George F. Hammond
Encyclopedia
George Francis Hammond (November 26, 1855 – April 26, 1938) was an architect
in Cleveland, Ohio
who designed commercial buildings, hotels, schools, churches, residences, and the plans for Kent State University
's layout and original buildings. His work is mostly Neoclassical architecture
, including in the Beaux Arts Architecture style, and includes an example of Egyptian Revival architecture in the basement foyer of the Hollenden Hotel
.
, Massachusetts
to George and Cornelia Johnson Hammond. He painted before becoming a professional architect and attended the Massachusetts Normal Art School. He studied with William R. Ware at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, founder of the first American curriculum
based on the Beaux-Arts system of architectural training.
and in the office of William Ware in Boston. He began independent work in 1878 and became part of the Koehler & Hammond firm for a year, bringing him to Cleveland in 1885 to work on the Hollenden Hotel
. He moved to Cleveland in 1886. He was active in Cleveland until 1926. Hammond lived at 1863 Caldwell Road in Cleveland Heights.
He designed hospitals, schools, factories, and power buildings in Chicago, Kansas City, New Orleans, Toronto, and Montreal. Hammond's home in Cleveland Heights is "a fine Colonial Revival residence". Hammond designed several suburban homes, especially in the Clifton Park area of Lakewood and published A Treatise on Hospital and Asylum Construction in 1891.
in Cleveland, one of the area's first hotels to be made fire resistant. It was said to have been outfitted handsomely with "massive redwood and mahogany fittings", exclusively designed furniture, a crystal dining room that politicians used as a meeting place. It "boasted electric lights, 100 private baths, and fireproof construction"
Much of the interior design work was overseen by Hammond. The hotel was said to have had the longest bar in town, and to have been a meeting place for precinct workers, when it was not hosting "colorful balls and festivities". Five presidents, McKinley
, Theodore Roosevelt
, Taft
, Wilson
and Harding
, and many other dignitaries and celebrities stayed at the hotel.
It was upgraded and expanded in a $5 million effort and was managed by several owners until 1960 when the 600 Superior Corporation bought it, but two years later with developer Jas M. Carney they demolished mostly empty guest house and built a new 400 room Hollenden House and parking garage that opened in 1965. With the decline of downtown Cleveland it became unprofitable in the 1980s and closed permanently in 1989. John W. Galbreath built a 32-story office building on the site.
Hammond wrote an article in Concrete-cement Age, An Unusual Work in Concrete and Stone, about his application of Egyptian architecture in his design work at the Hammend Hotel in Cleveland. He originally wanted the foyer by the elevator on each floor to represent a different country, but eventually the plan was not adopted, but the basement foyer was modeled after it and made to imitate "red Syrene granite" architecture of Egypt. The article is illustrated with a view of the hotel's basement elevator foyer showing the completed work carried out by The George Rackle & Sons Co. of Cleveland including columns types Hammond said were found at Egypt
's Philae temple, as well as panels featuring Isis
and Osiris
sculpted by Jirouch of Fisher and Jirouch Co. Hammons spoke of his own trip to Egypt and the "1,500 to 2,000" negatives he made to use along with pictures from professional photographers. He also wrote foreword praising Skeleton construction in buildings.
in 1938, although his obituary says Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
in Cleveland, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
who designed commercial buildings, hotels, schools, churches, residences, and the plans for Kent State University
Kent State University
Kent State University is a public research university located in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university has eight campuses around the northeast Ohio region with the main campus in Kent being the largest...
's layout and original buildings. His work is mostly Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
, including in the Beaux Arts Architecture style, and includes an example of Egyptian Revival architecture in the basement foyer of the Hollenden Hotel
Hollenden Hotel
The Hollenden Hotel was a luxury hotel in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. It opened in 1885, was significantly upgraded in 1926 and demolished in 1962. During the hotel's existence, it contained 1,000 rooms, 100 private baths, a lavish interior, electric lights and fireproof construction...
.
Early life
Hammond was born in the Roxbury section of BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
to George and Cornelia Johnson Hammond. He painted before becoming a professional architect and attended the Massachusetts Normal Art School. He studied with William R. Ware at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, founder of the first American curriculum
Curriculum
See also Syllabus.In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults...
based on the Beaux-Arts system of architectural training.
Career
In 1876, Hammond worked as a draftsman in the office of William G. PrestonWilliam G. Preston
William G. Preston was an American architect. He was active in Boston and Georgia, where he designed the De Soto Hotel and the Savannah Volunteer Guards Armory...
and in the office of William Ware in Boston. He began independent work in 1878 and became part of the Koehler & Hammond firm for a year, bringing him to Cleveland in 1885 to work on the Hollenden Hotel
Hollenden Hotel
The Hollenden Hotel was a luxury hotel in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. It opened in 1885, was significantly upgraded in 1926 and demolished in 1962. During the hotel's existence, it contained 1,000 rooms, 100 private baths, a lavish interior, electric lights and fireproof construction...
