Henry Bacon (November 28 1866 – February 17, 1924), an American
Beaux-ArtsBeaux-Arts architecture denotes the academic neoclassical architectural style that was taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The style "Beaux Arts" is above all the cumulative product of two and a half centuries of instruction under the authority, first of the Académie royale...
architectAn architect is trained and licensed in planning and designing buildings, and participates in supervising the construction of a building. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, itself derived from the Greek arkhitekton , i.e. chief builder...
, is best remembered for his severe Greek
DoricThe Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of Ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian....
Lincoln MemorialThe Lincoln Memorial is an American memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and was dedicated on May 30, 1922. The architect was Henry Bacon, the sculptor of the main statue was Daniel Chester French,...
in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
(built 1915–1922), which was his final project.
Education and early career
Henry Bacon was born in
Watseka, IllinoisWatseka is an Illinois city and the county seat of Iroquois County. It is located approximately west of the Illinois-Indiana state line on U.S. Highway 24. The city population was 5,670 at the time of the 2000 census...
to father civil engineer Henry Bacon and mother Elizabeth Kelton Bacon, both of Massachusetts. Bacon was largely raised in Wilmington, N.C., where his father settled down and served as a government engineer in charge of the Cape Fear River improvements. At age 15, Henry Bacon was sent north to Boston's Chauncey Hall School. In 1884 he matriculated at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignThe University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a public research university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the oldest and largest campus in the University of Illinois system....
, but left within a year to launch an architectural career in the office of Chamberlin & Whidden in Boston as a draftsman. Bacon was soon hired into the office of famed McKim, Mead & White in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
, the best-known American architectural firm of its time.
While at McKim, Mead & White (MMW), Bacon won, in 1889, the Rotch Traveling Scholarship for architectural students, which gave him two years of study and travel in Europe, learning and drawing details oRoman and Greek architecture as far afield as Turkey, where he met his future wife, Laura Florence Calvert, daughter of a British Consul. He traveled with another fellowship student,
Albert KahnAlbert Kahn was the foremost American industrial architect of his day. He is sometimes called, the architect of Detroit....
who would become a leading industrial architect. Returning to the U.S. he spent a few more years with his mentor,
Charles McKimCharles Follen McKim FAIA was one of the most prominent American Beaux-Arts architects of the late nineteenth century...
, working on projects like the Rhode Island State House in Providence, Rhode Island, and serving as McKim's personal representative in Chicago during the World's Fair in Chicago, where MMW was at work designing certain buildings for the World's Fair.
In 1897, Bacon left the office of (MMW) to found, with a younger MMW architect James Brite, a new partnership Brite and Bacon Architects, where Brite was in charge of financial, administrative, and contracting aspects of the partnership, while Henry Bacon was in charge of the architectural design and construction. The partnership immediately won the competition for the Jersey City Public Library, the Hall of History for the
American UniversityAmerican University is a private United Methodist-affiliated research university in Washington, D.C., USA, the main campus of which comes to a corner at the intersection of Nebraska and Massachusetts Avenues at Ward Circle, straddling the Spring Valley, Wesley Heights, and American University Park...
at Washington, DC, and thereafter built a good number of public buildings and a small number of private residences. The partnership was selected to build two private residences in 1897, the "
La Fetra MansionLa Fetra Mansion located in Summit, New Jersey, United States is a house designed and built for industrialist H. A. LaFetra of the Royal Baking Powder Company by Henry Bacon , architect of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC...
" in Summit, New Jersey, and a three-story Georgian mansion "Laurel Hill" in Columbia, NC. The "La Fetra Mansion" was designed and built by Henry Bacon, and published in the September 1901 issue of The Architecture, the pre-eminent architectural professional journal of its time. The LeFetra Mansion fully exhibits Bacon's Greek and Roman architectural predilections. His simple, austere, elegant lines, and his skill in dimensions and proportions gave rise to a feeling of presence of divininy, peaceful tranquility, and a sense of divine protection. While the La Fetra Mansion in Summit, NJ bears Bacon's signature style, the Georgian Mansion "Laurel Hill" was most probably designed by Brite.
