Search Results for “Jo Mora” – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Search Results : Jo Mora

Jo Mora’s California Bears

Posted by Cindy on June 22, 2013

Jun 222013

1000 Van Ness
Tenderloin

Flanking the doorway of the Cadillac building are two spirally-fluted columns with Ionic capitals, each topped by a bear seated on its haunches. According to the Smithsonian, these were also done by Jo Mora.

I have been unable to find any other attribution, and while they are in terra cotta, they have always felt to me as though they were an after thought to the building.

However, I was able to find this photo at the San Francisco Public Library that was taken in 1928 that clearly shows the bears, and as the building was built in 1921, I must assume they were a part of the original design.

Jo Mora and the Don Lee Cadillac Building

Posted by Cindy on June 21, 2013

Jun 212013

1000 Van Ness
Tenderloin

This sculpture sits over the entryway to the Don Lee Cadillac Showroom. The sculpture is the creation of Jo Mora, who has been in this website before.

This doorway pediment consists of a central shield bearing the Cadillac insignia framed by an ornately carved, stylized border with a lion’s face at the bottom. Symmetrically seated on either side of the shield is a partially draped seated male figure. The male figure on the left rests his outstretched proper right arm on an 8-spoke Cadillac wheel, beyond which is an anvil. He holds a sledgehammer in his proper left hand, a sprocket and cable are on the base beneath his knee. The male on the right rests his outstretched proper left arm on a 12-spoke wheel, beyond which is a battery.***

The cadillac emblem is one of few in the automotive industry whose origins legitimately belong to a family name. Le Sieur Antoine De La Mothe Cadillac was born in Gascony on March 5, 1658. He founded Detroit in 1701, as well as the governorship of Mississippi. King Louis XIV awarded him the rank of Chevalier of the Military Order of St. Louis.

The Crown symbolizes the six ancient counts of France. Each tip is topped with a pearl, a symbol of descendancy from the royal counts of Tolouse.

The birds are merlettes, which are heraldic adaptations of the martin. They are set in trios to represent the Holy Trinity. Merlettes were usually awarded by the school of heralds to knights making significant contributions in the Crusades. The color black against gold, represents wisdom and riches. The “fess”, or lateral black bar, represents the award for Crusader service.

The red band symbolizes prowess and boldness in action. The silver (which looks white in the photo) represents purity, charity, virtue and plenty. The blue represents knightly valor.

The emblem was adopted for use on Cadillac cars in 1905. It was registered as a trademark on August 7, 1906. The Cadillac emblem underwent a complete redesign in 1998.

***The battery is in the official explanation of the piece. However, I found a wonderful, but sadly very small, photo at the website Roadside America that shows that what that really is is an engine block.

Native Sons of the Golden West

Posted by Cindy on September 2, 2014

Sep 022014

414 Mason Street
Union Square

The Native Sons of the Golden West Building on Mason street is an eight story, steel frame structure, with a highly ornamented façade of granite, terra cotta and brick.

Around the two main entrances to the building are placed medallions of men associated with the discovery and settlement of California. They are (starting at the bottom and moving up and to the right): Cabrillo, General John A. Sutter, Admiral John Drake Sloat, Peter Burnett, General A. M. Winn, James W. Marshall, John C. Fremont and Father Junipero Serra. These were sculpted by Jo Mora, who has been in this site many times before.

In the front of the building at the second floor are six terra cotta panels, the work of Domingo Mora and his son, Jo. The scenes are: “The Discovery of California”; “Civilization”; “The Raising of the Bear Flag”; “The Raising of the American Flag”; “The Pioneers”; “The Discovery of Gold.”

Sadly, due to the awning on the building it is impossible to see all 6 of the panels. I was unable to find photos of the other two anywhere, to share with you. This is the best I could do, by blowing up a photo I took from across the street.

The third Floor is marked by a line of the symbol of the State of California, the Golden Bear.

The California Bear and the Phoenix, the symbol of San Francisco, also grace the front of the building.

The Association purchased the lot from the Congregation Ohabai Shalome, for $42,500. The original Native Sons of the Golden West building built in 1895, burned down in the 1906 Fire and Earthquake.

The cost of the new building ws approximately $210,000.00

The architects of the new building were August Goonie Headman, Persio Righetti and E. H. Hildebrand, of Righetti and Headman, a firm that operated for 5 years during the post Earthquake and Fire of 1906.

The Contractor was P.J. Walker and Associates and the foreman on the job was Mr. J.S. Fifield.
The corner stone of the new building was laid February 22, 1911. It is the old corner stone saved from the fire with a new stone covering it.

Bret Harte at the Bohemian Club

Posted by Cindy on August 6, 2013

Aug 062013

624 Taylor Street
Nob Hill

The artist, Jo Mora, created and donated the sculpture to the Bohemian Club of which he and Bret Harte were members. In 1933, when the old Bohemian Club was torn down, the memorial was removed and reinstalled on the new club in 1934,

Francis Bret Harte (August 25, 1836 – May 6, 1902) was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California.

The plaque which is on the Post Street side of the club depicts 15 characters from Harte’s works.

The characters represented come from a handful of stories and a poem that established Harte’s reputation. He wrote these while living in San Francisco during the gold rush: Tennessee’s Partner, The Outcasts of Poker Flat, M’Liss and The Luck of Roaring Camp. Through his poem “Plain Language from Truthful James,” Harte created a wily Chinaman who outwits his Anglo gambling opponents shown on the far right as the Heathen Chinee.

Jo Mora has been in this site many times you can read all about his life and other works here.

The Don Lee Building

Posted by Cindy on June 20, 2013

Jun 202013

1000 Van Ness Avenue
Tenderloin

This magnificent building was built in 1921. Designed by Weeks and Day it is the largest and one of San Francisco’s most architecturally significant auto showrooms.

As the private automobile became a standard commodity of middle-class American life, hundreds of manufacturers rose to meet the demand. Within this increasingly competitive field, manufacturers quickly learned the value of the showroom in marketing their products to consumers. They understood that the architecture of the showroom was at least as important as its primary functional role: as a place to display, store and repair automobiles. In an era in which smaller automobile manufacturers were being weeded out, larger manufacturers aimed to reinforce customer confidence by designing automobile dealerships that, like banks, conveyed a sense of stability and permanency.

In San Francisco Don Lee was the first to commission such an elaborate showroom for his prominent corner lot on Van Ness Avenue. The completion of the Don Lee Building in 1921 led to increasing rivalries between local dealers, as each tried to outdo each other by commissioning prominent architectural firms to design increasingly elaborate showrooms.

Although the Don Lee Building is a utilitarian concrete loft structure, the architecture of the building embodied popular historicist imagery derived from a multitude of sources including Renaissance Italy and idealized Spanish Colonial architecture.

The main elevation on Van Ness Avenue is divided into three horizontal bands, conforming to the classic Renaissance composition of a base, shaft and capital.

The base is clad entirely in rusticated terra cotta blocks with chamfered joints designed to replicate dressed stone. The recessed entry contains brass double doors that once provided access to the auto showroom. Flanking the entrance are pairs of terra cotta Tuscan Order columns supporting a broken entablature.

The shaft, faced with light-colored stucco and bracketed by terra cotta quoins, is demarcated from the base by a terra cotta entablature and from the cornice by a prominent terra cotta frieze. The shaft is articulated by a grid of fifteen double-height window openings fitted with wood, double-hung sash, decorative metal spandrel panels and twisted metal colonnettes.

The façade terminates in a prominent fiberglass cornice which projects seven feet from the building’s face and duplicates the original sheet metal cornice removed in 1955.

The above is from the National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco. This building is National Register #01001179.

Weeks & Day (1916-1953)
Charles Peter Weeks (1870–1928)
William Peyton Day (1886–1966)Charles Peter Weeks was born in Copley, Ohio on September 1, 1870, the son of Peter Weeks and Catharine Francisco. He was educated at the University of Akron and obtained some preliminary experience working in the Akron office of architect Charles Snyder.
From 1892-95 he attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, having been accepted into the atelier of Victor Laloux. Returning from Paris, he worked in Cleveland for a while and then moved to New York, initially working as an interior decorator, until in 1899 he joined John Galen Howard at the firm of Howard & Cauldwell.

In 1901 Howard moved to Berkeley, to become supervising architect for the University of California, and he invited Weeks to join him as head designer. That association did not continue for long. In 1903 Weeks joined established San Francisco architect Albert Sutton (1867-1923) as junior partner in the firm of Sutton & Weeks.

Weeks wrote a plaintive article for the June 1906 Architect and Engineer magazine titled ‘Who is to blame for San Francisco’s plight?’, referring to the devastating earthquake and fire damage. The article hit owners first for a lack of concern for quality, the City for performing inadequate inspections, architects for acquiescing on cheapness, and contractors for not giving value for money. In April 1907 he wrote another article on the renaissance of apartment houses in the City, which featured several Sutton & Weeks designs. Sutton moved to Hood River, Oregon in 1910, leaving Weeks to practice on his own.

In 1916 Weeks took on engineer William Peyton Day as a partner and together they designed this magnificent Don Lee Building, the Huntington Hotel, the Mark Hopkins Hotel, the Brocklebank apartments at 1000 Mason and the Sir Francis Drake Hotel on Powell at Sutter. Weeks & Day were responsible for designing the main mausoleum at Mountain View Cemetery, where Weeks is buried.

After the Brocklebank was completed in 1926, Weeks and his wife moved into the building. Sadly, on March 25, 1928, Weeks was found dead in the living room of the apartment by his wife’s maid.

William Peyton Day continued the operations of the company for another 25 years.

The sculpture above the doorway is by Jo Mora you can read all about it here.

350 Bush Street

Posted by Cindy on May 10, 2013

May 102013

San Francisco Mining Exchange
350 Bush Street
Financial District

The San Francisco Mining Exchange, the second oldest exchange in the United States after the New York Stock Exchange, was formed in 1862 to trade mining stocks. It is San Francisco Landmark #113.

When trading in mining stocks surged in the early 1920s, the Mining Exchange hired the firm Miller & Pflueger, whose work can be found all over San Francisco, to design this Beaux Arts building. 350 Bush is an adaptation of the classical temple form much favored by financial institutions in the period, the building’s pediment and four pairs of fluted columns recall the New York Stock Exchange, constructed twenty years earlier.

The building was a trading hall for mining commodities for only five years; the Mining Exchange relocated in 1928.

Subsequently the building was occupied by the San Francisco Curb Exchange (1928-1938). When the Curb Exchange was absorbed into the San Francisco Stock Exchange the building was occupied by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce (1938-1967), and then Western Title Insurance (1967-1979).

The following is adapted from the San Francisco City Planning Commission Resolution No. 8578 dated 1 May 1980:

“This building is the last visible remnant of the San Francisco Mining Exchange which dissolved in 1967. The exchange was instrumental in making San Francisco the financial center of the West, and its capital was used to develop the mines and other industries of the entire western United States. Names associated with the Exchange include Coit, Sharon, Ralston, Mills, Hearst, Flood, Sutro, Hopkins and many more whose fortunes were founded or greatly augmented on the Exchange.With the discovery of the Comstock Lode in 1859, the need for a central market for trading in mining stocks became apparent. In 1862, the San Francisco Stock and Exchange Board was organized, housed first in the Montgomery Block, then in the Merchant’s Exchange.

By the middle of the 1870’s, the Exchange dominated the Western financial world, with capital from the East Coast and Europe pushing its volume of sales over that of the New York Stock Exchange, helping to establish the California-Montgomery Street area as “Wall Street West”.

By the early 1880’s, the Comstock began its permanent decline, and the Exchange’s specialization in mining stocks proved disastrous. In 1882, the rival San Francisco Stock and Bond Exchange, dealing in a wide range of commodities, was formed and prospered.

The silver discoveries in Tonopah, Nevada, in 1903 gave the Exchange new life, and in the 1920’s it commissioned Miller and Pflueger to design a grand Beaux Arts trading hall at 350 Bush Street.

