Augustus N. Allen
Encyclopedia
Augustus N. Allen was an architect known for designing buildings on Long Island
and in New York City
, as well as New Jersey
. He also designed the office of American financier and railroad executive John W. Campbell
at Grand Central Terminal
, which was later converted into a bar called the Campbell Apartment
.
on Long Island for wealthy families from New York. He also designed other buildings on the island, including a library.
Allen designed the library in the Classical revival style. A pediment and four stone Doric columns adorn the front of the 50 feet (15.2 m) by 50 feet (15.2 m) brick structure, constructed at a cost of $70,000. The trim and base of the building are done in stone. The stone lintels of the windows are designed with the Greek key pattern. Other architectural details include wreaths, torches and egg and dart molding. In the interior, fluted stone columns, and lintels ornamented with medallions form the octagonal third floor reading room. Bronze torches light the entryways and vestibules. A winding marble staircase leads up to this room that is crowned by a brick, copper and stained glass dome rising 60 feet (18.3 m) above the ground. The dome, constructed by the R. Guastavino
Company, is one of the more than 1,000 they built, including those at the library of the University of Virginia
in Charlottesville, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, and the National Museum of Natural History
in Washington, D.C.
of Allied Chemical & Dye Corporation, later AlliedSignal
, acquired a number of contiguous farms in 1912 and created a 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) estate with formal gardens in West Orange, New Jersey
. The Nichols family used the property as a summer weekend retreat and occupied a small farmhouse. But after a number of years, the family desired a larger home.
In the 1920s, Nichols set out to build his country estate, preferring the Norman style of architecture from the south of England
and the north of France
. He hired Allen as his architect and the two toured Europe
to seek out Norman style buildings and designed Pleasantdale Chateau. The exterior of the house is of the Norman half-timber and stucco character, while the interior reflects a number of period styles. The entrance has 15th century Spanish tiles on the floor. The chateau was completed in 1933. It stands today as one of the great examples of a French Normandy
manor house, and serves as a retreat, catering and conference facility.
for his office. It was a single room 60 feet (18.3 m) long by 30 feet (9.1 m) wide with a 25 feet (7.6 m) ceiling and an enormous fireplace. Campbell commissioned Allen, to design his office, transforming the space into a 13th-century Florentine palace with a hand-painted timbered ceiling and leaded windows. He installed 19th-century Italian chairs and tables, an art collection worth more than $1 million, and a massive desk from which he conducted business.
After Campbell’s death in 1957, the office fell into disrepair. Many years later, in 1999, the space was restored and renovated into a public bar and lounge called the Campbell Apartment
. The name is apparently a misnomer, people having assumed that such a grand space was an apartment, not an office. The walls and ceiling were brought back to their former glory at a cost of $1.5 million.
. The original 1082 Park Avenue was one of a row of eight five-story brick apartment houses covering the entire west side of Park Avenue from 88th to 89th Street. In 1905, Simon Ginsberg, an upholsterer with a shop across the street, bought 1082 Park and relocated to the ground floor.
In 1924, a syndicate developing the co-op apartment house built as 1088 Park Avenue, at the southwest corner of 89th Street, acquired an L-shaped plot surrounding 1082 Park and the corner building, 1080. In 1925, as the new 1088 Park Avenue apartment house was rising, Ginsberg decided on a new look for his building, too. Allen, a veteran rowhouse designer, developed a complicated facade of glazed terra cotta: a ground floor of rusticated blocks, second floor of show windows separated by spiral colonettes, third and fourth floors joined behind double height panels and an attic story of rounded windows under a tiled, projecting roof.
As rebuilt by the upholsterer, 1082 had a band of lettering reading "Ginsberg" at the attic-floor level and another reading "Furniture & Decoration" at the third-floor level. The zoning law of 1916 established this section of Park Avenue as strictly residential, and permitted Ginsberg to rebuild only because the store was already there. By 1935, the Ginsbergs were succeeded as the ground floor tenant by an A&P. The ground floor is now occupied by the Dutch Girl dry cleaning store. The Ginsbergs retained their furniture business upstairs for a while, but by the 1940s the upper floors were used for doctors' and dentists' offices, and they are now apartments.