During 1897 , Bacon was approached by a group which was organized with the intent to raise public and private funds to build a monument in Washington DC to memorialize President Lincoln. Bacon began his conceptual, artistic, and architectural design for the Lincoln Memorial that year, and continued with significant passion in the effort, even though the funding for the building of the project did not materialize until years later. The Brite and Bacon Partnership dissolved in 1902 partly resulting from Brite's disagreement over Bacon's passion and countless unpaid time-spent on the Lincoln Memorial. After that, Bacon practiced under his own name with extraordinary success, building a very large number of famous public buildings and monuments, until his death in 1924. Brite also practiced alone successfully until his retirement in 1930, designing homes for a large and wealthy clientele.
Bacon's connection with McKim, his winning of the Rotch Scholarship, and other circumstances which brought him intimately into the sphere of Greek culture, contributed toward the formation of his architectural predilections. He was a devoted adherent of the theory of Greek architecture and his work is profoundly marked by that influence. If his technique was somewhat austere, the lofty divine elegance and spirituality sufficed to win him such laurels as few architects have enjoyed during their life time. The history of American Architecture records no more impressive occasion than that on May 18, 1923, when Bacon stood, under the evening sky, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and received from President Harding, the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects, the highest distinction it was in the power of his fellow craftsmen to confer. There had been only 6 architects in the history of the Institute, to whom the Gold Medal was awarded. Henry Bacon was the only award that was preceded by an all day National Parade, celebration, and a ceremony to dedicate his creation as the National Shrine, and the only award that was presented by the presiding American President.
Mature work
Aside from the Lincoln Memorial, the list of Bacon's significant and well-loved monuments and public buildings is very long. Among the long list, are the Danforth Memorial Library in
Paterson, New JerseyPaterson is a city in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the city population was 149,222. Census population projections indicate a population of 146,545 as of 2007, making it New Jersey's third largest city. It is the county seat of Passaic County...
; the Train Station in the style of an Italian villa in
Naugatuck, ConnecticutThe Naugatuck Metro-North Railroad station serves residents of Naugatuck, Connecticut, USA via the Waterbury Branch of the New Haven Line. All service on the Waterbury Branch is shuttle service to Bridgeport running on very light frequencies ; travel time to Bridgeport is 43 minutes.The station is...
; the Observatory, Olin Library, the Eclectic House, many dormitories and other buildings at
Wesleyan UniversityWesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the now secular university was the first institution of higher...
; the Union Square Savings Bank, New York City; his
Ambrose SwaseyAmbrose Swasey was an American mechanical engineer, inventor, entrepreneur, manager, astronomer, and philanthropist. With Worcester R. Warner he co-founded the Warner & Swasey Company....
Pavilion (1916) is one of the architectural highlights of
Exeter, New HampshireExeter is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The town's population was 14,058 at the 2000 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood...
; Chelsea Savings Bank, Chelsea, Mass; Halle Brothers Department Store, Cleveland, Ohio; Waterbury General Hospital, Waterbury, Conn; National City Bank, New Rochelle, NY; Citizens & Manufacturers National Bank, Waterbury, Conn; First Congregational Church, Providence, RI; Gates for the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA; Woodmere High School, Woodmere, NY; Public Bath, Brooklyn, NY;.....
Bacon was very active as a designer of monuments and settings for public sculpture. He designed the Court of the Four Seasons, for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. He designed the World War I memorial at
Yale UniversityYale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
. He collaborated with sculptor
Augustus Saint-GaudensAugustus Saint-Gaudens , was the Irish-born American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation who most embodied the ideals of the "American Renaissance"...
on the Sen.
Mark HannaMarcus Alonzo Hanna , best known as Mark Hanna, was an American industrialist and Republican politician from Cleveland, Ohio. He rose to fame as the campaign manager of the successful Republican Presidential candidate, William McKinley, in the U.S...
Monument in
Cleveland, OhioCleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border...
, and with
Daniel Chester FrenchDaniel Chester French was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Biography:...
on numerous monuments, notably the Lincoln Memorial's pensive colossal Lincoln. The Olin Library, one of Bacon's buildings at
Wesleyan UniversityWesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the now secular university was the first institution of higher...