In 1929, the Exchange, hard hit by the Crash, entered its final decline, with a brief revival during the uranium boom of the 1950’s. An investigation of irregularities in its operation by the Securities and Exchange Commission resulted in an order to close, and on August 15, 1967, after almost 105 years of existence, the Mining Exchange came to an end.”

The building has been vacant since 1979. The Swig Company and partners Shorenstein Properties LLC and Weiler-Arnow Investment Company purchased the Mining Exchange building in the 1960s. In 1979, The Swig Company and its partners began assembling the six land parcels around the Mining Exchange for the 350 Bush development. The partners obtained entitlements in the early 2000s. In 2007 Lincoln Property Company acquired the property from the Swig/Shorenstein and Weiler-Arnow group for $60 million. The intention was to break ground that spring, at this writing, that has not happened.

According to Heller Manus, the architects for the project, the historic exchange hall will be used as a grand lobby for a modern office building. The building will provide 360,000 sf of office space with a dramatic galleria at the street level as well as a mid-block pedestrian link between Bush and Pine Streets

The pediment was sculpted by Jo Mora. Joseph Jacinto “Jo” Mora (1876–1947) was an Uruguayan-born American cartoonist, illustrator and cowboy, who lived with the Hopi and wrote extensively about his experiences in California. He was an artist-historian, sculptor, painter, photographer, illustrator, muralist and author. He has been called the “Renaissance Man of the West”.

Mora was born on October 22, 1876 in Montevideo, Uruguay. His father was the Catalonian sculptor, Domingo Mora, and his mother was Laura Gaillard Mora, an intellectual French woman. His elder brother was F. Luis Mora, who would become an acclaimed artist and the first Hispanic member of the National Academy of Design. The family entered the United States in 1880 and first settled in New York, and then Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Jo Mora studied art in the New York and Boston, at the Art Student’s League in New York and the Cowles School in Boston. In 1903 he moved to Solvang, California. After wandering the Southwest he returned to San Jose, California.

By 1919, he was sculpting for the Bohemian Club, including a memorial plaque dedicated to Bret Harte, completed in August 1919 and mounted on the outside of the private men’s club building in San Francisco. In 1925, he designed the commemorative half dollar for the California Diamond Jubilee. Mora died October 10, 1947, in Monterey, California.

The building was reopened in 2018, you can read about the “restoration” here.

Golden Gate Park – Cervantes

Posted by Cindy on February 28, 2012

Feb 282012

Golden Gate Park

Music Concourse

Museum Drive just off JFK Drive

Miguel Cervantes Memorial by Jo Mora

Bronze and Stone

1916

This work was presented to the City of San Francisco by J.C. Cebrian and E.J. Molera, September 3, 1916. It is so appealingly, Don Quijote and Sancho Panza looking up to their creator, the famous Spanish writer, Miguel Cervantes.

Joseph Jacinto “Jo” Mora, was born October 22, 1876 in Uruguay and died October 10, 1947 in Monterey California. Jo Mora came to the United States as a child, studied art in the New York, and worked for Boston newspapers as a cartoonist. He was a man of many other talents, art historian, sculptor, painter, photographer, illustrator, muralist and author.

Regarding the two benefactors:

“ONE of the most interesting private libraries in San Francisco is the property of E. J. Molera and John C. Cebrian, two young Spanish gentlemen. Associated together in their boyhood, schoolmates together ; partners in business in after life, their friendship has become so established and their interests are so identified, that they have accumulated a common library, every book of which bears the
stamp “Molera & Cebrian.”

This collection numbers more than two thousand volumes, and contains so many and valuable works
in the Spanish section, that we shall give a somewhat detailed account of its contents, trusting that
the scholar and student will find it of interest.

… This is the best collection of Spanish writers to be found, and one of the best of its kind ever published. The student may follow therein the true evolution of Spanish language and thought since the beginning of the thirteenth century; as it not only contains the classical or standard authors, but also any writer who has had any influence in Spanish literature, either for the better or for the worse. This collection contains the complete Spanish works of Cervantes, Quevedo, Calderon, Lope, Leon and their compeers, and even translations of some of their Latin works. ”

From Popular Science Monthly of December 1879:

A recent trial, in San Francisco of Molera’s and Cebrian’s system of dividing and distributing the electric light, is thus described in the San Francisco “Morning Call” of September 30th: “An exhibition of a new system of utilizing and dividing the electric light, recently discovered by Messrs. Molera and Cebrain, civil engineers, of this city…

This was apparently all an improvement on Edison’s electric light.

The gentlemen were true California immigrant pioneers and their lives may be more thoroughly investigated in the book “Conquerors, Immigrants, exiles: The Spanish diaspora in the United States”

WPA Map of San Francisco Part 6 – Sunset, Ortega and Parkside

Posted by Cindy on February 17, 2019

Feb 172019

Sunset Branch Library
Ortega Branch Library
Parkside Branch Library

This is installment six of the pieces of the WPA map that are being displayed as part of the joint program, Take Part, between SFMOMA and the San Francisco Library. You can read the first Five installments here.

I apologize for the poor quality of the photographs. Most every model is under plexiglass and reflects not only the lighting from above but the light streaming in through the window.

Sunset Branch Library

The WPA map at the Sunset Branch Library

San Francisco was home to what was once the largest sand dune ecosystem in the western hemisphere. These dunes spanned seven miles, essentially the entire width of modern-day San Francisco.

Carl Larsen emigrated from Denmark in 1869 and began buying large amounts of land in these dunes. He donated this land now known as Golden Gate Heights to the city in 1924. Golden Gate Heights was laid out in 1927, the neighborhood’s windy streets hug the hills and break the strict grid overlaying most of the city.

Some homes were built in the 1930s, but as you can see when viewing the WPA map there were vast amounts of empty green space since most of the homes in this area were built in the 1950s.

St. Anne of the Sunset Catholic Church as seen on the WPA map

St Anne of the Sunset Catholic Church was one of the large buildings in the area during that time.

WPA map of San Francisco The stairway at 16th avenue in Golden Gate Heights is covered in tiles and are now a wonderful piece of art.

WPA Map of San Francisco As are the stairs at 16th and Moraga

Ortega Branch Library

This area was fascinating for how sparse it also was in the 1930s.

There was once a Shriners Hospital at Taraval and the Great Highway.

Notice the tunnel at the end of Taraval Street it can be seen at the far left in the green area just below the Taraval sign. This was constructed in 1920 to give people access to the beach. It was dismantled in the 1960s when sewer outfall pipes were installed. When walking the beach during very rigorous storms one can still see the remnants of the tunnel and its cobblestone floor.

A 1929 photo from the SFPL taken at Taraval and The Great Highway. The Hospital can be seen on the left in the background.

The above appears to be a grand home at Ulloa and The Great Highway, it is not listed on any Sanborn map and this is how it looks on the aerial photo that was used by the WPA for the project.

It is interesting to visit all parts of the map. If you do you can see how each artist left an individual style. This was the first map that showed what appear to be driveways and walkways into the homes rather than just small painted buildings.

Parkside Branch Library

The map at the Parkside Branch Library is divided into two pieces, one on each side of the entry foyer.

The two things that really stand out on this map is Abraham Lincoln High School and the Sunset Reservoir.

Sunset Reservoir is the city’s largest and is owned and maintained by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Completed in 1960, the subterranean reservoir was constructed as an 11-acre concrete basin, which contains 720 floor-to-ceiling columns. The reservoir has a capacity of 270 acre-feet or 87,979,886 gallons.

Abraham Lincoln school was opened in 1940 after the map was built. This leaves one to ask if it was far enough along to be included or if it was part of the pieces added at a later date by UC.

There have been several prominent San Franciscan’s who graduated from Lincoln, including :

John L. Burton, Class of 1957 who was President of the California State Senate and former Congressman, Actress Barbara Eden, Class of 1949, Sculptor Richard Serra, Class of 1954 and BD Wong, Class of 1978 a television, film, and Tony Award-winning theater actor.

Please come back and visit, I plan to write about all of the 29 maps spread throughout the city.

Éire by Jerome Connor

Posted by Cindy on October 2, 2018

Oct 022018

Merrion Square
Dublin, Ireland
Eire by Jerome Conner Éire by Jerome Connor

Jerome Connor (February 1874 – August 1943) was born in Coumduff, Annascaul, Ireland. He was the sixth and youngest son of Patrick and Margaret Connor.

The family moved to Holyoake, Massachusetts in the 1890s.

Jerome ran away from home and settled in New York. After trying many trades (foundry-man, professional prize fighter, machinist, sign painter, Japanese intelligence officer in Mexico, and stonecutter) he became a sculptor.

His most notable sculptures are in Washington D.C.: statues of Robert Emmett (a cast of which is in Dublin) and Bishop John Carroll, and the Nuns of the Battlefield tablet.

When the Irish Free State achieved independence in 1922, Connor returned to Ireland

In 1925 he won a prestigious commission from a New York committee to create a monument in Cobh, County Cork to commemorate the lives lost in the sinking of the Lusitania. Sadly, eighteen years later, at the time of his death, the project had not been completed. Connor had become a bankrupt and alcoholic, and died in a Dublin slum at the age of 67. The Lusitania Monument was eventually completed by another artist.

In 1928 Jerome Connor became involved in a proposal to create a memorial to the Kerry poets, which was to commemorate four leading Gaelic poets of the 17th and 18th centuries. He chose a figure of Éire holding a harp seated on a rock, possibly inspired by Walt Whitman’s poem Old Ireland in Leaves of Grass (1861). The unstrung harp was based on the 1621 Cloyne harp in the National Museum. The work went as far as a full-scale replica in wax.

Éire was cast in bronze in Dublin many years after Connor’s death. It was erected in Merrion Square, without a title or an acknowledgment of the sculptor. It has a plaque inscribed “This statue was presented by Joseph Downes and Son Ltd. in Dec. 1976 to commemorate the centenary of the ButterCrust Bakery, Dublin”.

The Whales of the GGIE

Posted by Cindy on July 26, 2018

Jul 262018

Originally created for the Golden Gate International Exhibition
Moved to Steinhart Aquarium
Moved to CCSF
In Storage

Photo from: OpenSFHistory / wnp37.03052.jpg

These whales were in the San Francisco Building at the Golden Gate International Exhibition and were sculpted by Robert Howards.

After the GGIE closed the whales were moved to a prominent place in front of the Steinhart Aquarium in Golden Gate Park

Photo from: OpenSFHistory / wnp27.5859.jpg

Robert Boardman Howard (1896–1983), was a prominent American artist active in Northern California in the first half of the twentieth century. He was celebrated for his graphic art, watercolors, oils, and murals as well as his Art Deco bas-reliefs and his “Modernist” sculptures and mobiles.

Howard was born in New York City on September 20, 1896, to architect John Galen Howard and society belle Mary Bradbury. When he was six years old, the family moved to Northern California. They settled in Berkeley where John G Howard was hired to supervise the erection of the Hearst Memorial Mining Building at the University of California. Robert completed grammar school, but dropped out of Berkeley High School and was tutored privately.

Between 1913 and 1916 he studied at Berkeley’s California School of Arts and Crafts (today’s California College of the Arts). He became acquainted with Alexander Calder in 1915. After graduation, he traveled across the country on a motorcycle to New York City to continue his training at the Art Students League under Kenneth Hayes Miller and F. Luis Mora. He returned to California in 1918, joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps, and was sent to France. At the end of World War I, he studied in Koblenz and in Paris at the Academie Colarossi and the Academie de la Grand Chaumiere.

Notable work by Howard includes: a bas-relief of a phoenix at Coit Tower, the reliefs at the Paramount Theatre (1931–32; specifically the reliefs on the auditorium walls, stage and ceiling), the 1935 cast-iron bas-relief for the Badger Pass Ski House in Yosemite National Park, four massive murals and assorted sculptures for other G.G.I.E. pavilions, including the Brazil Building, California Building, Western State Building, and Ghirardelli Building, two bas-reliefs in cast stone titled Power and Light, at the Pacific Gas and Electric Mission Substation in San Francisco, the City Club of San Francisco’s grand staircase balusters, the linen-based mural in the Mural Room at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, the massive bas-reliefs of dancing and musical figures on the exterior of the Berkeley High School Community Theatre, and the 1958 sculpture Hydro-Gyro at the San Jose IBM Research Center.

