Walker & Gillette
Encyclopedia
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, the partnership of A. Stewart Walker (1876-1952) and Leon N. Gillette (1878-1945), active from 1906 through 1945.
Biography
Walker was a native of Jersey City, New JerseyJersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...
, and graduated from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1898. Leon Gillette, born in Malden, Massachusetts
Malden, Massachusetts
Malden is a suburban city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 59,450 at the 2010 census. In 2009 Malden was ranked as the "Best Place to Raise Your Kids" in Massachusetts by Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine.-History:...
, had attended the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
and worked in several New York firms, such as Howells & Stokes
Howells & Stokes
Howells & Stokes was an American architectural firm. Founded in 1897 by John Mead Howells and Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes, it designed, among other structures, St...
and Warren & Wetmore, and had also attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...
from 1901 through 1903. The two joined forces in 1906.
Walker's wife, Sybil Kane Walker, was a decorator who worked with her husband on at least one commission. Her father was Grenville Kane, banker and longtime presence in the exclusive enclave of Tuxedo Park, New York
Tuxedo Park, New York
Tuxedo Park is a village in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 731 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined...
, where Walker & Gillette received important early commissions.
The firm was prolific and stylistically versatile. Their commissions are not clearly attributable to one partner or the other, apart from one source identifying Gillette as solely responsible for the Grasslands Hospital
Westchester Medical Center
Westchester Medical Center University Hospital is a 635-bed Level I Trauma Center providing high-quality advanced health services to residents of the Hudson Valley, northern New Jersey, and southern Connecticut...
in East View (Valhalla), New York, several buildings in White Plains, New York
White Plains, New York
White Plains is a city and the county seat of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located in south-central Westchester, about east of the Hudson River and northwest of Long Island Sound...
, multiple buildings in the planned city of Venice, Florida
Venice, Florida
Venice is a city in Sarasota County, Florida, United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2007 estimates, the city had a population of 21,015. It is noted for its large snowbird population. Its newspaper is the Venice Gondolier Sun...
, and a housing project in Lake Charles, Louisiana
Lake Charles, Louisiana
Lake Charles is the fifth-largest incorporated city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, located on Lake Charles, Prien Lake, and the Calcasieu River. Located in Calcasieu Parish, a major cultural, industrial, and educational center in the southwest region of the state, and one of the most important in...
.
On the death of Gillette in 1945, Walker continued in business as Walker & Poor with Alfred Easton Poor
Alfred Easton Poor
Alfred Easton Poor was an American architect, involved with many buildings and projects in New York City, works in Washington, D.C., for the US Federal Government, and perhaps most notably the Wright Brothers National Memorial. While a student at the University of Pennsylvania, he studied under...
(the son of one of their Long Island clients). Their notable commissions include the 1950 Parke-Bernet Galleries Building in New York City. After Walker's 1952 death, that firm would eventually become known as Swanke Hayden Connell.
Career
Until about 1920, most of Walker & Gillette's work amounted to two kinds of society residences: New York City townhouses, and suburban mansions. The latter as of 1915 were a step below the great Gilded AgeGilded Age
In United States history, the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post–Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded...
Newport mansions of 30 years prior, but still elaborate enough to sometimes require 20 or 30 rooms, multiple outbuildings, and customized features. Their clients were bank presidents, industrialists, socialites, and railroad heirs.
Connected to the community of Tuxedo Park, New York
Tuxedo Park, New York
Tuxedo Park is a village in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 731 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined...
through Walker's father-in-law, the firm designed at least five houses there, including the Walter Kroll house, "Sho-Chiku-Bai", with landscape design by Takeo Shiota
Takeo Shiota
Takeo Shiota was a Japanese-American landscape architect, best known for his design of the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden....
. Their 16 houses on Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
were designed for clients like Irving Brokaw
Irving Brokaw
Isaac Irving Brokaw was an American figure skater, artist, lawyer, and financier. He represented the United States at the 1908 Summer Olympics in the figure skating competition, becoming the first American to compete in a sport included in the Winter Olympic program...
, Ralph Pulitzer
Ralph Pulitzer
Influential publisher and socialite Ralph Pulitzer was the son of newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer and upon Pulitzer's death acquired control of the New York World, an influential American newspaper...
, Charles Lane Poor
Charles Lane Poor
Charles Lane Poor was an opponent of Einstein's theory of relativity.-Biography:He was born on January 18, 1866 in Hackensack, New Jersey to Edward Erie Poor. He graduated from the City College of New York and received a Ph.D. in 1892 from Johns Hopkins University...
