Solon Spencer Beman
Encyclopedia
Solon Spencer Beman was an American architect who was based in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, best known as the architect of the planned
Urban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....

 Pullman community
Pullman, Chicago
Pullman, one of Chicago's 77 community areas, is a neighborhood located on the city's South Side. Twelve miles from the Chicago Loop, Pullman is situated adjacent Lake Calumet....

 and adjacent Pullman Company
Pullman Company
The Pullman Palace Car Company, founded by George Pullman, manufactured railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the early decades of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Pullman developed the sleeping car which carried his name into the 1980s...

 factory complex. Several of his other largest commissions, including the Pullman Office Building, Pabst Building, and Grand Central Station
Grand Central Station (Chicago)
Grand Central Station was a passenger railroad terminal in downtown Chicago, Illinois, from 1890 to 1969. It was located at 201 W. Harrison Street in the south-western part of the Chicago Loop, the block bounded by Harrison Street, Wells Street, Polk Street and the Chicago River...

 in Chicago, have since been demolished. Beman designed numerous Christian Science
Christian Science
Christian Science is a system of thought and practice derived from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible. It is practiced by members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist as well as some others who are nonmembers. Its central texts are the Bible and the Christian Science textbook,...

 churches and influenced the design of countless more.

Career

Beman was born in the borough of 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...

 in 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...

, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, to a father who was fascinated with architecture and who maintained an extensive collection of books on the subject. Encouraged by his father, in 1870 Beman began his architectural training at 17 in the office of New York architect Richard Upjohn
Richard Upjohn
Richard Upjohn was an English-born architect who emigrated to the United States and became most famous for his Gothic Revival churches. He was partially responsible for launching the movement to such popularity in the United States. Upjohn also did extensive work in and helped to popularize the...

, best known for his religious designs in the Gothic Revival style
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

. While with Upjohn, Beman helped design the Connecticut State Capitol
Connecticut State Capitol
The Connecticut State Capitol is located north of Capitol Avenue and south of Bushnell Park in Hartford, the capital of Connecticut. The building houses the Connecticut General Assembly; the upper house, the State Senate, and lower house, the House of Representatives, as well as the office of the...

, and eventually became sufficiently accomplished to be named an associate designer. In 1877, Beman left Upjohn to begin his own practice.

In 1879, Beman was commissioned by George Mortimer Pullman to design what would become the nation's first planned company town, and he relocated to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 to carry out the extensive work involved. Pullman arranged for Beman to design the many buildings involved, while landscape architect Nathan Franklin Barrett
Nathan Franklin Barrett
Nathan Franklin Barrett was an American landscape architect. He is best known for his designs for company town of Pullman, Illinois, the Hotel Ponce de Leon in Florida and 'Naumkeg' in Stockbridge Massachusetts. Barrett was a founding member and president of the American Society of Landscape...

 created the street and park system. Located south of Chicago on the shore of Lake Calumet (in what would become Chicago's Far South Side), the company town of Pullman
Pullman, Chicago
Pullman, one of Chicago's 77 community areas, is a neighborhood located on the city's South Side. Twelve miles from the Chicago Loop, Pullman is situated adjacent Lake Calumet....

 included more than 1,300 houses, a factory, monumental water tower, theater, church, hotel, market, and schools. The town of Pullman proved to be controversial. Celebrated for orderliness and planning at first, Pullman's reputation soured when the Pullman Palace Car Company
Pullman Company
The Pullman Palace Car Company, founded by George Pullman, manufactured railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the early decades of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Pullman developed the sleeping car which carried his name into the 1980s...

 refused to lower town prices or rents for workers after cutting their wages, touching off the bitter national Pullman Strike
Pullman Strike
The Pullman Strike was a nationwide conflict between labor unions and railroads that occurred in the United States in 1894. The conflict began in the town of Pullman, Illinois on May 11 when approximately 3,000 employees of the Pullman Palace Car Company began a wildcat strike in response to recent...

. Ultimately the courts forced Pullman to relinquish the town, it was annexed by Chicago, and is now an Illinois state historic site.

Beman's early buildings tended toward picturesque
Picturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, a practical book which instructed England's...

 eclecticism with varied historical details. Fashionable at the time, these styles included Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

, Queen Anne, Romanesque Revival
Romanesque Revival architecture
Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed beginning in the mid 19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture...

, and Châteauesque
Châteauesque
Châteauesque is one of several terms, including Francis I style, and, in Canada, the Château Style, that refer to a revival architectural style based on the French Renaissance architecture of the monumental French country homes built in the Loire Valley from the late fifteenth century to the...

 (sometimes called Francis I
Francis I of France
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...

 style after the French king from 1515-1547). In Pullman, Beman designed block after block of rowhouses that "feature a variety of elevations and detailing that create an overall picturesque appearance." Also included among the buildings for the Pullman development were Hotel Florence (Queen Anne style), Greenstone Church (Gothic Revival), and the Pullman Administration Building (Romanesque Revival).

Continuing his historicism, Beman's subsequent work for wealthy Chicagoans included a magnificent Queen Anne-style residence for Marshall Field, Jr. (son of the department store magnate
Marshall Field
Marshall Field was founder of Marshall Field and Company, the Chicago-based department stores.-Life and career:...

