must necessarily know what he did or how he lived. What draw, somewhat, on the great bulk of ex- is of import to us is what he thought, isting criticism on the subject. No mas- and, above all, what he felt, and the rec- ter has been more discussed than Rem- ord of this is preserved for us in his brandt, none more heartily praised or ork a record extraordinarily full and extravagantly blamed. Our thoughts of inute. For he was always at work. In him are necessarily colored by what we is young days he set himself exercises, have read as well as by what we have posed for himself and made all his seen, and no one could hope to interpret friends and relatives pose for him in him entirely anew and without reference turn, tried myriads of experiments in to the efforts of others. I shall therefore lighting and handling, working for the make no apology for agreeing with, or or La sheer joy of it or with the set purpose for virtually quoting, Fromentin of mastering his tools and acquiring the Farge, any more than for disagreeing Rus- means of expression. Later, in the suc- with Gerard de Lairesse and John cessful years, busy as he was with com- kin. missions, with work that was well paid One thing we mav eliminate at once for and must be executed consciencious- from our estimate of the meaning Rem- for that is notion ly, the stream of work undertaken for brandt has us, and any THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS (1654). REMBRANDT. 443

that he is specially important as a re- his dulged fancy for velvet caps and corder or an interpreter of his age and steel and gorgets gold chains ; the forms He seems to have country. had no sit- and proportions of the features them- ters of such rank or genius that we are selves are varied in so bewildering a way interested in his portraits on their ac- that it is only by certain marks the deep count, and even in portraiture fold between capable the keen eyes, the heavy as he on of the most ad- was, occasion, chin, the somewhat sensual mouth be- lucid vision his record is so mirably neath the bristling mustache that the capricious and fantastic that it is never head is identifiable. And then one begins implicitly to be relied upon. Himself he to find these same features in other pic-

THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL. (Teyler Museum.) etched or painted some fifty times, at all tures that have passed under other periods from his boyhood to the very end names, until at last one believes that even of his life, and there is, perhaps, no other the so-called "Sobieski" of the Hermit- face so well known to us as his, and yet age Museum, though he looks fifteen or it is almost impossible to guess what he twenty years older than Rembrandt was really looked like. It is not merely that in 1637, when the picture was painted, is he used his own features for the study of only another, and the most incredible, of varied expressions, that he lighted the his avatars. What was the color of his face in all sorts of ways, that he dressed hair, and how long did he wear it ? Did himself in impossible costumes and in- he ever have a beard as well as a mus- THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 444

PORTRAIT OF AN OLD WOMAN (1654). (Hermitage Museum.) REMBRANDT. 445

tache ? There is a canvas in the National time but once or only twice ; the rest is in Gallery, painted 1635, which is so dif- phantasmagoria. If the identifications so ferent from the ideal Rembrandt of the busily made now-a-days are correct, known it better pictures that has always he treated his father and mother in the for the of a man" un- passed "portrait same way; and certainly he so treated known. Here is no bush of curls, Saskia and fiery Hendrickje, who, poor girl, but a round and rather close-cropped might reasonably complain of the effigies no accoutrement of head; capes and of her, clothed and unclothed, that have chains, but a collar of somewhat been falling handed down to posterity by her rich lace, such as might have been worn lord and master. a nobleman or a by young wealthy He could not often treat paying sit-

LOTH AND HIS FAMILY. Pen sketch brought out by wash. (Collection of the Bibliotheque Nationale.) burgher of refined tastes. Yet as you ters thus cavalierly, but even with them look at the picture the features assume he is not always above suspicion, and in an air of familiarity and you begin to the "Night Watch" he seems to have suspect that here, again, is Rembrandt given rein to his fancy with disastrous himself, painted, for once perhaps at results. A few of the principal figures Saskia's desire as he may really have are plausible enough: Captain Cocq looked, in his prosperous days, to the himself is treated with respect, and his rich patrons who came to his studio or lieutenant, though badly drawn and made met him abroad in the town. Once or preposterously small, is naturally enough twice, late in life, he appears again in a clothed. But in the minor personages we possible guise in the costume of his have trunk-hose and steel-caps and ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 446 THE

PORTRAIT OF A MAX, SAID TO BE SOBIESKI. (Hermitage Museum.) REMBRANDT. 447

broad bonnets and all the outworn frip- went to Van der Heist for something of peries and cast-off clothing Rem- that he and his friends could understand. brandt's studio costumes a hundred It is the same with the landscape of years out of date if they were ever worn Holland as with the costume of the epoch by anyone in the way they are here put Rembrandt gives us just as much together. Compare these strange figures truth as suits him. He is capable, now with Hals's perfectly authentic arque- and again, of the most careful delinea-

THE SUPPER AT EMMAUS (1648). (The Louvre, Paris.)

busiers, painted ten or twenty years ear- tion of canals and polders and windmills, of mountains Her, or with Van der Heist's equally ac- but he is equally capable vis- curate and sober representations, and and romantic ruins and impossible you will fancy that Rembrandt has given ions of classic architecture strangely us a scene from some mediaeval Cour des transformed. You can trust him for to know what Hol- Miracles rather than a picture of the cit- nothing. If you wish how her citizens izen soldiery of Amsterdam. No wonder land was really like, and what that Captain Cocq was dissatisfied and lived and how they looked they 448 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

si REMBRANDT. 449

wore, to of her masters but Rem- is go any manship ; Rembrandt slovenly or gro- and shall find abundant and brandt you tesque in form. Dutch art is precious unimpeachable testimony. You may date or brilliant in workmanship; Rembrandt fashion of a collar within a the year and is rugged and fumbling. Dutch art tells determine contradiction the num- beyond no stories, and avoids, particularly, the ber of that fastened breeches to points Bible; Rembrandt is always telling sto- doublet. From him you will get noth- ries, and it is the Bible stories that in- but or ing picturesque imagination ro- terest him most of all. It is only in what mantic and must be feeling, you content he taught them of light and shade that with that. the typical masters of Holland resemble Nor has Rembrandt represented the him, and even here the differences are soul of his time and country any more greater than the resemblance. If ever than its truthfully body. However pos- there was one in the world, Rembrandt is sible it be to account for the art may of the individual great man, the hero in art,

SKETCH FOR THE VISION OF DANIEL. Pen sketch with wash. (Collection of M. L. Bonnat.) this or that master by showing that it influencing others far more than he was was the inevitable product of "the race, influenced, moulding his time rather than the milieu and the moment," it is not moulded by it. possible so to account for his. His position In the case of so great a man there is is unique in the Netherlands of the sev- no reason why we should blink any of enteenth century as it is in the world at his defects or credit him with any vir- large and in all time. His art is almost tues that he had not; and so, when Lai- the exact antithesis of that which was resse, a contemporary and rival of that practiced around him, and coincides with master of the sweetly pretty, Van der it only in those points where his personal Werff, says that "The vulgar and pro- the influence dominated other painters. saic aspects of a subject were only

; or Dutch art is prosaic and exact; Rem- ones he was capable of noting" when brandt is imaginative and fantastic. Ruskir remarks that "Vulgarity, dull-

. . ex- Dutch art is impeccable in draughts- ness or impiety will . always THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 45

BLIND TOBIT (1651). REMBRANDT. 451

themselves, in brown press through art, nowhere else in art The bandy lees and as in Rembrandt," we the gray, may sprawling hands, the shapeless' admit that these critics, however blind stumpy bodies of to much else, have indeed seen some- Bathshebas and Susannahs, are a libel in Rembrandt's art that on thing explains, humanity; and it is no explanation of

GIRL WITH A BROOM.

f it does not justify, their strictures. them to tell us how difficult it was to ob- Rembrandt is seldom prosaic, never im- tain models in Amsterdam, or to intimate pious or dull, but vulgar he often is with that Saskia and Hendrickje were so a quite astounding vulgarity, and ugly made. Let us rather admit that he was with an incomparable hideousness. Such indifferent to physical beauty, that his nude figures as he drew are to be found figures, clothed or nude, are often ill- THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 452

THE DEATH OF THE VIRGIN (1639). REMBRANDT. 453

that was not in his drawn, elegance prov- ow for the sake of heightening the glow ince. A different man would have seen of the light or deepening the gloom of differently such models as he had, and shade. It is not merely that his render- beauties of line and structure have found ing of objects and textures is rarely so in the poorest of them if beauties of line sure, so adroit, so precise and explana- and structure were what he looked for. tory as that of Hals or Velasquez, but is not to dwell the de- It necessary upon that, with him, the object often disap- liberate indecencies of which he was pears altogether and we have, not a sometimes guilty witness those plates lighted object, but sheer luminosity- of undoubted authenticity catalogued as light for its own sake, and with little re- "broad subjects" or upon the coarse- gard to what it falls on. ness of incident into which he was be- Here, as so often, it is necessary to trayed in one or another more serious distinguish between Rembrandt and work. Take him at his grandest and Rembrandt. The exterior Rembrandt most solemn moments and he is capable Rembrandt the observer, the trained of a meanness and triviality of type alto- painter, the Rembrandt who was popu- gether surprising. One of the most won- lar in his own day and is still the favor- derful of his plates, superb in composi- ite of the collectors, the painter of "The tion, poignant in emotion, is "The Death Gilder" and of the "Burgomaster Six" of the Virgin," yet the angels who break was a good draughtsman, a sound col- through the ceiling in a burst of light, orist and a sober and admirable techni- and amid clouds of glory, are so incred- cian. The other Rembrandt, the vision- ibly grotesque in form and feature that, ary, the seer, the dreamer of strange were it not for the rest of the picture, dreams, the worshipper of light, was one might be tempted to suspect deliber- never so sure of himself. He fumbled ate caricature. Then there is a smaller and experimented, resorted to violences and slighter plate one of those amaz- of method, thumbed and kneaded his ma- ing pieces of shorthand in which an un- terial, handled it across and athwart. forgettable scene is revealed, as it were, Even in so early a work as "The Anat- in a flash of lightning which represents omy Lesson" he had forgotten the cad- "Abraham Entertaining the Angels." aver in his interest in the light that fell There is no doubt about the seriousness upon it, and had produced something of the master's mood it is even full of blown and swollen, without form and religious awe but one of the angels is a void, but phosphorescent like a glow- strange little man, fat, and with a round, worm in the dark. When he undertook sleepy looking face, a bald head and a "The Night Watch," that splendid fail- sparse beard. The presence of a pair of ure, where the dreamer insisted on tak- wings behind his back is altogether nec- ing a hand in a work which demanded essarv to explain his angelic nature. the observer only, his obsession torment- If Rembrandt was not, in the ordinar- ed and dominated him. The rendering the ily accepted sense of the term, a great of the objects and accoutrements, draughtsman, neither was he, if the sword hilts and bandoliers, buffcoats and words are to be used with any strict- halberds, is not only far below Hals's ness, a great colorist or a great tech- level, it is actually clumsy and blunder- nician. It is not merely that he ex- ing. It is only when one realizes that pressed himself, as Ruskin said, "in the objects were nothing to him in them- brown and gray," or, to quote again the selves, that it is light he is after, and exaggerated strictures of Lairesse, that, that his method does wonderfully render "with his red and yellow tones, he set the light, that one begins to understand. the fatal example of shadows so hot they Once or twice, late in life, he manages seem aglow, and colors which seem to successfully to reunite his two personal- lie it to to t>ear one work all like liquid mud upon the canvas" ; ities, bring upon all he has felt, to is that he habitually sacrificed color to he has learned and chiaroscuro, and was content to lose the pour the whole Rembrandt upon a can- the result is such a unity of a given color in light and shad- vas, and masterpiece THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 454 REMBRANDT. 455

