Gridley J. F. Bryant
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Gridley J. F. Bryant | |
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Bates College |
Gridley James Fox Bryant (August 29, 1816 – June 8, 1899), often referred to as G. J. F. Bryant, was a
A native of
Early life and education
Bryant was born to Maria Winship Fox and Gridley Bryant, noted railway pioneer, in Scituate, Massachusetts. In his youth the younger Bryant moved to Gardiner, Maine and attended the Gardiner Lyceum for his secondary education. He studied mathematics and engineering there before leaving joining his father's engineering office. Outside his secondary schools studies, he interned at local lithographers and artists to experiment with design and artistic manipulation.
Life and architectural career
Early career
Bryant's career started at a time when few architects gained prominence in his hometown of
Bryant flourished in an era of what Roger B. Reed calls "unregulated building," when "traditions of craftsmanship were being replaced by products of the machine age."[2] He created a new template for the construction of buildings in New England. Early in his career, he faced competition from larger firms that sought to monopolize the design and construction of buildings in the greater Boston area. As a draftsman, he drew up minor additions and renovations to already established buildings in that city, and he struggled initially to find footing in the competitive field. At age twenty-one, amid an economic depression, he established his own architectural firm called Bryant and Associates.
Rise to prominence
Bryant & Associates
A common fault ascribed to Bryant is that he valued the art form of architecture over the commercial validity of his designs which proved to be counterproductive for his budding practice. With an understanding that a client's wishes should always come first when constructing and designing for them he, "frequently persuaded a client to spend more than he might have planned, in the interests of erecting a structure with greater aesthetic value to the community." Although his firm was relatively new and had start-up funds he worked and often collaborated with hundreds of draftsmen around the city. A notable trait of Bryant was due to the low level of economic validity to hire countless draftsmen to draw up buildings and their specification he wrote length and thoroughly detailed written specifications to describe how a building should be built. His firm utilized thousands of un-retained draftsmen throughout its life and contributed to the unprecedented amount of building being constructed throughout the United States. However, his designs specifically were reserved for high-value projects, meaning those with high personal value, societal value, or sufficiently large remuneration. Due to his firm being largely un-retained, he was able to provide guidance to his firm's operations while in other areas of the country, which contributed to increased financial success. He used the lithography he learned in secondary school to promote his firms and their projects to attract clients and donors. He was one of the first people in the city of Boston to use colored advertisements to promote his work, which contributed to even more financial success.
Collaborations
Bryant's firm attracted as partners noted architects such as
Commissions
Early commissions
Bryant's only known commission in the American South is Thornbury, a plantation house built in the 1840s for Henry King Burgwyn in Northampton County, North Carolina.[3]
Together with
Bryant designed so many buildings that his practice in Boston was called the "Bryant Commission." His largest commissions were from municipal and state governments, in which he worked frequently with John Hubbard Sturgis, most notably on upscale projects in the 1860s. At this time Bryant was the most commissioned architect in New England. He is also the most commissioned architect in the history of Boston.[1] He received many commercial commissions in Boston including the Massachusetts State House, and other projects in the city's commercial district. Although his projects demanded large commissions and incurred high construction costs, he traveled often to rural areas for promotional work, and designed many lower-priced buildings providing "high societal value." Most notable was Hathorn Hall at Bates College, Maine, which he designed and which he constructed in part by himself, resulting in a net loss to him. On the other hand, larger, wealthier educational institutions like Harvard College paid him top dollar for their administration buildings—for which he was often asked to give input in their construction as well.
Boston fire of 1872
During the Great Boston Fire of 1872, 152 of the 776 buildings destroyed had been designed by Bryant. As a measure of his reputation, he was commissioned to rebuild 110 of them.
Style and design
Although brick predominated in construction in Boston at the height of Bryant's work, he often used granite for increased stability. Accordingly, Bryant was a leading proponent of the Boston "Granite Style."
Many of Bryant's buildings showcase neoclassical entrances, for example Boston's Old City Hall. As an industrial engineer and architect in New England, Bryant participated in the Colonial Revival architecture movement. Consequently, his buildings include such features as cornice-embellished moldings and multi-plane windows. White pillars, a staple of neoclassical design, can be found in the entrances of many of his buildings, including residential.[4]
Many of his collegiate buildings feature a mint-green bell tower, and building caps and tips. This practice can be traced to 18th-century Independence Hall, Philadelphia. Many of his college buildings are in the Georgian style, constructed with wood and clapboards, their columns made of timber, framed up and turned on an oversized lathe. Bryant also designed many campus buildings featuring a red brick exterior, designed in the Georgian style, showcasing red print doors and darkened ridge sides. Moreover, in all academic buildings Bryant produced, Gothic influence can be seen as well.
Death
Bryant died on June 8, 1899, in his townhouse in Boston, Massachusetts. He was survived by his wife, Louisa Bryant, whom he married on September 9, 1839. Upon his death his wife assembled all his books and drawings in his home study and burned down his house, as stipulated in his will.
Notable buildings
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State Street Block, Boston (part still extant)
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Old City Hall, Boston
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Old City Hall, Boston
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2nd Horticultural Hall, Tremont St., Boston (defunct)
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Bates College
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Mass. State House, Boston
Buildings designed or influenced by Bryant
- Bryant principal architect or architect, except where noted.
