Bradford Gilbert

Ottawa Central Railway Station, Ottawa, Canada (1908)

Central Station (Central Terminus) interior hall, Chicago, Illinois

Grand Central Station, New York City, New York (circa 1902)

As an architect with the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad, Gilbert designed many railroad stations and related buildings.[6][14] Through his private practice, his railroad clients included the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad; Boston & Maine Railroad; Central Railroad of New Jersey; Concord and Montreal Railroad; the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad; Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad; Georgia Railroad Company; Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad; Illinois Central Railroad; Intercolonial Railroad (Canada); Michigan Central Railroad; Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad; New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad; Norfolk and Virginia Beach Railroad; Northern Pacific Railway; Old Colony Railroad; Philadelphia & Reading Company and others.[6][15][14][16] In 1901, he designed the Ottawa Central Railway Station.[2][14][17] He also designed stations, offices and terminals for the National Railroad of Mexico.[2][14]

Gilbert designed the Illinois Central Terminus at 12th Street in Chicago—it was constructed in nine months for the 1893 for the World's Columbian Exposition.[2] The location and use of the building created certain challenges given the brief that all fair buildings have impact and beauty; Gilbert's solution was to increase the size of the station and give it strong Romanesque details, as "the first impression gained of the building by the general public would be regarding its general contour and 'massing' as well as the outline skylines."[16] In other words, it need to be impressive at a distance.[16] His design included a ten story office building, with lobby and offices connected via a pneumatic tube service.[18] The first three stories were built from dark speckled granite, with buff brick for the upper levels.[16][19] The roof was dark glazed Spanish tiles, along with a coppery dome.[16][19] Gilbert was also instructed to make the building fireproof.[16] He achieved this in part by using the building's adjacent tower as a series of fire-proof vaults.[16] The 15-story tower was also a functional clock tower.[16] The cost of this project was over a million dollars, including the passenger station, waiting rooms, restaurant, office building, and a train shed that covered eight tracks.[16][19] The waiting room was the largest in the world, at 100 x 150 feet, and 100 feet high.[19][18] This elaborate structure remained in use until it was demolished in 1974.[1][14] It was called "the gateway to the city."[20]

Gilbert was also the architect for the 1898 remodel of New York City's Grand Central Terminal—a project started in 1892 where "no expense is to be spared in making the building attractive" [14][21] The actual cost was around $175,000.[21] Gilbert designed the ten-story building in the Romanesque style.[21] The front of the building had ornamental bronze panels and bay windows on the second story.[21] The lower level was granite, with Indiana limestone on top.[21] Inside, there were tiled floors and deeply paneled ceilings, as well as pneumatic tubes to connect the lobby to the offices.[21] This building was replaced by the current Grand Central Station in 1913.[1]

Whether designing a large railroad station for New York City or a small station for a Mexican village, Gilbert believe the structure should be comfortable, functional, and aesthetically pleasing so as to be an asset to its community.[22] In Engineering Magazine, Gilbert wrote, "No excuse should exempt a railroad company from being amenable to 'local pride.'"[22] He also criticized designing public buildings in Queen Anne or other overly decorative styles as being both expensive to construct and to maintain.[22]

World's Columbian Exposition Building for the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad & Wagner Palace Car Co., Chicago, Illinois1893

Concord Station, Concord, New Hampshire

New Boston Depot, New Boston, New Hampshire

Middlesex St Station, Lowell Massachusetts

Acámbaro Station in Acambaro, Guanajuato, Mexico

Samuel R. Smith's Infirmary Hospital, Staten Island, New York

Kinston Union Station Kinston, North Carolina

Virginia Beach Hotel (aka Princess Anne Hotel), Virginia Beach, Virginia

Amoskeag Passenger Station, Manchester, New Hampshire

Conyers Passenger and Freight Station, Conyers Georgia

The Manor Inn, Asheville, North Carolina

English-American Building (aka Flatiron Building), Atlanta, Georgia

Benjamin Kimball Residence (now Capital Theater), Concord New, Hampshire

Dr. Henry C. Potter's residence, Saginaw, Michigan c. 1905. Courtesy Library of Congress

Epworth Memorial Church, now Bushwick United Methodist Church, Brooklyn, New York

YMCA Building, Middletown, New York

YMCA Harlem Branch, Harlem, New York City, New York (1893)

In 1893, Gilbert designed an exhibition building for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago for his clients the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad along with The Wagner Palace Car Co.[14] The building contained wings on either side for railroad engines; inside was an exhibit showing photographs and sketches of Gilbert's work on railroad station architecture.[14] The Exposition's Board of Directors gave Gilbert a gold medal "for a new type of American architecture."[2][14] In 1895, the exhibit illustrations were published by Railway Gazette as a book, Sketch Portfolio of Railroad Stations and Kindred Structures.[14] Gilbert noted that railroad buildings had been overlooked in the past, but were an excellent place to "to illustrate the modern architecture."[14]