Elsewhere 'mist is as "The Syndics." you It largely his absorption in light and take the master craftsman and the shade that makes Rembrandt so indiffer- dreamer separately these are his suc- ent to beauty of form that make him, cesses or partially united and mutually indeed, care for form at all only as it obstructive these are his failure^/ provides surfaces for light to fall on and It is this almost exclusive preoccupa- crannies for shadows to catch in. It was tion with light and shade that explains neither by accident, nor altogether from much in Rembrandt's work which might sympathy and love of character, that he otherwise seem inexplicable. Chiaros- painted so many old men and old women. curo is his one great problem, his one When he was not deeply romantic and great means of expression. He painted poetical he was merely picturesque, and himself again and again, not from van- he loved wrinkles as he loved thatched find ity, but because he could no model roofs, because they afford so many acci- so patient and so submissive, so willing dents for the play of light and shade. He to subordinate his own personality to the haunted the Jews' quarter, delighted in exhaustive study of lighting. He tricked beggars and their rags, screwed his own himself out in chains and ear-rings and face into more lines than the map of the gorgets because he was fascinated by Indies, and set even his beloved Saskia anything that glittered and gave him to mowing and grimacing that her young points of brilliant light to contrast with face might have folds enough to satisfy the enveloping gloom which is his atmos- his desire of shadows. What had he to phere. His pursuit of light led him to do with classic beauty? His nude fig- the denial of color, so that his latest ures are drawn, as he drew a pig, from works are almost as uniformly brown as the picturesque point of view, and the a photograph, and to that system of rug- creased and flabby shapes of his ugly ged surfaces and heavily loaded pigment women were better, for his purpose, than which is the reverse of the ordinary pro- would have been the rounded limbs of a cedure of the Dutch school and contrary Greek nymph. to the practice of all those who have From a purely technical point of view, cared especially for the beautiful use of then, this is the supreme distinction of their material. It is light and shade that Rembrandt; to have devoted himself to makes etching as interesting to him as the study of chiaroscuro, to have sacri- at- painting. It is for the complete expres- ficed everything else to it, to have sion of light and shade that, at the height tained a knowledge of it beyond that of of his power, he will spend hours of pa- Tintoretto, beyond that of Correggio, tient labor in imitating the roundings beyond that of anyone else before or and the mottlings of a sea shell. It is the since; to have made himself, in this one suggestion of light and shade that makes branch of art, the unapproached and un- his merest scrawl significant, it is by approachable master, and to have taught tool light and shade he draws, by light and many other masters the use of a in their shade he paints, by light and shade he which, while it would not do composes. He thinks in light and shade hands what it did in his, was yet capable even when he seems to be using pure of performing tasks he had not set it. line. It is seldom that there is not a This alone would be enough for the scratch or two of shadow or a blot for glory of almost any artist, but with Rem- is than the hollow of an eye socket or the like, brandt light and shade far more but even when these are absent it is not a technical accomplishment. It is mys- the contour which he is drawing his tery and sentiment a means of express- of the line follows the mass, suggests the direc- ing the inexpressible and realizing tion of folds or the bagging of muscles, supernatural the only means known to makes sudden deviations, breaks and art of saying what no one but Rem- for at continues again, bounds a mass of light brandt has said. Look, instance, Faustus." One or loses itself where the swimming shad- the plate of "Dr. may the vision ow would hide it. The very line is po- not quite know what means, circle in this room of tential light and shade. but that blazing THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 456

DOCTOR FAUSTUS (ABOUT 1(551). REMBRANDT. 457

as shadows means something clearly be- current language of art and could, when as the of yond nature quiet light the he chose, express himself in it with flu- above is wonted and usual. window The ency and entire propriety. For the ex- old man has risen and stands there, lean- pression of things unseen he created for his with ing upon desk, gazing intently, himself a language of extraordinary flex- head a little tilted. He is not frightened, ibility which no one else has ever learned but we are. It is only a few black lines to speak. a little of white that It is on square paper we his feeling for life, his imagina- see, and behold a miracle ! We are tive insight, his tremulous sensitiveness there in the room and the hair rises upon and intense sympathy which give their our heads. supreme value to Rembrandt's great por- into the of the Or go galleries Louvre traits. In all except those that are quite and look at a little picture there not a evidently exercises you feel his attentive- brilliant looking picture, rather snuffy ness, his humility, his lack of all clever- and brow^n and insignificant of aspect ness or parade of mastery. He is wait- a picture that seems to have little deter- ing, watching, for the inner life, the real minable form, no color, no visible means individuality, to peep out in the face, and of execution, no comprehensible hand- he is almost always rewarded. You do ling. In a lofty room beneath an arch not care in the least who these people of stone are three men seated at table or what was their station in life an are, ; and a boy who waits upon them. One of old-clothes merchant, an aged house- the men looks up in surprise. In the keeper, a kitchen maid, are as interesting second, who has his back toward us, sur- not more so as a gentleman or a bur- prise has dawned into recognition, and gomaster. They are interesting because he clasps his hands as in prayer. The they are intensely human, intensely third is breaking bread. There is a dim alive, because in each of them an indi- and wavering aureole about his head, vidual being with its own nature, its own and his face is the face of one who was past, its own thoughts and emotions, dead and is alive again. We are with looks out of the eyes and speaks with the the Pilgrims at Emmaus. lips. You may doubt Rembrandt's state- This is the real Rembrandt, the great ments of mere external fact; you may the the doubt his delineation of features and magician, incomparable genius ; painter whose vividness and lucidity of structure, as you can never doubt those imagination, whose depth of insight, of Frans Hals, for instance; you may whose fullness of sympathy, are unique wonder that he never saw such elegance in the art of the world. With such a and such approach to beauty as Ter man what would be faults in another Borch and Metzu and Ver Meer have sink into insignificance or become vir- shown us; but you can never doubt the tues. His drawing, faulty according to essential fact that these people have lived the ordinary standards of correctness, are living. This conviction of life, of becomes the most wonderful drawing in real existence almost independent of or- the world, for it is instinct with life and dinary representation, is such as none not so expressive that his countless figures of these masters, such as no master are doing whatever they are about with Velasquez, not Titian, not even Holbein an intensity unparalleled in art. His col- or Raphael, incomparable portrait paint- us. or, different though it be from that of ers as they are has given the great colorists, is that most wholly There are many of these wonderful all of Rem- appropriate and necessary to his thought. portraits, painted at periods of them are com- His figures, however devoid of physical brandt's life. Some to do some beauty, are yet ennobled by the presence missions from well patrons, for his own in them of a living soul. His handling, are evidently painted pleas- from who are more like- strange and undecipherable as it is, is the ure and people for than to most supple and obedient of servants. ly to have been paid sitting the artist for them. In his lifelong observation and profound have paid painting with a Fan" of Buck- study of things seen. !-e had mastered the There is the "Ladv THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 458

THE LADY WITH THE FAN (1641). (Buckingham Palace.) REMBRANDT. 459 ingham Palace, for once a person of re- coarseness. Life and character, and the finement and distinction with a real charm expression and movement of life, were if no great beauty. There are "Elizabeth all in all to him, and these he found Bas," in the Rijks Museum of Amster- everywhere. Nothing human was for- dam, wealthy, severe, self-complacent, a eign to him, nothing real outside his notable housewife, starched and stiff in range of feeling, and he could sympa- her respectability, and that beautiful, thize with the amours of a friar and a kindly, anxious "Old Lady" in the Na- peasant wench in a cornfield as he could tional Gallery. Then there is that home- with the mingled joy and sorrow of the lier couple, "The Ship Builder and His father who, in the little etching, has Wife," in Buckingham Palace, and, go- outstripped the attendants bearing shoes ing down the ranks of human life, there and garments, and almost stumbles for- are the infinitely pathetic "Old Woman" ward in his haste to clasp in his arms of the Hermitage and the simple, heal- the hair-grown, starving prodigal, kneel- thy "Girl with a Broom" of the same ing there half naked before him, the pic- collection. You may look at any of these ture of misery and compunction. His, portraits forever, come back to them very "vulgarity" and "triviality" some- again and again, study and restudy them times serve him marvelously his entire and never tire of them, never exhaust absence of pose or of any pretense to- their perennial interest. There is nothing exquisiteness of taste. Some homely in- like them there never will be anything cident, that no one else would have like them. thought of, comes into his mind and XowT and then, even with members of is seized upon and noted with a pre- lis own household, the artist forgot his cision that immediately converts his im- experiments and produced portraits of agined scene into a thing which has this once or in or a quality ; twice, etching actually happened, thing experienced painting, with himself in his years of and observed. In this very plate of the sadness and poverty; once, at least, with "Return of the Prodigal" you see the Hendrickje, in that superb portrait in old man's slipper, half off his foot and the Louvre which makes her a real and dragging on the pavement, and that lit- to us once in tle serves to convince of comprehensible person ; accuracy you that splendid idealization of youthful the veracity of all the rest. That was beauty, the portrait of his son Titus in not invented, you say, it is so that it the Kann collection. Several such por- was. traits we have in this country, two of This extraordinary clarity of imagi- then, fortunately, in public collections nation, this vividness of sight, this com- where they are accessible to everyone pelling truthfulness, is the mark of Rem- the "Man with a Black Hat" in the Met- brandt and is present in nearly all his ropolitan Museum, and "The Orphan" subject pictures, in nearly all his etch- in the Art Institute of Chicago. There ings, above all in his drawings, done are no more perfect single figures than for himself alone and to relieve his mind these in all Rembrandt's work, and you of what must have been almost hallu- must go to Amsterdam to see, in the cination. At his strangest, at his most great group of "The Syndics," anything grotesque, he forces you to believe in finer. The picture has been described him to accept his story as that of an too often and too well for me to describe eye-witness. When he is most happily it again, and the photographs of it are in inspired, and his vision most nearly co- everyone's hand. It is the final demon- incides with the antecedently accept- stration of Rembrandt's full power and, able, no one is so touching or so august. and unquestionably, the noblest portrait His trick of reality captures you full emo- group ever painted. you experience to the those have It is the very humanity and sympathy tions which the actual events might of all in Rembrandt which made these por- incited. Of the most wonderful traits possible that is the excuse for his his pictures "The Supper at Emmaus," and in Fromen- infrequent indecency, his occasional I have already spoken; THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 460 tin and in La Farge you will find elab- her poise and momentary action, th orate descriptions of the scarcely less scepticism is disarmed. It is all vei wonderful "Good Samaritan/' but there well to argue that wings could not gro> are many more examples of his way there and that she could not fly with thei of translating Bible stories into the lan- if they did. They do grow there, am she can there's an on't. guage of the every-day life about him fly, and end Th( and of making them, thereby, a thous- original sketch for this composition, ii and fold more appealing and more ef- which, for once, Rembrandt mingles ai fective. How many "Holy Families" ineffable charm with his usual lucidity, have been painted, in Italy, in Germany is in the collection of M. Bonnat, and it and in Flanders? And where among is one of the most striking proofs of the them shall you find anything like "The suddenness and completeness of the great Carpenter's Household" of the Louvre, artist's conception. It is very slight a with its warm interior bathed in sun- few scratches of the pen, a few washes shine from the open window, the father for the deeper shadows of the landscape engaged in his daily labor, the gentle but the whole thing is there, the atti- mother baring her breast to the child, tudes, the lines, the draperies, even the the grandmother, homely old soul, lean- expression of Daniel's face; yet then ing over the open book in her lap to are slight discrepancies that prove to tl gaze upon the baby form? Where shall trained eye that this is no copy of th( you find a tragic intensity like that of picture but the first registry of intentioi 'The Raising of the Cross" at Munich, hot from the brain of its creator. or a solemn pathos like that of "The It is, perhaps, in his etchings ant Descent from the Cross" in the same drawings even more than in his painting gallery, with its pitiful, broken figure, that Rembrandt's marvelous fertility of doubled together and sliding sidewise invention manifests itself most clearly. down the sheet, ghostly white in the Industrious and unremitting in labor as moonlight, into the reverent hands be- he was, only a few of his almost counties his is could be realized in low? But of all pictures none imaginings painting more surprising than the little "Vision Many, and some of the most important ii of Daniel" at Berlin. The scene is a thought, the largest in extent and ii wild and rocky landscape through which number of figures, he chose rather t( a brook cuts its way deeply. To the carry out in the slighter form of etching extreme right, only partially in the pic- Many more seem never to have got ture, stands the "vision," a sheep with yond the first state of expeditious nota- horns its head on the other tion of the idea. And in all these inven- many upon ; side of the brook, timid, with reverted tions one dislikes to use a word of sucl kneels a headed mechanical as eye, Daniel, curly youth ; implications compositioi behind him stands an angel, and it is we see how his mind turned aroui this angel that is the picture the most and around certain subjects, approach real, the most believable angel ever them again and again from one or ai painted. Draped in white and with a other side, exhausted their possibil scarf about her waist for surely it is ities. There are the Old Testament a young girl's, this slender figure stories of Abraham and Isaac, of Loth she leans over him, infinite tenderness and of Joseph, there are the Book in the delicate face framed between Job and the Parables, of which he nev< flaxen ringlets, and lays one hand lightly wearied. Above all there is the Life upon his shoulder in encouragement, Christ, and there is the apocryphal B( while with the other, in a gesture of of Tobit, which seems specially to adorable naturalness, she points to the haunted him. From these two stories vision upon which she bids him look. could not escape until their every phas From her shoulders springs a pair of had been illustrated with his indubitabl wings, and such wings! So light, so veracity. And always he approach strong, so quivering with life, so obvi- these subjects from the Bible in this ne> ously a part of her and so necessary to wav of his own. He is not concern* REMBRANDT. 461 with ecclesiastical decoration or with ground and which Joseph of Arimathea aesthetic propriety still less with pious or Nicodemus is covering with a white revery or aids to devotion. What occu- sheet that it may receive the beloved re- pied him is the thought of how things mains. might really have happened, of how they As a last instance of the vigor of im- have looked to would one who was there, agination shown in the etchings, let us of how he himself or his neighbors take a plate from another cycle, the "To- would have felt about them. He could bit Blind." The scene is a homely Dutch not have understood that modern doc- interior, with a great open fireplace -ine of criticism which decries the art where fishes are drying in the smoke, lat tells a story or depicts an incident and Tobit's armchair stands in the chim- would have gloried in being what he ney corner. The old man, in gown and /as, the greatest of illustrators. slippers, has risen hastily, hearing with- Something I have already said about out the step or voice of his long absent me or two of these illustrations of the son, and is groping for the door. In his ttble. The great plates of "Christ Heal- agitation his sense of direction has failed ig the Sick" and "Christ Preaching" him, and he will not reach it. He has ire known to everyone. But there are overset his wife's spinning wheel, which >ther and less universally known chapters lies on the floor behind him. But the lit- in Rembrandt's Life of Christ that are tle dog, the faithful companion of To- uially ineffaceable from the memory, bias in all his adventures, has outstripped "here is the plate known as the "Little his master and fawns at the blind man's using of Lazarus," to distinguish it feet. It is a- little bit -of truth so admir- trom the earlier, perhaps doubtful, ably observed, so perfectly rendered, set )late which is more frequently seen, down with such economy of means no [ere, as ever, Christ is quite undistin- line or touch that does not carry that guished, rather mean of aspect; and his it alone were sufficient to proclaim its expression is less deeply studied than us- designer a master of the highest rank. ual. The spectators are variously interest- This, however, is a conscious work of ed or astonished. All this is good, but it is art, addressed to the public, meant to be not this which one remembers. What is seen, and it is, perhaps, in his drawings, unforgettable is the sidewise lurch of the made for himself alone and meant for no dead man as he raises himself on one el- other eyes, that Rembrandt's marvelous bow from the tomb, the inquiring gaze of shorthand, and the fecundity of his ge- his sunken eyes, fixed upon his master, nius, are most apparent. Here are pic- his hollow cheek and relaxed jaw. And ture after picture, each fully conceived, all this is indicated with a few loose present to his mind in every detail, ready scratches, kept intentionally thin and del- to paint. He has set them down in icate that they may not interfere with the scrawls and blots and dashes, almost il- him- whiteness of the paper which stands for legible, at first sight, to others than will the concentration of light upon this part self, yet needing only a little good forth of our of the subject. There is the "Christ Pre- on our part, the sending reveal sented to the People," with its unwonted own imagination to meet his, to pomp of arrangement and monumental themselves" as perfect. The rest is but a Some dignity, with its vividly seen crowd in matter of time and opportunity. he will the foreground which, altering his idea day, when he has the leisure, paint are so as he rarely did, Rembrandt was content or etch them! But there many nev- to efface that the grandeur and pathos of more ideas than days that the leisure of them have the bound figure of the Redeemer might er comes and the most part in form of hints be heightened. There is the "Descent remained forever the from the Cross" at night by torchlight, and projects. of deals with Tobit the limp figure still attached to the cross A whole set them with the and by one bleeding foot, the whole composi- and his son Tobias, angel, tion built upon and determined by the the never forgotten dog. There is the the long stretcher which crosses the fore- departure, with the mother spinning, RECORD. 462 THE ARCHITECTURAL father, who seems to be recommending the result. Finally, there is the vanish-lish- the angel to take good care of his son, the ing of the angel, the whole family pros- son himself, turning his hat in his hand trating themselves in prayer as they rec- and looking somewhat sheepish, and the ognize, at last, his heavenly nature. In dog jumping upon him in joy of the an- all the series there is the same homeliness, ticipated outing. But for the wings of the same felicitous notation of gesture the angel always those wonderful wings and expression, the same sympathy and as else ever drew it the same emotion and each such no one might ; produces the be a little scene of domestic genre, such same conviction of entire reality. It is as of our has entitled so that the must have it one own painters thing happened ; "Breaking Home Ties." Then there is could not have happened otherwise.

