Pounds Building is Every Ounce a Treasure

 

Winter Garden, Florida, has a beautiful stroll-able downtown, complete with median plantings down the center of Plant Street, an interactive water feature, and a vintage caboose, as well as the trademark town clock. Many restaurants and shops beckon visitors as they explore this vibrant small town. 

When you get to the corner of West Plant Street and South Lakeview Avenue, you have arrived at the Pounds Motor Company Building.  An identifying bronze tablet tells you something of the significance of the building.  

 

A pioneer in advocating gasoline farm equipment (as opposed to mule powered) Hoyle Pounds established his business at the corner of Plant and Lakeview.  In addition to farm tractors he also sold Ford automobiles.  The building he commissioned from David Burns Hyer is still in use one hundred years later.

 

David Burns Hyer was one of a dozen or so architects practicing in Central Florida in the 1920s.  Hyer had come to the Orlando area from Charleston, South Carolina, and would return there again as the decade and the Florida land boom ended.  He counted among his clients innovative Central Florida go-getters like Hoyle Pounds., who among other achievements, invented the rubber tractor tire.

  

The impression the building gives is one of basic simple solid construction. You might say, no frills.  And that was intentional.  The Pounds Motor Company Building was created to showcase, sell, and service farm equipment and cars made by the Ford Motor Company, as well as to dispense first Texaco and thereafter Gulf Oil gasoline.  The resultant work by architect Hyer fulfilled all of those functions and also contributed to the streetscape “look” of Winter Garden.  It fits the location and the needs of the client.

 

Today, the causal observer might have a tendency to overlook the elements of the design that made it successful inside and out.  The exterior red brick is practically maintenance free for the owner, and is also part of a group of red brick structures that give Winter Garden its signature look.  The Pounds Building holds its own and is in harmony with other nearby structures on Plant Street including the contemporaneous Edgewater Hotel.  

 

The front elevation of the Pounds Building is immediately understood.  The big plate glass display windows flanking the central doors tell us that something was to be showcased there, for anyone who happened by.  Correct.  Tractors would have temped the owners of groves and farms from the surrounding area.  Above, a string of nine large windows indicated that the work going on inside was well lighted by the Florida sunshine.  It was a good location for the machine shop, providing employees with a space that was more comfortable, and therefore more productive. Along the roofline, there was a nod to Mediterranean or Spanish style, a stepped parapet that has a horizonal line modulated by verticals.  

 

One also notices the trapezoidal capitals on the brick piers.  They give visual interest, and yet their function is mainly  structural.  The corner at Plant and Lakeview was once an open, covered filing station for vehicles to pull into, between those brick piers.  Vintage photos show it featuring a round topped gas pump.  

 

Along the South Lakeview elevation, one sees several large garage door openings.  Only the one closest to the corner of Lakeview and Tremaine remains unchanged since its inception – it is mufti-hinged, paneled wood.  One can envision the other openings, now boarded up, being exactly the same.  

Along the second floor the large windows, like the ones on the front, continue in groups of threes, giving a geometric pattern on this long side of the building.  Similar windows were on the long opposite wall of the building where the Garden Theater now stands.

 

The Pounds Motor Company Building was designed solidly, to last. A worthy goal for an industrial / commercial building.   It has done exactly that, serving its original owners from 1926 and serving its current owners since 1985.  The Pounds building has affinities to the most famous early 20^th century automotive industrial building, the Packard Automotive Plant in Detroit by Albert Kahn.  Modern, efficient, with clean horizontal lines rendered in red brick, the celebrated Packard plant was the inspiration for industrial buildings for decades thereafter, including this one.

About the Architect:

David Burns Hyer

 

David Burns Hyer was born in Charleston, SC, on March 21, 1875 to parents James S. and Ella Payne Hyer.  His early education was in the Charleston schools, and while still a boy he began working in the office of S. Louis Simons.  When Simons merged with a partner to create Simsons-Mayrant Company in 1892, Hyer remained in their employ, until he founded his own architectural practiced. 