) at 1919 S. Prairie (1884) and two Châteauesque mansions: W.W. Kimball Mansion (1890-1892) at 1801 Prairie Avenue and John W. Griffiths Mansion (1892, later Griffiths-Burroughs House) at 3806 S. Michigan Avenue. With asymmetical plans and elevations, high-pitched, visually complex rooflines, and "fancifully treated chimneys", Châteauesque enjoyed a period of popularity for "the elaborate homes of America’s newly-established wealthy families" beginning with the Vanderbilts. Beman was quite skilled at Châteauesque, which when successful involves "the adroit mixing of Renasissance and Late Gothic details... [and is] rather tricky for any but the cordon bleus of the profession."

In Chicago, Beman also designed the Studebaker
Studebaker
Studebaker Corporation was a United States wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 under the name of the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, the company was originally a producer of wagons for farmers, miners, and the...

 Fine Arts Building
Fine Arts Building (Chicago)
The ten-story Fine Arts Building, also known as the Studebaker Building, is located on Michigan Avenue across from Grant Park in Chicago in the Chicago Landmark Historic Michigan Boulevard District. It was built for the Studebaker company in 1884–5 by Solon Spencer Beman, and extensively remodeled...

 (1884) at Michigan Avenue
Michigan Avenue (Chicago)
Michigan Avenue is a major north-south street in Chicago which runs at 100 east south of the Chicago River and at 132 East north of the river from 12628 south to 950 north in the Chicago street address system...

 and Van Buren Avenues in the Chicago Landmark
Chicago Landmark
Chicago Landmark is a designation of the Mayor of Chicago and the Chicago City Council for historic buildings and other sites in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Listed sites are selected after meeting a combination of criteria, including historical, economic, architectural, artistic, cultural,...

 Historic Michigan Boulevard District
Historic Michigan Boulevard District
The Historic Michigan Boulevard District is a historic district in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States encompassing Michigan Avenue between 11th or Roosevelt Road , depending on the source, and Randolph Streets and named after the nearby Great Lake...

, the Pullman Building on Michigan Avenue, and parts of George Pullman
George Pullman
George Mortimer Pullman was an American inventor and industrialist. He is known as the inventor of the Pullman sleeping car, and for violently suppressing striking workers in the company town he created, Pullman .-Background:Born in Brocton, New York, his family moved to Albion,...

's Prairie Avenue
Prairie Avenue
Prairie Avenue is a north–south thoroughfare on the South Side of Chicago, which historically extended from 16th Street in the Near South Side community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States, to the city's southern limits and beyond. The street has a rich history from its origins...

 home, which was also later demolished. In 1897, Beman also designed Pullman's monument at Chicago's Graceland Cemetery
Graceland Cemetery
Graceland Cemetery is a large Victorian era cemetery located in the north side community area of Uptown, in the city of Chicago, Illinois, USA. Established in 1860, its main entrance is at the intersection of Clark Street and Irving Park Road...

, a towering Corinthian column
Corinthian order
The Corinthian order is one of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric and Ionic. When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order...

 flanked by curved benches. Elsewhere, Beman designed the distinctive Pullman summer home at the Thousand Islands
Thousand Islands
The Thousand Islands is the name of an archipelago of islands that straddle the Canada-U.S. border in the Saint Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario. They stretch for about downstream from Kingston, Ontario. The Canadian islands are in the province of Ontario, the...

, "Castle Rest
Castle Rest
"Castle Rest," the first of several "castles" of the Thousand Islands, was a distinctive architectural work of architect Solon Spencer Beman." Designed for George M. Pullman the structure became a landmark feature of tourist steamboat excusions when constructed in 1888...

."

Beman designed several buildings for the World's Columbian Exposition
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...

 of 1893. Caught up in the trend toward Classical architectural style
Classical architecture
Classical architecture is a mode of architecture employing vocabulary derived in part from the Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, enriched by classicizing architectural practice in Europe since the Renaissance...

 favored by Daniel H. Burnham, director of the Exposition, after this Beman "abandoned his former playful eclecticism and took on the sobriety and unity of the Renaissance and classical styles."

Beman's other projects in Chicago included the Grand Central Station
Grand Central Station (Chicago)
Grand Central Station was a passenger railroad terminal in downtown Chicago, Illinois, from 1890 to 1969. It was located at 201 W. Harrison Street in the south-western part of the Chicago Loop, the block bounded by Harrison Street, Wells Street, Polk Street and the Chicago River...

 and its train shed at Harrison and Wells (1891, demolished 1971), the Blackstone Public Library (1905) in the Kenwood neighborhood
Kenwood, Chicago
Kenwood, located on the South Side of the City of Chicago, Illinois, is one of the 77 well-defined Chicago community areas.Kenwood was part of Hyde Park Township, which was annexed by the City of Chicago in 1889....

, and the Hamilton Club Building at Madison and Dearborn Avenue (1913, Demolished).