-Ellis Island
Foundation and the Park Avenue Liquor Shop, which dates back to 1934.
and convenient to Penn Station and Grand Central. The building is also home to Latham Properties, a full-service real estate firm in existence since 1979 that was active in purchasing hotels in Manhattan
and South Beach
in the mid '80s and early '90s. It still owns and manages a broad portfolio of properties in the New York and Miami metro areas.
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...
and 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...
, as well as New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. He also designed the office of American financier and railroad executive John W. Campbell
John W. Campbell (New York)
John Williams Campbell was a millionaire American financier. Campbell succeeded his father in a management role at Credit Clearing House. He kept an office at Grand Central Terminal in New York City...
at Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal —often incorrectly called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central—is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
, which was later converted into a bar called the Campbell Apartment
Campbell Apartment
The Campbell Apartment is a public bar and cocktail lounge located in a corner of Grand Central Terminal in New York City. It faces Vanderbilt Avenue. Contrary to its name, the space was never an apartment, but was once the office of American financier John W...
.
Long Island
Allen designed many grand estatesGold Coast Mansions
The north shore of Long Island, New York, USA in a sixteen mile stretch from Great Neck to Huntington, was a favorite retreat for the rich and the famous. Many were wealthy industrialists of the Gilded Age who pioneered great industries. These captains of industry spent fortunes on their lavish...
on Long Island for wealthy families from New York. He also designed other buildings on the island, including a library.
John Jermain Memorial Library
The John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor was designed by Allen. It was built in 1910 by Mrs. Russell Sage in memory of her grandfather, Major John Jermain, and presented as a gift to the people of Sag Harbor. The property was bought at a cost of $10,000, and is directly across from Mrs. Sage's then summer home on Main Street. At that time, it was the highest price ever paid for a piece of real estate in Sag Harbor.Allen designed the library in the Classical revival style. A pediment and four stone Doric columns adorn the front of the 50 feet (15.2 m) by 50 feet (15.2 m) brick structure, constructed at a cost of $70,000. The trim and base of the building are done in stone. The stone lintels of the windows are designed with the Greek key pattern. Other architectural details include wreaths, torches and egg and dart molding. In the interior, fluted stone columns, and lintels ornamented with medallions form the octagonal third floor reading room. Bronze torches light the entryways and vestibules. A winding marble staircase leads up to this room that is crowned by a brick, copper and stained glass dome rising 60 feet (18.3 m) above the ground. The dome, constructed by the R. Guastavino
Rafael Guastavino
Rafael Guastavino Moreno was a Valencian architect and builder, creator of the Guastavino tile, a "Tile Arch System" patented in the US in 1885. It is a technique for constructing robust, self-supporting arches and architectural vaults using interlocking terracotta tiles and layers of mortar...
Company, is one of the more than 1,000 they built, including those at the library of the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
in Charlottesville, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, and the National Museum of Natural History
National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. Admission is free and the museum is open 364 days a year....
in Washington, D.C.
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. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
Pleasantdale Chateau
Charles W. NicholsCharles W. Nichols
Charles Walter Nichols and his father, William H. Nichols, helped organize the merger of 12 companies in 1899 to create General Chemical, which in 1921 joined four other companies to form Allied Chemical & Dye Corporation, a precursor to AlliedSignal, now owned by Honeywell as its specialty...
of Allied Chemical & Dye Corporation, later AlliedSignal
AlliedSignal
AlliedSignal was an aerospace, automotive and engineering company that acquired and merged with Honeywell for $15 billion in 1999, after which the new group adopted the Honeywell name.AlliedSignal was created through a 1985 merger of Allied Corp...
, acquired a number of contiguous farms in 1912 and created a 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) estate with formal gardens in West Orange, New Jersey
West Orange, New Jersey
West Orange is a township in central Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 46,207...
. The Nichols family used the property as a summer weekend retreat and occupied a small farmhouse. But after a number of years, the family desired a larger home.
In the 1920s, Nichols set out to build his country estate, preferring the Norman style of architecture from the south of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and the north of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. He hired Allen as his architect and the two toured Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
to seek out Norman style buildings and designed Pleasantdale Chateau. The exterior of the house is of the Norman half-timber and stucco character, while the interior reflects a number of period styles. The entrance has 15th century Spanish tiles on the floor. The chateau was completed in 1933. It stands today as one of the great examples of a French Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
manor house, and serves as a retreat, catering and conference facility.
