James H. Dakin
Encyclopedia
James Harrison Dakin American
architect, was the son of James (1783-1819) and Lucy Harrison Dakin (1784-1826) of Hudson, New York
, and born in Northeast Township
. He was seventh in line from the immigrant ancestor, Thomas Dakin, of Concord, Massachusetts
, through Simon, of the third generation, who went to Putnam County, New York
, from Massachusetts. After learning the carpentry trade from his uncle, James Dakin moved to New York City
, where he was apprenticed to Alexander Jackson Davis when the firm of Town and Davis, Architects, was formed in 1829. That year he married Joanna (or Georgiana) Belcher (1796-1882) of Norwich, Connecticut
, the widow of George Collard. They had seven children, two of whom survived to adulthood.
Dakin seems from an early date to have developed a practice of his own, for he was the architect of the large J. W. Perry house, in Brooklyn, in about 1830-31, and of the Washington Square Dutch Reformed Church, an unusually advanced example of Gothic Revival
work. He also was in touch with Minard Lafever
during this period and, a beautiful draftsman, drew a number of the plates, which are signed by him, in Lafever's The Modern Builder's Guide. Apparently, too, he had some means. From May 1, 1832, to November 1, 1834, he was a partner of Town & Davis (now renamed Town, Davis and Dakin, Architects), and from existing accounts of the firm he seems to have contributed a generous amount of working capital. The partnership ended in some disagreement; a letter from Ithiel Town
to Davis indicates that Dakin, owing to his investment in the firm, considered he had a greater right to dictate policies than the older partners could countenance. During this period Town & Davis were engaged on many important works, including the North Carolina State Capitol
(1832), the main building of New York University
(1833; an influential collegiate Gothic work for which Dakin and Town did most of the design), and the Marine Pavilion (a luxurious hotel) at Rockaway; Dakin's name appears as one of the architects of the last two. It was at this time that the firm employed James Gallier
for some four months at $2.00 a day. Here Gallier met Dakin's younger brother, Charles Bingley (1811-1839), then working as a draftsman at James's firm and whom Gallier took with him to New Orleans in 1834. That year, having left Town, Davis and Dakin to establish his own firm in New York, Dakin designed one of the finest buildings of his career, the Bank of Louisville
in Kentucky
, as well as the First Presbyterian Church in Troy, New York
, done in the Greek Revival style.
In 1835, James Dakin followed his brother and Gallier to New Orleans. Ambitious, he realized, as Gallier had, the opportunities New Orleans offered. For a time there seems to have been a loose partnership between the three. One example of their collaboration is Barton Academy
in Mobile, Alabama
, started in 1835. Both James Dakin and Gallier claim to have been the architects of certain New Orleans buildings of the period. Within a year, however, the Dakins left Gallier and practised for a time together as Dakin & Dakin and as Dakin, Bell & Dakin; later still they split. Charles began an ill-fated branch office in Mobile, Alabama, where he supervised the construction of the Government Street Presbyterian Church
, completed in 1836. The collapse of a row of warehouses he designed affected him so deeply that it is thought to have been a cause contributing to his early death in St. Gabriel, Louisiana
. He had gone to Texas
to begin anew. That year (1839) the Great Fire of Mobile also destroyed much of the firm's incomplete work there.
James Dakin's work with Gallier (1835) included Christ Church
, the front of which is preserved as a Knights of Columbus
clubhouse (1835-37), the Verandah Hotel (1837-38), and the Merchants' Exchange (1835-36) on Royal Street. In 1838 he designed St. Patrick's Church
, an ambitious effort in a rich Gothic style, supposedly modeled on York Minster
. When difficulties occurred in its construction, Gallier was called in to revise the foundations and Dakin lost the contract in 1839; ever afterward Gallier erroneously claimed it as one of his buildings. Dakin was also architect of the Methodist Episcopal Church (burned with the St. Charles Hotel), of "Union Terrace" (1836-37) on Canal Street, of the State Arsenal (1839), and of the gracious row of thirteen houses on Julia Street known as the "Thirteen Buildings" or the "Julia Buildings." At this time, too, Dakin, Bell & Dakin were employed as the architects of a proposed city hall for New Orleans, but the project was abandoned and the architects paid and discharged by the City Council on March 28, 1837. The relation of this design to Gallier's later City Hall, if any, is not known. There is also evidence that James and Charles Dakin were the architects of several unidentified buildings in Cincinnati
and St. Louis
. James Dakin carried on, designing the Gayoso House Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee
(1842) and the Medical College of Louisiana (1843). By 1845 he had accepted as an apprentice Henry Howard, among the best of the next generation of Louisiana architects. After 1848 James lived chiefly at Baton Rouge.
