^' THE ARCH1TECTVRAL VOL. XXXII CONTENTS NO 168 for SEPTEMBER. 1912 COVER DESIGN . By J. M. Rose PAGE THE FIRST BAPTIST CHVRCH, PITTS- BVRGH, PA. Arthur G. Byne 193 Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson, Architects Illustrated by Photograph* by J. Buckly THE NEW DEVELOPMENT IN GERMAN ARCHITECTVRE . Francis R. Bacon 209 Illustrated by Photograph* THE ARCHITECTVRE OF MEXICO CITY. PART I ANCIENT . Montgomery Schuyler 215 Illustrated by Photographs STONINGTON, CONN. M. W. Pcntz 230 Illustrated by Photographs by G. A. Hyde BVILDING THE HOVSE OF MODERATE COST . Robert C. Spencer, F. A. I. A. 238 Fourth Article Illustrated by Photographs EXAMPLES OF ORNAMENTAL PLASTER WORK OF THE ENGLISH LOWLANDS Duane Lyman 250 Illustrated by Photographs by the Author EARLY AMERICAN CHVRCHES. PART X Aymar Embury II 257 FIRST CHVRCH, SPRINGFIELD. MASS. FIRST CHVRCH. IENOX. MASS. -GLORIA DEI." PHILA- DELPHIA. MONVMLNTAL CHVRCH. RICHMOND. VA. NOTES AND COMMENTS . 267 - i . \-_ INfri PVBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE AUCHITECTVRAL RECORD COMPANY 11-15 LAST TWENTY-FOVRTH STREET. NEWYORK F.W DODCE. FT AM LLER JIC PRESIDENT MANAGING f. DlTOR f TRIAS. RVSSELL F WHUI.HtAD CONTRIDVTINC (DITORS HARRY W. DESMOND SCWVYLF.R HERBERT D. CROLY RALPH R.EINHOLD ,\AS'ACIR. YIAIU.Y iVRSCRIPTION BVSINFSS COPYRIGHT IOU IV VNinD STATES \V -TORIICN. J^? ENTERED >\AY 22 I9O2.AS StCOND RECOUP COMPANY SINCU corns, isc CLASS -^AITSR. AT NtW YORK. NY MLUCHntUUVO ' ' THK KIKST HAI'TIST 'I II I :< '1 1. PIT rSI'.L'KGH. PA. CRAM. GOODHUE & FERGUSON. ARCH ITK' "IS THE ARC ITECTVRAL RECORD SEPTEMBER 1912 VOLVME XXXII NVMBER1I1 uson, Architects Jutt'an. uc/k-Cv-f^ modern Gothic is, on at the good stance, looking window tracery ; practically, to discuss the work of but straightway the great over-shadow- rs. (ram, Goodhue & Ferguson; ing window arches with their deep re- and this has been so recently done in veal increased by buttresses to give one Tin: \R( mi KCTTKAL RECORD that only an impression of enormously thick walls ; iing of decidedly new aspect in these are assertively French; and their productions some note at once ar- crowningly French is the slender fieche. id highly personal would be But. if all these are French, where then ted now to our readers. This we are the accompanying pinnacles and ;i the latest edifice designed by Mr. facetious detail? Their conspicuous ab- lime the l-'irst Baptist Church sence takes one back across the Channel ttsburgh. to the sober little English minster It is an intelligent digest of English churches, and one sums np this effort at I < and .'lumental Gothic, and exh; ; :"ving Mr. iuodlnu-'s edifice, by certain mellowness of conception which saying that it has all the structural would have been impossible to the build- beauty and c< -mp( -ition of Continental, the very period itself, since only along with the nndec. erity and >f mthic. a genenms retrospect could produce it: economical de-i^n Insular archae- and being a digest, it is pleasantly tantal- No piece of Gothic merely 1" Anu'd answer the re- izing classify and analyze. F.tifjlish ol,.-ically Perpendicular, is the verdict, for in- quirements of a modern evangelical re- 194 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. formed congregation, whose prime de- large space with fireproof material. mand is for a large hall from every cor- Their first solution was the groined vault but this ner of which their preacher may be ; was not satisfactory since heard and seen. Certain liturgical cus- its great weight demanded massive and toms whose needs the finest Gothic proto- obstructing piers; moreover the groins answered are obsolete to- were themselves difficult to construct so types perfectly ; but not unlike our mod- there was devised an immense day ; something improve- ern requirements were demanded cen- ment in the shape of the ribbed vault. turies ago by the Benedictines and Do- This improvement revolutionized the his- minicans who went preaching through tory of Mediaeval Architecture, for once Southern France; hence their so-called the self-supporting ashlar ribs were set, "Hall" churches, still Romanesque in the builders could then devote them- plan but ever working towards Gothic in selves to the question of filling them in their solution of vaulting and roofing. with as light a web as possible. The In these churches, the aisles which were farthest their ingenuity carried them was to become such a feature of fully de- to the use of thin shells of cut stone or veloped Gothic were of minimum width brick for the web by which process and served merely as passages. The they could reduce their piers to as little nave, however, was very wide and open as one-ninth part of the girth of the without obstruction from front to back, heavy Norman pier. This lighter vault- forming for all practical purposes a great ing naturally reduced the wall construc- hall. Another expression of the same tion and buttresses also, and was a sav- but is