This sculpture is owned by the San Francisco Arts Commission but is stored on the CCSF campus waiting for restoration and installation. The CCSF administration, the CCSF Works of Art Committee, and other faculty and staff are working with the Arts Commission to arrange funding.

Grandview

Posted by Cindy on May 24, 2018

May 242018

7351 Route WI-39
Hollandale, Wisconsin

Three Swiss Patriots. This tableau represented the three founding fathers of the Swiss Republic. Walter Furst, Werner Stauffacher and Arnold Melchthal

This lovely and imaginative spot well in the countryside of Wisconsin is the creation of Nick Engelbert.

In 1937, after his children were grown, Nick Engelbert began to build an elaborate arched porch of concrete around the front entrance of his farmhouse, ultimately covering every inch of the outside surface of the house with concrete inlaid with shards of china, glass, beads, buttons, and seashells. Over the next 15 years, Nick created more than 40 concrete sculptures in his yard, combining patriotic themes with imagery from history, fairy tales, mythology and his own imagination. At the age of 70, no longer able to make sculptures, he turned to painting, producing over 200 oils before his death in 1962.

The Grandview site is now owned and operated by the Pecatonica Educational Charitable (PEC) Foundation. Many of the statues have been restored or recreated. The house, now a museum, contains many Engelbert artifacts, family memorabilia, and copies of Nick’s paintings.

The painting on the wall of the interior of the house.

The painting is on the wall of the interior of the house.

Nick Engelbert was born in 1881 in Pravaljie, Austria and named Engelbert Koletnik. He was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army as a young man and, after serving only two years, he fled Europe to escape further military involvement. Following extensive travel to several countries, he eventually settled in America. He reportedly then changed his name to Nick Engelbert in order to start a new life with a new identity.

In 1913 Nick married Katherine Thoni, a recent immigrant from Switzerland. They settled in Wisconsin to be near Katherine’s family. In 1922 they bought a small seven-acre farm just outside the little village of Hollandale where they raised four children.

Engelbert created his first concrete sculpture in the mid-1930’s, reportedly while recovering from a sprained ankle. By the 1950’s his entire yeard was transformed into an artistic landscape of over 40 concrete sculptures

By the early 1940’s Engelbert had decorated the entire exterior of his small farmhouse with a colorful mosaic of concrete embellished with stones, shells, glass shards and fragments of ceramic dinnerware and porcelain figurines.

In 1960 Katherine died and Engelbert sold Grandview and moved to Baltimore to live with his daughter Alyce and her family.

Nick passed away on his birthday in 1962.

This is a replica. The lion was thought to be Engelbert’s first representational sculpture and was conserved and moved to the John Michael Kohler Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Stork with Baby. This sculpture, as well as the Stork’s head and legs, are reproductions. It is thought the original sign read “The Stork has forgotten the address and is asking the ladies to help him”

Habsburg Castle. The original sign read “Castle of Habsburg in Often Switzerland erected by an Austrian Governor during the 14th century” If you look very closely you can see a horse and rider approaching the bridge

Uncle Sam with Donkey and Elephant. The original tableau featured Uncle Sam with the “Democratic” donkey and the “Republican” elephant. The Uncle Sam figure is missing and the donkey deteriorated beyond repair. The original sign read “Can anyone do a days work with a team like that?”

Organ Grinder This is a replica, the original has been fully restored and moved to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan Wisconsin. The original sign read “Please register. Thank you”

Austro-Hungarian Eagle. This double-headed eagle commemorates the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the land of Nick’s birth. It was originally on the front porch flanked by the American Eagle. The sign originally read “Double Eagle Under One Crown” Nick moved the sculpture to this location in the 1940s when the empire no longer existed

* *

Visiting this site is well worth the effort. It is open Memorial Day to Labor Day every day but Monday and is free. The day I visited there was not a soul around, and yet, the door to the museum was open and inviting.

The State Capitol of Madison, Wisconsin

Posted by Cindy on May 20, 2018

May 202018

There is more information on the State Capitol of Madison than many I have seen. So I will just be touching on the art and architecture, rather than the history, of this magnificent building.

It is important to point out that the people take very seriously that this is the building of the people, so it has no metal detectors and should you so desire, you can walk through this magnificent structure simply to get from one side of the block to the other.

Atop the dome is “Wisconsin”, sculpted by Daniel Chester French of New York. She holds a globe with an eagle in one hand and wears a helmet of the state animal on her head. The state animal is a badger. This came about when in the 1820s, mining had become a huge business, with thousands of men coming to find their fortune.

The miners made temporary homes by digging caves into the rock of the mines, similar to tunnels that badgers dig for shelter. The miners came to be known as “badger boys” or “badgers,” and the name stuck.

Looking up to the top of the interior dome you will see the painting “Resources of Wisconsin” painted by Edwin Blashfield of New York at a cost of $8000. In this photo, there is a woman with a red headdress representing Wisconsin. She is holding a sheaf of wheat, which symbolized Wisconsin’s roots as the breadbasket of the area, before dairy took over the econonmy. There are others products in the scene, such as tobacco, lead, fruit and fish. The paintings size is decieving due to its distance from the ground, but it is only eight feet smaller in diameter than the opening of the first floor rotunda, or a huge 34 feet in diameter. The outer ring of the painting is actually a balcony.

Liberty

There are four of these magnificent glass mosaics in the rotunda. They were designed by Kenyon Cox of Warren, Ohio at a total cost $20,000. They each contain about 100,000 pieces of glass tile and represent the three branches of government and Liberty.

Legislation

Government

Justice

There are badgers above the doors of flour second-floor chambers.

There are badgers above the doors of four of the second-floor chambers.

The highly ornamented red and gold leaf room on the first floor in the East Wing is the Governor’s Conference Room. It is designed after the small council chamber in the Doge’s palace in Venice.

There are many allegorical paintings throughout the room done by Hugo Ballin from New York. These paintings cost $25,000.

This painting shows Wisconsin’s role in the Civil War. The woman in the center is Unity. The woman on the left is Cordelia Harvey, widow of Wisconsin Governor Louis Harvey, During the war, Governor Harvey had asked Lincoln to establish military hospitals in the north, but Harvey died before this could happen, and his widow worked tirelessly to establish three hospitals.

These are a few panes from the skylight of the Supreme Court. This is one of four skylights in the Capitol, all made of low-toned leaded glass with metal halide lights above.

There are four murals on the walls of the court painted by Albert Herter of New York at a cost of $28,000. They cover the historical events that influence Wisconsin Law.

Caesar Augustus Octavius presiding over the trial of a soldier representing Roman civil law, which is written down in codes or statutes in contrast to English common law which is based on custom and usage.

The signing of the Magna Carta by King John, who was forced to sign by his soldiers and noblemen.

In the painting is the artist’s son, Christian Herter who later served as Governor of Massachusetts and Secretary of State under Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The signing of the Constitution in 1787. In the painting is Thomas Jefferson, who would not have been in the room as he did not sign, nor help write the constitution. It is possible the artist included him for his influence on American law.

This painting is an example of territorial laws. Wisconsin was still a part of Michigan territory at the time. This shows the trial of Menominee Chief Oshkosh when he was accused of killing a Pawnee and brought before James Doty. While the jury found him guilty, Doty ruled that territorial law could not be applied because Oshkosh had, in fact, followed the legal system of his tribal laws.

These columns sit behind the chairs of the Supreme Court Judges. They are of Benou marble from France.

The marble panels are Formosa marble from Germany and the columns are Italian Breche Coralline marble

Fossils are scattered throughout the marble

Fossils can be found in the marble throughout the Capitol, including a starfish on the North Wing stairs, this Ammonoid, Coral, Nautiloids, Gastropods, Bryozoans, Burrows, and Brachiopods.

The skylight in the Senate Chamber

The mural in the Senate Chamber was also painted by Kenyon Cox at a cost of $12,000 and is called “The Marriage of the Atlantic and Pacific” It commemorates the opening of the Panama Canal.

The groom represents the Atlantic Ocean and the bride the Pacific Ocean The figure in the center presiding over the wedding is America. On the right side of the painting the goddess of peace welcomes the nations of Germany, France, and Great Britain, and on the left, the god of commerce welcomes the nations of China, Japan, and Polynesia.

The skylight over the Assembly Chamber is the largest of the four skylights in the capitol

This difficult to photograph mural is by Edwin Blashfield, titled Wisconsin it was commissioned at a cost of $15,000. It illustrates the past, present and future.

The skylight of the North Hearing Room

There are four murals in the North Hearing Room painted by Charles Yardley Turner of New York at a cost of $20,000.

This room was originally used by the Railroad Commission so the murals reflect the history of transportation.

Native Americans on horseback

A trading post with a canoe as the mode of transportation

Early French settlers bargaining for furs with the Native Americans

The colonial period with a stagecoach

Modern transportation of steamboat, railroad, automobile and even an airplane

The exterior sculpture of the capitol is as exquisite as the interior. They are all by Karl Bitter, a Vienna native who came to New York in 1889. His work can be found in such great architecture as the Biltmore in North Carolina, Trinity Church in New York City and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Faith

Prosperity and Abundance.

Knowledge

Strength

This is just a small soupcon of what the Wisconson State Capitol offers. Free tours are available every day of the year, except New Year’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas. Plan on spending 45-55 minutes for a tour.

Swann Memorial Fountain

Posted by Cindy on February 28, 2018

Feb 282018

Logan Square
Philadelphia, PA

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

The Swann Memorial Fountain (also known as the Fountain of the Three Rivers) is by Alexander Stirling Calder (who has shown up on these pages before) and designed with architect Wilson Eyre.

The fountain memorializes Dr. Wilson Cary Swann, founder of the Philadelphia Fountain Society.

Calder created large Native American figures to symbolize the area’s major streams, the Delaware, the Schuylkill, and the Wissahickon.

The mature woman holding the neck of a swan stands for the Schuylkill River

Sculpted frogs and turtles spout water toward the 50-foot geyser in the center, though typically the geyser only spouts 25 ft. The use of swans is an obvious pun on Dr. Swann’s name.

The young girl leaning on her side represents the Wissahickon Creek

The male figure, reaching above his head to grasp his bow as a large pike sprays water over him, symbolizes the Delaware River.

In late 19th century Philadelphia it became all the rage among the reform-minded elite to donate curbside fountains to help bring fresh water to the city. Groups like the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, Women’s Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (WPSPCA), and the Philadelphia Fountain Society paid to install and maintain public drinking fountains for – as the Fountain Society’s mission stated – “the health and refreshment of the inhabitants of Philadelphia, and for the benefit of the animals used by them.”

Frogs and also spray water into the fountain

Frogs and turtles also spray water into the fountain

Dr. Wilson Cary Swann put the need plainly in a speech to supporters in 1870: “The suffering caused by the absence of water in our streets is beyond description.”

In the early days of the Fountain Society that dual appeal was made explicit for benefactors: “The greatest enemy to temperance, morality, and virtue is more or less associated with thirst, ” said Swann in that same speech. “Let these fountains be erected at convenient distances along our streets, and the temptation to resort to drinking saloons will soon be abated and, in time, abolished.”

The crossover appeal among Philadelphians interested in alleviating animal cruelty, promoting temperance, and improving public health resulted in an explosion of fountain installation well into the early 20th century.

According to Fountain Society records, in 1880 there were 50 fountains operating 180 days per year, serving an estimated 3 million people and 1 million horses and other animals.

Though the horse fountain-building fad faded as the 20th century continued, new ones were installed throughout the city into the 1940s.