The Blackstone Public Library Branch, built in 1905, was Chicago's first branch library. The design was a near duplication of the James Blackstone Memorial Library in Branford, Connecticut
Branford, Connecticut
-Landmarks and attractions:Branford has six historic districts that are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places . These include buildings in Federal, Arts and Crafts, and Queen Anne styles of architecture...

 (1896). Both libraries were built with bequests from the Blackstone family of Chicago.

He also designed the Pioneer Building
Pioneer and Endicott Buildings
The Pioneer and Endicott Buildings are two buildings in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The 1890 Endicott building forms L-shape around 1889 Pioneer building. The Endicott building was designed by Cass Gilbert and James Knox Taylor; the Pioneer building was designed by Solon Spencer Beman in the Romanesque...

 in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...

 (1889), the Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....

 factories in Cincinnati, Ohio
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...

, the Studebaker
Studebaker
Studebaker Corporation was a United States wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 under the name of the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, the company was originally a producer of wagons for farmers, miners, and the...

 plant in South Bend, Indiana
South Bend, Indiana
The city of South Bend is the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total of 101,168 residents; its Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 316,663...

, the 14-story Pabst Building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...

 (1891, demolished), the Pullman Memorial Universalist Church
Pullman Memorial Universalist Church
The Pullman Memorial Universalist Church of Albion, New York was constructed and dedicated in 1894 as a memorial to the parents of inventor and industrialist George Mortimer Pullman. The structure, built of red Medina sandstone and featuring fifty-six Tiffany stained glass windows and a Johnson...

 in Albion, New York (1894), the Michigan Trust Company Building in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...

 (1913), and the JMS Building, also in South Bend (1916).

Christian Science

Solon S. Beman had a long involvement with Christian Science
Christian Science
Christian Science is a system of thought and practice derived from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible. It is practiced by members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist as well as some others who are nonmembers. Its central texts are the Bible and the Christian Science textbook,...

. He was grateful to the church, which he credited with healing his wife's invalidism, and in 1897 he designed the First Church of Christ, Scientist (Chicago), at 4017 S. Drexel Boulevard. Based on his Merchant Tailors building for the World's Columbian Exposition, the Classical architectural style
Classical architecture
Classical architecture is a mode of architecture employing vocabulary derived in part from the Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, enriched by classicizing architectural practice in Europe since the Renaissance...

 of the church would have a profound influence on the architecture selected by many Christian Science congregations during their period of greatest construction, which had begun in 1894 with the Mother Church in Boston and would continue until 1930.

Beman oversaw the construction of the Mother Church Extension (Boston, 1904-1906) after the original architect, Charles Brigham
Charles Brigham
Charles Brigham , was a prominent American architect.- Life :Born, raised, and educated in Watertown, Massachusetts, he apprenticed to the Boston architect Gridley J.F. Bryant. Brigham served as a sergeant in the Union Army during the American Civil War, then began work for John Hubbard Sturgis...

, became too ill to proceed and left for Bermuda to recover. With the church's agreement, Beman revamped the design, minimizing what he saw as mystical influences from Ottoman and Byzantine architecture
Byzantine architecture
Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. The empire gradually emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity from what is today referred to as the Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to...

, recasting it into the Classical architectural style that he saw as best suited to Christian Science beliefs.

Beman converted to Christian Science, and designed at least a dozen other Christian Science churches across the country, and an addition to Mary Baker Eddy's Last Home
Dupee Estate-Mary Baker Eddy Home
The Dupee Estate-Mary Baker Eddy Home, located at 400 Beacon Street in the village of Chestnut Hill in Newton, Massachusetts, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Dupee Estate, but is better known as the last home of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ,...

.

Legacy

A number of architects trained with Beman, including William L. Steele
William L. Steele
William LaBarthe Steele was an important architect of the Prairie School during the early twentieth century. A graduate of the University of Illinois, Steele worked in the office of renowned architect Louis Sullivan in Chicago, Illinois 1897–1900...

 (1875-1949), Charles Draper Faulkner
Charles Draper Faulkner
Charles Draper Faulkner Charles Draper Faulkner Charles Draper Faulkner ((March 11, 1890 – December 31, 1979) was a Chicago-based American architect renowned for the churches and other buildings that he designed in the United States and Japan...

 (1890-1979), and Beman's son, Spencer Solon Beman (1887-1952).

Spencer S. Beman practiced architecture with his father, and after his death carried on his Christian Science church design work. Between them, the two Bemans designed a minimum of 90 Christian Science churches. The Solon S. and Spencer S. Beman Collection of archival materials, held by the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries
Ryerson & Burnham
The Ryerson & Burnham Libraries are the art and architecture research collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The libraries cover all periods with extensive holdings in the areas of 18th, 19th and 20th century architecture and 19th century painting, prints, drawings, and decorative arts...

 at the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...

, includes publications documenting their architectural projects.

See also

  • Pullman, Chicago
    Pullman, Chicago
    Pullman, one of Chicago's 77 community areas, is a neighborhood located on the city's South Side. Twelve miles from the Chicago Loop, Pullman is situated adjacent Lake Calumet....

  • World's Columbian Exposition
    World's Columbian Exposition
    The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...

  • The First Church of Christ, Scientist

External links



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