, and William R. Coe. As to the townhouses in the city, the firm is credited with some fine examples and "the last great mansion to be built in New York", the 1932 Regency-style Loew house on East 93rd.
Walker & Gillette ventured into commercial architecture in 1921 with great success. Their New York Trust Company Bank at 100 Broadway, a conservative and modest skyscraper apart from its adventuresome marble color scheme inside, began a series of about a dozen neo-classical branch banks in the New York area through the late 1920s. Their 1927 National City Bank branch on Canal Street is likely the most significant. Then came a number of major skyscrapers, notably the Industrial Trust Tower in Providence, which remains the tallest building in Rhode Island, and the Fuller Building
Fuller Building
The Fuller Building is a tower block in Manhattan on the northeast corner at 41-45 East 57th Street and Madison Avenue.-Construction:The Fuller was built for the Fuller Construction Company in 1929 after they moved from the Flatiron Building...
in New York, among others.
One prominent civic commission was the seamless extension, to north and south, of the New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library located in New York City at the corner of 77th Street and Central Park West in Manhattan. Founded in 1804 as New York's first museum, the New-York Historical Society presents exhibitions, public programs and research that...
building on Central Park West
Central Park West
Central Park West is an avenue that runs north-south in the New York City borough of Manhattan, in the United States....
between 76th and 77th Streets, carried out in 1938. York and Sawyer
York and Sawyer
The architectural firm of York and Sawyer produced many outstanding structures, exemplary of Beaux-Arts architecture as it was practiced in the United States. The partners Edward York and Philip Sawyer had both trained in the office of McKim, Mead, and White...
's central block dating from 1908 was extended and sympathetically completed by pavilion
Pavilion (structure)
In architecture a pavilion has two main meanings.-Free-standing structure:Pavilion may refer to a free-standing structure sited a short distance from a main residence, whose architecture makes it an object of pleasure. Large or small, there is usually a connection with relaxation and pleasure in...
s on either end. This project stands among the last examples of Beaux-Arts architecture completed in the city and in the entire country. In sharp contrast the firm's most theatrical modernist building came the same year. That was the Electrical Products Building for the 1939 New York World's Fair
1939 New York World's Fair
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...
, where an arch-headed blue slab tower intersected with a stepped curved structure, housing demonstrations of radical new uses of electricity: shaving, mixing cake batter, and home sewing.
Commissions
- St. George's-by-the-River Episcopal ChurchSt. George's-by-the-River Episcopal ChurchSt. George's-by-the-River Episcopal Church is a historic church at 7 Lincoln Avenue in Rumson, New Jersey.It was built in 1907 and added to the National Register in 2007.-References:...
, Rumson, New JerseyRumson, New JerseyRumson is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 7,122.Rumson was formed as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 15, 1907, from portions of Shrewsbury Township, based on the results of a...
, for Mrs. Alice C. Strong as an English Gothic memorial to her late husband, 1907-1908. A cloister was added in 1945. - residence at 35 East 69th Street, New York City, 1910. The current occupant, The Episcopal SchoolEpiscopal Diocese of New YorkThe Episcopal Diocese of New York is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, encompassing the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island in New York City, and the New York state counties of Westchester, Rockland, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Sullivan, and...
, a nursery school, subsequently added two additional stories. - manor house for the 2000-acre (8.1 sq km) Aknusti Estate, for banker and horseman Robert Livingston Gerry, Sr. and with landscaping by Frederick Law OlmstedFrederick Law OlmstedFrederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...
, Delaware County, New YorkDelaware County, New YorkDelaware County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of 2010 the population was 47,980. The county seat is Delhi. It is named after the Delaware River, which was named in honor of Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, appointed governor of Virginia in 1609.-History:When counties...
, 1912 (damaged by fire in 1953; now "Broadlands" resort) - the Warren M. Salisbury estate, Pittsfield, MassachusettsPittsfield, MassachusettsPittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Its area code is 413. Its ZIP code is 01201...
, with murals by American realist painter Everett ShinnEverett ShinnEverett Shinn was an American realist painter and member of the Ashcan School, also known as 'the Eight.' He was the youngest member of the group of modernist painters who explored the depiction of real life...
