Emmanuel Louis Masqueray

Emmanuel Louis Masqueray (1861-1917) was a Franco-American preeminent figure in the history of American architecture, both as a gifted designer of landmark buildings and as an influential teacher of the profession of architecture.

Biography

He was born in Dieppe, France, on September 10, 1861 to Charles-Emmanuel and Henriette-Marie-Louise Masqueray, née de Lamare. He was educated in Rouen and Paris. Having decided to become an architect, he studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, as a pupil of Jean-Claude Laisné and Paul-René-Léon Ginain, and was awarded the Deschaumes Prize by the Institute of France. He also received the Chandesaigues Prize. While in Paris, he also served the Commission des Historiques.[1][2]

New York

He came to the United States in 1887 to work for the firm of Carrère and Hastings in New York City; both John Mervin Carrère (November 9, 1858 – March 1, 1911) and Thomas Hastings (1860 - 1929) had been fellow students with Masqueray at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. While in their employ, Masqueray created the watercolor elevation of the Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine, Florida.^[3]

Other important work on the boards during his time with the firm included the Hotel Alcazar, St. Augustine, Florida, 1887, now the Lightner Museum, The Commonwealth Club, Richmond, Virginia, 1891, and the Edison Building, New York City, 1891 (razed). Five years later, he joined the office of Richard Morris Hunt (1827-1895), the first American architect to attend the Ecole des Beaux Arts; in Hunt's firm he helped design many notable buildings including the Elbridge Gerry residence in Marblehead, MA, the William Astor house on Fifth Avenue in New York City, and Ochre Court in Newport, Rhode Island. It is likely that he made major contributions to the design of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.^[4]  He also contributed to the design of The Breakers for Cornelius Vanderbilt II in Newport, Rhode Island.^[1]

In 1893, Masqueray opened the Atelier Masqueray, for the study of architecture according to French methods; architect Walter B. Chambers shared in this enterprise. Located at 123 E. 23rd Street, this was the first wholly independent atelier opened in the United States. A colorful, dynamic teacher, Masqueray pleaded with his students to make things simple.^[5]

Beginning in 1899, Masqueray made special provision for women to number among his architectural students by establishing a second atelier especially for women at 37-40 West 22nd Street in New York. As was said at the time, "...he has unbounded faith in women's ability to succeed in architecture...provided they go about it seriously."^[6]

I have done a great deal of research to find out who studied with E L Masqueray.  Based upon contemporary sources from newspapers of the day, I have compiled a long list of those who studied with him, whom I list here, along with the souces for their association with the Atlier Masqueray.  This list is original to my research and when it appears elsewhere, it is based upon my research.  Among his students over the next decade in New York were:

·        Paul R. Allen (architect of Henry Miller's Theatre, NYC)

·        William T. L. Armstrong (later of the firm De Gelleke and Armstrong, New York)

·        W. Bellows (architect Charles Walter Bellows of Columbus, OH)

·        Guy Bolton (Broadway impresario)^[7]

·        Seymour Burrell (architect of the St. Germain Lofts, Houston, TX; S. H. Kress & Co. Corporate Architect)

·        James E. Cooper (of d'Hauteville & Cooper, Long Island architects); Greentree, William Payne Whitney Mansion.^[8]

·        Lester A. Cramer (later practiced in Los Angeles; architect of the Rosicrucian Fellowship Temple^[9] and the Sanatorium^[10] at Mount Ecclesia^[11])

·        Roy Corwin Crosby (architect of houses on the Palisades)

·        Clarence E. Decker (later of Decker and Stevenson, architects of the YWCA, San Diego)

·        Mortimer Foster (later of Foster, Gade and Graham)

·        Frederick George Frost, Sr. (principal of his own firm in New York City which later included his son and namesake), Hall of Fashion, New York 1939 World's Fair^[12]

·        Leon N. Gillette (of the NYC firm Walker & Gillette)^[13]

·         ? Gray

·        William Cook Haskell (later of the firm Townsend, Steinle & Haskell)

·        James Hopkins (of the Boston architectural firm of Kilham and Hopkins)

·        John G. Hough

·        William S. Hutton (later an Indiana school architect who partnered with George Grant Elmslie)

·        Louis Jallade (architect of the gymnasium at the University of Delaware)

·        John R. Jordan

·        Rupert W. Koch (architect of men's dorm at the University of Michigan)

·        Frederick Larkin (later of the US State Department in charge of Embassy design)

·         ? Loud

·        Louis Levitansky (later "Louis Levine") - Westchester County NY architect

·        Charles E. Mack (associated with the firm of Cass Gilbert)

·        Sylvester S. McGrath (later of the firm Davis, McGrath & Kiessling, architects of among many others, Gramercy East Professional Building, 115 East 23rd Street, New York City)