Belle Isle

Posted by Cindy on August 4, 2017

Aug 042017

Belle Isle
Detroit, Michigan

The James Scott Memorial Fountain was designed by architect Cass Gilbert and sculptor Herbert Adams, the fountain was completed in 1925 at a cost of $500,000

Belle Isle is a 982-acre island park in the Detroit River, between the United States mainland and Canada. Belle Isle is the largest city-owned island park in the United States and is the third largest island in the Detroit River. It is connected to mainland Detroit by the MacArthur Bridge.

One interesting story told about the island is part of Motor City history. It is said that one night in 1908 Byron Carter of Cartercar stopped to help a stranded motorist on Belle Isle. When he cranked her Cadillac, it kicked back and broke his jaw. Complications from the injury turned into pneumonia and he died. The incident motivated Henry Leland, founder of Cadillac Motors to state that “The Cadillac car will kill no more men if we can help it” and to hire Charles Kettering, who established Delco and developed the electric self-starter.

James Scott was left a sizable fortune by his father who invested in Detroit real estate. Scott was described by twentieth-century author W. Hawkins Ferry as a “vindictive, scurrilous misanthrope” who attempted to intimidate his business competitors and when this was unsuccessful, he filed suit. Perhaps for these reasons, Scott died in 1910 with no heirs or colleagues and he bequeathed his estate to the City of Detroit with the condition that the fountain include a life-sized bronze statue of him.

The Nancy Brown Peace Carillon

The 85-foot Neo-Gothic carillon cost nearly $59,000 when it was built. The tower was designed by Clarence E. Day, brother-in-law of James E. Scripps, the publisher of the Detroit News. The builder was Harlow A. Amsbary. Nancy Brown was the pen name of a Detroit News columnist who wrote the Experience Column from 1919 to January of 1942. Her real name was Annie Louise Brown.

The concept of the Peace Carillon came from a reader. In 1934, Nancy Brown promoted the idea in her column. It was built by readers who sent in nickels and dimes through Brown’s fundraiser and dedicated in 1940.

The Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory is the oldest continually-running conservatory in the United States. It is named for Anna Scripps Whitcomb, who left her collection of 600 orchids to Detroit in 1955. Anna Scripps Whitcomb was the daughter of The Detroit News founder James E. Scripps

Outside of this Conservatory sits a Japanese Stone Lantern made of white granite. The lantern, or Tohro as it is traditionally called, was presented to the City of Detroit by their sister city, Toyota, to commemorate the 25th year of their sister city relations. The lantern is inscribed with the Japanese word for “friendship”. Behind the lantern is the Levi L. Barbour Memorial Fountain, designed by sculptor Marshall Fredericks and dedicated June 25, 1937. Barbour was an industrialist who pushed for Detroit acquiring Belle Isle, and left money to the City to erect a monument in his honor “in order to inspire others to be charitable.”

Construction began in 1902 on the Aquarium and Horticultural Building, as it was called then. The two buildings, designed by famed Detroit architect Albert Kahn, opened on August 18, 1904, and were originally joined where one could walk between the two structures without leaving the building.

The Belle Isle Aquarium is the oldest aquarium in the country. In 2005, the city of Detroit announced that the Aquarium was to be closed due to lean economic times for the city. The building remained closed to the public until the Belle Isle Conservancy reopened it on September 15, 2012.

The lily pond is located between the conservatory building and the Belle Isle Aquarium. It was not part of the original design but constructed in 1936. The rocky walls were created with 200 tons of moss-covered limestone boulders that were brought from the construction of the Livingstone Channel in the Detroit River near Amherstburg, Ontario. The pond is home to Japanese koi that are maintained by volunteers and are held in the Aquarium basement during winter.

Belle Isle is the embodiment of what it is to live in Michigan, spending summers on the water. Beach goers and picnickers abound on Belle Isle in the summer. Signs of family reunions, birthday parties, and get-togethers are everywhere, parking is plentiful and all types of water activities available to those that visit the island.

Ringold Alley’s Leather Memoir

Posted by Cindy on July 17, 2017

Jul 172017

Ringold Alley
Between 8th and 9th Streets
Harrison and Folsom
SOMA

Prior to the AIDS crisis, Ringold alley served as one of the go-to places for gay men to rendezvous after the numerous gay bars along Folsom Street (the “Miracle Mile”) closed for the night. Until the 1990s, Ringold Street continued to play a major role in San Francisco’s leather and gay SOMA scenes. Leather Memoir is a project to honor the history of this area.

“Leather Memoir” consists of several custom fabricated features. A black granite marker stone mounted at 9th and Ringold features an etched narrative, which includes a reproduction of Chuck Arnett’s long-gone mural, and an image of Mike Caffee’s Leather David statue.

This is the city’s backyard. . . . An early morning walk will take a visitor past dozens of small businesses manufacturing necessities; metal benders, plastic molders, even casket makers can all be seen plying their trades. At five they set down their tools and return to the suburbs. . . . A few hours later, men in black leather . . . will step out on these same streets to fill the nearly 30 gay bars, restaurants, and sex clubs in the immediate vicinity. Separate realities that seldom touch and, on the surface at least, have few qualms about each other. –Mark Thompson (1982) – The first paragraph of the plaque.

Rubble of the Tool Box at 4th and Harrison (1971), Chuck Arnett's notorious mural stood mutely over the ruins for almost two years

The Tool Box, at 4th and Harrison, was the prototypical San Francisco leather bar. Its walls were covered with murals by artist Chuck Arnett, whose work graced many other leather institutions over the years. A photo of the bar with many of the regulars standing in front of the Arnett mural appeared in LIFE magazine’s watershed 1964 photo-essay “Homosexuality in America.” This photo shows Arnett’s mural overlooking the rubble of the Tool Box. (1971)

The paving around the granite installations is the Leather Pride flag, a symbol for the BDSM and fetish subculture

The first leather bar on Folsom Street was Febe’s, which opened July 25, 1966. Artist Mike Caffee worked in and did graphic design for many leather businesses. In 1966, he designed the logo for Febe’s and created a statue that came to symbolize the bar. He modified a small plaster reproduction of Michelangelo’s David, making him into a classic 1960s gay biker: “I broke off the raised left arm and lowered it so his thumb could go in his pants pocket, giving him cruiser body language. The biker uniform was constructed of layers of wet plaster. . . . The folds and details of the clothing were carved, undercutting deeply so that the jacket would hang away from his body, exposing his well-developed chest. The pants were button Levis, worn over the boots, and he sported a bulging crotch you couldn’t miss. . . . Finally, I carved a chain and bike run buttons on his [Harley] cap.” (Caffee 1997)

–Gayle Rubin, excerpted from “The Miracle Mile: South of Market and Gay Male Leather, 1962-1997” in Reclaiming San Francisco: History, Politics, Culture (City Lights: 1998)

Granite stones, recycled from San Francisco curbs, were cut, polished and engraved to honor community institutions.

This 2016/2017 $2 million project was designed by Miller Company Landscape Architects. A variety of community leaders were consulted on the design, including anthropologist and leather historian Gayle Rubin, Demetri Moshoyannis executive director of Folsom Street Events, and the late Jim Meko, former chair of the Western SoMa Citizens Planning Task Force.

The project, officially known as the San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley, was the brain child of Jim Meko, who, prior to his death in 2015, had long pushed for a rezoning of Western SOMA that would honor the area’s leather history. A bootprint honoring Meko can be found near the black granite explanation plaque.

Made from the left and right soles of a pair of Dehner boots owned by Mike McNamee, the founder and former owner of Stompers, the 28 commemorative markers feature the names and short bios of 30 individuals. They can be found on both sides of the alley

If you are interested in learning more about the SOMA leather scene Found SF has written a concise and interesting story of the neighborhood, which you can read here.

Jeffrey Miller (ASLA) is credited as the lead artist on the project. Miller is the principal and founder of Miller Company. He holds an M.L.A. from the University of Massachusetts School of Landscape Architecture.

The people honored with boot prints are:
1. Jim Kane, community leader, and biker
2. Ron Johnson, poet, and co-founder of the Rainbow Motorcycle Club
3. Steve McEachern, owner of the Catacombs, a gay and lesbian S/M fisting club
4. Cynthia Slater, founder of the Society of Janus
5. Tony Tavarossi, manager of the Why Not
6. Chuck Arnett, iconic leather artist, Toolbox muralist
7. Jack Haines, Fe-Be’s and The Slot owner
8. Alexis Muir, a transwoman who owned SOMA bars and baths
9. Sam Steward, author, and tattooist
10. Terry Thompson, SF Eagle manager
11. Philip M. Turner, founder of Daddy’s Bar
12. Hank Diethelm, The Brig owner
13. Ambush co-owners Kerry Brown, Ken Ferguson, David Delay
14. Alan Selby, founder of the store Mr. S Leather and known as the “Mayor of Folsom Street”
15. Peter Hartman, owner of 544 Natoma art gallery and theater
16. Robert Opel, Fey-Way Studios owner
17. Anthony F. (Tony) DeBlase, creator of the leather flag
18. Marcus Hernandez, Bay Area Reporter leather columnist
19. John Embry, founder, and publisher of Drummer magazine
20. Geoff Mains, author of “Urban Aboriginals”
21. Mark Thompson, author of “Leatherfolk” and co-founder of Black Leather Wings
22. Thom Gunn, poet
23. Paul Mariah, poet, printer and activist
24. Robert Davolt, author, and organizer of SF Pride leather contingent
25. Jim Meko, printer, and SOMA activist
26. Alexis Sorel, co-founder The 15 and Black Leather Wings member
27. Bert Herman, author, and publisher
28. T. Michael “Lurch” Sutton, biker and co-founder of the Bears of SF

Civil Rights Monument

Posted by Cindy on March 31, 2017

Mar 312017

Capitol Park
Richmond, VA
March 2017

The Virginia Civil Rights Memorial sits on the grounds of Capitol Square in Richmond VA and commemorates the protests which helped bring about school desegregation in the state.

Unveiled in 2008 this $2.8 memorial was designed by Stanley Bleifield.

Oliver Hill and Spottswood Robinson

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch: “A Commonwealth once synonymous with defiance of court-ordered school integration celebrated the latest symbol of its often-difficult embrace of equality with the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial in 2008.

It represents a key moment in the history of the civil-rights movement in Virginia.

The statue spotlights the African-American students in rural Prince Edward County whose 1951 walkout to protest their run-down school led to a lawsuit that was folded into the challenge that triggered the 1954 Brown vs. the Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court banning segregated public schools.

Among the figures in the memorial is Oliver W. Hill Sr. holding a rumpled legal brief aloft as he stands shoulder to shoulder with law partner Spottswood W. Robinson III. They took on the case of the Prince Edward County students who protested the shabby condition of their school.

Barbara Johns was the one who called the school strike in 1951 and she is a key figure in the sculpture. Her statement “it seemed like reaching for the moon” is boldly featured.

The student protests garnered support from the local community, benefiting from the moral leadership of the Rev. L. Francis Griffin, known as the “Fighting Preacher” and is also featured in the memorial.”

The Reverend Francis Griffin

The article seemed, in my opinion, to gloss over some of the reasons for the strike, here is a very, very short elaboration of the situation. R.R. Moton High School, an all-black high school in Farmville, Virginia, founded in 1923, suffered from terrible conditions due to underfunding. The school did not have a gymnasium, cafeteria or teachers’ restrooms. Teachers and students did not have desks or blackboards, and due to overcrowding, some students had to take classes in an immobilized, decrepit school bus parked outside the main school building. The school’s requests for additional funds were denied by the all-white school board.

American Sculptor Stanley Bleifeld (1924 – 2011) was born in Brooklyn, New York, Bleifeld’s many awards included: Sculptor of the Year in Pietrasanta and the World, in 2004, the Henry Hering Memorial Medal of the National Sculpture Society, (he was president of the Society from 1991 to 1993), the Medal of Liberty from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Shikler Award from National Academy of Design, and many others.

He was a National Academician in Sculpture, and was an active member of the National Academy of Design, helping to set policy for the organization.