JOSEPH COMFORTING THE PRISONERS. (British Museum.) the journey, with the companions, an- The same qualities are to be found in gelic and human, walking amicably to- many other drawings, in "Joseph Com- and as while the gether talking they go, forting the Prisoners," in "Job and His runs on before them. There is the dog Friends," in "Loth and His Family." fish leaping from the water and startling The latter drawing is as remarkable as Tobias into the loss of his hat, the angel, even Rembrandt ever did. The him anything meanwhile, bidding not to be afraid ; whole family is "moving out" carrying and there is the cutting up of the fish, their The father is lament- the angel looking on with absorbed inter- possessions. the are sad, the maids un- est, while the dog profits by the occasion ing, daughters concerned but Loth's am to take a drink from the brook. There ; wife, aged on a stick, walks on in si- is the healing of the father's sight, To- leaning stony bias and his mother busy and anxious, the lence and turns a deaf ear to the angel angel somewhat unconcerned, as sure of who points out the way. It is not difficult REMBRANDT. 463

see who it is that will the di- even to disobey make inanimate objects, an old not to look back. vine comand coach or a piece of furniture, permanent- are others and others. In his There ly interesting to us. In the contemplation of labor Rem- of forty years unremitting his creations all questions of technique about four hundred and or of brandt produced taste finally fall away and become that fifty paintings we know, two hun- unimportant, and we are face to face and to two hundred and sev- with dred sixty a great intellect, a profoundly hu- and nine hundred enty etchings, nearly man soul, a visionary who, as he grew sketches drawings and of one sort or an- older in years, in experience, in sorrow, other that have been preserved. How and in the sympathy which is the fruit of much more he may have done that is lost experience and of sorrow, came more or one Of and more to "dream true" a destroyed may only imagine. ; spirit wor-

JOB AND HIS FRIENDS. Pen study with wash. (Cabinet de Stockholm.) this vast output of paintings, etchings, thy to rank beside that of another great drawings, it is not possible that all should man whose name I have already coupled be of equal value. There are plates and with his, beside that of Shakspeare. In pictures, among his earlier works espec- thanking you for the patience with which ially, that are deliberately picturesque or you have listened to my halting efforts to partly theatrical, compositions that are give some idea in words of the character built up rather than truly imagined. On of a genius only to be appreciated after the other hand there are sketches of no deep study of the works themselves in particular subject, a woman in bed, an which it is revealed, I must also thank old man praying, a lame man in the you for the opportunity you have afford- street, or rough notes of animals, a lion, ed me of laying my humble tribute before an elephant, that are as full of his partic- one who was not only one of the immor- ular insight, his penetrating imagination, tal masters of the art I too practice, but as are his greatest inventions. He could was one of the supreme poets of all time. 464 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

SYNAGOGUE AT TURIN. THE STORY OF THE SYNAGOGUE. 465

The Story of the Synagogue

of the is The story synagogue practi- mosque and church, adopting features the of the from cally story Jewish people from both? Or did it escape wholly succes- the Babylonian captivity through foreign influences and develop along sive eras in their history in the East and its own lines? What, further, was the West, with the alternate light and shade, origin of the synagogue's interior ar- nineteenth of civil to the century and rangement and what principles underlay religious liberty in nearly every land. its entire construction? Such a survey would hardly be complete It is impossible within present limits a detailed of rise without study the and to give any exhaustive history of the growth of the synagogue in the Orient, synagogue and its architecture, which

OLD SYNAGOGUE AT WORMS INTERIOR.

:its gradual spread as the Jews began can be treated from many points of view, to colonize outside of Palestine even be- whether of art, religion, or archaeology. fore the conquest of Jerusalem by Titus, It will be sufficient merely to introduce its appearance in Egypt, Asia Minor and the reader to the subject and sketch and then in Central and in outline the event- Italy, Europe only synagogue's his- Spain. A careful inquiry, too, would ful story which awaits its capable investigate the influence of clime and torian. There is no lack of works which conditions on synagogue architecture. illustrate the church and its history from cathedrals How much of this was original and how the earliest date. Stately -much borrowed, consciously or not? Did whose foundations were laid in the early ;"its still survive with all their development run parallel with the Middle Ages RECORD. 466 THE ARCHITECTURAL

traditional site here splendor to attract the worshipper and and there in the with and delight the tourist. Superb specimens East, legend history indistin- of various schools of architecture, they guishable; a synagogue in Jerusalei which dates from the embody a spiritual beauty and power 9th century; at which uplift for the time thousands of Romanesque specimen Worms o\ visitors. Pictures of interior and ex- about the year noo; a humble Gothic terior appear in guide books or are edifice in Prague, parts of which are of the 1 2th or I3th century this complete the record of the archaeologist. It is miracle that any survived in later per- iods of still more relentless persecutioi Yet one can view synagogues from tl 1 6th, 1 7th and i8th centuries in Hol- land, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Orient, although but few of them remarkable enough to attract many pil- grims and sightseers. The oldest syn- agogue in London was originally buil in 1702; the Touro Synagogue in New- port, R. L, in pure Colonial style, w<

Ruins of Synagogue at Kafr-Birim, Galilee.

made the subject of more or less elab- orate volumes. Distinguished church- men come to our shores and lecture on the historic fanes of Europe, while our artists and architects turn for instruc- tion and inspiration to their mar- vellous lines beneath the open sky whether in England or Italy, France or Germany, Belgium or Spain; and they reproduce for us vital elements in the church architecture of the past. What a contrast is offered by the synagogue! A few of the best exam- of mediaeval architecture were ples The Old New Synagogue at Prague. transformed into churches in Spain and Italy, and are no more distinctly rec- erected in 1762. If we exclude tl ognized as synagogues in the manuals splendid synagogues which have of art. Others built in times of com- peared within the past forty or fift parative ease have long since been de- years and which represent every styl stroyed by fire or in popular outbreak. from the Classic to the Renaissance bt A few ruins in Upper Galilee, half- offer little, if any, original contribute in their sad a to the materiz prophetic suggestiveness ; synagogue architecture, THE STORY OF THE SYNAGOGUE. 467

is meagre indeed for illustration and humbly, so that the worshippers were comment. most comfortable, perhaps, when they The synagogue was always a living prostrated themselves literally in prayer. an institutional church In organism, nearly Central Europe the synagogue was from the beginning. School, house of the Centre of communal life. Here the law court, house of it prayer, assembly, ancient liturgy, with its Leitmotif more was to become a occasionally fortress, national than individual, was recited where the people were to withstand the enemy or perish amid the flames of the sanctuary. One reads with horror of Becket struck to death at the altar but thousands have fallen in the synagogues, old and young, men, women and chil- dren, uplifting their voices in praise and prayer as they were led to slaughter. The buildings were singularly plain, judging from the rude prints of many mediaeval synagogues, but they produce the impression of heroic endeavor and simple living which is suggested by the thought of the old log cabin in the Ohio Valley or the New England meeting- house of an earlier generation. What need of elaborate ornament, when ex- ternal splendor would only have aroused the sooner popular tumult and doomed the structure to speedier overthrow. So often in the centre of a courtyard, amid the Ghetto's narrow lanes and dwell- ings built in close contact, the unpre- tentious synagogue was reared. No pri-

Regensburg Synagogue (14th Century). Destroyed by Earthquake, 1519.

with the earnestness of the Covenanters. It is as well to learn, however, that the atmosphere was not one of narrowness or repression. God was described in the historic ritual as the "God of all flesh" and "of all nations," and the lesson was enforced that all men are brethren, with religion no weekly parade but a daily exercise in godliness. If one considers for a moment that the mediaeval Synagogue at Erfurt (1357). liturgy was composed in an era of hostility and vate house such was the pious rule oppression its breadth and beauty are was to surpass it in height. In the East all the more remarkable. His old prayer- under Mohammedan the book is the book of sway syna- Jew's only martyrs ; gogue could not be higher than the and white it indulges now and then in and in as mosque ; Armenia when their wily "righteous indignation," the modern masters built the fane designedly low, theologian might express it, pious res- the synagogue was constructed still more ignation is the more dominant note. 468 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

The inner history of the synagogue was the sinner forgotten here he di< is intensely human. It was never inac- penance, of which solemn act Urit cessible like the sacred monastery in Acosta was an illustrious examplar; fc the Himalayas, far away from the busy he was flogged, although in "a retin world, but it was close to each one's corner," in the Amsterdam synago^ experience and reflected the joy or sor- in 1633. Further proof of the popul row of everyday life. It was the meet- interest in the house of worship is sho\ ing-place of the community, long before by records extant of public announc the modern town-hall proved the peo- ments on Saturday in synagogue of tl results ple's resort in stirring times, and it be- of law-suits and of properties ii came inexpressibly dear to each indi- the market, while lost articles wei vidual. Here the bridegroom wor- openly cried and a proclamation of stol< shipped on the Sabbath after his mar- goods was instituted.