Edmund Coffin Jr., a prominent real estate investor and lawyer in New York City, hired Gilbert to design the Mason Stables.[23][6] This project took three years to construct and was divided into two phases, 1881-1882 and 1883-1894.[6][24] When completed, the Mason Stables were one of the largest livery stables in New York City.[25] The five-story stables included 158 stalls and room for more than 300 carriages.[6][24] Primarily Romanesque Revival in style, the building was decorated with some Celtic-style ornaments, repeating patterns in variegated orange-yellow and orange-red brick, and rows of repeating slender windows.[6] One modern writer says, "The stables were nearly abstract, a field of dreams in orange, red and yellow masonry."[6] The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission says, "Color and texture, rather than ornament, were skillfully used to give the structure its simple, yet monumental character."[24]

Another unique aspect of the Mason Stables was its layout, as the stables wrapped around other buildings, resulting in three entrances—76th Street, 77th Street, and Amsterdam.[23] Two of the entrances featured step-gables, a characteristic of Dutch Renaissance Revival style that Gilbert used with other public buildings in New York City.[26] In 1912, the stables were remodeled into a carpark and were renamed the Dakota Stables (not to be confused with a 19th-century facility with that name), and the Pyramid Garage in the 1950s.[23][24] Over the years, the building lost many of its period details and it was demolished in 2011.[23]

John Noble Sterns, a supporter of the Cremorne Mission where Gilbert was a trustee, hired Gilbert in 1888 to design an eleven-story office building in New York City.[6] For such a tall building, traditional construction methods required very thick walls that would have dominated the lot that was just 21 feet 6 inches wide.[2][6] Calling upon his railroad background, Gilbert thought of turning a railroad bridge on end, with iron girders to support the floors and external walls.[6] This innovation of "skeleton construction” with “steel-framed curtain walls” allowed him to construct a skyscraper without having thick load-bearing walls.[1][4][6] Another benefit of this construction technique was that it was fire proof.[14][27]

To work around local building ordinances, Gilbert had to first construct a foundation that was four stories or seventy feet tall, essentially the height of the adjacent buildings.[28][27] This foundation was constructed of iron and Little Falls stone.[28] Next, came ten stories constructed in Philadelphia and Tiffany brick, with an octagonal roof covered in Spanish tiles.[28] The brickwork was colorful, and there were Celtic ornamentation similar to that of Mason Stables.[4][6]

Opening in 1889, the Tower Building is considered New York City's first skyscraper and the first curtain-wall building in the world.[1][4][6] It was initially greeted with great skepticism, with members of the public predicting it would blow over. Some would walk around the block rather than to be near it.[29] Some engineers declared it "unsafe and impracticable."[2] To assure the public of its safety, Gilbert moved his offices to its top floor—and remained there until he stopped practicing.[26][29] He also scaled the building in the middle of an 1889 hurricane to prove that the building was not vibrating with a plumb line.[5][30] In 1889, Engineering News called it "a most skillful solution of an exceedingly difficult problem."[14] Kobble's New York and Environs wrote, "The Tower Building, of No. 50 Broadway, with its fifteen stories, is a remarkable example of a clever utilization of a narrow plot of ground."[14]

The Tower Building cost $250,000 to build.[28] This was quite a bargain given that as it was expected to earn $210,000 a year in rent, after taxes and upkeep.[28] A building with traditional construction on the same lot would have only netted $30,000 a year in rent, due to the height limit of ten stories and thick walls reducing square footage.[28] Because Gilbert had devised a way to double income from property, The Philadelphia Inquirer noted that "the old Knickerbockers who own real estate on Broadway and other gilt-edge thoroughfares in the lower part of New York have a new god in the person of Bradford L. Gilbert."[27] The building was razed in 1914 to make way for a taller structure.[6][31]

During his career, Gilbert designed just one firehouse—for Engine Company No. 1 and Hook & Ladder Company No. 1 in Long Island City.[32] Established in 1891, this company was, as its numbering suggests, the first professional firefighters in Queens.[32][33] However, the first base of operation for this ladder company was a modest wood-frame shed.[33][26] The department merged with that of New York City in 1898, and its name changed to Fire Engine Company No. 258 and Ladder Company No.115 in 1904.[33]

