Minard Lafever
Minard Lafever | |
---|---|
Born | St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church | August 10, 1798
Minard Lafever (1798–1854) was an American architect of churches and houses in the United States in the early nineteenth century.[2]
Life and career
Lafever began life as a carpenter around 1820. At this period in the United States there were no professional schools of architecture and few who claimed the title architect. Most structures were designed and put up by builders, and architects and builders were trained by working under master builders.[2]
In 1829 Lafever published The Young Builders' General Instructor, followed by Modern Builders' Guide in 1833, The Beauties of Modern Architecture in 1835 and The Architectural Instructor in 1850.
Three of his buildings which were subsequently designated
- First Presbyterian Church (Sag Harbor)(tall steeple destroyed in a hurricane)
- St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church
- Sailors' Snug Harbor
Other notable buildings include:
- Benjamin Huntting House, now the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum
- Church of the Holy Apostles (New York, New York) listed on the National Register of Historic Places
- Strong Place Baptist Church, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn (1851–52)
- First Unitarian Church AKA Church of the Savior, Brooklyn Heights Historic District 1844
- Rutgers Presbyterian Church (Rutgers Street, Lower East Side, New York, New York) 1843
One of his most successful acolytes was John F. Rague who designed and built the 1837 Old Capitol of Illinois and the 1840 Territorial Capitol of Iowa.[3]
Pattern books
Lafever wrote five
Other historic structures built using Lafever's designs include
Lafever did not confine himself to a single style. His
His last commission was the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn, which opened in 1854. The Packer building is in Tudor Gothic style, with 30 schoolrooms, and a two-story-high chapel on the third floor. It has two towers of different size, and the “off-center arrangement of two large peaked gables, give the school the exterior appearance of picturesque irregularity common to the Gothic revival.” [2] However, the interior is compact and symmetrical, with long crossed hallways dividing the building into quadrants. Architectural historian Andrew Dolkart calls Lafever’s design of Packer "one of the earliest and most sophisticated evocations of English-inspired Collegiate Gothic, creating the educational atmosphere of Oxford and Cambridge."[2]
A list of his churches, extant and not, and a well-researched biography is included in a 2006 nomination for
Books by Minard Lafever
- The Young Builder's General Instructor,1829
- The Modern Builder's Guide,1833
- The Beauties of Modern Architecture, 1835
- The Modern Practice of Staircase and Handrail Construction,1838
- The Architectural Instructor,1856
Sources
- The Architecture of Minard Lafever, Jacob Landy, 1970.
References
- ^ a b c d William E. Krattinger and James A. Jacobs (May 2006), National Historic Landmark Nomination: First Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Kingston / Dutch Reformed Church; Old Dutch Church (PDF), National Park Service
- ^ ProQuest 92202373. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- ^ The Wisconsin Magazine of History Vol. 10, No. 2, Dec., 1926.
- ^ John Sledge and Robert Gamble (April 2, 1992), National Historic Landmark Nomination: Government Street Presbyterian Church (pdf), National Park Service and Accompanying 11 photos, exterior and interior, from 1991. (2.09 MB)
- ^ Carolyn Pitts (n.d.), National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Rose Hill Mansion (pdf), National Park Service and Accompanying 6 photos, from 1962, c.1975, and c.1980. (1.25 MB)
- ^ Jay Heritage Center.
- ^ Robbie Jones, The Historic Architecture of Sevier County, Tennessee (Sevierville, Tenn.: Smoky Mountain Historical Society, 1997), pp. 232-237.
External links
- Minard Lafever archival card catalog. Held by the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.