Regular readers of this blog will recognize one of his statues in San Francisco, The Lone Sailor

Lily Pond

Posted by Cindy on July 21, 2016

Jul 212016

125 W. Fullerton Parkway
Lincoln Park
Chicago, Illinois

Chicago’s official motto is “Urbs in Horto,” which translates to “City in a Garden”, much of the garden aspects of this town can be attributed to Alfred Caldwell and his mentor Jens Jensen.

Lily Pond is the work of Alfred Caldwell. During the depression, Caldwell worked on and off for the Chicago Park District. It was a tumultuous relationship, but it was also steady work. In 1936, under the guise of the Park District and with WPA money Caldwell designed the Lily Pool.

Caldwell suggested that “besides being a nature garden,” the Lily Pool is “a geological statement.”

He explains: “The landscape of all Chicago was once a lake formed by the melting ice of the Late Wisconsin Glacier. These dammed-up waters finally broke through the moraine ridge at the southwest extremity of the area. This surging torrent carved out the underlying strata of Niagara limestone. The present Des Plaines River, in part follows that channel; and the stone bluffs are a veritable statement of the natural forces that created the terrain of Chicago.”

The front gate

You enter this small oasis through a stunning wood and stone gate. Originally there was to be a Prairie style lantern at the entrance to the park, placed within the stone entryway, this was eliminated from the original project.

The center of the park is a large body of water, it was called the prairie river by Caldwell. The intent was to emulate the melted glacial waters that had cut through the Niagara limestone. The curved shape gives the illusion of a larger space with views and scenery continuously changing.

On the northwest side, to the right as you enter, Caldwell created a small waterfall out of slabs of limestone. Caldwell suggested that, “A body of water presumes a source. Hence the waterfall.”

The waterfall

On the southeast side of the river is a circular round bench made of stone called a council ring. Although Caldwell included council rings in many of his park plans, this is the only one in Chicago that followed his exact specifications.

The Council Ring

The most prominent feature is the wood pavilion. This Prairie style edifice is often wrongly attributed to Frank Lloyd Wright.

Two stone and wood shelters are joined together by a large horizontal wood beam, to Caldwell “The spreading horizontal structure is like a tree, rooted in a rock ledge.”

The Lily Pool in Lincoln Park is the most fully realized surviving example of the work of landscape architect Alfred Caldwell. The disciple of renowned Prairie style landscape designer and conservationist, Jens Jensen, Caldwell “…imbibed deeply of Jensen’s philosophy. A total respect for the processes of nature was the basis. The landscape architect was an artist, or more correctly a poet, who would interpret and reveal nature, by using its materials.” … Richard Guy Wilson – Commonwealth Professor in Architectural History at the University of Virginia

There are two interesting stories regarding this project by Caldwell. The first is regarding the plantings.

The park service had decided to cut the budget for the wildflower plantings that Caldwell has proposed.

Caldwell later told the story: “So not to be beat, I talked it over with my wife. I had recently taken out an insurance policy for $5,000 dollars. I cashed in my insurance policy. I got $250 dollars. I went up to Wisconsin. I hired a truck. I had three or four people and they worked like mad for a whole day and a half. I loaded all these thousand and thousands of plants. I loaded them and brought them in all the way from Sauk County, Wisconsin. When I got back to the Lincoln Park Lily Pond, it was 6:00 pm on a Saturday night. We spread all the stuff out on the side of the slopes where they were to go. In the morning we planted them all. We finished the whole thing by 1:00 or 2:00 p.m. The lily pond was finished. The Juneberry trees were in blossom. It was like paradise.

A second story, that comes down through Paul Finfer, a student of Caldwell’s, is of three men that would not only have a impact on Chicago and the world of architecture, but on Caldwell’s career itself.

Caldwell explains that while working on the pool three mysterious men in black overcoats stood and watched. “They spoke in German. The tall one could speak a little English.”

As the men studied the pavilion at the Lily Pool, Caldwell approached. They pointed to the pavilion and asked, “Frank Lloyd Wright?” He thumped himself on the chest and replied, “No, Alfred Caldwell.” Caldwell remembered that one of the men was also intrigued with the way plants were growing between the crevices of the rocks. The three men left, and Caldwell “often wondered mightily about them.” It wasn’t until a couple of years later that Caldwell learned that they were Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig Hilberseimer and Walter Peterhans, the famous architects and planners who fled Nazi Germany to settle in Chicago to teach at the Armour Institute (now Illinois Institute of Chicago).

***

Sadly, by 1946 the Park district had allowed the nearby zoo to encroach upon the pool. Exotic birds left droppings in the pool and destroyed much of the vegetation. This allowed invasive plants to take over cutting down on the sunlight, causing erosion and destroying the design created by Caldwell.

In 1997 a non-profit group was formed to raise funds and work with the park department to restore the Lily Pool.

During this period the original entry gate was replaced. White oak barn wood was used to match the original and photographs were carefully studied to ensure accuracy of the elements. Also, during the restoration, the light fixture was recreated and placed as Caldwell had envisioned.

Caldwell's light fixture was added during the restoration. Photo courtesy of the Park Service

Caldwell’s entrance light fixture was recreated and added during the restoration. Photo courtesy of Wolff Landscape Architecture – Chicago.

Alfred Caldwell was born in St. Louis in 1903, he moved to Chicago when he was a young boy. He enrolled in University of Illinois in Champaign- Urbana, but quickly became disillusioned. After a few missteps and thanks to some well-intentioned connections, he found himself apprenticed to renowned landscape architect Jens Jensen. He worked as a superintendent for Jensen for 5 ½ years. During this time he met Frank Lloyd Wright and was asked to join Wright at Taliesen. Caldwell’s wife had misgivings and he turned down the offer, although he did spend a few weeks there.

By now the depression was beginning to rear its ugly head and Jensen could no longer keep Caldwell on. At this point he was hired for a large project in Dubuque, Iowa, this project was to be Eagle Point Park.

Fired in January of 1936, most likely because he just did not fit in, he returned to Chicago.

He decided to sit for the Illinois architects exam and began attending classes. His instructors were the three Germans dressed in black overcoats that watched over him while planting Lily Pond. Caldwell passed the exam without difficulty.

Caldwell designed scores of landscapes, he also taught for more than 35 years at the Illinois Institute of Technology and the University of Southern California and was a visiting professor at Virginia Polythechnic Institute. Despite all of this he remained relatively unknown. In a 1977 article, architectural historian Richard Guy Wilson changed all of that with his article “Alfred Caldwell Illuminates Nature’s Ways,” in Landscape Architecture Magazine.

“…as historians begin to inspect the [1930s] period it becomes increasingly obvious that certain strains of indigenous American creativity have been overlooked. Alfred Caldwell’s work encompasses the broadest definitions of landscape architecture, an activity not simply of plant types and topography, but a vision and philosophy of man and nature that is at the core of the American dream.”

Standing Lincoln

Posted by Cindy on July 17, 2016

Jul 172016

Off N. Lake Shore Drive near W. North Avenue
Chicago

This is one of the two sculptures in Lincoln Park that were bequeathed to Chicago upon the death of lumberman Eli Bates.

This 12 foot tall figure known as the “Standing Lincoln” was the first of Saint-Gaudens’ statues of Lincoln. He received the commission for this monument in 1884 and began work the following year.

Lincoln had made quite an impression on Saint-Gaudens when he saw Lincoln in 1860 . “Lincoln stood tall in the carriage, his dark uncovered head bent in contemplative acknowledgement of the waiting people, and the broadcloth of his black coat shone rich and silken in the sunlight”.

To capture Lincoln’s appearance, Saint-Gaudens relied on plaster life masks made by Leonard Volk of Lincoln’s Hands and face. To achieve the pose Saint-Gardens used Langdon Morse a 6 foot 4 farmer from Windsor Vermont.

As he worked out the design for the statue, St. Gaudens experimented with a variety of poses: seated and standing, arms crossed in front of his body, or holding a document. Art critic Marianna Griswold Van Rensselaer described the decision in her review of the statue in The Century (1887):

“The first question to be decided must have been: Shall the impression to be given base itself primarily upon the man of action or upon the man of affairs? Shall the statue be standing or seated? In the solution of this question we find the most striking originality of the work. The impression given bases itself in equal measure upon the man of action and the
man of affairs. Lincoln is standing, but stands in front of a chair from which he has just risen. He is before the people to counsel and direct them, but has just turned from that other phase of his activity in which he was their executive and their protector. Two ideas are thus expressed in the composition, but they are not separately, independently expressed to the detriment of unity. The artist has blended them to the eye as our own thought blends them when we speak of Lincoln. The pose reveals the man of action, but represents a man ready for action, not really engaged in it; and the chair clearly typical of the Chair of State reveals his title to act no less than his methods of self-preparation. We see, therefore, that completeness of expression has been arrived at through a symbolic, idealistic conception.”

Architect, Stanford White, of the New York firm of McKim, Mead and White, designed the monument’s base. He added the long, curving exedra bench to encourage visitors to sit and enjoy the statue,

This was one of 20 such artistic collaborations between White and Saint-Gaudens who also became close friends.

The monument was cast in bronze by the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company in New York, and dedicated on October 22, 1887, to a large crowd. Lincoln’s son, Robert, considered this the best sculpture of his father of the many that were done.

After Saint-Gaudens’ death, his wife authorized an edition of smaller bronze copies. These are found in public institutions around the country. Full- size casts of the statue were later installed in London, England, Mexico City, Cambridge, Massachusetts and Hollywood Hills, California. The image of Lincoln used for the commemorative stamp
of 1909, was drawn from the head of this statue.

Saint-Gaudens has been in this site before, you can read about him here.

Adam’s Memorial

Posted by Cindy on July 9, 2016

Jul 092016

Section E Rock Creek Cemetery
Washington D.C.

I visit the Adams Memorial whenever I am in Washington D.C. This hauntingly beautiful sculpture is one I can never tire of. It is by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

The Smithsonian probably writes about it best:

Marion Hooper “Clover” Adams, wife of the writer Henry Adams, committed suicide in 1885 by drinking chemicals used to develop photographs. Adams, who steadfastly refused to discuss his wife’s death, commissioned Augustus Saint-Gaudens to create a memorial that would express the Buddhist idea of nirvana, a state of being beyond joy and sorrow. In Adams’s circle of artists and writers, the old Christian certainties seemed inadequate after the violence of the Civil War, the industrialization of America, and Darwin’s theories of evolution. Saint-Gaudens’s ambiguous figure reflects the search for new insights into the mysteries of life and death. The shrouded being is neither male nor female, neither triumphant nor downcast.

Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin to a French father and an Irish mother and raised in New York, after his parents immigrated to America when he was six months of age. He was apprenticed to a cameo-cutter but also took art classes at the Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design.

In 1867, at the age of 19 he traveled to Paris where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1870, he left Paris for Rome, to study art and architecture, and work on his first commissions.

He then returned to New York, where he achieved major critical success for his monuments commemorating heroes of the American Civil War, many of which still stand. In addition to his works such as the, Robert Gould Shaw Memorial on Boston Common, and the grand equestrian monuments to Civil War Generals, John A. Logan in Chicago’s Grant Park, and William Tecumseh Sherman, at the corner of New York’s Central Park, Saint-Gaudens also designed the $20 “double eagle” gold piece, for the US Mint in 1905–1907, considered one of the most beautiful American coins ever issued, as well as the $10 “Indian Head” gold eagle, both of which were minted from 1907 until 1933.

In his later years he founded the “Cornish Colony”, an artistic colony that included notable painters, sculptors, writers, and architects. The most famous of which included painters Maxfield Parrish and Kenyon Cox, architect and garden designer Charles A. Platt, and sculptor Paul Manship. Also included were painters Thomas Dewing, George de Forest Brush, dramatist Percy MacKaye, the American novelist Winston Churchill, and the sculptor Louis St. Gaudens, Augustus’ brother.

Art at the Merchant Exchange Building

Posted by Cindy on January 20, 2016

Jan 202016

465 California Street
Financial District

As you enter the lobby from the California Street side of the Merchant’s Exchange Building you will be greeted by many of San Francisco’s founders.