Office of John W. Campbell
In 1923, Campbell leased 3500 square feet (325.2 m²) of space in Grand Central from Cornelius VanderbiltCornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt , also known by the sobriquet Commodore, was an American entrepreneur who built his wealth in shipping and railroads. He was also the patriarch of the Vanderbilt family and one of the richest Americans in history...
for his office. It was a single room 60 feet (18.3 m) long by 30 feet (9.1 m) wide with a 25 feet (7.6 m) ceiling and an enormous fireplace. Campbell commissioned Allen, to design his office, transforming the space into a 13th-century Florentine palace with a hand-painted timbered ceiling and leaded windows. He installed 19th-century Italian chairs and tables, an art collection worth more than $1 million, and a massive desk from which he conducted business.
After Campbell’s death in 1957, the office fell into disrepair. Many years later, in 1999, the space was restored and renovated into a public bar and lounge called the Campbell Apartment
Campbell Apartment
The Campbell Apartment is a public bar and cocktail lounge located in a corner of Grand Central Terminal in New York City. It faces Vanderbilt Avenue. Contrary to its name, the space was never an apartment, but was once the office of American financier John W...
. The name is apparently a misnomer, people having assumed that such a grand space was an apartment, not an office. The walls and ceiling were brought back to their former glory at a cost of $1.5 million.
1082 Park Avenue
Allen designed this bright, polychromed tile facade in 1925 for a furniture and decoration company that played an unusual part in the development of this section of Park AvenuePark Avenue (Manhattan)
Park Avenue is a wide boulevard that carries north and southbound traffic in New York City borough of Manhattan. Through most of its length, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenue to the east....
. The original 1082 Park Avenue was one of a row of eight five-story brick apartment houses covering the entire west side of Park Avenue from 88th to 89th Street. In 1905, Simon Ginsberg, an upholsterer with a shop across the street, bought 1082 Park and relocated to the ground floor.
In 1924, a syndicate developing the co-op apartment house built as 1088 Park Avenue, at the southwest corner of 89th Street, acquired an L-shaped plot surrounding 1082 Park and the corner building, 1080. In 1925, as the new 1088 Park Avenue apartment house was rising, Ginsberg decided on a new look for his building, too. Allen, a veteran rowhouse designer, developed a complicated facade of glazed terra cotta: a ground floor of rusticated blocks, second floor of show windows separated by spiral colonettes, third and fourth floors joined behind double height panels and an attic story of rounded windows under a tiled, projecting roof.
As rebuilt by the upholsterer, 1082 had a band of lettering reading "Ginsberg" at the attic-floor level and another reading "Furniture & Decoration" at the third-floor level. The zoning law of 1916 established this section of Park Avenue as strictly residential, and permitted Ginsberg to rebuild only because the store was already there. By 1935, the Ginsbergs were succeeded as the ground floor tenant by an A&P. The ground floor is now occupied by the Dutch Girl dry cleaning store. The Ginsbergs retained their furniture business upstairs for a while, but by the 1940s the upper floors were used for doctors' and dentists' offices, and they are now apartments.
292 Madison Avenue
The original twelve story building at the corner of Madison Avenue and 41st Street was designed by Allen in 1910. It was expanded upwards to 26 stories and to the sides by Ludlow & Peabody in 1923. Today, the building is home to many law firms, as well as the Statue of LibertyStatue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886...
-Ellis Island
Ellis Island
Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...
Foundation and the Park Avenue Liquor Shop, which dates back to 1934.
Latham Hotel
Allen designed the Latham Hotel, a 13-story building on East 28th Street, in 1906. It is now a budget hotel, but is ideally located for tourists, near the Empire State BuildingEmpire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
and convenient to Penn Station and Grand Central. The building is also home to Latham Properties, a full-service real estate firm in existence since 1979 that was active in purchasing hotels in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
and South Beach
South Beach
South Beach, also nicknamed SoBe, is a neighborhood in the city of Miami Beach, Florida, United States. It is the area south of Indian Creek and encompasses roughly the southernmost 23 blocks of the main barrier island that separates the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay.This area was the first...
in the mid '80s and early '90s. It still owns and manages a broad portfolio of properties in the New York and Miami metro areas.