- Italics = Building defunct.
- NRHP = U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
For a full listing of Bryant's projects see Reed, pp. 177–198.
Building | Built | Client | Notes |
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Old South Block, Milk Street, Boston | 1846 | Commercial | (Photo, Reed., p. 47.) |
Salem station, Salem, Mass.
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1846 | Eastern Railroad | (Ref.[5] Photo, Reed, p. 49.) |
Quincy School, Tyler Street | 1847 or 1848 | City of Boston
|
Old design since replaced. NRHP 100001458. (Photo, Reed, p. 54.) |
The Almshouse | 1850 | City of Cambridge, Mass. | Public residence. |
Charles Street Jail (Suffolk County Jail), Boston | 1851 | Suffolk County, Mass. | With Louis Dwight. NRHP ID 80000670. |
John Tucker Daland House, Salem, Mass. | 1851 | John Tucker Daland | Essex Institute Historic District Certification. |
Ballou Hall | 1852 | Tufts University, Medford, Mass. | |
Mass. State House, Boston, 2nd addition | 1853 | Commonwealth (state) of Massachusetts | Finished poss. bit later than 1853. NRHP. (Drawing, Reed, p. 78.) |
Bates College buildings
|
1856–1857 | Bates College, Lewiston, Maine | Hathorn Hall (NRHP ID 70000071); Parker Hall. |
Mercantile Wharf | 1857 | Commercial | (Photo, Reed, p. 83.) |
Androscoggin County Courthouse and Jail, Auburn, Maine | 1857 | Androscoggin County, Maine | With Albert Currier. NRHP. |
State Street Block, State Street, Boston | 1858 | Commercial | Only partially still extant. U.S. Historic District Contributing property. (Ref.[6]) |
Aroostook County Courthouse and Jail, Houlton, Maine | 1859 | Aroostook County, Maine | With Wilfred E. Mansur. NRHP ID 89002340. |
Arlington Street Church, Boston | 1860 | With Arthur Gilman. NRHP. | |
Boston City Hospital | 1861 | City of Boston | NRHP. |
Old City Hall | 1865 | City of Boston | With Arthur Gilman. NRHP ID 70000687. |
Second Horticultural Hall , Boston
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1865 | Mass. Horticultural Society | NRHP. |
Gloucester City Hall | 1869 | Town (now city) of Gloucester, Mass. | With Louis P. Rogers. NRHP. |
Charlestown (Mass.) State Prison | 1869 | Mass. Dept. of Correction | Charlestown now part of Boston.
|
Robert Treat Paine Estate, Waltham, Mass. | 1869 | Robert Treat Paine | NRHP. |
Railroad Station, Waterville, Maine | 1872 | Maine Central Railroad
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College Ave & Chaplin St. Addition added 1906. Demolished 1963 for rail re-alignment |
Wilder Memorial Hall | 1879 | Civic building, Town of Hingham, Mass. | Presume defunct. better source needed ] (Reed, pp. 165–167.)
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Cony High School | 1880 | City of Augusta, Maine | Probably with Clarence Luce. Presume defunct. better source needed ] (Reed, pp. 162, 163.)
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Parker House hotel, Boston, extension | 1886 | (Reed, p. 167.) |
Drawings
- In progress:
Building | Drawn | Client | Notes |
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Residence, New London, Conn. | 1866 | Benjamin J. Stark | Firm of Bryant & Gilman. Bryant role unknown. Unclear whether house built. (Columbia Univ.)[9] |
References
- ^ a b James F. O'Gorman, On the Boards: Drawings by Nineteenth-Century Boston Architects (Univ. of Penn. Press, 2004), p.57.
- ^ Reed, p.1
- ^ Robert B. MacKay and Catherine W. Bishir, "Bryant, Gridley James Fox (1816–1899)", 2009. At: North Carolina State Univ., North Carolina Architects & Builders: A Biographical Dictionary. Web source; last accessed 2019.
- ^ Thomas Stuan, The Architecture of Bates College (about? pub. by? Ladd Library, Bates) (Lewiston, Maine: Bates College, 2006), p.23. Copied from ill-formed ref. in Wikipedia, Bates College. Nature & whereabouts of source unknown.
- ^ Carroll Louis Vanderslice Meeks, The Railroad Station: An Architectural History (Yale Univ. Press, 1956), p.54.
- ^ Susan Southworth and Michael Southworth, AIA Guide to Boston (Guilford, Conn.: Globe Pequot Press, 3rd ed., 2008).
- ^ By not being mentioned in Wikipedia, "Hingham, Massachusetts".
- ^ By not being mentioned in Wikipedia, "Old Cony High School" (a post-Bryant building) or "Cony High School" (later still).
- ^ "Benjamin J. Stark residence (New London, Conn.), architectural drawings, 1866". At: Columbia Univ. Libraries, CLIO. Web source; last accessed 2019.
Bibliography
- Bailey, Henry Turner. “An Architect of the Old School.” New England Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly. New series, vol. 25, Nov. 1901. pp. 326–349. Full view: Internet Archive. About Bryant.
- Reed, Roger G. Building Victorian Boston: The Architecture of Gridley J. F. Bryant. Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 2007.