SANTA MARIA LA BLANCHA, TOLEDO. riage and was "called to the Law" wear- The original synagogue is traced ing the praying-scarf which his bride, legend to King Jehoiachin of Judal who sat so proudly in the latticed gal- who, a captive in Babylonia, founde lery, had embroidered and given as her such a place of assembly in the distrk wedding gift. Here the tender babe of Nehardea. Certainly places of woi was brought on its first outing and made ship of some character must have to touch the sacred scroll of the Penta- established in the land of the captivit teuch. Here the grateful mother came and the institution was probably trans to pray after her child's birth. Here planted to Palestine on the return. Ezi the and the orphan mourner recited with is expressly mentioned (Neh. viii.) such devotion the prescribed benediction calling the people to prayer and instn which made them praise the Almighty tion, he himself reading the Law, as even in the shadow of sorrow. Nor and the heads of the community stai THE STORY OF THE SYNAGOGUE. 469

a wooden in the centre of upon platform outside the limits of Palestine, and to the assembled The intel- Nazareth worshippers. and Capernaum upon its soil. lectual character of the synagogue, In the reign of Augustus Caesar Rome was not for which prayers only, was thus had many synagogues, which led to the early emphasized. conversion of some men and women of The spread of the synagogue was rap- prominence, as the Romans of both sexes even before the final downfall of the id, found pleasure in visiting the places of It must have been a Temple. public worship, even if in later years the Jew to infer from references in the necessity, and his festivals became the sport of the Talmud to 480 synagogues in Jerusalem satirists. When the Christians of Rome which were for the host of for- in required after centuries burnt down a syna-

WOODEN SYNAGOGUE, POGREBYSZCZE, POLAND (17TH CENTURY). eign Jews who visited the Temple when gogue and Maximus, the usurper, com- its sacrificial service was in full swing. manded the Roman Senate to rebuild it Thus in the shadow of the larger house at the expense of the state, he was were synagogues of the Alexandrians, termed in derision a Jew by Ambrosius Libertines, Cyrenians,. Elymaeans and of Milan. Gradually to the East and the Asiatics. In Egypt, where there lived, AYest and the isles of the sea the syna- according to Philo, nearly a million Jews, gogue spread, and whether by the run- was a famous synagogue, the Basilica, in ning stream or seashore, to admit of ab- Alexandria, one of the wonders of its lutions, in crowded cities or in forest or age. Many are the allusions in the New deserted village, far distant from the Testament to synagogues in Damascus, track of the caravan, it resisted every at- Antioch, Athens. Corinth and elsewhere, tack and became the people's stronghold. 7// ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 4/o

had to be directed a As was the custom among Christian by flag signal-. and Mohammedan, the synagogue was immense was the edifice. often built close to the tombs of famous It was in Spain where synagogues of rabbis or ascribed to them as founders. surpassing beauty began to be built. The The celebrated Petachia in his travels, age was called a golden one for art, sci- towards the end of the twelfth century, ence and literature, centuries befoi tells of seeing at Nisibis two synagogues Shakespeare. But the breathing spell fc erected by Ezra the Scribe, and at Bag- the Jew was not of long continuanc dad three', including the one which tra- When Cordova fell, in 1148, its mz dition refers to Daniel. At Tiberias he nificent synagogues were destroyed. Tc visited the synagogue founded by Josh- ledo had a number of splendidly bui ua, and at Damascus the four reared by homes of worship, two of which exi Elieser ben Asariah, a rabbi of the first after varied transformations and arouj Christian century. Petachia was no Miinchausen, but gave the story as he was told. Alexandria has a so-called Elijah synagogue which derives its name from the legend that Elijah dwelt for a time on the spot. Into its neighboring houses weak and ailing Jews and Mo- hammedans are piously borne in the fond hope that Elijah, who, among other tra- ditional qualities, restores to health, may heal their wounds and infirmities. You can still be shown at Tiberias Rabbi Meir's synagogue, and near Safet the synagogue ascribed to the illustrious Si- mon ben Jochai. The list of famous synagogues, while not lengthy, includes some of historic interest. It begins with the Basilica of Alexandria, which fell when the pros- perous Jewish community vanished in a sudden whirlwind of persecution (about no of the common era). To paraphrase the description in the Talmud, he who never beheld it never saw the majesty of Israel. It was like a basilica, colonnade within colonnade, crowded often with a host of people twice as large as depart- ed with Moses from Egypt. There, too, could be seen golden chairs inlaid with precious stones corresponding in number the visitor's admiration. El Transit with the seventy elders of the Sanhedrim, was constructed by the largess of Sai the cost of each seat being estimated at uel Abulafia, in 1357. Partly Gothic ai twenty-five million golden denarii. On partly Moorish, it retains traces of an elevation of wood in the centre stood former grandeur. It consists of sever the choir leader. Each guild for the naves separated from each other by col- different arts and trades had their sepa- umns and arches. The upper part of the rate guilds before the practice arose in walls is decorated with delicately cut the German mediaeval towns, with which arabesques, within which can be re it is usually associated had its own Psalm Ixxx. in Hebrew, in white chan place, so that a stranger might recognize ters on green ground. Inscriptions his own trade and join his comrades. bas-relief on the north and south side The responses of the vast congregation recite the merits of the founder and THE STORY OF THE SYNAGOGUE. 471

Don Pedro of Castile. By a sudden at Venice, whose architect was Sanso- change of fortune, Abulafia, once Don vino, and which dates from the sixteenth Pedro's trusted treasurer and adviser, century, in the spacious style of the time, died under the torture, only three years suggesting the wealth and culture of its the was residents after synagogue completed Jewish ; the Old-New Syna- (1360). He was spared the knowledge gogue at Prague, around which cluster later the edifice was to be fanciful the old at that 150 years legends ; synagogue changed into a church, which was no Worms, with its traditions of the famous rare proceeding in the Middle Ages, it commentator Rashi, both crowned with being easier to convert a synagogue than venerable age and the dignity of pilgrim its worshippers. To-day it is being re- shrines these, perhaps, complete the roll stored by the Spanish government, the of the most memorable synagogues in gypsum which was plentifully employed Central Europe. In the far East, how- to hide the decorations is to be removed ever, are various synagogues which have

SYNAGOGUE AT WARSAW, RUSSIA.

if we are to be- a kindly act on the part of the authori- a remarkable antiquity, if edifice lieve the credulous. It is probable ties, although it is doubtful the very of most of them is would again be used by the Jewish com- that the origin draped as the once curious munity, unless the latter be considerably in as much myth syn- at Kai in the increased by fresh accessions. agogue Fung Foo, province before disman- The Portugese synagogue in Amster- of Honan, China, poverty the tled the edifice and sold its ornaments dam, with its memories of Spinoza ; for bread and rai- Bevis Marks synagogue, London, orig- and holy equipment the ment. inally built in 1702, and for which from Venice Goethe tells Quaker architect would receive no re- In a letter succeeded in anew the muneration except its actual cost how he hearing of the whose (2,750), and in whose roof was incor- classical song gondolier, a with its memories of Tasso and porated as a gift from Queen Anne melody, had since been silenced. To beam from a royal ship; the synagogue Ariosto, long THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 472

of the The of were gain an accurate knowledge syna- 84). Jews England forbid- en den at the Council gogue, we must put ourselves rapport by Stephen Langton, with its conditions in every age, and of Oxford (1222) to erect synagogues. then can we appreciate its powers of re- In 1442 the Bishop of Leon and Castile sistance. In the fifth century the build- received a decree from Pope Eugenius the of ing of new synagogues was prohibited by IV., forbidding building new syn- Theodosius II., whose decree was re- agogues. Against the synagogues of An- newed with increased severity by Jus- tioch how Chrysostom thundered, calling tinian, a century later. Theodoric gave them infamous theatres and dens of rob- no hearty assent to the request of the bers. Theodosius the Great (379-395) Jews of Genoa to be allowed to put their expressly commanded the Bishop of Cal- synagogue into better repair, but he was linicus in Northern Mesopotamia to re-

SYNAGOGUE AT HANOVER, GERMANY. kindlier disposed when he condemned build at his own expense the synagogue the Roman commune to pay for the syn- which he had caused to be burnt an act agogue which a mob in the imperial city of justice which was imitated by tl had burnt. A synagogue in Sicily was Byzantine Emperor Arcadius ( 395-408) , destroyed by Gregory I. Omar I. who protected the synagogue against the showed little consideration to church or clergy of Illyria. While Cyril of Alexan- synagogue, while Omar II. (717-20), dria, whose name will always be asso- wrote to his governors: "Do not pull ciated with Hypatia's death, induced the down a church or synagogue, but do not mob to destroy the synagogue in that allow new ones to be built." New syna- city, Theodosius II. made the clergy and gogues were prohibited by law in the people of Antioch restore the synagogue reign of Alfonso X. of Castile (1252- to the Jews. Martin V., who in 1419 THE STORY OF THE SYNAGOGUE. 473 issued a bull wherein it was stated that times and in different places, which can should Jews not be molested in their hardly be realized in favored lands synagogues, was not the only Pope who to-day. showed a The churchmen kindly spirit. The historic Old-New Synagogue of of Sens were inflamed in the days of In- Prague furnishes a good illustration of nocent III. because the synagogue's the experiences which have been endured structure was than the from higher church, age to age. Its early origin is in the fourteenth century in although proved by the fact that in 1142 it was

GLOGAU SYNAGOGUE, GERMANY.

Rome church and synagogue were close destroyed by fire, although speedily re- neighbors without awakening any ill- built. In 1336 King John robbed it of feeling. In Hamburg as late as 1612 gold and silver; in 1389 it was the scene Jews were not allowed to have syna- of ghastly persecution, men, women and gogues; nor was the privilege to have a children being slain within its walls. An place of worship in New Amsterdam elegy composed shortly afterwards is still and early New York secured without a recited in the synagogue on the Day of struggle. Such were the varying for- Atonement, in memory of that catas- tunes of the synagogue, in different trophe. The synagogue was ever the THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 474 centre of similar scenes, as the Jews were to the fact which Prof. Goldwin Smit subjected to the caprice of their rulers. once, when Disraeli's satire was sti In 1744, when the Prussians abandoned rankling, denied that Jews can be Prague, the house of worship suffered triots. severely and it was plundered by Maria Many are the legends which are ass Theresa's troops. In 1784, when the ciated with the edifice, whose rat! Moldau had a disastrous inundation, the sombre interior has been renovated, synagogue was injured. Yet amid the none is more suggestive than that of tl ravages of fire and water, and ruffianly dove a bird which is popular in foil desecration in war time, it has survived. lore. During one of the most extensri

STRASBURG SYNAGOGUE, GERMANY.