, circa 1914 - the 35-room Bingham-Hanna House, with landscape work by the Olmsted BrothersOlmsted BrothersThe Olmsted Brothers company was an influential landscape design firm in the United States, formed in 1898 by stepbrothers John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. .-History:...
, Cleveland, Ohio, 1916-1919, now part of the Western Reserve Historical SocietyWestern Reserve Historical SocietyThe Western Reserve Historical Society was founded in 1867, making it the oldest cultural institution in Northeast Ohio. WRHS is located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.-About:... - residence at 52 East 69th Street, New York City, 1917
- the Neo-Georgian Henry P. Davison HouseHenry P. Davison HouseThe Henry P. Davison House is a mansion located on 690 Park Avenue and 69th Street in the Upper East Side of New York City.It was constructed for the banker Henry P. Davison in 1917 by Walker & Gillette in the Neo-Georgian style....
, 690 Park Avenue, 1917 (now the Italian Consulate) - the Tudor-style Coe Hall, Planting Fields ArboretumPlanting Fields Arboretum State Historic ParkPlanting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park, which includes the Coe Hall Historic House Museum, is an arboretum and state park covering over located in the Village of Upper Brookville in the town of Oyster Bay, New York....
, for William Robertson Coe, 1918-1921 - Thomas W. LamontThomas W. LamontThomas William Lamont, Jr. was an American banker.- Biography :Lamont was born in Claverack, New York. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1888 and earned his degree from Harvard University in 1892. He became a generous benefactor of the school once he had amassed a fortune, notably...
house, 107 East 70th Street, 1921 (now the Visiting Nurse Service of New YorkVisiting Nurse Service of New YorkVisiting Nurse Service of New York is the largest and oldest not-for-profit home health care provider in the United States.Lillian Wald, the founder of VNSNY, began making home nursing visits in 1893....
) - refitting of the SS LeviathanSS LeviathanSS Leviathan, originally built as SS Vaterland, was an ocean liner which regularly sailed the North Atlantic briefly in 1914 and from 1917 to 1934...
, 1922-1923 - several public buildings in the planned development of Venice, FloridaVenice, FloridaVenice is a city in Sarasota County, Florida, United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2007 estimates, the city had a population of 21,015. It is noted for its large snowbird population. Its newspaper is the Venice Gondolier Sun...
in the mid-1920s, notably the Hotel VeniceHotel VeniceThe Hotel Venice is a historic hotel in Venice, Florida. It is located at 200 North Nassau Street. On February 6, 1984, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.-References and external links:* at * at... - Charles E. MitchellCharles E. MitchellCharles Edwin Mitchell was an American banker whose incautious securities policies facilitated the speculation which led to the Crash of 1929...
house, 934 Fifth Avenue, 1926. This Roman palazzo was purchased by the Free French consul in 1942, and has housed the French Consulate since 1952 - East River Savings Bank, Amsterdam Avenue and 96th Street, 1927 (now used as a CVS Pharmacy)
- Industrial Trust Tower, Providence, Rhode IslandProvidence, Rhode IslandProvidence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
, still the tallest building in Rhode Island, 1927 - 13-story apartment house at 2 East 70th Street, with Rosario CandelaRosario CandelaRosario Candela was an Italian American architect who achieved renown through his apartment building designs in New York City, primarily during the boom years of the 1920s. He is credited with defining the city's characteristic terraced setbacks and signature penthouses. Over time, Candela's...
, 1927-1928 - "Brookby", the John W. Blodgett EstateJohn W. Blodgett EstateThe John W. Blodgett Estate, also known as Brookby, is an historic landmark at 250 Plymouth Rd, SE, East Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1977....
, East Grand Rapids, MichiganEast Grand Rapids, MichiganEast Grand Rapids is a city in Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is a suburb of Grand Rapids and is located on the shore of Reeds Lake. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 10,694.-Geography:...
, 1928 - the PlaylandPlayland (New York)Playland, often called Rye Playland and also known as Playland Amusement Park, is an amusement park located in Rye, New York. Run by Westchester County, it is the only government owned-and-operated amusement park in the United States.-History:...
amusement park, Rye, New York, 1928 - Fuller BuildingFuller BuildingThe Fuller Building is a tower block in Manhattan on the northeast corner at 41-45 East 57th Street and Madison Avenue.-Construction:The Fuller was built for the Fuller Construction Company in 1929 after they moved from the Flatiron Building...