, houses many of Bacon's documents and blueprints of the Lincoln Memorial.
Architect Henry Bacon rarely found time for private residences. There are two known residential projects that are clearly his work. First is the La Fetra Mansion in Summit, New Jersey, designed and built under the firm Brite & Bacon from 1897 to 1900. Bacon skillfully integrated into a residential setting many of his signature Greek Revival and Roman Renaissance elements and proportions. The resulting elegance, peace, tranquility, and sense of divine protection exuding from the comfort and functionality of a private residence, is astoundingly masterful. The La Fetra Mansion was commissioned by industrialist Harold A. La Fetra of the Royal Baking Powder Company, which later merged with RJR Nebisco. The La Fetra Mansion became the residence of publisher Harry W. McGraw in the 1920s, and then the Reeds (of the
Reeves-Reed ArboretumThe Reeves-Reed Arboretum is a nonprofit arboretum and garden located at 165 Hobart Avenue in Summit, New Jersey. It is the only arboretum in Union County...
in Summit, New Jersey) family residence.
The other Henry Bacon private residence is the Chesterwood House, which Bacon designed for his friend and famed sculptor
Daniel Chester FrenchDaniel Chester French was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Biography:...
as his summer home and studio at
Stockbridge, MassachusettsStockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,276 at the 2000 census...
. The Daniel Chester French summer home's exterior bears similarity to Bacon's earlier private residence, the "La Fetra Mansion" in Summit, NJ.
In May, 1923 President
Warren G. HardingWarren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death from a heart attack or stroke in 1923. A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate and later as Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S...
presented Bacon with the
American Institute of ArchitectsThe American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
's Gold Medal, making him the 6th recipient of this honor.
A Liberty Ship of the US Navy was built and named after architect Henry Bacon:
SS Henry Bacon, commissioned on November 11, 1942. The ship's captain and crew served during World War II with the utmost honor and heroism, many sacrificing their own lives to deliver 19 Norwegian refugees to safety under heavy attacks from 23 German torpedo bombers.
SS Henry Bacon downed at least 5 of the German bombers before it succumbed to the huge number of torpedoes dropped by the 23 bombers.
Architectural settings, bases and exedra for sculpture
- Commodore George Hamilton Perkins, (1902), Daniel Chester French
Daniel Chester French was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Biography:...
, sculptor, New Hampshire State HouseThe New Hampshire State House is the state capitol building of New Hampshire, located in Concord at 107 North Main Street. The capitol houses the New Hampshire General Court, Governor and Executive Council...
, Concord, New HampshireThe city of Concord is the capital of the state of New Hampshire in the United States. It is also the county seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2000 census, its population was 40,765. Its estimated population in 2007 was 42,392.Concord includes the villages of Penacook, East Concord and West...
- Col. James Anderson Monument, (1904), Daniel Chester French, sculptor, Allegheny Square, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is a city in and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and the second largest city in the state. Its population was 334,563 at the 2000 census; by 2006, it was estimated to have fallen to 312,819. The population of the seven-county metropolitan area is...
- August Robert Meyer Memorial, (1909) Daniel Chester French, sculptor, Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties. It is one of two county seats of Jackson County, the other being Independence, just to the city's east...
- Prehn Mausoleum, (1912) Karl Bitter
Karl Theodore Francis Bitter was an Austrian-born United States sculptor best known for his architectural sculpture, memorials and residential work.- Biography :Bitter was born and trained in Vienna...
sculptor, carved by the Piccirilli BrothersThe Piccirilli Brothers were a family of renowned marble carvers who carved a large number of the most significant marble sculptures in the United States, including Daniel Chester French’s colossal Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.-History:In 1888, Giuseppe Piccirilli , a...
, Cedar Lawn CemeteryCedar Lawn Cemetery is a cemetery located in Paterson, New Jersey. Cedar Lawn was founded in 1867, and is considered one of the finest Victorian cemeteries in the United States. As of 2009, over 83,000 interments have been recorded at the cemetery....