During the Mexican-American War James H. Dakin served briefly in 1846 as colonel of the 2nd Louisiana Volunteers. He returned to design the University of Louisiana, adjacent to the Medical College. The latter was absorbed by the university, and in later years the entire complex ultimately became Tulane University
. In 1847 he won a competition for the new State House with a daring Gothic design, a style he chose "because no other style . . . could give suitable character to a building with so little cost" and because to use classic would give a building "which would appear to be a mere copy of some other edifice already erected and often repeated in every city and town of our country". Having moved to Baton Rouge, he supervised the capitol's construction until 1850.
Dakin left the capitol job with only interior detailing unfinished to become the architect for the New Orleans Custom House. He found the original design by Alexander Thompson Wood unsatisfactory and proposed instead a freestanding, cast-iron frame and a central courtyard for air circulation. But a political and sociological dispute arose between Creole and Anglo-Saxon factions over the changes. To create the courtyard for air and ventilation, Dakin proposed moving the main banking room from the center to the Canal Street front. The Creoles of the French Quarter
objected that that would give the Anglo-American sector across Canal Street a business advantage. Creole Democratic
congressmen debated the change on the floor of Congress
. Dakin, a friend of the Whig
president, Zachary Taylor
, was ousted after a heated hearing in which the great architect Isaiah Rogers
sided with Dakin. He returned to Baton Rouge, where he completed the capitol interior. He died there after "a long and painful illness".
As a designer Dakin was forceful and original and his influence was disseminated in many ways. The Perry house in Brooklyn
(remarkable for its conservatory wings) and the Julia Buildings show a competent use of the current Greek Revival
forms. But it is in the Gothic of St. Patrick's and the Old Louisiana State Capitol
that his originality best appears; the interior of the former, with its intricate plaster ribbing and cleverly top-lighted sanctuary, and the varied and forceful masses of the latter, together with its original plan and fancifully delicate woodwork (renewed after a fire in 1887), reveal him as a man with marked imagination. The location of his major buildings in highly visible places, like the Mississippi
River levees in Baton Rouge, Memphis, and New Orleans—the river was the highway of the time—and the New York University campus in New York City helped draw attention to his highly imaginative designs and set lofty professional standards. Dakin also provided many engravings for Minard Lafever
's architectural books, which became builders' handbooks all over America. Dakin had been honored in the 1830s by an invitation to become one of the founding members of the American Institution of Architects, forerunner of the American Institute of Architects
. The spread of ideas on architecture and mutual support marked their activities. Among the imaginative architects who created the Gothic, Greek, and Egyptian revivals in America, James Dakin must be numbered in the forefront.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
architect, was the son of James (1783-1819) and Lucy Harrison Dakin (1784-1826) of Hudson, New York
Hudson, New York
Hudson is a city located along the west border of Columbia County, New York, United States. The city is named after the adjacent Hudson River and ultimately after the explorer Henry Hudson.Hudson is the county seat of Columbia County...
, and born in Northeast Township
North East, New York
North East is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 3,002 at the 2000 census.The Town of North East is in the northeastern part of the county...
. He was seventh in line from the immigrant ancestor, Thomas Dakin, of Concord, Massachusetts
Concord, Massachusetts
Concord is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 17,668. Although a small town, Concord is noted for its leading roles in American history and literature.-History:...
, through Simon, of the third generation, who went to Putnam County, New York
Putnam County, New York
Putnam County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, in the lower Hudson River Valley. Putnam county formed in 1812, when it detached from Dutchess County. , the population was 99,710. It is part of the New York Metropolitan Area. The county seat is the hamlet of Carmel...
, from Massachusetts. After learning the carpentry trade from his uncle, James Dakin moved to New York City
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...
, where he was apprenticed to Alexander Jackson Davis when the firm of Town and Davis, Architects, was formed in 1829. That year he married Joanna (or Georgiana) Belcher (1796-1882) of Norwich, Connecticut
Norwich, Connecticut
Regular steamship service between New York and Boston helped Norwich to prosper as a shipping center through the early part of the 20th century. During the Civil War, Norwich once again rallied and saw the growth of its textile, armaments, and specialty item manufacturing...
, the widow of George Collard. They had seven children, two of whom survived to adulthood.