Constructed between 1902 and 1904, Gilbert's granite building with 4 1/2 stories not only improved the working condition of the firefighters, but also reflects the importance of this paid crew who fought fires at the Standard Oil refinery, row-frames, schools, tenements and factories such as the Pratt & Lambert varnish factory.[32][33][26] New York City's Historic Districts Council says, "This building was one of the more ambitious firehouse projects undertaken by the department due to its size and level of architectural detail."[32] Even the selection of the renowned Gilbert, rather than the city's usual firehouse architects, was a statement.[26]

Calling on the origins of New York as New Netherland, Gilbert's designed the firehouse in Dutch Renaissance Revival style, with oversized limestone trim to offset the darker granite background.[32][26] Gilbert had also used Dutch Renaissance Revival for other buildings in New York City, including the 1888 YMCA building and the Samuel R. Smith Infirmary and Hospital in Staten Island.[26][34] The fire house's site cost $20,000; the building was $60,000.[26]

The firehouse is still in use and is listed as a NYC Individual Landmark.[32]

In 1888, Gilbert designed the Virginia Beach Hotel, with its attached Terminal Station, for the Norfolk and Virginia Beach Railroad in Virginia Beach, Virginia.[14] Later called the Princess Anne Hotel, this marked the beginnings of the beach resort, as well as Norfolk Southern Railroad.[35] In 1895, Gilbert designed the Mary F. Ballentine Home for the Aged at 927 Park Ave. in Norfolk, Virginia, for Thomas R. Ballentine.[14][36] This facility was named after Ballentine's late wife as it was originally her idea.[37] The Ballentine Home was intended to provide a non-institutional, home-like environment for elderly local women, "more specifically gentle folk of irreproachable family."[36][37] Ballentine endowed the home when he died and it remained in Gilbert's building until new construction at a different location in 1952.[36][37]

In 1902, Gilbert was paid $1,000 by Atlanta to draw plans for a new railroad station.[38]

In 1891, wealthy railroad executive William Greene Raoul hired Gilbert to design his residence on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia.[1][39] The ornate, gabled house and its estate included a wine cellar, a cottage for servants, a stable, and the first tennis court in Atlanta.[40][39] This house was home to the Raoul family through 1914.[1][40] During the 1940s, the Red Cross acquired the property and used the house as a blood donation and bandage rolling center; around 1950 the Red Cross built a modern building on the property, directly in the front of the Raoul house.[40] The house was also surrounded by the Cabana Motor Hotel and the Biltmore Hotel, losing its original context on a street of mansions.[40] The Raoul House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in the 1980s, but burned in 1991 while it was leased to a night club.[1]

In 1895, Gilbert was the supervising architect for the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta.[1][2] For this world's fair event, he designed many structures, including the Administration Building with Main Entrance and Exits, the Agricultural Building, the Auditorium, the Chime Tower and Band Stand, the Electricity Building, the Fire Building, the Machinery Hall, the Manufacturers & Liberal Arts Building, the Minerals and Forestry Building, the Negro Building, the Semi-Circular Entrance and Exit Gateway, the Transportation Building, and the United States Government Building.[14]

There was a logic to his designs; for example, the Minerals and Forestry Building was constructed of natural Southern woods.[14] At his suggestion, Bradford designs were in the Romanesque style as this resulted in cost-effective temporary structures with simple outline.[41] Romanesque style was also a good way for Atlanta "to be seen as au courant with America's commercial trends."[41] In addition to designing for the Exposition, he also created vendor buildings for the Southern Railway Company and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.[14]

The Atlanta Constitution wrote, "The design for the Administration Building and Gateway is one of the handsomest of the entire Exhibition. The design…is a composite design of old baronial castles…these castlelatted turrets, those embattled ramparts, those ancient moats, the old swinging drawbridge, will prove a source of keen enjoyment and profit."[14] Gilbert received a gold medal from the Exposition Directors for "the designing and building all of the fifteen principal structures within the limit of time and appropriation."[2]

However, Gilbert and the expedition quarreled over his compensation for work.[42] In May 1902, Gilbert appeared in court for his law suit again the exposition for $16,422.80, the balance due on his $34,422.30 invoice.[42] in return, the exposition was suing Gilbert for $51,000 in damages loss of business due to his failure to complete construction by the opening date.[42]

After a family vacation in 1896, William Greene Raoul decided to make Asheville, North Carolina his family's summer home.[1] Getting away from the heat of a Georgia summer may have been one goal, but his son Thomas contracted tuberculosis in 1897, and the mountain air of Asheville was believed to be a cure.[1] Raoul and his son hired Gilbert to design Albemarle Park, a park-like resort development on 32-acres just outside of Asheville.[1][43][44] Gilbert began with a small hotel called Manor Inn, five cottages and the Lodge (or Gatehouse) where the Raouls lived at first.[1][45] In 1902, he added three new houses, a wing to the Manor Inn, doubled the size of the dining room and added a stage for musicians.[46] Known cottages credited to Gilbert include Clover, Columbus, Hollyhock, Marigold, and Milfoil.[45]