 

In his professional life, Hyer maintained offices in Charleston SC except in the 1920’s when his office was in Orlando FL.  Many fine examples of his work in South Carolina remain to this day.

 

In Central Florida, he worked with architect John Arthur Rogers before establishing his own practice in Orlando.  Hyer’s masterpiece is the ideally situated Grace Phillips Johnson mansion “O-Po-Le-O” (“House Between the Waters”) on the isthmus between Lake Concord and Lake Adair.  A grand Mediterranean Revival estate, it is visible from I-4 across Lake Concord, and is locally known as “The Swan Boat House”.  The house continues in private hands and is exceedingly well maintained.  Hyer’s commercial work in Florida incudes the Pounds Motor Company Building (1926)  in Winter Garden, a Prairie-meets-Mediterranean brick building that has been carefully preserved by its owners since the 1980s, Burkett Engineering. Other works by Hyer in Florida are continuing to be identified. When he returned to Charleston permanently, he left James Gamble Rogers II in charge of his Florida work that had not yet been completed. 

 

In 1904, Hyer married Susan Yeadon Mazyck.  They were the parents of four children: David B. Jr., Yeadon M., Robert P., and Helen.

 

Throughout his life Hyer was accorded the nickname “Neighbor” because invariably he greeted others in that friendly way.  He was said to have been of a most congenial disposition, which surely served him well in the pursuit of his profession. He had many repeat clients, and they were glad to wait however long it might take him to prepare his designs, even if at a more leisurely pace than other architects. Hyer was an avid golfer and was constantly trying to improve his game. 

 

Late in life Hyer had one leg amputated. He was awaiting an adjusted leg prosthesis when, after a brief illness, he died in Charleston on December 11, 1942 at the age of 67.  He is buried alongside his wife in the old historic Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston.

(Do you have a photo of David Burns Hyer?  I would love to have a copy.  Please get in touch with me.  Thanks!)

Orlando Film Festival Features Documentary on Isabel Roberts and Ida Ryan

"Two Women and the Pavilion in the Water"

As noted in the poster illustrating this post, the documentary called "Two Women and the Pavillion in the Water" will be shown several times during the 2023 Orlando Film Festival.  This is exciting news.  The film chronicles the work of teh Ryan and Roberts Studio, one of the first all -women architectural firms in the United States, dating back to one hundred years ago.

I have been researching Isabel Roberts' life and legacy for nearly twenty years.  Over that time, I have learned much about her that was not in the architectural history consciousness previously.  Isabel was a trained architect, worked on architectural projects in teh Oak Park Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright, designed or contributed greatly to the design of her own famous house in River Forest, Illinois (yes the one with the tree growing through the roof), and moved to Florida after the Oak Park studio closed, and entered into a productive partnership with architect Ida Annah Ryan.  You can read more about both of them in previous posts here on my blog.

The film that is being shown at the Orlando Film Festival utilized much of my research and also features me, as well as several other wonderful chroniclers of Central Florida history and architectural history.  It is good that the film will reach a wide audience, and perhaps stimulate further understanding of these two pioneering women in teh field of architecture.  If you are in Central Florida, I encourage you to see it.  

Neo-Classicism Lives On, Along Rosalind Avenue

George Foote Dunham’s Orlando Gem

First Church of Christ, Scientist

(Now St George Antiochian Orthodox Church)

24 North Rosalind Avenue

Orlando, FL

 

George Foote Dunham, Architect

 

Building Name:          First Church of Christ, Scientist, Now St George Antiochian Orthodox Church

Address:                      24 North Rosalind Avenue

Orlando, FL 32801

Year Built:                                     1927-1928

Architect of Record:                    George Foote Dunham

Noteworthy Architectural Features:   An effective and noteworthy example of neo-classic architecture in downtown Orlando, the church building makes the most of a small footprint, in providing a handsome addition to the City Beautiful.  The building exhibits many features that are hallmarks of a design style that harkens back to ancient Rome.  A columned portico, pediments, arched windows, and a dome overhead set it apart as a structure that packs a lot of impact into a compact package.  Nearly 100 years old, it continues to serve its original purpose as a place of worship, and is  it is a chief feature of its neighborhood and well-maintained by the congregation it serves.