·        Henry Murphy (architectural advisor to China)^[14]

·        George Nagle (associated with Masqueray at the St. Louis Fair)

·        Clarence A. Neff (later of Neff and Thompson, Norfolk, VA)

·        Charles F. Owsley (principal of a Youngstown, OH, firm; designed art deco Isaly's headquarters there)

·        Barnet Phillips, Jr. (later of the firm Barnet Phillips Architectural Decorators, New York)

·        Carl Richardson

·        Isabel Roberts (of the Oak Park studio of Frank Lloyd Wright)^[15]

·        Lincoln Rogers (of the 1920s firm Rogers and Stevenson, in San Diego) ^[16]

·        Frank B. Rosman

·         ? Schalkenbach

·        Leonard B. Schultze (architect of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel see Schultze and Weaver)^[17]

·        Walter W. Sharpley (builder of Philadelphia's Bellevue-Stratford Hotel)

·        Francis S. "Frank" Swales (later of the firm Painter & Swales; designer of Selfridges' Store, Oxford Street, London, and The Brussels Exposition of 1910’s Canadian Pacific Railway Pavilion)

·        George E. Sweet (who became a naval architect)

·        William Van Alen (architect of the Chrysler Building)

·        Elwood Williams (associated with Masqueray for the St. Louis Exposition; later with offices at 507 Fifth Avenue, NYC)^[18]

·        Edward J. Willingale (associated with J E M Carpenter as architects of the Lincoln Building (42nd Street, New York, New York) now known as One Grand Central Place)^[19][20]

·        Wilison Joseph Wythe (assistant professor of drawing, University of California)^[21]

This list is incomplete. You can help by expanding it:

In 1897, Masqueray left the Hunt office to work for Warren & Wetmore, also in New York City, Whitney Warren having been his fellow student at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris.^[22] Work underway while Masqueray was with the firm includes: New York Yacht Club (1898), Westmorly, Harvard, MA (1898), High Tide (William Starr Miller house), 79 Ocean Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island, (1900), The Racquet House at Tuxedo Club, Tuxedo Park, NY, (1890-1900), and the Mrs. Orme Wilson residence (now the India Consulate), 3 East 64th St., New York (1900–03). He was responsible for the design of the Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn.

St. Louis

His reputation became international in 1901 when the commissioner of architects of the St. Louis Exposition selected him to be Chief of Design. Masqueray in turn employed some of his former students including Frank Swales and George Nagle. As Chief of Design of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, a position he held for three years, Masqueray had architectural oversight of the entire Fair and personally designed the following Fair buildings:

·        Palace of Agriculture

·        The Cascades and Colonnades

·        Palace of Forestry, Fish, and Game

·        Palace of Horticulture

·        Palace of Transportation

Design ideas from all of these were widely emulated in civic projects across the United States as part of the City Beautiful Movement. Masqueray resigned shortly after the fair opened in 1904, having been invited by Archbishop John Ireland of St. Paul to come to Minnesota and design the new Cathedral of Saint Paul in Saint Paul for the city.^[1]

Minnesota

Masqueray arrived in St. Paul in 1905 and remained there until his death. He designed about two dozen parish churches for Catholic and Protestant congregations in the upper Midwest, including:

·        Cathedral of Saint Paul in Saint Paul

·        Basilica of Saint Mary, Minneapolis (1908)

·        St. Paul's Episcopal Church on the Hill, St. Paul (1912)

·        Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 655 Forest Street, St. Paul^[23]

·        University Hall at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul

·        Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas, 121 Cleveland Ave., St. Paul (1918)^[24]

Masqueray designed several small churches in what is now the Diocese of New Ulm.

·        The Church of the Holy Redeemer, Marshall, Minnesota (1915)

·        Church of St. Peter, St. Peter, Minnesota (1911) The Church was destroyed by a tornado that struck St. Peter on March 29, 1998, a new church-school complex was built at a new location west of the city at 1801 West Broadway. The St. Peter Community Center and Public Library occupy the site of the former church.

·        Church of St. Edward, Minneota, Minnesota

·        Church of St. Francis, Benson, Minnesota

·        Sacred Heart Church, Murdock, Minnesota

And in the Diocese of Dubuque in Iowa.

·        Church of St. Patrick, Cedar Falls, Iowa

He also designed three more cathedrals, of which two were built:

·        The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Wichita, Kansas

·        St. Joseph Cathedral, Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Masqueray also designed important residences in and around St. Paul (one of which, a 1915 home at 427 Portland Avenue, has been owned by radio personality Garrison Keillor) and "Wind's Eye" in Dellwood MN, as well as several parochial schools for the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul.