These ceramic/clay sculptures are each about 36″ x 24″ and were sculpted by Mark Jaeger of Marin County.

Mark was born in San Francisco and received a BA in Art Studio from UC Davis where he was influenced by Robert Arneson and Wayne Thiebaud.

Mark currently lives in Marin where he teaches full time and operates his own studio in San Anselmo.

William Heath Davis was born in 1822, in Honolulu in the Kingdom of Hawaii to Captain William Heath Davis, Sr., a Boston ship captain and pioneer of the Hawaii sandalwood trade. Davis first visited California as a boy in 1831, then again in 1833 and 1838. The last time he joined his uncle as a store clerk in Monterey and Yerba Buena (now San Francisco). He started a business in San Francisco and became a prominent merchant and ship owner.
Samuel Brannan (March 2, 1819 – May 5, 1889) was an American settler, businessman, journalist, and prominent Mormon who founded the California Star newspaper in San Francisco. He is considered the first publicist of the California Gold Rush and was its first millionaire.
Pioneer physician in California, Dr. John Townsend and his wife came overland from Missouri in 1844 as part of the first immigrant party to cross the Sierra by way of Truckee. A founding member of the school board in San Francisco in 1847, he was elected town Alcalde (traditional Spanish municipal magistrate) in 1848. He abandoned his office at the first news of the discovery of gold, but later returned to practice medicine at a time when the new city was being swept by epidemics of dysentery and cholera. Moving to a farm near San Jose, Townsend and his wife died of cholera there at the end of 1851.

Thomas Oliver Larkin (September 16, 1802 – October 27, 1858) was an early American businessman in Alta California, and was appointed to be the United States’ first and only consul to Mexican Alta California. After the Mexican-American War ended in 1848, Larkin moved to San Francisco, and was a signer of the original California Constitution.

Others include:

John Berrien Montgomery (1794 – 25 March 1872) an officer in the United States Navy who served during the Mexican-American War and the American Civil War. On July 9, 1846, Montgomery and his detachment from the Portsmouth raised the American flag over the plaza in the town of Yerba Buena (today’s San Francisco). The name of the plaza was later changed to Portsmouth Square, commemorating Montgomery’s ship.

Jasper O’Farrell (1817–1875) was the first surveyor for San Francisco. He designed the “grand promenade” that became today’s Market Street. O’Farrell Street in San Francisco is named after him.

William Davis Merry Howard (1818–1856) was a native of Boston, Massachusetts who came to California in 1839 as a cabin boy on a sailing ship. For several years he worked on ships trading hides and tallow along the Pacific coast. In 1845 he formed the San Francisco merchant business of Mellus & Howard. Howard was one of San Francisco’s most public spirited and prosperous men at the time of the California Gold Rush.

John White Geary (December 30, 1819 – February 8, 1873) Geary was appointed postmaster of San Francisco by President James K. Polk on January 22, 1849, and on January 8 1850, he was elected the city’s alcalde, before California became a state, and then the first mayor of the city. He holds the record as the youngest mayor in San Francisco history. He was also a judge at the same time he was alcalde.

Labyrinth in Duboce Park

Posted by Cindy on June 2, 2015

Jun 022015

Scott Street
Lower Haight
Duboce Triangle

This labyrinth was part of Duboce Parks revitalization plan. The plan, funded by Friends of Duboce Park, began with fundraising in 1997 and took years to accomplish. The labyrinth was laid in 2007.

It was proposed by Friends’ Janet Scheuer, who had walked labyrinths all over the world. “We need to create a quiet spot for people,” she said. She volunteered to “own” the project, find funding and work with designers. Hal Fischer headed up the fund raising. They raised $90,000, with $5000 from San Francisco Beautiful, $25,000 from the CPMC Davies Campus that adjoins the park, and $10,000 from Charlotte Wallace and Alan Murray. Rec and Park contributed around $80,000, says landscape architect Marvin Yee, Capital Improvement Division.

The Scott Street site had been occupied by a play structure in the shape of a pirate ship. Toxic, closed down and rotting away, it was ripe for extreme makeover. Janet recruited designers Richard Feather Anderson, a founder of the Labyrinth Society and Willett Moss, CMG landscape architect to create a labyrinth. The 23 ft. wide multi-circular path was sand-blasted into concrete. A border of mosaic tiles made by members of the community surrounds it, and a commemorative tile collage of the pirate ship graces the concrete bench facing the path. …

The joyous opening celebration April 28, 2007 was short-lived when the labyrinth was closed two days later due to the misapplication of anti-graffiti coating, damaging the labyrinth surface and making it slippery. A reopening eventually took place3 seven months later, on Nov. 2. One of the city’s most unique open space features is now a multi-use area. “People are doing tai-chi, picnicking, reading, walking and meditating,” says Janet happily, adding, “and it all works.”…From the Neighborhoods Park Council.

On this mosaic pedestal sits a labyrinth that allows sight-impaired and other visitors to trace a path with their fingers.

It says in both cursive and braille: With eyes closed, trace the grooved path from the outermost edge to the center with one or more fingers. The center is the halfway point. To complete the journey, retrace the path from the center outward.

This spot where Duboce Park now occupies was originally to be a hospital. However, Colonel Victor Duboce, after serving with the First California Volunteers in the Spanish-American War, returned to the city and was elected to the Board of Supervisors. He died on August 15, 1900 and was buried in the National Cemetery, at the Presidio. Upon his death the city changed Ridley Street to Duboce Street and decided to turn the land into Duboce Park (1900) rather than a hospital The park became a tent city after the 1906 earthquake, sheltering displaced residents from all over the City.

SFAC Shame on You

Posted by Cindy on July 21, 2014

Jul 212014

1351 24th Avenue
Outer Sunset

This travesty sits in front of the San Francisco Department of Public Health Building.

The only photograph I could find was through the Smithsonian Institute.

The sculpture, titled Sailor and Mermaid, originally was made of copper sheets, cut, pounded, and welded, with bronze. It sits on a concrete pad. It was done in 1970 by Henry Marie-Rose.

Marie-Rose, who died in 2010, has been in this blog before with work both on a fire station in the financial district and about his work as a teacher. His death makes this even more tragic as it is now absolutely irreplaceable.

Photo from the Potrero View

There is absolutely no excuse for this piece to be in this state, especially as it sits in front of a San Francisco government building. The San Francisco Art Commission, which is the owner of the piece, has a lot to answer for.

UPDATE

I want to thank Joe Eskenazi for this wonderful follow up article. After he read my post he tracked down someone at the SFAC and the result was this article on Tuesday August 5th in SF Weekly

Raiders of the Lost Art: Another San Francisco Sculpture Goes Missing
By Joe Eskenazi
@EskSF

For 30-odd years, Cindy Casey and her husband, Michael, renovated ornate elements of city buildings and works of art here in San Francisco. Not so long ago, Michael died. Now Cindy maintains a blog about public art here in the city.

Or, sometimes, the lack thereof. On a recent trip past the Ocean Park Health Center on 24th Avenue, she was expecting to find Sailor and Mermaid, a glorious, 12-foot high copper sculpture crafted in 1970 by Henri Marie-Rose. Instead, all that remains is a stump roughly the size of a garden gnome.

As it turns out, the statue had been gone a long time.

Years ago, the artist’s son, Dr. Pierre-Joseph Marie-Rose, a pediatrician with the city’s Department of Public Health, visited the site for a meeting. He was shocked to find only the gnome-sized stump. He was even more shocked at the nonchalant explanation health center personnel offered him: They allowed the foliage to cover the sculpture for years and, when they finally cut it back, Sailor and Mermaid was gone.

The San Francisco Arts Commission believes the sculpture was swiped in the early 1990s. Dr. Marie-Rose made his serendipitous discovery in the late 1990s. It was left to him to inform his father of the loss.

In fact, Henri Marie-Rose’s lost work could stand in for any number of Arts Commission pieces. The body is undertaking a yearslong comprehensive survey to chart the whereabouts of its 4,000-plus items, many of which are unaccounted for. The commission has additionally loaned out some 754 works to 183 city agencies and offices. It does not know where many of them are.

The list of public artwork stolen or vandalized since 2007 runs to 15 pages. Among the more memorable losses are the serial thefts of the Mahatma’s spectacles from the Ferry Plaza Gandhi memorial; the filching of plaques from the Shakespeare Garden; and the theft of all four bronze tortoises from the eponymous Fountain of the Tortoises in Huntington Park. Hundreds of instances of graffiti are documented, including one wit who chose to scrawl “Just sit your fat ass down and relax” on the bronze chairs near the Church and Duboce Muni stop.

Kate Patterson-Murphy, the Arts Commission’s spokeswoman, urged concerned residents to report vandalism and contribute to the city’s ArtCare fund.

That won’t bring back Sailor and Mermaid, however.

Henri Marie-Rose died in 2010. His sole accounting on the Arts Commission’s list of public works is a copper relief emplacement on the exterior of a fire station on Sansome Street. It is mounted several stories above the sidewalk.

And, as such, it is still there.

Don Potts Amazing Wood Models

Posted by Cindy on February 5, 2014

Feb 052014

City Hall
South Light Court
Civic Center

Pylon of the Golden Gate Bridge

There are four amazing, exquisite and highly detailed wood models in the South Light Court of City Hall. They are all by Don Potts.

These architectural models were designed and built in 1982 by Don Potts in commemoration of the Centennial of the San Francisco Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The models were first displayed in an exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art which “highlighted the important contribution that architecture has made to the City and County of San Francisco, and which served to reawaken a public awareness of the built environment. Each building or public space represents a unique phase in the evolution and development of San Francisco’s rich architectural heritage and distinguished urban design. Each model also serves as a type of icon, symbolizing various aspects of urban life.”

The models were purchased by the joint committee of the SFAC and the San Francisco Airports Commission for $13,700.

Donald Edwin Potts was born in San Francisco on October 5, 1936. Potts studied at San Francisco City College and received his M.A. at San Jose State College. He taught at the University of California at Berkeley for several years. In 2006 he moved to Fairfield, Iowa.

He has had 24 solo shows at the Whitney Museum (New York), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), and others.

His works are held at Pasadena Museum; San Francisco Museum; Oakland Museum; La Jolla Museum; Joselyn Art Museum (Nebraska)

This Italianate Victorian Home was modeled on a home at 1808 California Street. The model was altered to give it a more Italianate feeling. Maplewood was laser-cut to give the model its gingerbread ornamentation. Multi-shaped woods were laminated together to give the desired pattern and three-dimensional image.

Goddess of Progress

Posted by Cindy on January 29, 2014

Jan 292014

City Hall
South Light Court

Goddess of Progress by F. Marion Wells

The plaque that accompanies her reads: On April 17, 1906, the dome atop San Francisco’s City Hall that was completed in 1896 supported a twenty foot statue by F. Marion Wells. The Goddess of Progress, with lightbulbs in her hair, held a torch aloft in her right hand, causing some contemporary counts to refer to it as the Goddess of Liberty. The statue was so securely mounted that on April 18, 1906, when City Hall and the city around it lay in ruins from the great earthquake-fire, it continued to stand at the peak of the now exposed steel tower. After workmen brought it down from the precarious perch when the building was finally torn down in 1909 the statue fell from a wagon and the 700-pound head broke off.

***

It is my understanding that the whereabouts of the body is unknown.

Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library taken in 1906

Francis Marion Wells was born in Pennsylvania in 1848. Wells arrived in San Francisco about 1870 and was a cofounder of the Bohemian Club in 1872. He was Douglas Tilden’s first teacher in 1883 and the following year was commissioned to do a bust of Hawaii’s King David Kalakua who was visiting in Oakland. Wells was active in the local art scene as a teacher as well as a producer of portrait busts and bas reliefs.