There can be seen hanging in the syna- conflagrations in the Ghetto, when tl gogue's interior a banner richly embroid- synagogue seemed doomed, a dove wz ered with gold and suitably inscribed, an observed alighting upon the roof's hi| heirloom in which all take pride. This est pinnacle and keeping its perih was given to the congregation, accord- place untouched and unterrified amid ing to one version, by Charles IV., and smoke and flame from adjacent dw< according to another it was a reward for ings which came ever nearer. Throi their courageous defence of the city dur- those hours of dismay the dove never 1( ing the siege by the Swedes in 1648. No its perch for a moment, but held its symbol could be happier in its testimony like a sentinel to repel disaster. Th< THE STORY OF THE SYNAGOGUE. 475 when the fire had been and dan- was stayed the women's synagogue. Before the ger averted, the dove, as if satisfied that new Jewish quarter was occupied, in its was no presence longer required, took 1461, a was synagogue built at the city's to flight and was seen no more, while the close cost, to which, in 1603, a new edi- people wondered at the miracle. fice was erected. Both were attacked by less remarkable was the fate Hardly the mob in 1614 and were burnt to the of the of Frankfort-on-the- synagogue ground in 1711; but the restoration be- Main. In 1241, the of the first mas- in year gan the same year on the old site and sacre of the Jews, the suf- with the old synagogue materials. In 1854 it was

SYNAGOGUE AT TAVLATKEP. fered severely, and its unpleasant experi- torn down to make room for the present ence was repeated in 1349. When the edifice, not far from the original home Jewish quarter was transferred in 1462, of the Rothschilds. the synagogue was made to serve general If the old synagogues which survive communal purposes. In 1874 the foun- breathe of the stormy past, the new syn- dations of the old structure were re- agogue at Rome, which was dedicated vealed it consisted of a square apart- not many months ago and whose site was ment with a half-round niche for the given by the municipality in exchange scrolls of the Law; on the northern side for a strip of ground in the Ghetto, has a THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

for its in the races on the more exultant atmosphere ; stately steeds, Corso, ami facade and magnificent interior suggest the shouts and ribaldry of the multitud the new century and the progress which Here for many hundred years they h has been won. The oldest Jewish com- to receive each new Pope, with knees munity in Europe, its existence for 2,000 bent in homage and holding in their years is little short of a miracle, for de- hands the scrolls of the Law. Here late as spite unhealthy quarters bordering on 1847 Jews above the age of the Tiber, in which it has been caged for were whipped into attendance at centuries, until recent decades, it has sur- on Saturday afternoons so that th vived its more or less aristocratic foes might be converted. Here they were a

ST. PETERSBURG SYNAGOGUE, RUSSIA.

Emperor, noble and prelate. While the lowed to have only one building as a condition of the Jews of Rome was often synagogue, wherein, until it was de- bearable, compared with the fate of their stroyed by fire in 1893, five separate con- brethren in the greater part of Europe, gregations were housed. Here, too, when Paul in IV., 1556, officially estab- their occupations were often restricted lished the Ghetto the word is of Vene- by law to dealing in old clothes, rags and tian origin the most odious forms of iron. It was enough to devitalize any persecution became the fashion. Here community, but the treatment did not for two centuries the Jews had to partic- kill, and ou! of their midst have gone with ipate asses, buffaloes and Barbary forth the first lexicographer of the Tal- I THE STORY OF THE SYNAGOGUE. 477

of mud, a poet friend Dante, famous length on the varied fortunes of the syn- writers, physicians, musicians. agogue and the legends that twine after It was in 1870, desultory efforts, around the old structures, but a subject that the Jews of Rome took effective of wider interest must be considered its steps to have the Ghetto destroyed, with architecture. One might infer from pop- the ascension of Victor Emanuel. Fif- ular impressions of Jewish exclusiveness teen years later the noxious quarter was that the synagogue had its special form levelled. The new synagogue, built in a of architecture from which a departure different section, tells the story of eman- was heresy. The fact is, there is no dis- cipation. If stones could speak, what tinctly Jewish architecture it is eclectic could not the Arch of Titus dating and varies with the environment. In from 70 of the common era tell of the Jerusalem an old synagogue has the ap- pearance of a mosque. The interior of the Romanesque synagogue of Regens- r burg, which centuries ago fell a prey to the flames, has the lines of the Cathedral of Spires. The St. Petersburg syna- gogue has unmistakably the characteris- tic exterior of a Russian Greek Church. Perhaps the Gothic and Moorish in va- ried modifications are seen most fre- quently, but although the arch, the dome and the minaret are often presented, the steeple and the belfry are absent. Per- haps the synagogue is hospitable enough to adopt these in the future. The synagogue ruins in Galilee, dat- ing from 150 to 300 of the com- mon era, are of Roman character in their masonry, moulding and ornamentation proving how early current styles were adopted. Toledo's famous synagogue, changed into a church in 1405, and known as Santa Maria la Blancha, is built after the most approved Moorish- Spanish design, which can only faintly be seen in illustration. Its plan is that of a basilica, the ground floor tiled, being an oblong square about 90 by 65 feet, di- vided into five naves or aisles,* divided nine in by four rows of octagon pillars, Breslau Synagogue, Germany. each row. Horseshoe arches of peculiar Moorish pattern rise from these columns. whose are whirligig of time which brings its re- Over the arches, spandrels is venges, but few more decisive, to rejoice carved into elegant rose-patterns, a second ornamented with the cold chiseled figures of Jewish cap- placed arcade, like tives from Jerusalem, than that new tem- pure Byzantine work, appearing third series of stalactite ple where the Law is still recited, despite stone-lace. A rests double the legions of Vespasian and eighteen archlets upon pillarets, an elaborate frieze reaching centuries of Rome's sovereignty in va- crowned by to the roof. This roof, though of wood, ried forms ! Do the old occupants of the of rock, and, black Pantheon know of the sacrilege, and has the durability still shows traces of or- what would Horace or Juvenal or Tacit- with age, gold The edifice was used as a us say now of the synagogue ? namentation. in and on the One is tempted to dwell at greater Magdalen Asylum 1550, THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

XKW SYNAGOGUE AT PARIS, FRANCE INTERIOR. THE STORY OF THE SYNAGOGUE.

THE SYNAGOGUE AT ROME. RECENTLY COMPLETED. THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 480

French invasion, in 1792, was appro- usually an elevated platform from whi< the are read. fach priated for military barracks. prayers Directly church the entrance from the which Sicily has a Gothic Catholic vestibule, which was formerly a synagogue. The generally at the western end, so that tl wooden structures to be found originally synagogue may face the east, is the Arl in Poland and parts of Russia, from the or receptacle for the scrolls of the La> sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and or Pentateuch, before which is hung somewhat later, have been made the sub- curtain. In the old synagogues thei of was either a latticed or a ject of special monographs. Some gallery speci; these houses of worship were built as room for women worshippers. In mai bulwarks against Tartar inroads; others of the later synagogues, reading de with their flat roofs and openings show and pulpit are combined before the Arl indubitable signs that they could harbor while in reformed American congre^ cannon when the Jews were forced to tions family pews have been introduce defend themselves. They form a curious thus doing away with the Oriental feat study for the modern architect, and are ure of the women's gallery. It can rea( not likely to serve as models for our ily be seen how Ark, curtain, gallery ai days. columns lend themselves to splendid ai The latest synagogues built on the unique ornamentation. Although tl broad places of the chief cities and no plastic art has received little encourage longer hidden in the narrow Ghetto, rep- ment, carved wood and rich marbles ai resent all styles of architecture. The generally employed, onyx, gold and Classic, the Renaissance, the Byzantine, saics being used with fine effect. In tl the Romanesque, with a blending of the Orient many a synagogue whose exteric Gothic and the Moorish, can be found in is sombre and uninviting has magnifia all directions. The new synagogues in interior furnishings and decorations Szegedin and Temesvar; in Berlin, The Italian synagogues, in particular, Strasburg and Cologne; in Florence, a land where artistic genius is almc Rome and Turin with similar edifices in are remarkable for the cost ; universal, Budapest, Breslau, Glogau, Hanover, embroidered curtains and architectui Koenigsberg, Munich, Paris, Vienna and beauty of the Ark, in whose enrichmei Warsaw show freedom and beauty in a generous rivalry is exhibited. In tl their construction. The same variety of respect a synagogue appears like a votr style is illustrated in American syna- shrine, and elaborate gifts, often wor gogues and temples. en's exquisite handiwork, are treasui A word only in this connection as to from generation to generation until th< the interior arrangement that reproduces acquire a venerable age, to become in certain features the lines of the older powerful object lesson to the young ai tabernacle, which itself suggested in- to the old worshipper matters for piot terior arrangements in Solomon's Tem- contemplation. ple. In the centre of the main floor is Abram S. Isaacs. Converse Manor

Converse at Manor, Greenwich, opportunity as he could desire. The Conn., which is illustrated owner of herewith, the house has evidently allowed an is exceedingly interesting example the architect a free hand. The most of American contemporary domestic durable materials and the best methods architecture. It has of the of many construction have been adopted. virtues and some of the faults of the Every detail of the design, both inside best work which the American archi- and outside of the building, has been tect is in this field. In producing most carefully studied, and shows the owner had practically placed himself in the hands of the architect. The latter has evidently been consulted quite as much about the furniture as about any other detail connected with the appear- ance of the house, and the consequence is that the hangings, the sofas, the chairs and the fixtures which have been placed in each room harmonize with its archi- tectural character. That the architect should have been allowed so much authority may not seem strange to our readers when they remember the many houses which have recently been de- signed in just this way; but they should also remember that in America house- builders have only recently been treating their architects as independent and competent experts, to whom full author- ity should be granted. Consequently, every additional illustration of this sort of thing should be a source of congratu- lation, because they all make for the prevalence of better architectural stand-, ards in American domestic work.

Mr. Donn Barber has justified the re- sponsibility which the owner has placed upon him. One may or may not like this sort of house, but there can be no doubt every detail and aspect of it is the result of intelligent and skilful design- ing and planning, while at the same Bell, Clock and Water Tower on Mr. Converse's time, with all the care which the archi- Estate. tect has exercised, he has entirely (Photo by Alman & Co.) avoided the possible fault of pedantry, to the present instance the designer, and the house does not belong any or to Mr. Donn Barber, has evidently had particular period any particular it arouses asso- both a liberal and a trusting client. style. Probably English and it The house and the grounds, while ciations as much as any other, yet their scale does not compare with is in many respects entirely un-English. that a that of the largest American country One might have expected designer would have residences, are spacious and expensive with Mr. Barber's training the influence enough to offer the architect as good an found it difficult to escape THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

CONVERSE MANOR, THE ESTATE OF MR. E. C. CONVERSE. MAIN APPROACH TO THE HOUSE. Greenwich, Conn. Bonn Barber, Architect. (Photo by Alman & Co.)

J

CONVERSE MANOR, THE ESTATE OP MR. E. C. CONVERSE. NEARER VIEW OF FRO! Greenwich, Conn. Bonn Barber, Archit (Photo by Alman & Co.) CONVERSE MAh OR. 4*1

CONVERSE MANOR, THE ESTATE OF MR. E. C. CONVERSE.-THE STABLES. Greenwich, Conn. Bonn Barber, Architect. (Photo by Alman & Co.)

CONVERSE MANOR, THE ESTATE OF MR. E. C. CONVERSE. SIDE VIEW AND PORTE COCHERE. 'Greenwich, Conn. Donn Barber, Architect. (Photo by Alman & Co.) THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

CONVERSE MANOR, THE ESTATE OF MR. E. C. CONVERSE. UPPER PART OF LIVING HALL AND GALLERY. Greenwich, Conn. Bonn Barber, Architect (Photo by Alman & Co.)

CONVERSE MANOR, THE ESTATE OF MR. E. C. CONVERSE. MAIN STAIRCASE. Greenwich, Conn. Donn Barber, Architect. (Photo by Almau & Co.) CONVERSE MANOR.

CONVERSE MANOR, THE ESTATE OF MR. E. C. CONVERSE. A BEDROOM. Greenwich, Conn. Bonn Barber, Architect. (Photo by Alman & Co.)

CONVERSE MANOR, THE ESTATE OF MR. E. C. CONVERSE. THE DRAWING ROOM. Greenwich, Conn. Donn Barber, Architect. (Photo by Alman & Co.) THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 486

CONVERSE MANOR, THE ESTATE OP MR. E. C. CONVERSE THE BILLIARI

Donn Barber ' Archit Greenwich, Conn. (Photo by Alman & Co.)

CONVERSE MANOR, THE ESTATE OP MR. E. C. CONVERSE THE LIVING ROOM. Greenwich, Conn. Donn Barber, Architect. (Photo by Alman & Co.) I CONVERSE MANOR.

CONVERSE MANOR, THE ESTATE OP MR. E. C. CONVERSE-THE DINING ROOM Greenwich, Conn. (Pho t o by Alman & Co.) Bonn Barber, Architect.