To suit the mountain setting, Gilbert created a "resort with an English inn atmosphere," with grounds designed by landscape architect Samuel Parsons, Jr.[44] This translated to a hybrid of Tudor Revival, Colonial Revival, Dutch Colonial Revival, and Shingle architectural styles, with exteriors that featured shingles, roughcast plaster, and timber framing.[1][44] Built between 1898 and 1920, Albemarle Park would eventually consist of 42 structures—some designed by other architects—becoming one of America's first planned residential parks.[43][44] Albemarle Park is now a National Register Historic District.[43][47] The National Register says, "The Manor and Cottages compose a picturesque small historic district, evocative of Asheville's dramatic turn-of-the-century resort town boom era."[44]

In 1897, Gilbert designed the English-American Building for Atlanta's English-American Loan and Trust Company—whose president was Rufus Bullock, a former Georgia governor.[48][49] Located at the junction of Broad and Peachtree Streets, this triangular-shaped building with eleven stories was the second skyscraper in Atlanta.[50][49] Its style was Neo-Classical and Neo-Renaissance, but the shape was modern.[49] Within a year, the building's tenants included National Cash Register Co., Otis Bros. Co. (elevators), Rand McNally Co., Mutual Life Insurance Co., Southern Bell and many others along with its owners and the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.[49] Known as the Flatiron Building since 1916 because of it shape, this is the oldest remaining steel-framed skyscraper in Atlanta and one of the few non-railroad buildings by Gilbert that survive today.[1][49] Dr. Elizabeth Lyon says, "The building plays an important role in its urban setting by establishing a sense of dignity and scale and helping to create a visually interesting sequence of spaces and styles in the central business area of the city."[49]

Gilbert was the supervising architect for the South Carolina Inter-State and West Indian Exposition in 1901.[2][51] Remarkably, he was responsible for all aspects of this Charleston world's fair event, from the buildings to the 250 acre grounds to its infrastructure, including roads, water, sewage and electricity.[2][51][52] Gilbert designed 20 large buildings, including the 320 foot long Cotton Palace with and its 75 foot tall dome, and the Administration Building, Agriculture Palace, Art Palace, Auditorium, and the Sunken Garden & Conning Tower Sculpture.[51][53][54] The main buildings, with their domes, arcades, finials, and brackets, were all painted in off-white, giving the Exposition its name the Ivory City—a play on the White City of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893[51][53][52]

Gilbert's instructions for this fair were to create a "Southern motif" which seems noticeably lacking in the Italian and Spanish-Revival style he used.[52][53] However, Gilbert gave the exposition a more romantic look than the Atlanta exposition, while also modernizing it with the Mediterranean-style that was, during the 1890s and early 20th-century, in fashion for commercial and residential buildings[52] Rather than Southern plantation architecture, it seems that Gilbert was influenced by the fair's goal of reminding commercial interests of the once lucrative trade route between the West Indies and the port of Charleston.[52] Thus, architect Bruce Harvey concludes "The architecture at Charleston's exposition both reflected and promoted this conscious hope for the future."[52] The architectural critic Montgomery Schuyler wrote, "At Chicago they called the style Columbian; at Buffalo they called it Pan-American…in Charleston—the Spanish Renaissance of the Sixteenth Century."

Gilbert's layout which divided the fair into sections suggests that he studied that of the widely successful Columbian Exposition.[52] His idea was to split the grounds into areas for the natural and artificial, connect by a "narrow neck" that included the Administration Building.[52] Like Frederick Law Olmsted in Chicago, Gilbert used the natural setting—in this case, live oaks and magnolias along the Ashley River—to give structure to his Natural Section that included the Art, Machinery, Negro, various states, Transportation, and Women's Buildings.[52] Gilbert wrote that the Natural section "will form a natural park of endless beauty of vista and landscape effect naturalistic [sic.]…a winding path of 100 feet in width will be carried underneath the overspreading live oaks along the edge of the embankment."[52]

The artificial or Art Section was formal with buildings that were architecturally similar: the Palaces of Agriculture, Commerce, and Cotton.[52] Gilbert sited this section over the former Washington Race Course, a flat area that was already treeless, allowing him to create "complex geometrical design" for the Court of Palaces which was surround with a sunken garden and connected by a colonnade.[52] After the exposition, the majority of its temporary buildings were razed; the bandstand is the only structure from the event that survives.[51]