How to Visit:      Open for prayer and reflection on weekdays, and for worship on Sundays.  Visit the church website for details. Contact information: 321-663-4003

Architectural Style:             Roman Classical Revival / Neo-Classicism

Website:   https://stgeorgeorlando.org/main/

Related Links: 

         https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._George_Antiochian_Orthodox_Church_(Orlando,_Florida)

 

Orlando’s Own City Beautiful Landmark

Description: 

 

There’s a slice of ancient Rome on a busy street in Orlando, Florida.  On the National Register of Historic Places, it is also a century-old Neo-Classical house of worship that contributes to the beauty of the built environment of its neighborhood.  

Situated directly across Rosalind Avenue from Lake Eola Park, this church has a public presence that manages to impress even the casual passersby.  But when considered more thoughtfully, its merits become clear.

 

The architectural style of the church has been characterized as Italian Renaissance Revival or Roman Classical Revival.  Stylistic antecedents include Palladio’s Villa Rotunda, with its central dome and symmetrical harmonies, and the Baths of Caracalla of antiquity, whose arches and tripartite arched windows have inspired many later buildings, as well as the more recent (1910) Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, by Charles Folium McKim of McKim, Meade and White, the portico and dome of which are quite similar to Dunham’s design for First Church of Christ, Scientist. Both are examples’ of what has become known as the “City Beautiful Movement”, stemming from the Columbian Exposition of 1893 and its “White City” of impressive buildings almost all of which were inspired by the architecture of ancient Greece and ancient Rome. What better place than The City Beautiful – then – to have such a fine example of the City Beautiful Movement.

 

The main façade faces ultra-busy Rosalind Avenue, and has a commanding presence. It consists of a shallow central porticoed pavilion, with three doors set amid six Doric columns, above which is a pediment with  centrally placed half circle window of three part design.  High above this pediment, the central dome can be seen when the church is viewed as a distance, for example from Lake Eola Park across the street. 

To each side of the portico are impressively unadorned walls that rise to the second floor clerestory, where the windows there continue the harmonious line of the clerestory windows in the portico.  

 The Wall Street façade, which is the side of the building most drivers on Rosalind see first,  is dominated by the pedimented central section, in which are three arched windows of heroic proportions, tied together by a false balcony balustrade at their sill level, beautifully executed.   Below them at street level, are three square windows, continuing the three-bay emphasis.  

The East Washington Street façade – currently quite visible thanks to the empty lot on the corner - duplicates the Wall Street design.  

To the rear, the building continues symmetrical, but is unadorned. Only the windows, which are for the most part evenly spaced, create a modest utilitarian pattern for that façade.  

 

One enters the church via the central doorway, which is elevated from the street level by stairs.   

The narthex is narrow in depth, but runs the entire length of the building, creating both a sense of arrival, and a compression of space from the outdoors to the indoors, which is then relieved when one enters the beautiful sanctuary. 

 The transition from the narthex to the sanctuary holds a surprise that I will not spoil by revealing it here. If you do visit (and I hope you will) you must experience it first-hand.  When architecture has the ability to surprise and delight, we can say that the architect was more than clever, and the design, more than successful. Some observers see similarities in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.  It would not be a mistake to assume that Wright (who was a fellow member of the Chicago Architectural Club with Dunham in the early years of the twentieth century) must have been aware of Dunham’s masterful manipulation of such worship spaces.