, 41-45 East 57th Street, 1929, with architectural sculpture over the entry by Elie NadelmanElie NadelmanElie Nadelman was an American sculptor, draughtsman and collector of Polish birth.-Early years:... - Caleb Bragg EstateCaleb Bragg EstateThe Caleb Bragg Estate, in the unincorporated village of Montauk, New York, was built in 1929. It was designed by Walker & Gillette. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987....
, Montauk, New YorkMontauk, New YorkMontauk [ˈmɒntɒk] is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet with the same name located in the town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the CDP population was 3,851 as of 2000...
, 1929 - Westchester County CenterWestchester County CenterWestchester County Center is a 5,000-seat multi-purpose arena in White Plains, New York. It hosts various local concerts and sporting events for the area....
, White Plains, New YorkWhite Plains, New YorkWhite Plains is a city and the county seat of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located in south-central Westchester, about east of the Hudson River and northwest of Long Island Sound...
, 1930 - the William Goadby LoewWilliam Goadby LoewWilliam Goadby Loew was a Manhattan stockbroker and financier.-Biography:He bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange in 1897. He married Florence Bellows Baker, the daughter of George Fisher Baker at All Souls' Unitarian Church on April 12, 1898. In 1934 he was picked as one of the best...
house, 56 East 93rd Street, 1931. Later occupied by Billy RoseBilly RoseWilliam "Billy" Rose was an American impresario, theatrical showman and lyricist. He is credited with many famous songs, notably "Me and My Shadow" , "It Happened in Monterey" and "It's Only a Paper Moon"...
, it was "the last great mansion" in New York City, with "the manners of John SoaneJohn SoaneSir John Soane, RA was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. His architectural works are distinguished by their clean lines, massing of simple form, decisive detailing, careful proportions and skilful use of light sources...
". Soanian details include the three great arch-headed windows in very shallow reveals of the main floor and the windows cut out of the frieze below the cornice. Now the Spence SchoolSpence SchoolThe Spence School is an American all-girls independent school in New York City, founded in 1892 by Clara B. Spence.-Overview:Spence has about 688 students, with K-4 representing the Lower School, 5-8 representing the Middle School, and 9-12 representing the Upper School. Lower school average class...
. - United States Post OfficeUnited States Post Office (Garden City, New York)US Post Office-Garden City is a historic post office building located at Garden City in the town of Hempstead, Nassau County, New York, United States. It was built in 1936 and designed by consulting architects Walker & Gillette for the Office of the Supervising Architect. It is a one story, square...
, Garden City, New YorkGarden City, New YorkGarden City is a village in the town of Hempstead in central Nassau County, New York, in the United States. It was founded by multi-millionaire Alexander Turney Stewart in 1869, and is located on Long Island, to the east of New York City, from mid-town Manhattan, and just south of the town of...
, 1936 - the rear-projection Trans-LuxTrans-LuxTrans-Lux is a world leader in designing, selling, renting, installing and maintaining multi-color, real-time data and LED large-screen electronic information displays, but is primarily known as a major supplier of national stock ticker display devices for stock exchanges...
newsreel theater, Lexington Avenue and East 52nd Street, NYC, with Thomas W. LambThomas W. LambThomas White Lamb was an American architect, born in Scotland. He is noted as one of the foremost designers of theaters and cinemas in the 20th century.-Career:...
, 1938 - street-level renovations in stainless steel for the Empire BuildingEmpire BuildingThe Empire Building at 71 Broadway, Manhattan, New York City is a 21 story steel framed curtain-wall skyscraper designed by Kimball & Thompson and built by Marc Eidlitz & Son in 1895. It is one of the earliest skyscrapers built on pneumatic caissons and one of the oldest still standing today. It...
, New York City, 1938 - Electrical Products Building, 1939 New York World's Fair1939 New York World's FairThe 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...
(razed) - Jacob Riis HousesRiis HousesJacob Riis Houses are a public housing project in the East Village, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. The project is located between Avenue D and the Franklin D Roosevelt Drive, spanning two superblocks from 6th Street to 13th Street....
public housing project, Lower East Side, 1949 - the 18-story Roebling Building, 117 Liberty Street, razed for construction of the World Trade CenterWorld Trade CenterThe original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
- at least five mansions in Tuxedo Park, New YorkTuxedo Park, New YorkTuxedo Park is a village in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 731 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined...
, including the Cannon Hill Estate, the Scofield House, the Lorillard House, the Mission style house for Joseph Stevens, and the Walter Kroll house named "Sho-Chiku-Bai"