Dakin seems from an early date to have developed a practice of his own, for he was the architect of the large J. W. Perry house, in Brooklyn, in about 1830-31, and of the Washington Square Dutch Reformed Church, an unusually advanced example of Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
work. He also was in touch with Minard Lafever
Minard Lafever
Minard Lafever was an influential American architect of churches and houses in the United States in the early nineteenth century.-Life and career:...
during this period and, a beautiful draftsman, drew a number of the plates, which are signed by him, in Lafever's The Modern Builder's Guide. Apparently, too, he had some means. From May 1, 1832, to November 1, 1834, he was a partner of Town & Davis (now renamed Town, Davis and Dakin, Architects), and from existing accounts of the firm he seems to have contributed a generous amount of working capital. The partnership ended in some disagreement; a letter from Ithiel Town
Ithiel Town
Ithiel Town was a prominent American architect and civil engineer. One of the first generation of professional architects in the United States, Town made significant contributions to American architecture in the first half of the 19th century. He was high-strung, sophisticated, generous,...
to Davis indicates that Dakin, owing to his investment in the firm, considered he had a greater right to dictate policies than the older partners could countenance. During this period Town & Davis were engaged on many important works, including the North Carolina State Capitol
North Carolina State Capitol
The North Carolina State Capitol is the main house of government of the U.S. state of North Carolina. Housing the offices of the Governor of North Carolina, it is located in the state capital of Raleigh on Union Square at One East Edenton Street. The cornerstone of the Greek Revival building was...
(1832), the main building of New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
(1833; an influential collegiate Gothic work for which Dakin and Town did most of the design), and the Marine Pavilion (a luxurious hotel) at Rockaway; Dakin's name appears as one of the architects of the last two. It was at this time that the firm employed James Gallier
James Gallier
James Gallier was a prominent New Orleans architect.He was born James Gallagher in Ravensdale, County Louth, Ireland in 1798. He worked in England during his early career, designing the Godmanchester Chinese Bridge which crosses a mill stream of the River Great Ouse in 1827, and then working on the...
for some four months at $2.00 a day. Here Gallier met Dakin's younger brother, Charles Bingley (1811-1839), then working as a draftsman at James's firm and whom Gallier took with him to New Orleans in 1834. That year, having left Town, Davis and Dakin to establish his own firm in New York, Dakin designed one of the finest buildings of his career, the Bank of Louisville
Old Bank of Louisville
The Old Bank of Louisville is a National Historic Landmark in Louisville, Kentucky. Completed in 1837, it was made of brick and limestone. Of United States small-scale commercial architecture, it is considered one of the most sophisticated. The narrow downtown lot saw classical idioms adapted to...
in Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, as well as the First Presbyterian Church in Troy, New York
Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital...
, done in the Greek Revival style.
In 1835, James Dakin followed his brother and Gallier to New Orleans. Ambitious, he realized, as Gallier had, the opportunities New Orleans offered. For a time there seems to have been a loose partnership between the three. One example of their collaboration is Barton Academy
Barton Academy
Barton Academy is a historic Greek Revival school building located on Government Street in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was under construction from 1836 to 1839 and was designed by architects James H. Dakin, Charles B. Dakin, and James Gallier. Gallier and the Dakin brothers also designed...
in Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
, started in 1835. Both James Dakin and Gallier claim to have been the architects of certain New Orleans buildings of the period. Within a year, however, the Dakins left Gallier and practised for a time together as Dakin & Dakin and as Dakin, Bell & Dakin; later still they split. Charles began an ill-fated branch office in Mobile, Alabama, where he supervised the construction of the Government Street Presbyterian Church
Government Street Presbyterian Church
Government Street Presbyterian Church is one of the oldest and least-altered Greek Revival church buildings in the United States. The architectural design is by James Gallier, James Dakin, and Charles Dakin. The trio also designed Barton Academy, four blocks down Government Street to the west...
, completed in 1836. The collapse of a row of warehouses he designed affected him so deeply that it is thought to have been a cause contributing to his early death in St. Gabriel, Louisiana
St. Gabriel, Louisiana
St. Gabriel is a city in Iberville Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 6,677 at the 2010 census. The city of St. Gabriel includes the areas of Sunshine and Carville. It is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area....
. He had gone to Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
to begin anew. That year (1839) the Great Fire of Mobile also destroyed much of the firm's incomplete work there.
James Dakin's work with Gallier (1835) included Christ Church
Christ Church Cathedral, New Orleans
Christ Church Cathedral, located today at 2919 St. Charles Avenue, in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States, was the first non-Roman Catholic church founded in the entire Louisiana Purchase territory...
, the front of which is preserved as a Knights of Columbus
Knights of Columbus
The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded in the United States in 1882, it is named in honor of Christopher Columbus....
clubhouse (1835-37), the Verandah Hotel (1837-38), and the Merchants' Exchange (1835-36) on Royal Street. In 1838 he designed St. Patrick's Church
St. Patrick's Church (New Orleans)
St. Patrick's Church is a Catholic church and parish in the Archdiocese of New Orleans. The parish was founded in 1833, and the current structure was completed in 1840. It is the second oldest parish in New Orleans St. Patrick's Church is a Catholic church and parish in the Archdiocese of New...