, Paterson, New JerseyPaterson is a city in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the city population was 149,222. Census population projections indicate a population of 146,545 as of 2007, making it New Jersey's third largest city. It is the county seat of Passaic County...
- Carl Schurz
Carl Schurz was a German revolutionary, American statesman and reformer, and Union Army General in the American Civil War...
Monument, (1913) Karl BitterKarl Theodore Francis Bitter was an Austrian-born United States sculptor best known for his architectural sculpture, memorials and residential work.- Biography :Bitter was born and trained in Vienna...
sculptor, Morningside ParkMorningside Park is a New York City public park in the northern portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan. The area occupies 110th to 123rd Streets from Morningside Avenue to Morningside Drive at the border between Harlem and Morningside Heights. Its distinctive natural geography is a...
, New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American educator and poet whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and "Evangeline"...
Monument, (1914), Daniel Chester French, sculptor, Longfellow Park, Cambridge, MassachusettsCambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, a nexus of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Notably, Cambridge is home to two internationally prominent...
- Lafayette
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette was a French aristocrat and military officer born in the province of Auvergne in south central France...
Monument, (1917), Daniel Chester French sculptor, Prospect ParkProspect Park is a 585-acre public park in the New York City borough of Brooklyn located between Park Slope, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Kensington, Windsor Terrace and Flatbush Avenue, Grand Army Plaza and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden...
, BrooklynBrooklyn is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located southwest of Queens on the western tip of Long Island. An independent city until its consolidation with New York in 1898, Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough, with 2.5 million residents, and second largest in area...
, New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
- Depew Memorial Fountain, (1919), Karl Bitter and Alexander Stirling Calder
Alexander Stirling Calder was an American sculptor, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the son of sculptor Alexander Milne Calder and the father of sculptor Alexander Calder....
sculptors, University Park, Indianapolis, IndianaIndianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. The United States Census estimated the city's population, excluding the included towns, at 798,382 in 2008...
- Russell Alger Memorial Fountain, (1921), Daniel Chester French
Daniel Chester French was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Biography:...
, sculptor, Grand Circus Park, Detroit, MichiganDetroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
- Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton was the first United States Secretary of the Treasury, a Founding Father, economist, and political philosopher...
Monument, (1923), James Earle FraserJames Earle Fraser was an American sculptor and the foremost portrait sculptor of his generation.-Life and career:...
sculptor, Washington D.C.
- Jesse Parker Williams Memorial, (c. 1924), Daniel Chester French
Daniel Chester French was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Biography:...
sculptor, Westview Cemetery, Atlanta, GeorgiaAtlanta is the capital and most populous city in the state of Georgia, as well as the urban core of one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States....
- American Revolutionary War Memorial, (c. 1915), Daniel Chester French
Daniel Chester French was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Biography:...
sculptor, Jno. Williams, Inc. (NY) founder, Danville, IllinoisDanville is a city in Vermilion County, Illinois, United States. It is the principal city of the 'Danville, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area' which encompasses all of Danville and Vermilion County. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 33,904...
Bacon died of cancer in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
, and is buried at Oakdale Cemetery in
Wilmington, North CarolinaWilmington is a city in and the county seat of New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 75,838 at the 2000 Census. A July 1, 2008 United States Census Bureau estimate places the population at 100,192...
.
During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
a
Liberty shipLiberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...
was named after him.
Resources
- The American Institute of Architects
- The American Academy of Arts & Letters
- Thomas,Christopher, the Lincoln Memorial and its Architect
- Thomas, Christopher, The Lincoln Memorial and American Life, 2002
- The Olin Library, Wesleyan University
- Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, America's Monuments, unpublished manuscript
- Richman, Michael, Daniel Chester French: An American Sculptor, The Preservation Press, Washington D.C., 1976
- Richman, Michael, Daniel Chester French and Henry Bacon, 1980
- Tolles, Bryant and Carolyn, New Hampshire Architecture: An Illustrated Guide, New Hampshire Historical Society, Hanover, New Hampshire, 1979
- Wilkinson, Burke, and David Finn, photographs, Uncommon Clay: The Life and Works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, San Diego 1985
- Wilson, Richard Guy, The AIA Gold Medal, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1984
External links