 

The sanctuary is essentially a cross set within a rectangle, in plan. When you look at the room’s key elements, the broadly spanning arches, the large wall surfaces, the many windows brining in a filtered, mystical light, and the dome overhead, you understand that the room was made to feel spacious, as it does even today. Special mention should be made of the shallow balcony, whose railing repeats some of the elements of the Wall Street exterior façade, and the arched central chancel, which holds visually a pride of place, as well it should.

 Remembering that Christian Science church buildings were spare in decoration and did not depict any type of human representation, the beautifully sumptuous and art-filled sanctuary of today is much more of a feast for the eyes than the original must have been.  Even so, one can both enjoy the sanctuary in its present iteration, and sense what it may have been like with a more subdued original decorative scheme. 

 The church is lovingly cared for by its current congregation, who welcome visitors for prayer and reflection during the week, and on Sundays for worship.  

 

George Foote Dunham

 

George Foote Dunham was born in Burlington, Iowa, on September 17, 1876. His parents were Frank Reese Dunham and Harriette Moseby (Foote). George was a descendant of notable persons from America’s past: Nathaniel Foote, Roger Williams, and John Adams. Dunham graduated from the Armour Institute of Technology (now IIT) in 1900, and the Chicago Art Institute in 1901. 

 

Thereafter Dunham engaged in architectural work in Chicago for about a decade, and was well-connected within the famously innovative Chicago architectural milieu. He was an active member of the Chicago Architectural Club, among a remarkable collection of notable architects, such as Daniel Burnham, William D. Gates (of Teco Pottery), Walter Burley Griffin, Fred Purcell, Dwight Perkins, T.E. Talmadge. and Frank Lloyd Wright. It was a lively and creative atmosphere in which to engage in the practice of architecture.  

 

Dunham began his career as a draftsman under Solon Spencer Beman, a fellow Christian Science architect, His assistance on Beman's design of the First Church of Christ Scientist in Portland, Oregon, took Dunham to the Pacific Northwest, and there he stayed for the next nineteen years.

 

Dunham established his architectural office in the Lumbermen’s Building in 1910. In Oregon, Dunham was responsible for many religious and residential buildings. In most of the towns where they can be found, there is an awareness and appreciation of them to this day. Dunham was a Christian Scientist and it is said he limited his commissions for religious institutions to those of his own denomination, creating a number of large impressive buildings in the Roman Classical Revival style, including:

 

*First Church of Christ, Scientist (Bellingham) 1027 N Forest Street, Bellingham, WA 1910 

*Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist (Portland) 109 N Emerson Street, Portland, OR 1913
16
*Second Church of Christ, Scientist (Portland) 531 NE Holladay Street, Portland, OR 1914- 1920
*First Church of Christ, Scientist (McMinnville) 806 N Davis, McMinnville, OR 1916 

*Christian Science Society of Woodburn Address unknown, Woodburn, OR 1916
*Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist (Portland) 4224 SW 62nd Ave, Portland, OR 1917
*First Church of Christ, Scientist (Victoria) 1205 Pandora Avenue, Victoria, BC 1919-1920 

*First Church of Christ Scientist, Fernwood, British Columbia, 1919-1920

*Second Church of Christ, Scientist (Spokane) 806 W Indiana Avenue, Spokane, WA 1921 (now Holy Temple Church of God in Christ)

*Third Church of Christ Scientist, Portland 1922

*Fourth Church of Christ Scientist, Portland, 1922

*Third Church of Christ, Scientist (Seattle) 4740 17th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 1921-1922 

*Fourth Church of Christ Scientist, Seattle (Now Seattle Town Hall), 1916 & 1923

 

Dunham is said to have designed fifty Christian Scientists Churches ranging from British Columbia to Florida.  Dunham also designed a number of residences, which are considered highly desirable by realtors and their customers to this day, including:

 

* Jacob and Sarah Creath House, 1526 N Thompson Street, Irvington,  Portland, Oregon, 1914

*George H Watson Residence, Portland, Oregon

*George Foote Dunham Residence, Portland, Oregon. 