, an ambitious effort in a rich Gothic style, supposedly modeled on York Minster
York Minster
York Minster is a Gothic cathedral in York, England and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe alongside Cologne Cathedral. The minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York, the second-highest office of the Church of England, and is the cathedral for the Diocese of York; it is run by...
. When difficulties occurred in its construction, Gallier was called in to revise the foundations and Dakin lost the contract in 1839; ever afterward Gallier erroneously claimed it as one of his buildings. Dakin was also architect of the Methodist Episcopal Church (burned with the St. Charles Hotel), of "Union Terrace" (1836-37) on Canal Street, of the State Arsenal (1839), and of the gracious row of thirteen houses on Julia Street known as the "Thirteen Buildings" or the "Julia Buildings." At this time, too, Dakin, Bell & Dakin were employed as the architects of a proposed city hall for New Orleans, but the project was abandoned and the architects paid and discharged by the City Council on March 28, 1837. The relation of this design to Gallier's later City Hall, if any, is not known. There is also evidence that James and Charles Dakin were the architects of several unidentified buildings in Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
and St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. James Dakin carried on, designing the Gayoso House Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
(1842) and the Medical College of Louisiana (1843). By 1845 he had accepted as an apprentice Henry Howard, among the best of the next generation of Louisiana architects. After 1848 James lived chiefly at Baton Rouge.
During the Mexican-American War James H. Dakin served briefly in 1846 as colonel of the 2nd Louisiana Volunteers. He returned to design the University of Louisiana, adjacent to the Medical College. The latter was absorbed by the university, and in later years the entire complex ultimately became Tulane University
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
. In 1847 he won a competition for the new State House with a daring Gothic design, a style he chose "because no other style . . . could give suitable character to a building with so little cost" and because to use classic would give a building "which would appear to be a mere copy of some other edifice already erected and often repeated in every city and town of our country". Having moved to Baton Rouge, he supervised the capitol's construction until 1850.
Dakin left the capitol job with only interior detailing unfinished to become the architect for the New Orleans Custom House. He found the original design by Alexander Thompson Wood unsatisfactory and proposed instead a freestanding, cast-iron frame and a central courtyard for air circulation. But a political and sociological dispute arose between Creole and Anglo-Saxon factions over the changes. To create the courtyard for air and ventilation, Dakin proposed moving the main banking room from the center to the Canal Street front. The Creoles of the French Quarter
French Quarter
The French Quarter, also known as Vieux Carré, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. When New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city was originally centered on the French Quarter, or the Vieux Carré as it was known then...
objected that that would give the Anglo-American sector across Canal Street a business advantage. Creole Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
congressmen debated the change on the floor of Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
. Dakin, a friend of the Whig
Whig Party (United States)
The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...
president, Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor was the 12th President of the United States and an American military leader. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass...
, was ousted after a heated hearing in which the great architect Isaiah Rogers
Isaiah Rogers
Isaiah Rogers was a US architect who practiced in Mobile, Alabama, Boston, Massachusetts, New York City, and Cincinnati, Ohio.-Background:...
sided with Dakin. He returned to Baton Rouge, where he completed the capitol interior. He died there after "a long and painful illness".
As a designer Dakin was forceful and original and his influence was disseminated in many ways. The Perry house in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
(remarkable for its conservatory wings) and the Julia Buildings show a competent use of the current Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
forms. But it is in the Gothic of St. Patrick's and the Old Louisiana State Capitol
Old Louisiana State Capitol
The Louisiana's Old State Capitol is a building in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States that housed the Louisiana State Legislature from the mid-19th century until the current capitol tower building was constructed in 1929....
that his originality best appears; the interior of the former, with its intricate plaster ribbing and cleverly top-lighted sanctuary, and the varied and forceful masses of the latter, together with its original plan and fancifully delicate woodwork (renewed after a fire in 1887), reveal him as a man with marked imagination. The location of his major buildings in highly visible places, like the Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
River levees in Baton Rouge, Memphis, and New Orleans—the river was the highway of the time—and the New York University campus in New York City helped draw attention to his highly imaginative designs and set lofty professional standards. Dakin also provided many engravings for Minard Lafever
Minard Lafever
Minard Lafever was an influential American architect of churches and houses in the United States in the early nineteenth century.-Life and career:...
's architectural books, which became builders' handbooks all over America. Dakin had been honored in the 1830s by an invitation to become one of the founding members of the American Institution of Architects, forerunner of the American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The 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...
. The spread of ideas on architecture and mutual support marked their activities. Among the imaginative architects who created the Gothic, Greek, and Egyptian revivals in America, James Dakin must be numbered in the forefront.