He also designed:

·        Keane Hall at Loras College

·        The planned new city of Twin Falls, Idaho.^[25]

In St. Paul in 1906, Masqueray founded an atelier which continued his Beaux Arts method of architectural training, among his students who trained there, perhaps the best known is Edwin H. Lundie (1886-1972).^[26] Other architects associated with Masqueray in St. Paul were Fred Slifer and Frank Abrahamson.

Masqueray was a charter member of the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects (now the Van Alen Institute) and the Architectural League of New York, the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, as well as the national organization. Masqueray died in St. Paul on May 26, 1917.^[1] His body was buried in Calvary Cemetery, St. Paul.^[27]

External links

·        Basilica of St. Mary — http://four.mary.org/

·        St Paul's on the Hill — http://stpaulsonthehillmn.org/index.html

·        University of St. Thomas, MN — http://www.stthomas.edu/

·        Church of the Incarnation, 38th Street and Pleasant Avenue, Minneapolis -- http://www.incarnation-church.com/

·        Church of the Holy Redeemer, Marshall, MN — http://www.holy-redeemer.com/

·        Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Wichita, KS — http://www.kansastravel.org/cathedralimmaculateconception.htm

·        St. Joseph Cathedral, Sioux Falls, SD — http://www.cathedralofstjosephsiouxfalls.parishesonline.com/scripts/HostedSites/org.asp?p=1&ID=12730

·        Novitiate for the Sisters of St. Joseph, St Paul, MN (now the Carondelet Center) (1912) - http://carondeletcenter.org/

·        Church of St. Louis, King of France, St. Paul, MN — http://www.stlouiskingoffrance.org/

References

1.      "Noted Architect Dead. E. L. Masqueray Was Chief of Design of St. Louis Exposition". New York Times. May 27, 1917. Retrieved 2011-03-22. Emmanuel Louis Mnsqueray chief of design of the St Louis ... of a number of American cathedrals died here today aged 56. Mr. Masqueray was ...

2.      Emmanuel Louis Masqueray". University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Retrieved 2011-03-22. Emmanuel Louis Masqueray was born in Dieppe, France, on September 10, 1861. He studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1879 to 1884, receiving several awards for his designs. He immigrated to the United States in 1887 to work for the firm of Carrere & Hastings in New York City. Five years later, he joined the office of Richard Morris Hunt, where he helped design many notable buildings including the Breakers for William Vanderbilt in Newport, Rhode Island. In 1897 he left the Hunt office to work for Warren & Wetmore, also in New York City. ...

3.      A French Architect in Minnesota, by Alan K. Lathrop, in "Minnesota Profiles", Summer 1980, p. 46

4.      A French Architect in Minnesota, by Alan K. Lathrop, in "Minnesota Profiles", Summer 198, p. 47

5.      Higher: A Historic Race to the Sky and the Making of a City, by Neil Bascomb, page 23

6.      What Women Can Earn, by Grace Hoadley Dodge, Thomas Hunter, page 109

7.      "New York Times" obituary, September 6, 1979

8.      Long Island Country Houses and Their Architects, 1860-1940, by Robert B. MacKay, Anthony K. Baker, Carol A. Traynor, p. 126.

9.      Added to NRHP (Reference#: 95000390) in April 07, 1995

10.   Mt. Ecclesia Sanitarium, Oceanside, California. Pamona Public Library Digital Collections

11.   Complete Historical Notes on The Rosicrucian Fellowship, 1907 - 1990. Oceanside, California

12.   National Cyclopedia of American Biography: Volume 1; 1927

13.   "New York Times" obituary, May 4, 1945

14.   "New York Times" obituary, October 4, 1954

15.   Dalles, John, "The Pathbreaking Legacy of Ryan and Roberts", in "Reflections", the journal of the Historical Society of Central Florida, Summer 2009; pages 8 and 9.

16.   New York Times" obituary, May 6, 1944

17.   New York Times" obituary, August 26, 1951

18.   "New York Times" obituary, May 24, 1952

19.   Wind Stresses in Buildings, by Robins Fleming, 1930

20.   Contemporary accounts of architectural exhibitions listing students, chiefly from the New York Times

21.   Register, by University of California, Berkeley, p. 26

22.   “One Thousand Men of Mark Today”, Chicago, IL, 1916

23.   St. Paul's Architecture, by Jeffrey A. Hess, Paul Clifford Larson, page 95.

24.   "AIA Guide to St. Paul's Summit Avenue and Hill District", by Larry Millett, page 33.

25.   websites of each of these buildings

26.   "The Architecture of Edwin H. Lundie", by Dale Muflinger

27.   Six Feet Under By Stew Thornley, page 12

Cold Up North? Move to Florida!

Move to Florida!