 

Dunham served as the treasurer of the Oregon Chapter of the AIA.  Around 1926, George received the commission to design the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Orlando., Which is the subject of this article.  After working in Portland for 19 years (1910-1929) George and his wife Violet relocated to Orlando Florida. Presumably one of the factors that prompted this move was his very successful completed design for the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Orlando. The possibility of work in Central Florida was also a key factor in their relocation.

It’s interesting to know that the journey itself became a matter of public interest. Mrs. Dunham wrote about it. Crossing the country by automobile was certainly an adventure for anyone, and especially for a woman who it seems, was traveling with Miss Mary Cobin of Portland; George having already begun establishing their life in Orlando. Here's the November 4, 1928 article from the "Sun Sentinel": 

"Mrs. George Foote Dunham, '(left) of Orlando, who recently completed a motor trip from Portland, Oregon to Orlando. Photographed in Stockton, Mrs. Dunham is shown with her sister, Mrs. Edward H. Charette (center) of Stockton and Miss Elsie Flower of Stockton. Mr. Dunham was architect for the First Church of Christ Scientist on Lake Eola, one of the most beautiful church buildings in the South. Mrs. Dunham was accompanied on her recent trip by Miss Marv Corbin, of Portland, Ore.

"Florida proves that good roads pay," Mrs. Dunham said, and added that she believed the roads in this state among the best in the entire country. In 1925, Mr. Dunham, an architect of Portland, was commissioned to design the church here. Thev decided to make the trip in their new Hupmobile sedan (above).

During their residence the car served them continually arid when last spring, Dunham was called to Edmunon, Canada, to design another Christian Science Church, he and Mrs. Dunham set out in "Old Faithful", as she affectionally calls it. Driven more than 56,201 miles, the distance travelled by "Old Faithful" would wrap around the world twice with plenty to spare. It is a splendid record the Dunhams have made with their Hupmobile, their friends say. 

The Dunhams have used their car but they know how."

Impressive, to say the least.  You go, Mrs. Dunham! (I have always thought that Hupmobile made superior automobiles, and this does nothing to change my mind about that).

Above is a photo of George Foote Dunham about when they had arrived in Florida.  As noted in the caption, he was at work on the Hand Building, for the first and leading funeral director in Orlando.  By this time Dunham was  considered one of the notible architects in the USA.  Orlando is the site of a number of completed works by Dunham, including:

* The Hand Funeral Home,

* Commercial Building at 63 East Pine Street, Orlando (perhaps a renovation, as the building stood there from 1916 onward), 1930.

*First Church of Christ, Scientist (Orlando) 24 N Rosalind Avenue, Orlando, FL 1928

 

Dunham was an influential leader in the work of the American Institute of Architects, in Portland, Florida, and nationally. He was highly respected by his peers, and somewhat of an authority figure in the profession. He is said to have designed thousands of homes for returning GIs following WWII.

George Foote Dunham passed away on June 11, 1949, and was buried in the Aspen Grove Cemetery, Burlington, Des Moines County, Iowa.  His widow Violet would live on for many years, until July 11, 1974, and is also buried in Aspen Grove Cemetery.

Architect Howard M. Reynolds School Gets High Marks

If you happen along Marks Street just north of downtown Orlando, you may be surprised to see a long, low stucco building, painted in a distinctive shade of coral, that not only holds its own in the urban streetscape, but also looks somewhat familiar. The building is designed in the then-fashionable Spanish Revival or what is sometimes called Florida Spanish style. If you pause just long enough to study the main entry bay, you may hear echoes of a familiar theme: “Remember the Alamo!” The Alamo served as inspiration for this landmark structure. 

 

This building is one of many schools designed by Orlando Architect Howard M. Reynolds, Sr. in the decade 1920-1930.  Any one of them could be lifted up for conversation.  This one is no longer a school, but rather a busy senior recreation complex, providing classes, lectures, and meeting spaces, and also serving as a lovely wedding reception venue.  All of which it does with considerable grace and style. Keep in mind that such a design was considered modern, fresh, and cutting-edge in the 1920s.  Here and there all over Orlando, architects were designing in this mode, and Howard Reynolds was among the best at doing so.