Once a very wealthy man, he fell on hard times, as this article from the San Francisco Call of July 14, 1903 attests:

FRANCIS MARION WELLS FORCED TO ENTER THE COUNTY HOSPITAL

Well-Known Sculptor, Artist, Literateur and Former Club Man, Afflicted by Illness, Compelled to Ask Municipality for Help

FRANCIS MARION WELLS, sculptor, literateur, club member and well-known man about town, was forced by dire illness and strain of circumstances to apply for admission to the City and County Hospital yesterday. He is now lying there in a helpless and pitiable state. Not one single friend came to him in his distress, although when in affluent circumstances his beautiful home and grounds at Berkeley were filled with those who enjoyed the royal hospitality that they were always welcome to there.

Broken in spirit, sick nigh unto death, his arms paralyzed, his mind partially deranged from his sufferings, he was compelled to seek the only relief at hand and become a ward of the city. His faithful wife has struggled nobly during his four months illness. He has been during all that time entirely, helpless, the result of five apoplectic shocks.

Two months ago, to save the family from actual starvation, Mrs. Wells took a position as housekeeper at the Vienna Lodging-house, 533 Broadway, where, with their two young sons, she was just enabled to make enough to keep the wolf from the door. As she had to do the entire work of twenty rooms and also cooking for the family, she had no time to give her husband the constant nursing that his case required, but was by his side whenever she could steal a moment from her work.

Yesterday afternoon when the ambulance came to take Wells away he said: “I hope there won’t be a crowd to see me put into the ambulance, as I don’t want the people to see me in this poverty stricken condition.” This was too much for his wife to bear, and she borrowed $2 from some kind neighbors, a hack was procured and the sufferer was, carried down the rickety stairs and placed in it. His wife and sons accompanied him, to the hospital and made him as comfortable there as possible and then bade him farewell and returned to their humble lodgings.

Mrs. Wells, who is a highly educated and refined Parisian, is broken hearted over the thought of his position.” She said with tears streaming down her pale face: “I do not care for myself; I am young and can work for my two boys, but to think that my husband’s friends should allow him to become a burden to the city is almost more than I can bear. When we were in deep distress, surrounded, by poverty and sickness, I wrote to several of his former wealthy, old-time and intimate friends in the Bohemian Club to come to his relief with food and medical attendance, but not one of them replied. I did not ask for anything for myself, only for him, and that appeal they refused him. Today he fainted four times on the way to the hospital, and when I left him he was almost, unconscious. Oh! I do not want him to die there. Don’t you think some of his old friends will do something for him and put him into a private sanitarium where his last hours can be spent?

RUINED BY SPECULATION.

“We have been very unfortunate.. When I came from Paris, fourteen years ago, I brought $60,000 with me and used it in buying property here and then built a beautiful home in Berkeley. All went well until General Ezeta persuaded us to go into his San Salvador scheme, and he was so persuasive that we put in $40,000— and we lost every cent of it.

Bad luck followed, we mortgaged our home; and lost it. Then I commenced to sell my jewels. My $8000 diamond necklace, which my mother gave me, I pawned for $1200. I had hoped to redeem it, although Mr. Shreve had offered to buy it for $5000. Little by little everything went, and now we are worse than penniless. My husband was always goodness itself to me, and we all love him dearly. My oldest son is 13. He has just ha, the misfortune to cut off the end of his finger. My youngest boy, Emanuel, is 11, and helps me as much as he can. “My husband is a member of the Universal Order of Knight Commanders of the Sun, and here are the original parchments granted him. I think he was also one of the charter members of the Bohemian Club. It is a very sad ending to the life of a man with a brilliant brain, with accomplishments and with so generous and kind a heart for all his friends.

He was born in Louisiana, his father being General Francis Marion Wells, but he was educated in the eastern part of Pennsylvania.

SCULPTOR OF LIBERTY. Marion Wells, as he was called, has been well known here for many years and has been one of the most prominent sculptors in the city. His statue of Liberty on the dome of the City Hall is a fine piece of work and a monument to his abilities. The figure is modeled from his wife and the poise is extremely graceful. The bas relief of John Lick, which was executed at the request of the Lick trustees, and now hangs in the Pioneer Hall, is a splendid likeness of the great philanthropist. The John Marshall monument in Sonora County, erected to commemorate the first discovery of gold in California, also exhibits great talents.

Among other works are the bears over the entrance to the First National Bank, which have marked merit in conception and design. He also did some artistic modeling for the Hibernia Bank, which adds much to the beauty of that handsome structure. The great owl which stands at the top of the grand stairway of the Bohemian Club is also of his handiwork. Other work which has been highly commented upon adorns St. Ignatius Church, the quadrangle and the memorial chapel at Stanford University.
***
Wells Died, July 22, 1903

The head suffered a few indignities on its way to the San Francisco City Hall Museum area.

The head was apparently given to John C. Irvine by former mayor James D. Phelan after it was removed from the old City Hall. It was, later, owned by his son, William Irvine.

It then came into possession of the South of Market Boys who gave it back to the city April 18, 1950, the 44th anniversary of the Great Earthquake.

It was later displayed in Golden Gate Park, then placed in storage.

Seven years later, in 1957, the head was sold, along with several cable cars, at public auction to Knott’s Berry Farm, a Southern California amusement park. It was given back to the city by Knott’s Berry Farm in the mid-1970s.

The goddess was, for many years, displayed at the Fire Department Museum, but was moved in 1993 to the Museum of the City of San Francisco. The goddess was then moved to City Hall in 1998 to celebrate the reopening of the structure after it was repaired following the 1989 earthquake.

A Mosaic of Bay Area History

Posted by Cindy on December 20, 2013

Dec 202013

San Francisco International Airport
Terminal 1 Connector
Level 2

Bay Area Victorian, Bay Area, Deco, Bay Area Funk by Joyce Kozloff – 1982

This artwork is inspired by historical decorative styles found in the Bay Area. The left panel, Bay Area Victorian, draws its sources from the ornament on old homes in the Mission District, Pacific Heights, the Western Addition and Potrero Hill. The right panel, Bay Area Deco, references downtown Oakland in its heyday, when the Fox and Paramount theaters were built. Both the celadon grey-green of the I. Magnin store and the cobalt blue and silver facade of the Flower Depot were inspirations. Bay Area Funk, the center panel, is the collection of Berkeley memorabilia from the 1960’s. There is a humor and lightness to the appropriations of comic books and record album covers, alongside flyers and posters from clubs that were popular during that decade, such as the Fillmore and the Avalon Ballroom.

Joyce Kozloff was born December 14, 1942, in Somerville, New Jersey. She received her

B.F.A. from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1964 and her M.F.A. from Columbia University, New York, NY in 1967.

The mosaics were fabricated by Crovatto Mosaics, Yonkers, New York. The tiles were fabricated by the artist and art consultant Joyce Pomeroy Schwartz.

sai

A San Francisco Jewel

Posted by Cindy on May 14, 2013

May 142013

2266 California
Pacific Heights
Sherith Israel Synagogue
“Loyal Remnant of Israel”

On a whim, a photographer friend of mine, Lisa, suggested we stop in and take a look at the Sherith Israel Synagogue. She has been documenting its amazing details for posterity, and I had never been inside. What an incredible adventure and I am truly grateful to have been introduced to this architectural and artistic gem that holds so much San Francisco history.

Sherith Israel was designed by Albert Pissis. Pissis (1842-1914) was the son of a French physician who immigrated first to Mexico and then to San Francisco in 1858. Pissis was born in Mexico. He graduated from secondary school in San Francisco and went to work for architect William Mooser. He then attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts between 1872 and 1876, being one of the first San Franciscans to do so. After his return to San Francisco, his success with the 1892 Hibernia Bank design led to another commission with a grand dome, the Emporium Department Store in 1896.

Completed in 1905, the synagogue is an eight-sided building with a beautiful dome rising 120 feet above the street, The interior is magnificently decorated with stenciled frescoes and opalescent stained glass windows.

Since the structure withstood the 1906 earthquake it housed San Francisco’s Superior Court for two years after the quake. It was the setting for the corruption trials of political boss Abraham Rueff (known as Abe Ruef). Ruef was an American lawyer and politician. He gained notoriety as the political boss behind the administration of Mayor Eugene Schmitz in the period of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. On December 6, 1906, Ruef was arraigned. “As the indictments were read out by the clerk, Ruef made clear his disdain for the proceedings by standing with his back to the judge.” During the period of his trial, Ruef occupied offices in The Columbus Tower (now the Sentinel Building). In February 1907 Ruef pleaded “not guilty”. On March 18, 1907, the Supervisors confessed before a grand jury to “receiving money from Ruef in connection with the Home Telephone, overhead trolley, prize fight monopoly, and gas rates deals. In exchange, “they were promised complete immunity and would not be forced to resign their offices. The grand jury then returned 65 indictments against Ruef for bribery of the supervisors.”

In 1945, Sherith Israel provided the setting for a meeting of national Jewish organizations to commemorate the founding of the United Nations.

The building survived the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake unscathed as well. Nevertheless, the city passed a law requiring all unreinforced masonry places of public assembly to meet stringent seismic safety standards, and despite its great track record, Sherith Israel had to comply.

The exterior walls are brick, standing on brick footings. These bricks are clad in Colusa sandstone, a popular material of the time that is highly porous and susceptible to the elements, it had experienced considerable spalling (delamination). At some point in the late 1950s, the building had been painted a salmon color, probably to cover patching work. What was not known in the 1950s was that paint would only accelerate the deterioration of the sandstone by trapping water beneath it. Over time, the paint began literally pulling off the top layer of stone. The paint has been removed from all but the dome at this time.

Berkeley architectural and planning firm ELS was brought in to help with the seismic retrofitting and repairs. You can read an in-depth article on all of the work that was done here. The synagogue was also the subject of an Architectural Preservation Technology Bulletin that can be read here in its entirety.

“In preparation for the building’s centennial in 2005, several art historians studied Sherith Israel’s stained glass windows. The identity of the artist/s was unknown until congregants Joan Libman and Ian Berke discovered an invoice for $1100 made out to Emile Pissis.”

The stained glass windows were designed by Emile M. Pissis, the architect’s brother. Emile was born in San Francisco on March 10, 1854. A lifelong resident of San Francisco he was a co-founder of the San Francisco Art Association in 1871. A man of wealth, he never sold a picture and seldom exhibited. He remained a bachelor and spent his leisure time roaming the Marin hills, fishing, hunting, and painting. Many of his landscapes and portraits were lost in the 1906 earthquake and fire. Emile maintained a luxurious Nob Hill studio-apartment at 18 Pleasant Street. Upon his death, he was cremated and his ashes thrown to the winds above Marin County by airplane. One of his award-winning paintings, “Discovery of the Bay by Gaspar de Portola,” was recently discovered hidden away in the museum of the Society of California Pioneers when Sherith Israel began to research its artistic history. Sadly, the only surviving work by Emile Pissis consists of the Sherith Israel windows, two paintings at the Society of California Pioneers and nine watercolors held by the Fine Arts Museums in San Francisco.

The prolific paintings and frescoes that grace the synagogue were created by and under the tutelage of, Attilio Moretti. Moretti was born in Milan, Italy on April 16, 1851. Moretti moved to San Francisco with his family in 1865. By the late 1880s, he was sharing a studio with Bernardo Trezzini. Well known as a painter, Moretti also designed altars and memorial chapels. In an unpublished manuscript, Emile Pissis observed, “(Attilio) Moretti was busy painting saints and angels in the Catholic churches throughout the state.” Moretti’s obituary describes him as “… one of the best-known men in his line in California.” Among his last projects was a chapel in Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma under the direction of the late Archbishop Patrick Riordan, a close friend, and admirer. Neither his Holy Cross decoration nor his painting in the chapel of Notre Dame des Victoires Church still exists. The Sherith Israel frescoes are believed to be the last examples of Moretti’s prolific career. He died in San Francisco on March 27, 1915

During the restoration of the 2000’s artist, Beate Bruhl was hired to restore stenciled decorative painting on the interior walls and ceilings in the areas that had been damaged by water intrusion over the years. In some areas, original stencils were discovered under layers of paint, knowledge that will help with future restorative work.