CONVERSE MANOR, THE ESTATE OF MR. E C. CONVERSE THE KITCHEN. Greenwich, Conn. Bonn Barber, Architect. (Photo by Alman & Co ) 488 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. of French models, but however much house is no exception to this rule. It is the method of the design may have true that, in examining the illustrations, come from France, the effect of the one must recognize the fact that the building is not French. In general planting has not as yet had sufficient form, indeed, the high-pitched roof and time to grow; but there is no indication the two symmetrical wings and gables that when it does grow it will fulfil it suggest some of the later French purpose. The landscape layout is unin chateaux, and the landscape gardening teresting and arid, and the planting wi is more French than anything else, but never sufficiently fill the empty spaces the rough stonework, which gives so and give scale to the architecture. It is. much of its character to the building, is perhaps, for this reason that the genen not at all French. The truth is, of appearance of the house, in spite of th< course, that the form and appearance of many excellent qualities of the design, i< the house is the outcome of composite somewhat unattractive. It is, indeec influences derived from several differ- thoroughly domestic in character, an( ent sources, and these composite influ- it does not in the least suggest a palace, ences are frankly expressed in the build- in which a modern American famib ing. One can hardly say that the archi- could not appropriately live. But tectural issue of these composite influ- lacks charm. Both inside and out ences is American, but at least it is not wears rather an assertive and formid anything else than American, and it is as able air than a gracious and smilin near to being American as at the pres- one, and, so far as the exterior is con- ent time anything architectural can be. cerned, a better scheme of landscaper~ The Converse house shows that mixture gardening would do much to give the of symmetry and picturesqueness, of house a more genial aspect, the lack freedom and careful regulation, which which it shares with many other Ameri the American architectural conscience can houses designed under similar cI is coming more and more to demand, ditions. The third defect, to whichnVVi and that is one reason why it is such a attention should be called, is that its de- significant modern American architec- sign has not been sufficiently considered tural instance. from every point of view. It looks very If, however, it has the typical merits of well from the several points of view the good architect's houses of to-day, it whereby it is seen in the accompanying also has some of their defects. A toler- illustrations; but there are other points ably large acquaintance with such of view from which its aspect is not houses has resulted in the conclusion merely formidable, but forbidding. That that these defects are to be found chiefly is, of course, always the danger which in three directions. The good American an architect runs who seeks to make a architect is, in the first place, both more house with a very irregular plan and a experienced and better qualified to de- picturesque design symmetrical from one sign houses than he is the grounds point of view. Such a house is not around a house. It is rarely that the lay- likely to look well from other points of out and the of the view and later more trees should be planting grounds ; really adds either to the attractiveness planted, in order to cut off some of of the house or to the propriety of its these less attractive aspects of the architectural effect; and the Converse house. A House on a Cliff The Residence of Mr. Livingston Jenks MYRON HUNT, Architect

The residence of Mr. Livingston high hills, many of which overlook the which is illustrated is most Jenks, herewith, beautiful bay in the world, and we described in the title as a "House on a of know no other city which would offer Cliff," and the description will doubtless a site for a residence resembling that on to the of our readers a suggest majority which Mr. Jenks' house is built. The situated in the back on building country opportunity is unique, and Mr. Jenks a high rock overlooking a valley or river. was fortunate in selecting an architect,

FIG. 1. FIRST FLOOR PLAN. THE HOUSE OF MR. LIVINGSTON JENKS. San Francisco, Cal. Myron Hunt, Architect.

But this suggestion, although plausible, Mr. Myron Hunt, who was capable of would be wholly erroneous. Mr. Jenks' placing a unique building upon it. house is distinctly an urban dwelling, but Russian Hill, which is the name of the it lo- is situated in the one large city in the cliff on which Mr. Jenks' house is United States which contains streets cated, does not belong to the newer part which lead to cliffs. It is situated, that of San Francisco, known as Pacific is situated is, in San Francisco, which is a city of Heights. On the contrary, it THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 400

in the older part of the city, and is sec- quarry, and which contributes largely ond only to Telegraph Hill in its near- the availability of the cliff as a site for ness to the older business district, and in building. But, in addition to Mr. Jenks' its precipitous character. In times past house, and previous to it, other resi- it was used in part as a stone quarry, but dences were situated on the hill, of late years the quarry was abandoned, glimpses of which may be seen in tl

FIG. 2. THE SOUTH END OF THE DWELLING, SHOWING THE ROUGH TRAIL LEADING UP VALLEJO ST. TO THE SIDE DOOR THE HOUSE OF MR. LIVINGSTON JENKS. San Francisco, Cal. Myron Hunt, Architect.

and a number of new houses have been photographs. Among these residences built on or near its summit. Fig. 4 must be mentioned particularly that of shows the great retaining wall, which the Rev. Joseph Worcester, who has was erected some thirty years ago in done so much for the cause of good order to sustain the trail leading to the architecture in San Francisco; that of A HOUSE ON A CLIFF. 49 1

Mrs. Richardson, the and that painter, Jenks realized that before long the water of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson. The would supply probably be interrupted, hill was seized and upon occupied chiefly and that a conflagration would follow. people who the extra- So he by appreciated filled every receptacle he had in of the outlook it the ordinary beauty gave house with water, and when the fire the and over Bay, who were qualified to arrived he and his Chinese cook mounted enjoy it. Moreover, their houses were, the roof and thoroughly soaked the split for the most but little part, injured by redwood shingles of which it was made. the recent and the re- earthquake by He was finally driven away by the sol- All sulting conflagration. that part of diers, as were the defenders of the other the in which Russian Hill is city situated houses in the neighborhood; but in the

FIG. 3. GENERAL VIEW OF THE HOUSE LOOKING NORTHWEST, SHOWING THE FACE OF THE ROCK THROUGH WHICH THE STREET HAS BEEN CUT. THE HOUSE OF MR. LIVINGSTON JENKS. San Francisco, Cal. Myron Hunt, Architect. was burned to the ground, but the houses meantime their work was accomplished. on Russian Hill itself escaped, partly be- Mr. Jenks' house and the other ones on cause of the amount of vacant property the hill were saved, and the photographs in the immediate neighborhood, and with which it is illustrated were taken partly because the houses were well after the catastrophe. protected by the good sense of their Mr. Jenks' residence is a frame build- owners and the exertions of their ing, all the exterior walls of which are friends. Thus the preservation of Mr. battened. A two by four was ripped and thus Jenks' house was largely due to the diagonally, making two battens, precautions which the owner himself giving in the entire height of the wall a and one- took when the earthquake occurred. Mr. batten of from three to three THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 492

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FIG. 4. THE HOUSE LOOKING SOUTHWEST, TAKEN FROM A POINT IN TAYLOR ST. THE HOUSE OF MR. LIVINGSTON JENKS. San Francisco, Cal. Myron Hunt, Architect A HOUSE ON A CLIFF. 493

half inches. The exterior is plastered that the building does not parallel the on metal lath, with a new patented water- street, but is placed on the brink of cliff proof plaster, and the must building irrespective of orientation. have been well The win- constructed, because the dows are concentrated at one end only only damage wrought by the ot each earthquake room, a disposition which en- consists of a few cracks in the interior abled the architect both which to get the large, walls, can be repaired at a solid stretches very of unbroken wall for his small cost. None of the was masonry exterior, and to make the outlooks and the from disturbed, photograph of the the inside rooms more interesting. A building shows not the slightest effect of small panel window of plate glass about this great convulsion. The house was one three by feet is the only to- as little disturbed the shock as was the opening by wards the bay for those rooms which :k on which it is built, and with which look north and south, while the rooms in

Fig. 5. The East Front, Showing the Concentra- Fig. G. A Detail of the Brackets of the East tion of the Windows. Porch. THE HOUSE OF MR. LIVINGSTON JENKS San Francisco, Cal. Myron Hunt, Architect.

its appearance is harmonized. The the center of the building were handled chief object of Mr. Hunt's design was to so as to give the greatest amount of embody a building which would look raking view. well upon a rocky cliff, and which would Figure 2 shows the south end of the define the most beautiful outlooks which building, with the rough trail leading the cliffs commanded; and in framing it up Vallejo Street to the side door, the he was much assisted by his familiarity burned city below on the right, a steam- with Tyrolese dwellings. The house has ship, the bay, and a portion of Alcatraz been made, consequently, somewhat Island in the distance. Figure 3, on the rugged and substantial in appearance, other hand, gives one of the most inter- with large plain wall surfaces, heavy pro- esting of the general views. It looks jections, and an absence of any incon- northwest, showing the face of the rock gruous refinements. It will be noticed through which the street has been cut, a THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 494

Richardson's residence But the which portion of Mrs. library. photograph gives in the background, with its chimney one of the best glimpses of the beauty of down, and the concrete foundations of the view across the bay is that contained in 8. It looks across the the Jenks house. These foundations Figure roadway were cast into a socket carefully cut leading from the house around to Green into the face of the rock, tarpaulins Street, a section of the Burned District its to Alcatraz Island and the main- being used to preserve the lichens on below, entrance is land in the distance. original surface. The main situated on the other side of the house, The interior of Mr. Jenks' house ex- hibits its best the character and is shown in Figure 7. The back, or at which Mr. bestows the rooms which westerly, portion of the old quarry has Hunt upon he

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FIG. 7. A GENERAL VIEW OF THE COURTYARD OF THE HOUSE, SHOWING THE BACK OR WESTERLY PORTION OF THE' OLD QUARRY THE HOUSE OF MR. LIVINGSTON JENKS. San Francisco, Cal. Myron Hunt, Architect. been turned into a courtyard, from which designs. He likes, as those familiar with may be seen the burned city, the bay, and his work will remember, a simple, con- the hills of Berkeley on the other side. sistent treatment, which runs through By consulting the plan in relation to all the rooms on a floor, and which is, of this view of the entrance court, the necessity, fundamentally alike in the reader will easily be able to identify the different rooms, because they are not several different rooms whose windows sharply divided one from another by par- give upon the court. The kitchen wing titions. The openings are large, and are is on the while the two the right, windows unenclosed by doors and hangings ; on the lower floor to the left look out vistas are many, and are so open that from the room and from the a sense of and reception one gets pleasant space ; A HOUSE ON A CLIFF. 495

FIG. 8. A DETAIL OF THE ENTRANCE PORCH, SHOWING THE VIEW THERE- FROMTHE HOUSE OF MR. LIVINGSTON JENKS. San Francisco, Cal. Myron Hunt, Architect. THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 496 A HOUSE ON A CLIFF.

FIG. 10. THE WELL OF THE MAIN HALL, SHOWING THE STAIRWAY LEADING TO THE SECOND STORY, AND THE DINING ROOM IN THE DISTANCE THE HOUSE OF MR. LIVINGSTON JENKS. San Francisco, Cal. Myron Hunt, Architect.

HOUSE OF FIG. 11. THE LIVING ROOM AND THE MAIN HALL-THE MR. LIVINGSTON JENKS. Myron Hunt, Architect. ;San Francisco, Cal. THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 498

created a and sombre effect so much ; but yet the several apartments vary heavy in means such an effect has been avoided com- in size, lighting, exposure, and by -of the detail. The of approach, that there is no monotony plete propriety; gen- of effect. In the present instance Mr. eral aspect of the house is at once digni- Myron Hunt was very fortunate in hav- fied, substantial and gracious. that the The house is somewhat ii ing a client who was willing irregular architect should control as completely plan, but its irregularities are confined almost to the the design of the interior as he did the entirely portion devoted to service. The entrance leads design of the exterior, with the result porch into that there is no incongruity between the an entrance hall, which on the right architecture of the rooms and their fur- enters into the butler's pantry and on the

FIG. 12. THE RECEPTION ROOM AND LIVING ROOM THE .HOUSE OF MR. LIVINGSTON JENKS . San Francisco, Cal. Myron Hunt, ArchitectI niture. Every detail harmonizes with left into the reception room. Directly the general scheme. The bare, simple, ahead is the main hall, which runs up> carefully colored wall surfaces are not through two stories, and through 'which spotted with pictures, the wood of the one reaches the living-room on one side furniture harmonizes in color with the and the dining-room on the other, while wood used in the finish, and in the hang- beyond these rooms 'are the children's ings any suggestion of heaviness and dining-room and the library. The offices stuffiness is carefully avoided. In rooms are connected with the butler's pantry, the embrasures of which are so deep and and are at once conveniently connected the partitions so heavy it would have with the rest of the house/ and yet com- been easy by heavy hangings to have pletely shut off therefrom. Figure 9> A HOUSE ON A CLIFF. 499

FIG. 13. THE BAY WINDOW IN THE RECEPTION ROOM, SHOWING THE VIEW OP THE BAY AND ALCATRAZ ISLAND. THE HOUSE OP MR. LIVINGSTON JENKS. San Francisco, Cal. Myron Hunt, Architect. THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 500 A HOUSE ON A CLIFF. 501