 

The Marks Street Senior Recreation Complex makes the most of a somewhat compact site.  The building is set back from the street, and has a curved entry driveway, lawn, and lush landscaping to frame it.  The stucco exterior shows a restrained use of mission type ornamentation, taking its cue from the Alamo, and other historic structures.  The entry is so closely aligned to the Alamo, with its central doorway, curved geometric parapet, and careful symmetry, that one hardly need go to San Antonio to see the original.  And yet it is not a slavish copy.  Not at all. Indeed, upon closer inspection, the viewer will discover twisted columns, applied ornament, and other features that make the building poetic, if not romantic.  It still works all these years later, but it is worth noting that the Orlando school board saw fit to commission architects like Reynolds to create schools that were not simply utilitarian, but endowed with an artistic flare that might serve to interest, inform, and inspire the students studying there.  A worthy goal for a school building, then and now.  

 

What else is of note at Marks Street?  The arcades on each recessed courtyard are as simple in their geometry as could possibly be.  Admirers of the work of Irving Gill, especially the La Jolla Women’s Club, will see affinities to it, in these arcades.  Of course, they perform an essential Central Florida function, shielding the building and its visitors from the hot sun and torrential rain that are a predictable reality in our comer of the world.  They also take the building in yet another direction that speaks a word of welcome, silently and eloquently.

 

Perhaps of greatest interest inside is the large multipurpose room that formerly served as the school’s assembly.  The large French door type windows with their half circle transoms are another spare yet poetic element that take the room from box to what seems almost like an indoor garden room, an orangery, perhaps.  This writer has attended wedding receptions in that room and found it to be admirably suited to the purpose.  Indeed, brides take note, it is one of Orlando’s best-kept secrets in that regard.  A century on, the building still works, inside as well as outside, all due to design choices that would appear to have had a modest impact on the original budget.  

 

While other schools by Reynolds are of equal interest for their charm and their witty handling of stylistic elements (Cherokee School springs to mind), they are not as easily visited as the Marks’ Street Senior Recreation Complex, with its general public use for the community, open during regular business hours.  

 

Howard W. Reynolds, Sr. has a long and notable history as a Central Florida architect.  Reynolds was an American architect practicing in Orlando, Florida in the 1920s until the late 1940s. He designed gracefully proportioned, notable public buildings in the prevailing fashionable styles, including Mediterranean Revival, Colonial Revival, Spanish Colonial, Egyptian Revival, Art Deco and Art Moderne. Among Reynolds' best-known works are a number of educational buildings still in use as schools or community centers in Central Florida. The Marks Street Senior Recreation Complex is perhaps the most charming of them. Many of Reynolds' suave, stylish buildings have been designated as Orlando Historic Landmarks.

 

Reynolds' was among a small but active group of ten architectural firms listed in the Orlando phone directory in 1926, the others including: Frank L. Bodine, Fred E. Field, David Hyer, Murray S. King, George E. Krug, Ryan and Roberts (Ida Annah Ryan and Isabel Roberts) and Percy P. Turner. This group of architects felt it important to create a distinctive regional architecture, an effort which they described in the Florida journal The Florida Circle in 1924 as follows:

 

"Just as architects of old created styles to harmonize with their environment, so have the architects of Florida been creating, from native motifs, a style that is carefully adapted to the climatic conditions and surroundings of the state. This style has an individuality all its own and should have a fitting name to express its origins . . . The Florida Association of Architects will give a prize of $25.00 for the name selected."

 

Those who are an imaginative state of mind, might find themselves in the central driveway, or standing on the central stairs outside the main entrance, and thinking that this could be a fashionable resort hotel, as easily as a school or neighborhood center. The style is that sophisticated and appealing.