Other than the blue of the dome, most colors of the frescoes and stencils are rust reds, ochres, golds, and yellows, characteristic colors of the English Arts and Crafts Movement.

ELS is currently working with the congregation to replace the original 1905 carpet with custom woven carpet to match the original. Evidence that the sanctuary carpet is original to the building was found by reviewing congregational records from 1905, currently stored in the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library. They found an original 1905 receipt for the carpet, carefully filed in the archives. The receipt gave them the name of the mill, which matched the weave mark on the back of the carpet. Lisa told me that many of the cushions that line the pews are also original. There is mattress ticking on the bottom, and yes, they are filled with horse hair.

There are so very many unifying design elements in the synagogue, it makes for a peaceful and delightful experience. There were tiny columns with capitals everywhere, as well as a unifying theme of knots in both the windows and the frescoes.

The steel frame of the sanctuary is enclosed in lath and plaster to create a composition familiar in Byzantine, Romanesque and Renaissance architecture of an ecclesiastical space. This particular space consists of piers (a column designed to support concentrated load), pendentives (One of a set of curved wall surfaces which form a transition between a dome (or its drum) and the supporting masonry), a drum (A circular or polygonal wall supporting a dome or cupola), and a dome. The side and rear arches that frame this central space are vaulted, framing large stained glass windows and covering galleries. The arch motif is repeated and each arch together with the ring of the drum and the front edges of the galleries, are outlined in incandescent light bulbs, totaling more than one thousand in all.

The synagogue has been given an historic designation. You can read the entire report regarding the building and its significance here.

Notre Dame des Victoires Church

Posted by Cindy on April 20, 2013

Apr 202013

566 Bush Street
Union Square/Chinatown

There are a handful of buildings in San Francisco that turn 100 this year. This will be the beginning of my covering those buildings over the next few weeks.

Notre Dame des Victoires is one of the names for the Virgin Mary. This statue of Jesus’ mother is in front of the French church, Notre Dame des Victoires.

The French priest, Père Langlois journeyed to Oregon in 1842 with French Canadian trappers under the auspices of the Hudson Bay Company. He arrived in San Francisco in 1848. On July 19 of that year, he celebrated mass in an army chapel which was called St. Francis Church. He was assisted by Père Lebret, with sermons delivered in French, Italian and Spanish.

In 1856, Gustav Touchard bought a Baptist Church located at this site on Bush Street. Eglise Notre Dame des Victoires was founded to serve the spiritual needs of the French Catholic immigrants who came to San Francisco during the Gold Rush. In 1887, Pope Leo XIII signed the decree placing Eglise Notre Dame des Victoires under the charge of the Marists for perpetuity and giving it the designation of being a French National Church.

The old church was destroyed by the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. Work began on a new church and rectory in 1912 and was completed in 1913. Louis Brochoud designed the existing Romanesque church.

This small, buff-colored brick church sits on a high base with double staircases. It has a barrel-shaped central bay flanked by polygonal towers topped by cupolas. The nave and side aisles are defined by red marble columns that support a barrel-vaulted ceiling decorated with Romanesque and Classical plaster ornaments.

The church underwent a $2.1 million retrofit after the 1989 earthquake led by contractors Mayta and Jensen.

The centennial of the founding of the church is commemorated by a plaque given by the Republic of France in 1956 that sits beneath the statue of the Virgin Mary and reads:

” Don du gouvernment de la republique Francaise a l’eglise Notre Dame des Victoires a l’occasion du premier centenaire.” [Given by the government of the Republic of France to the Notre Dame des Victoires church for the occasion of the first centennial.]

SF Genealogy has a wonderful history of the French and their contributions to San Francisco that you can read here.

Called to Rise

Posted by Cindy on April 13, 2013

Apr 132013

235 Pine Street
Financial District

Called to Rise features individuals who have contributed significantly to the history of San Francisco. The figures include, Juan Bautista De Anza, Eadweard Muybridge, Makato Hagiwara, Phoebe Apperson Hearst, Chingwah Lee, Ishi, Alfred Louis Kroeber, Philip Burton, Amadeo Peter Giannini, Benjamin Franklin Norris, Timothy Pflueger, Douglas Tilden, Kurt Herbert Adler, Mary Ann Magnin, Harry Bridges, Robert Dollar, John C. Young, Howard Thurman, John Swett, Charlotte Amanda Blake Brown, Michael Maurice O’Shaughnessey.

Done in 1990 the sculptor was Thomas Marsh who has another piece here in San Francisco.

This bronze is part of the San Francisco 1% for Art Program.

The two bronze panels on each side of the door below the light explain the contributions of each person. Links are provided to art works representing the appropriate person or structure.

Juan Bautista de Anza (2735-c1788) Between 774 and 1776, De Anza brought settlers across vast deserts of the Spanish Southwest, without loss of life, into Alta California and the Bay of San Francisco.

Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) Muybridge took a series of photographs at the Stanford Farm in Palo Alto that led directly to the invention of the motion picture camera.

Makato Hagiwara (1854-1925) Hagiwara conceived of the idea of the “fortune cookie” and, together with his son established the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park.

Phoebe Apperson Hearst (1842-1919) Mother of William Randlolph Hearst, the San Francisco newspaper tycoon, Mrs. Hearst devoted herself to the improvement and expansion of the University of California.

Chungwah Lee (1901-1980) Lee, a Hollywood actor for 40 years helped establish Boy Scout Troop 3, the first all-chinese troop in the United States and the Chinese Historical Society of America.

Ishi (c1860-1916) Alfred Louis Kroeber (1876-1960) Ishi, the last survivor of the Yahi people, worked in association with Kroeber to document the vanished language, customs, and values of his people.

Philip Burton (1926-1983) As author of the Golden Gate National Recreation Act, U.S. Congressman Burton helped preserve the headlands of Marin and northern edges of the San Francisco peninsula.

Amadeo Peter Giannini (1870-1949) Giannini established the Bank of Italy in North Beach, which he latr developed into the Bank of America, the premier bank of the United States.

Benjamin Franklin Norris (1870-1902) A writer of fiction, Norris helped establish the reputation of San Francisco as a romantic seaport city, alive with mystery and adventure.

Timothy Pflueger (1892-1946) Pflueger’s notable architectural achievements include the Pacific Stock Exchange Building, the Castro Theater, the Pacific Telephone Building on New Montgomery Street, and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Douglas Tilden (1860-1935) Tilden is famous for his bronze sculptures; the Mechanics Monument on Market Street and the Baseball Player and Junipero Serra statues in Golden Gate Park.

Kurt Herbert Adler (1905-1988( Under Adler, the San Francisco Opera won fame for its bold re-staging of classics and its willingness to produce new or previously obscure works.

Mary Ann Magnin (1849-1943) Magnin, a pioneer business woman opened a notions and fine needlework shop which later grew into I. Magnin & Co., specializing in imported European clothing.

Harry Bridges (1901-1990) Bridges, a longshoreman on the docks of San Francisco played a major role in a coastwide strike spearheaded by the International Longshoreman’s Association

Robert Dollar (1844-1932) Dollar is considered a pioneer in the evolution of San Francisco as in important trade and shipping center for the Asia Pacific Basin in the early twentieth century.

John C. Young (1912-1987) An Engineer from Stanford University, Young devoted himself to the improvement of San Francisco’s Chinatown and helped found the annual Chinese New Years Parade.

Howard Thurman (1900-1981) As a preacher writer and social activist, Reverend Thurman helped establish the intellectual and moral foundations of the Civil Rights Movement in America.

John Swett (1830-1913) Devoted to teaching and developing the public schools of San Francisco Swett helped form Lowell High School and pioneered the education of children in preparation for college.

Charlotte Amanda Blake Brown (1846-1904) Dr. Brown, a specialist in the care of women and children helped found Children’s Hospital. She also played a major role in establishing nursing education in San Francisco.

Michael Maurice O’Shaughnessey (1864-1934) As city engineer O’Shaughnessey laid out the municipal railway streetcar system and is mainly noted for his contributions to the Hetch Hetchy water and power system.

The Fire Next Time II

Posted by Cindy on April 2, 2013

Apr 022013

Joseph P. Lee Rec Center
1395 Mendell
Backside
Bayview

Fire Next Time II

Excerpt from San Francisco Bay Area Murals by Timothy W. Drescher regarding the original mural:

Crumpler depicted three aspects of black people’s lives in the United States: education, religion, and culture. The contemporary figures, a teacher and student, athletes and dancers, are watched over by exemplary portraits of Harriet Tubman and Paul Robeson. Above them are two Senufo birds which are mythical beings in Africa but here oversee the cultural and creative lives of the community…

By 1984, Crumpler continued the mural on the adjacent gymnasium at the Recreation Center. More stylized than the first part of the mural, it continues the same visual motifs, with large portraits of black leaders and a background of dualist flames. Wrapped around the northern corner is a hand holding a quilt from Alabama. Up Newcombe Street is another hand, but with a section of cloth with an African textile design on it…Between the two hands is a giant replica of a 16th-centuray Ife bronze figure against a background of Egyptian and United States Figures: King Tut, Muhammed Ali, Willie Mays, Wilma Rudolph, Arthur Ashe. The second part measures over five thousand square feet.

Oni – of Fire Next Time II

In 2007, the San Francisco Arts Commission contracted with ARG Conservation Services (ARG/CS) to restore and stabilize the mural. The main objective of the treatment was to prevent further deterioration of the mural and achieve an overall integrated visual restoration.

Dewey Crumpler painted over 15 murals throughout the Bay Area. His large-scale San Francisco projects include: A Celebration of African and African American Artists, 1984, at the African American Art and Culture Complex, formerly the Western Addition Cultural Center; The Children of San Francisco, 1986; and Knowledge, 1988. Crumpler now focuses his art practice on studio work. Dewey Crumpler received a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, an MA from San Francisco State University, and an MFA from Mills College in Oakland, CA. He resides in Berkeley, CA, with his wife Sandra and their two sons Saeed and Malik. Dewey Crumpler is Associate Professor of Painting at the San Francisco Art Institute.

In 1984 Crumpler was assisted by Dr. Timothy W. Drescher. Drescher has been studying and documenting community murals since 1972, was co-editor of Community Murals magazine from 1976 to 1987, and is the author of San Francisco Bay Area Murals: Communities Create Their Muses, 1904-1997. He wrote the Afterward to the revised edition of Toward A People’s Art, and consults and lectures widely on murals. Dr. Drescher has a Ph.D. in English Literature and Art History from the University of Wisconsin.

The restoration had a budget of $105,000 for cleaning and stabilization of the Dewey Crumpler mural, Fire Next Time II, and commemorative plaque for Fire Next Time I. $33,000 went to ARG and a $5000 honorarium payment went to Dewey Crumpler.

Fire Next Time I was removed during the remodeling of the Recreation Center, photos of it can be found inside the center.

Peacock Fountain at 1 Maritime Plaza

Posted by Cindy on October 11, 2012

Oct 112012

1 Maritime Plaza
Embarcadero

This Peacock fountain was designed by architect Robert Woodward.

Robert Raymond (Bob) Woodward (1923 – 2010) was an Australian architect who gained widespread recognition for his innovative fountain designs. Woodward was educated at Granville Technical Granville and Sydney Technical College.Upon completion of his military service he enrolled in the architecture course at the University of Sydney. After graduating he worked locally for a year and then travelled to Finland to work for architects Alvar Aaltol and Viljo Revell. Upon his return he went into partnership, forming Woodward, Taranto and Wallace, specialising in commercial and industrial architecture.

In 1959, he won a competition to design a fountain in Kings Cross in Sydney to commemorate the war service of the 2/9th Division of the Australian Imperial Forces. The El Alamein Memorial Fountain, as it became known, was completed in 1961. Combining his architectural and earlier metalwork training he developed the “dandelion” inspired fountain which became one of the world’s most copied designs. Due to the success of this fountain, Woodward was approached for further commissions for fountain designs, significantly altering his career path.

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