Wintery weather is having its due up north, so our friends tell us.  We tell them to move on down to Seminole County where you don’t have to worry about that any more.

Seminole County is one of the best-kept secrets of Florida.  Having lived here for nearly two decades, we continue to be in awe of the natural beauty, the great amenities, the historic flavor, and the nearness of big city life, but all tucked away in a setting that is like the neighborhoods we grew up in, but with palm trees.

We love the historic charm of Old Longwood, where Victorian homes from the 1870s and 1880s are lovingly cared for and create a streetscape that is unrivaled anywhere.  Perfect for strolling, with restaurants here and there, and just a block or two from the busy world, it is a quiet oasis of charm, available to one and all.  There is ample free parking, and a cluster of shops, most notably the "Inside Outside House", where you can find exactly what you didn’t know you were looking for to give to that special someone.

When it comes to the choice of where to live, Seminole County has it all, from the very highest end palatial homes to cute waterside cottages, from condos with a magical view to mid-century modern hideaways in the pines.  You can still find vintage farmhouses to renovate, as well as just-completed-this-week golf course view patio homes with screened pools and semi tropical greenery.  Seminole County has a collection of outstanding apartment complexes as well, ranging in style and setting to please the most discriminating tastes. 

Did we mention shopping?  Altamonte Mall is one of the largest in the state, easy to get to, filled with every kind of store and worthy of a day of shopping fun.  There are cozy main streets for traditional shopping and strolling, in some of the old Florida towns, like historic downtown Sanford on Lake Monroe and charming Winter Garden, where biking, outdoor markets and historic museums beckon.  And then there’s antiquing and vintage shopping—a real treat in Florida.  Down the decades, it is as if there has been some kind of continental drift of vintage items toward the Sunshine State, and so we find “sleepers” from every part of the USA, on a regular basis.

Golf is a popular sport in Seminole County and we count more than five dozen courses public and private for your enjoyment.  Wekiva Golf Club is one of the public courses that are tucked into a lovely suburban neighborhood, always a joy to play, it also boasts visitors of the four footed kind, from black bear to deer to the occasional coyote.  The largest state park in Central Florida, Wekiva Springs State Park, is just a long shot away, where swimming in the clear springs, picnicking and camping are popular activities.

Water sports abound, because everywhere you turn is a lake, as well as the Wekiva River, one of Florida’s most unspoiled waterways. You can also travel along the county’s stretch of the St. John’s River.  If you like rowing, sailing, water skiing, kayaking, pontoon boating, it is all waiting just a block or two away from you.

We believe it would be possible for you to eat out 365 days of the year in Seminole county and never repeat a restaurant.  Every imaginable example of world cuisine is here, because the county is truly a magnet for people from all over the globe.  Turkish tonight, Chinese tomorrow, Greek the day after, Thai, Brazilian, authentic Mexican, Caribbean flavors, and on and on.  You have so many choices. Not to mention the best Italian this side of Roma.

"Well we like the change of seasons", some have said.  We do too.  We do get cooler weather in the winter, and the signs of spring thereafter, with returning and migrating songbirds.  The spring weather lasts from February to May, and the fall weather from September to December, so the cooler hits of winter are just brief enough for us to enjoy a jacket or boots, more for style than to fend off the weather.  We did not throw away our sled and snow shovel…they make great holiday decorations on the front porch, with a big red bow.  But we have tossed aside any windshield scraper we ever owned!  December is most notable for the small flocks of ibis that gather on your lawn in the early morning.

Downtown Orlando, with its arts and culture, are a quick drive away or we can take the SunRail and leave the car behind.  The fabled theme parks are also nearby, and with the Florida Resident programs they offer, we treat them the way others up north would tread the local zoo, and come and go when and if we please.  No need to go when the lines are long or to try to see it all in a day. 

You have heard of some of those active lifestyle planned communities in Florida, and they are well and good; but real life in Seminole County allows you to enjoy a setting in which you have generational neighborhoods, with small children, young couples, families, empty nesters and seniors all in one place.  Many of the municipalities have recreational centers and plan monthly day trips to other parts of Florida, all it takes is signing up to share in a jaunt to St Augustine or St Pete where all you do is sit back and enjoy the drive to and from.

Do you think you will miss your friends from up north?  Well, be sure your new place in Seminole County has a guest room, because they will be there with bells on.  We love having our friends and family here, and can tell you that one memorable year our guest room was only empty for two days between Thanksgiving and Easter.  Between the theme parks and the conventions, everyone comes to Central Florida, often.

Did I miss something?  Yes, lots of something’s.  You who have been reading my blog since the beginning know some of the rest of the story.  If you don’t, please read back to what’s been posted before.  Suffice to say that Seminole County really is one of the best-kept secrets of Florida. 

But (ssshhh!), now, you know!