the from of view idea, even more rudimentary, ing every point ; yet even early Gothic chapel of the English I'ni- at its lightest it still required a wall that versities; a "Hall" in the very English we of to-day would characterize as thick, acceptation of the word, and making no thick even where flying buttresses did a attempt to express the true church plan, large share in resisting the thrust of and its contribution, therefor, to modern the vaulting. All this would have been church building would be more apparent avoided by the use of tile for the webs; in the New England Meeting House. Of for tiling is so bound together as to be the Continental Hall-churches, one of the homogeneous and produces no apprecia- finest structures was the Church of the ble thrust : furthermore it is fireproof Cordeliers, at Toulouse. It no longer which heavy stone is not. Yet the < iothic exists, but in the modern adaptation builders seem to have forgotten the tra- under consideration we see its lineal de- dition of its use. which fact has made it scendant a cruciform plan with all the possible for our own race and day and parts inherent to such a building adapted generation to make this contribution to and altered to suit present needs. The the construction of high vaults in fire- nave is of four bays (short and some- proof churches. what at either side of the nave so in the broad) ; And quadripartite vaulting of are the low passage aisles, which open this new American ( iothic church we find into shallow transepts, and beyond the the webs filled with tiles. In the laying transepts is the chancel one bay deep. of these a choice had to be made between This plan therefore solves the funda- the French and the English methods of in mental requirements of a modern "re- filling ; for although the adhesion be- formed" congregation and like many for- tween the tiles is so perfect that any eign churches has in addition to its cruci- fanciful patterning might have been form plan, an adjoining Parish House. tried, it was thought desirable to retain The most striking feature of its in- the logical relationship between ribs and terior, and one that has largely deter- filling, as developed in France rather mined its exterior aspect, is the manner than in England. In France the ridge of of vaulting. Vaults were the trouble, each vault showed a series of clean torment and delight of the ancient build- straight joints; in England the stone ers as we all know their patient and courses met at the ridge diagonally, to profound study, that is how to roof a conceal which the ridge rib had to be in- THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH. PITTSBURGH. PA. CRAM. GOODHUE A FERGUSON. ARCHITECTS. m THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH. PITTSBURGH PA CRAM. GOODHUE A FERGUSON. ARCHITECTS. 198 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. vented. The example before us uses the sary to contrast with the massiveness of former method, and by doing without the abutments and the general outspoken the additional English ridge rib main- honesty of construction. tains its appearance of simplicity of In the church furniture are consider- able color and animation a chancel floor systematic elimination of unnecessary features. The ridge rib seen over the of intricate tiling approached by steps of slate a of crossing, where the vaulting changes green ; baptistery Tennessee marble with marble all from quadripartite to the more elaborate variegated inlay, tierceron, does not belie this observation, backed by oak panelling and shut in by of since here it is a necessity. a double curtain rich green and gold silk a tall It will be noticed that the vaulting ; lacy drop cresting across the oak stalls a front with springs from high up in the vast cleres- ; gallery painted to the various events in tory, which makes it possible place symbol representing apex of the vault at a higher point than the life of the Saviour; and most sump- the side walls. Upon a careful study of tuous of all the organ. the theories obtaining at the height of This organ takes up the entire chancel the Gothic development it is evident end above the stalls, an admirable way that the aim of the builder was to in which to treat this otherwise difficult stilt the springing plane of the vault- wall. For the great windows commonly both to add to the beauty and soaring found in English chancels are sometimes a strain on one's quality of the vaults themselves and to eyes during a non- concentrate the thrusts. "Probably no liturgical service. Certainly this organ one matter in Mediaeval design was, from answers every decorative requirement, the an artistic point of view, of such over- clustering of the pipes is singularly whelming importance as the combination in keeping with the Gothic spirit \vhil of a towering clerestory and a high set carving, coloring and gilding offer a vault," says a great authority on Gothic pleasant contrast to the surrounding (Francis Bond).