FIG. 15. THE SECOND STORY STAIR HALL, SHOWING THE WELL AND THE LANDING OF THE MUSICIANS' GALLERY. THE HOUSE OF MR. LIVINGSTON JENKS. San Francisco, Gal. Myron Hunt, Architect. THE ARCHITECTURAL 502 RECORD. shows the well of the two and one-half beams and the ceiling boards of the story main hall. The arch on the left rooms on the first floor were burned with leads to the concealed staircase, which a torch, and the slight difference in the goes to the second story. There are appearance of the wood which resulted visible in the second story two lines of from the burning of the cedar and the balustrades, which define and protect pine has resulted in a pleasing difference the musicians' gallery, while against of texture between the beams and the these balustrades the lower lights of the soffit. The beams of the ceilings were "hanging onion clump" chandelier are treated in this way in all the rooms, no indistinctly visible. The unusual piece matter what the finish on the redwood of furniture in the foreground was the trim happened to be, but the prevailing invention of the owner of the house, Mr. tone of the finish was everywhere made Livingston Jenks, and constitutes his to blend into the burned wood. idea of what a hat and coat rack ought One of the most interesting illustra- to be. In the photographs the walls of tions reproduced herewith is the view of the different rooms look as if they were the main hall from the living-room, all of one solid color, but thereby hangs which is shown in Figure 1 1. The photo- a tale. Mr. Hunt wished to give each graph gives an extremely attractive of the different rooms the distinction of glimpse of the skylighted main hall of a special color, while at the same time the living-room itself, and of the devas- the way in which the room showed from tated city seen through the glasses of the the other rooms necessitated the adop- bay window. This photograph also tion of a single scheme. He satisfied shows more plainly than any other the these two apparently conflicting de- effect of the burning upon the timbers mands in a novel and ingenious way. of the ceiling and the latter's contrast The bare, plastered walls were first with the wall surfaces. The actual effect sized and then oil stained. In the din- of the burning is rather less harsh than ing-room the color of the stain is yellow, one might infer from the photograph, but in the main hall a deeper bronze-like it is interesting because the marks of the yellow, and in the living-room green. process can be so plainly seen. The The ten or twelve painters were put on cedar timbers were delivered saw-sur- these rooms at once, five different faced, were put into place, and were buckets-full of the stain were made, the then scorched with a painter's torch colors of which were graduated between until the entire surface of each beam was the these different black. a rather soft two x extremes, and perfectly Then colors were blended through the arches, steel brush and in some cases an ordi- so that the transition from one room nary scrubbing brush was used to rul to another was scarcely perceptible off the charcoal, after which the wood- until it was accomplished. Mr. Hunt work was washed down with clear water was careful to do the "boxing" or blend- and rubbed and polished with woolen ing with his own hands, and the result is, rags. The elaboration and the care with that although each of the rooms pre- which these beams were finished will serves its own individual tone, it is im- give some idea of the amount of pains- possible to distinguish where one color taking attention which was given to the begins and another ends. details of this house. It is one of the The interior of the house is finished very few dwellings in this country which in redwood, excepting only the ceilings. have been designed in a spirit of severe, The beams of the ceilings are of Post almost puritanical, architectural consist- Oxford cedar, and the boards covering ency, yet which still keeps a genial and the beams of Oregon pine. Both the a pleasant atmosphere. A Successful Country House Alteration

A successful house alteration country large ell, which in Fig. 2 is partly hid- is the house of Mr. Grafton St. L. Ab- den behind a tree, is of brick. The re- at Mass. It is bott, Concord, situated on sulting plan is accordingly so drawn out a tract of about two hundred and fifty that a vista of over ninety feet runs the acres, which has in a few years been entire length of the house from the din- made attractive a very by little care and ing-room and conservatory at one end to the of application good sense combined the drawing-room at the other end. It with an for the beautiful. The illus- is in eye the interiors that the architect, Mr. trations show the house situated in the Philip B. Howard, of Boston, has done midst of a sward, a portion of which himself proud. The free and idiomatic has been treated as a garden and sur- use of wood and the low general effect rounded by a and of the rooms is admirable of young flourishing very ; many of arbor vitae. is a hedge Figure 3 view them have timber ceilings, the beams for the from house toward the road, and which were obtained right on the estate. shows a naturalistic and effective ar- The general interior treatment still rangement of paths, grass beds and further accentuates the already low walks, which are entered through a little rooms, and produces a very pleasing rustic pergola on brick piers, by a nar- effect of domesticity. The floors, too, row path for pedestrians, and a carriage assist in producing this effect, es- drive running parallel and terminating pecially those in the reception and at the side of the house alongside the dining rooms. The hallway shown in conservatory. The first impression of Fig. 7 is the only room in which any the house is one of lowness, the first kind of formal treatment has been in- floor being but a step above ground dulged in, and here the projection level. This is made possible, that is, of the mouldings is slight and the from a sanitary point of view, by the color white, producing the effect of al- sound construction of the floor, which is most smooth walls in contrast with the of concrete and finished appropriately to heavy, dark ceiling timbers. The door the different rooms, either in cement, to the right in Fig. 7 leads to the stair- tile, or covered with wood. Only a case hall, which reveals some splendid part of the house has a cellar under it, wood wall timbering, and the round- and in this part is located the heating headed entrance door, with two very at- apparatus. The remainder of the floor tractive iron hinges (Fig. 6). The re- rests on battens. The plan of the house ception room (Fig. 4) is an unusually was not composed with a view to the ex- large-looking room for a house of this and terior appearance, it being developed size, and is in fact a large room, the solely as might best suit the owner's far too wide to be safely spanned by in convenience and fancy; and consider- light ceiling beams, which are, reality, of ing this limitation (for such it must only casings hiding the real supports wall is here be) on the architect, the result is steel. The fireplace very to very successful in its entirety. The effectively treated, displaying good beautiful exterior indicates plainly a small house advantage some tapestries. farther end of the with additions (Figs. I and 2). It The windows at the with is an acknowledged alteration, and room are happy, in that they give, as such the architect has tried to the deep window-seat recess, a feeling one's confidence make the most of the conditions. Its dif- of strength, and restore with the ferent parts are of various constructions, in the construction, contrasting beams mentioned above. In the central wing or original four-room thin ceiling there house, with the dining-room addition, is the dining-room (Fig. 5), again, to the but of ordinary frame construction, covered are beams support ceiling, real in this instance, and one of with wire lath and plastered, while the thev are THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 504 A COUNTRY HOUSE ALTERATION. 505 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. A COUNTRY HOUSE ALTERATION. 507

FIG. 4. MR. GRAFTON ST. L, ABBOTT'S HOUSE THE RECEPTION ROOM. Concord, Mass. (Photo by M. H. Northend.) Philip B. Howard, Architect.

DINING ROOM. FIG. 5. MR GRAFTON ST. L. ABBOTT'S HOUSE-THE B. Howard, Architect. Concord, Mass. (Photo by M. H. Northend.) Philip THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 508

1 IS

FIG. 6. MR. GRAFTON ST. L. ABBOTT'S HOUSE THE STAIR HALL. Concord, Mass. (Photo by M. H. Northend.) Philip B. Howard, Architect.

FIG. 7. MR. GRAFTON ST. L. ABBOTT'S HOUSE THE ENTRANCE HALL. Concord, Mass. (Photo by M. H. Northend.) Philip B. Howard, Architect. A COUNTRY HOUSE ALTERATION. 509 them is supported over the fireplace by tion, seldom producing results commen- a cement arch, presumably to carry surate with the trouble and expenditure, some concentrated load transmitted that it is generally discouraged by the from the second floor along the line of profession. But the result in this case the arch. Beyond the arch the ceiling will, no doubt, commend itself to the at- beams become smaller, and increase in tention of many house owners who are number, being merely decorative. The contemplating alterations. The results in latticed window seen in this room gives a such cases must, however, depend en- glimpse of the conservatory, which, dur- tirely on the rationality of the clients' ing cold weather, is abloom with rare requirements, and the ability of the chrysanthemums and tropical plants. architect to successfully resolve the re- The altering and enlarging of old sulting difficulties, which are often not houses is so often an ill-advised opera- easily overcome.

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THROUGH INTO THE THE CHIMNEY BREAST IN THE LIVING ROOM, LOOKING HOUSE OP MR. LIVINGSTON LIBRARY.-THE JENKS^ San Francisco, Cal. THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. NOTES ^COMMENTS

They are beginning to clude all the allied arts, of which she is the talk in Boston of "the Uiii- mother. versity of the UNIVERSITY Fenway." As in the twelve previous annual T Square There are 5,000 students OF THE, Club exhibitions, the Department of Archi- this at the various year tectural Design will dominate. It will in- FE.NWAY educational institutions clude not only the technical drawings of the which without common most distinguished American and European president, or ad- faculty architects, produced during the last year, but ministrative office are there gathered to- will also include a large number of models gether. The unity of the group is in its and photographs of finished work. not in appearance, organic connection, but The department of mural painting will be already this architectural unity is, it is conducted with the co-operation of the Na- claimed, such a reality as Yale or Harvard tional Society of Mural Painters. This will the on or "Acropolis" New York's Morning- include a large number of mural paintings side Heights cannot even dream of. 'Not by the foremost members of the profession. that there are no discords. There is a red Photographs of executed work too large to storage warehouse on Huntington Avenue, a be hung in the galleries, and a large col- dwelling with light basement and flaunting lection of preliminary sketches and cartoons. red brick above, and the "well proportioned The Department of Architectural Sculpture but aggressively scarlet Tufts Medical Col- will be conducted with the co-operation of lege" annoyingly near at hand, writes Fred- tha National Sculpture Society, and will in- eric W. Coburn in the Boston "Transcript," clude full size and sketch models of the most while "the key in which this new university important work of the year. ought to be kept is" the Harvard Medical The Department of Landscape Architecture School having struck the note "that of will be conducted with the co-operation of gleaming white marble and soft limestone The American Society of Landscape Archi- amidst sombre poplars and maples." These tects, including models, photographs and are the same color effects, he notes, as those drawings. of a glorified New England village, where The Department of Arts and Crafts will one finds elm-shaded streets with white be divided as follows: houses that have green blinds and stand Art Metal Work. Wrought and cast iron, back from the street amid masses of privet, bronze work, lighting fixtures, hardware, of Norway spruce and of apple trees. The lead work. Gothic is barred from the Fenway Univer- Terra Cotta. Architectural details, gar- sity, and the style is formal and conven- den pottery, tiles. tional, dignified and restrained. Some vi>s- Architectural Woodwork. Cabinet Work. tas have yet to be opened, especially of the Stained and Leaded Glass. new Christian Science Cathedral; some roads Interior Decorations. Drawings. laid down that will accent various axes; Garden Decorations. In all materials, some adequate approaches made; but, con- shrubs and flowers. Selection will admit only sidering the lack of co-operation, even the The Juries of Juries of beginning is amazing in its promises. works of the first importance. Award, composed of the most distinguished workers in the several departments, will be Acad- The Pennsylvania appointed at the opening of the exhibition, the Fine Arts and the awards FINE emy of but not announced until after the T Square Club of are made. It has not been determined as take. Be- ARTS Philadelphia propose to yet what form these awards will an award EXHIBITION hold a joint exhibition in lieving that the intrinsic value of to its the the galleries of the academy bears little relation importance, of a an- during the present month. award may consist only public and a personal notification. The exhibition will cover the field of archi- nouncement exhibition All inquiries in regard to this tecture in its broadest sense, and will in- THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. 512 may be addressed to either of the under- signed. T SQUARE CLUB. C. L. BORIE, JR., Secretary, 251 So. Fourth St., Philadelphia, Pa. THE PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY QF "THE FINE ARTS. JOHN E. D. TRASK, Secretary, Cor. Broad and Cherry Sts., Philadelphia, Pa.

The South Park Commis- SUMMER sioners of Chicago have USE OF kindly supplemented the sta- tistics that were printed in CHICAGO'S this Department in Septem- SMALL ber to indicate as far as PARKS figures could the social service of the small parks. The attention of the country is upon the Chicago experiment, since it is the most sys- tematic and costly attempt ever made to per- form a comprehensive social service by this means. The figures of the latest annual re- port, quoted in September, could be re- garded only as an index none of the parks having been run with every department complete for a period of even six months at the time when the figures were compiled; and in some of them all departments had been in operation less than one 'month. The supplementary statistics, covering every phase of social activity in each of- the twelve parks during the months of June, July, and August, 1906, and for nine months of the fiscal year, fill many typewritten pages. They may be briefly summarized as follows, though in going over them it should be considered that "visitors, and those who merely look on at games, etc., are not counted;" and that the indoor gymnasiums are used, generally speaking, only in bad weather or after dark in other words, are at their minimum of usefulness in summer months. June, indoor gymnasiums, 4,236; outdoor gymnasiums, 317,356; July, indoor gymnasiums, 2,705; outdoor gymnasiums, 493,999; August, indoor gymnasiums, 3,715; outdoor gymnasiums, 693,842. Three sum- mer months total in gymnasiums and ball fields, exclusive of onlookers: Indoors, 10,-

<;.~>i;; outdoors, 1,505,197; nine months' totals: Indoors, 307,641; outdoors, 1,802,982. As to bathing, the June figures show a total of 92,650 in the gymnasium baths and 134,261 in the swimming pool's; the July figures, THE BORLAND BUILDING. 130,511 in the gymnasium baths and 228,389 Chicago, 111. Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, Architects. in the swimming pools; the August figures, 188,853 in the gymnasium baths and 325,527 in excess of the million. In reading rooms, in the swimming pools a total for the three lunch rooms, assembly halls and club rooms months of more than a hundred thousand during the three months the total attend- NOTES AND COMMENTS.

ance was 364,773. Altogether, the counted active use, during- June, July and August, of what may be called the social facilities of these twelve little park's, was about two mil- lion. Some of the most popular of the parks are only ten acres in extent, and the total area of the twelve is under four hundred acres. As the earliest of these statistics are seven months later than the latest given in the last annual report, it is clear that the parks have not suffered through ceasing to be a novelty. It should also be remembered that by the transfer of outdoor gymnasium and bathing attendance to the facilities offered and the The indoors, greater winter use of as- "Children's Playhouse," Destroyed by sembly halls and club rooms, there need be the Earthquake. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Cal.

"THE PANORAMA," A CONCRETE STRUCTURE WRECKED BY THE EARTHQUAKE. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Cal. no appreciable lessening of usefulness in tectural destruction. Incidentally, it shows winter as compared to summer. In fact, the to what degree the erection of buildings in figures of nine months show a total active the park had gone. The "Temple of Music," attendance in these little parks of four and built of sandstone and variegated marbles a half million. Thus is the experiment and said to be the largest and costliest music justifying itself. stand in the world, will have to be nearly reconstructed. It was a gift from Glaus An account of the damage Spreckels, and cost $75,000. The "Chil- was INJURY TO wrought by the earthquake dren's Playhouse," which stood near, in Golden Gate Park, San almost totally wrecked. It was built of BUILDINGS Francisco, is not only a sor- brick, concrete, granite and sandstone, and IN GOLDEN rowful tale from the land- was a very substantial appearing building. GATE PARK s c a p e artist ' s point of On Strawberry Hill the "Panorama," a view for that pleasure- structure of reinforced concrete, is much ground represented a very worse off than is the Colliseum in Rome notable conquest over discouraging natural which in its present state, judging from resembles. It conditions but it recounts much archi- photographs, it considerably THE ARCHITECTURAL RECOKD. 5'4 was built some ten years ago, at a cost of capitals Harrisburg, Columbus, Providence, St. Paul $25,000, and like the music temple was a Columbia, Denver, are ordering little their in gift from a citizen. In front it was a development accordance with com- lake, with concrete sides and bottom. These prehensive and beautiful improvement plans, were cracked so badly in the earthquake something of the sort must soon be de- that all the water disappeared. The art manded of Albany. The city has elements museum, an Egyptian structure, was so of singular picturesqueness, and in this shattered that for months it was closed to waterside improvement, in the location and the public. The collections also suffered construction of the new State Library, and considerably. Over against these damages in the development of the Capitol Park, a may be put, as illustrating the freakish- good beginning could be made. ness of earthquakes, the fact that the great cross presented by George W. Childs, the The second annual report Goethe-Schiller memorial, the McKinley of the Metropolitan Park memorial, and the immense conservatory, PARK PLANS Commissioners of Rhode were not injured at all. It should be said, Island, representing the as apology for the presence of so much pre- district in and around tentious construction, that Golden Gate PROVIDENCE Providence, has lately come Park was of that sumptuous type like Cen- from the press. It i>s a tral Park that seems to be as truly de- large volume, beautifully manded in the large and rich city as is the printed and profusely illustrated, and very country park and the children's playground. convincing- in its widely gathered argument. It is not a type to be advocated carelessly; The completeness and thoroughness with but it has its uses. which it has been prepared, need no com- ment for those who know the commission's The City Engineer of Al- secretary, Henry A. Barker; for the benefit Walter has IMPROVE.- bany, Melius, of others it may be said that in addition completed plans and specifi- to the previous extensive collection of photo- MENT cations for a river-front graphs, the report mentions that In the OF improvement that would be year he has secured nearly 1,500 more, ALBANY more than usually ef- mainly taken by himself, so that there is a fective. Its realization photographic record, reasonably complete, of would be not only a great all the lands considered. Furthermore, a fhing for the citizens of Albany, but it series of thirty-six plans, generally on the would delight the eyes of the innumerable scale of three hundred feet to the inch, has army of tourists to whom that city, with its been prepared to show the contour of the dreary river front, is annually the transfer land and the location of streets and build- point to the Adirondacks, Saratoga, Lake ings in the whole metropolitan district. As George, the East and the West. We all to finances, it is figured that the quarter know the "pier," or seeming island that lies million dollar bond issue, asked in the re- close to the city, with its dilapidated and port for the purchase and improvement of ancient warehouses. This, in the new plan, lands, will cost the people at the outset is swept clear of buildings; and State increased assessments must soon pay it all Street, with the capitol crowning its hill, is back, and almost certainly a large profit be- brought down to it, broad and straight. The sides 2.95 cents apiece, which does not street crosses the river margin, where are quite equal "the price of three striped sticks railroad tracks and heavy teaming, by a of candy." Furthermore, as the report viaduct and then extends by a handsome points out, "the proceeds of the bonds used concrete bridge out to the pier. This will be to buy land would to a great extent go to made if the scheme is carried out an the people of the district, who, it is pre- esplanade, with pavilions, ornamental boat sumed, would re-invest it in other property, landings, etc. The plan is creditably worked so that there would be nothing lost." Thus out, with due attention to the practical de- is the financial argument presented with tails of prevention of flood and ice damage. directness and simplicity. The beauty of But whether staid old Albany will show the country surrounding Providence, with Itself sufficiently alive to the civic spirit of the bay, the streams, the woods and hills, the day to authorize the execution of the will lend itself singularly well to the cre- scheme is another question. There are not ation of a system of beautiful parks and" wanting signs, of which the 'mere making, drives, and we may rejoice that there is to- of the plan is one, that the city is awaken- be another system planned on so large an

A letter from a citizen to than art sculpture. But as yet it has been the Syracuse Post Stand- done MUNICIPAL warily, so that the protest needs to ard pictures what in the be rather ART against the tendency than against future a sufficiently broad, ' existing facts. Two illustrative items which IN vague term will be the come to hand together are the erection of estate of municipal art in SYRACUSE a memorial bandstand in a park in Cleve- Syracuse. To be the sure, land; and of a memorial bench in a park in conjunction now Be 'ems Wilmington. The Cleveland memorial is to but the future is antithetical; long and the man who originated open-air concerts and the citizen much of primrosy, hopes in that city. The stand is thirty-five feet art in the United municipal States as a square. Its mosaic floor, which is at an ele- whole. surmises that in He the good time vation of five feet, is approached at each will rise coming "beauty to the high place side by a flight of steps. A pier at each in governmental affairs, national, slate corner, two engaged and two detached it held in and municipal, ancient Greece Corinthian columns support the flat, balu- and now holds in Japan, and will become straded roof. The superstructure is cypress one of the chief inspirations of governmental wood painted white. Of the cost, $1,000 was as well as of individual concern and ex- contributed by the city. The bench is in penditure." About that time, Clinton memory of a former and active park com- Square, in Syracuse, relieved of can?l and missioner, and is of white Barre granite. bridges, will be the location, he predicts, of It is located at a picturesque overlook, and 'many beautiful statues. Syracuse will one its chaste and simple design is the work of day, he promises, be as distinguished for Gay Lowell. When one thinks of it, it is its treasures of art as were Athens, Delphi, strange that benches are not a more fre- and other Greek centres of culture; and he quent form of memorial if there must be calls for a beginning of 'the transformation memorials in parks. Except in the more by the erection of memorials now to the pretentious guise of an exedra, one seldom men and women who have made Syracuse finds the bench, and yet in what other shape what it is. All this would be passed over does a memorial so invite to meditation? without much thought, except that the citi- zen who writes it is Dr. George F. Comfort a dreamer, no doubt; but a dreamer whose dreams have been known to come true. This STUDIES IN A k ok f essays on archi- tectural has be- is witnessed by the recently established subjects of a Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, of which he come something rarity TECTURE This ls due in is the director. A year ago the same square m English> By lack of was seized upon by Mr. Robinson, in his part to the curious Reginald interest evinced series of articles on Syracuse Opportunities. intelligent ' these days by even the erlu ' He found it "quite unique" and affording A "R A cated laymen in the only fine possibilities for immediate attractive art. But the is not the development, and he pointed out what this really public layman individual for this indiffer- should be. Conditions have been improved only responsible ence. Those who do attempt from time to time a litle since then; but it is still a striking to architecture in literary terms are chance that is unavailed of and one in expound perverse in their treatment which local architects would do well to in- extraordinary of the One might believe they were terest themselves. It is again the very subject. sworn to reduce it to technicalities and de- chance that was given, and beautifully vitalize it of all esthetic and personal in- grasped, in the mediaeval cities of Belgium. terest. Architecture in their hands becomes a dry affair of dates, measurements and the of construction. Up to Speaking of sculpture in morphological facts this is all very well for the the parks, there has arisen a certain point but the reader's interest drops by MEMORIALS naturally enough in it- student, The latter must be forgiven if he self; and yet, strangely, at the way. IN a discourse on architecture direct variance with the concludes that PARKS as entertaining as a book on mathe- happily increasing distrust is about The result, as Mr. Blomfield says, of sculpture as an appro- matics. been that architecture, considered as an priate park ornament a has has out of the main stream of tendency to make cemeteries of the parks by art, dropped thought, and has lost touch of that putting memorials in them. If this went educated interest which is freely accorded far enough, it would be a great deal worse intelligent THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

in tions as of to the sister arts. It is partly at least superintendents buildings, engi- condition leers, janitors, etc. a spirit of protest against this Mathematics. Those of that the present book of essays was under- Elementary parts and taken. We cannot say the result is exactly arithmetic, algebra, geometry trigo- used in technical work. Practice "popular" reading, or reading in any sense nometry with etc. for the uninitiated, but the chapters are most engineering hand-books, tables, course. Fits for decidedly of a sort that will engage the in- Drafting. A beginner's as of terest of readers of this magazine. They positions draftsmen, reading drawings, etc. are distinctly literary, and constitute one of of Materials. lecture course the few eminently entertaining books on Strength A for or manufacture ma- architecture that have appeared in recent those who design chinery or modern structures. With this years. The Macmillan Company are the course should be taken either the first or publishers. The volume is well and suffi- second of the two courses in design. ciently illustrated. following Machine Design. Advanced drafting, com- putations and designing for persons engaged in the design and manufacture of machinery. The Board of Extension Structural Design. Advanced drafting, EVE.NING Teaching of Columbia Uni- computations and designing for those who do TECHNICAL versity announces a series structural work. of nine evening technical Electrical A course AT Engineering. espe- COURSES courses> which will be given cially for those engaged in electrical work of COLUMBIA at the University this win- any sort. ter November course for those UNIVERSITY ' beginning Steam Engineering. A 26 and lasting twenty engaged in the management of steam ma- weeks. The courses are under the immediate chinery of any sort. direction of Professor Walter Rautenstrauch, Special Engineering Problems. A study of of the Faculty of Applied Science, and are any special elementary or advanced engi- to be given by professors and instructors of neering problems desired by the student. In- the university and other persons especially dividual instruction will be arranged for such qualified. Moderate fees ($7.50 to $15) are a period of time as the special problem may charged, and most of the courses are for two demand. evenings a week. The courses are as follows: The courses will be given in the buildings Engineering Physics: As illustrated in the of Teachers' College, Columbia University, at mechanical plants of modern buildings. (1) West One Hundred and Twentieth street and An elementary study of physics; (2) a prac- Broadway, which -affords necessary lecture tical study of steam and electrical machinery, rooms, laboratories, drafting rooms, etc. A heating, ventilating, water system, wiring, complete catalogue of these courses will be elevators, etc., included in the plant of Co- sent on request by addressing Evening Tech- lumbia University. For two classes of stu- nical Courses, Extension Teaching, Columbia dents those wishing an introductory study University. Personal information may be se- of physics as preparation to advanced study cured. Tuesday and Thursday evenings, be- in electricity, steam, etc., another winter; tween 7.30 and 9 o'clock, from Mr. Benjamin those desiring practical training for posi- R. Andrews, Room 111, Teachers' College.