. He moved to Cleveland in 1886. He was active in Cleveland until 1926. Hammond lived at 1863 Caldwell Road in Cleveland Heights.
He designed hospitals, schools, factories, and power buildings in Chicago, Kansas City, New Orleans, Toronto, and Montreal. Hammond's home in Cleveland Heights is "a fine Colonial Revival residence". Hammond designed several suburban homes, especially in the Clifton Park area of Lakewood and published A Treatise on Hospital and Asylum Construction in 1891.
Hollenden Hotel
Liberty E. Holden commissioned Hammond to design the 8-story Hollenden HotelHollenden Hotel
The Hollenden Hotel was a luxury hotel in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. It opened in 1885, was significantly upgraded in 1926 and demolished in 1962. During the hotel's existence, it contained 1,000 rooms, 100 private baths, a lavish interior, electric lights and fireproof construction...
in Cleveland, one of the area's first hotels to be made fire resistant. It was said to have been outfitted handsomely with "massive redwood and mahogany fittings", exclusively designed furniture, a crystal dining room that politicians used as a meeting place. It "boasted electric lights, 100 private baths, and fireproof construction"
Much of the interior design work was overseen by Hammond. The hotel was said to have had the longest bar in town, and to have been a meeting place for precinct workers, when it was not hosting "colorful balls and festivities". Five presidents, McKinley
William McKinley
William McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s...
, Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
, Taft
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...
, Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
and Harding
Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...
, and many other dignitaries and celebrities stayed at the hotel.
It was upgraded and expanded in a $5 million effort and was managed by several owners until 1960 when the 600 Superior Corporation bought it, but two years later with developer Jas M. Carney they demolished mostly empty guest house and built a new 400 room Hollenden House and parking garage that opened in 1965. With the decline of downtown Cleveland it became unprofitable in the 1980s and closed permanently in 1989. John W. Galbreath built a 32-story office building on the site.
Hammond wrote an article in Concrete-cement Age, An Unusual Work in Concrete and Stone, about his application of Egyptian architecture in his design work at the Hammend Hotel in Cleveland. He originally wanted the foyer by the elevator on each floor to represent a different country, but eventually the plan was not adopted, but the basement foyer was modeled after it and made to imitate "red Syrene granite" architecture of Egypt. The article is illustrated with a view of the hotel's basement elevator foyer showing the completed work carried out by The George Rackle & Sons Co. of Cleveland including columns types Hammond said were found at Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
's Philae temple, as well as panels featuring Isis
Isis
Isis or in original more likely Aset is a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic...
and Osiris
Osiris
Osiris is an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He is classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and...
sculpted by Jirouch of Fisher and Jirouch Co. Hammons spoke of his own trip to Egypt and the "1,500 to 2,000" negatives he made to use along with pictures from professional photographers. He also wrote foreword praising Skeleton construction in buildings.
Personal life
Hammond married Annie Borland Barstow in 1883 and after her death in 1886 married Annie E. Butcher of Toronto in 1897 and they had a child Adelaide. They divorced in 1922 and Hammond's third wife was Dorothy Weirick, whom he divorced in 1931. Hammond retired in 1926 and died in Falls Village, ConnecticutFalls Village, Connecticut
Falls Village is a village and census-designated place in the town of Canaan, Connecticut. Because Falls Village is the town center and principal constituent village in Canaan, the entire town is often referred to as "Falls Village." That usage also avoids confusion of the town with Canaan Village...
in 1938, although his obituary says Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Selected projects
- Hollenden HotelHollenden HotelThe Hollenden Hotel was a luxury hotel in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. It opened in 1885, was significantly upgraded in 1926 and demolished in 1962. During the hotel's existence, it contained 1,000 rooms, 100 private baths, a lavish interior, electric lights and fireproof construction...
(1885) at the corner of Superior and East 6th (demolished 1962) He also authored Architectural Competitions for Public Buildings noted in Engineering magazine for subscription. - Stark County Courthouse (1895), a building in the Beaux Arts Classicism architecture style.
- Lane Metropolitan Church (1900) at 2131 East 46
- Zanesville Federal Building
- Master campus plan and five original buildings of the Ohio State Normal College At KentOhio State Normal College At KentThe Ohio State Normal College At Kent is a historic district in Kent, Ohio, United States. It consists of the five original buildings on the main campus of Kent State University, with the first, Merrill Hall, opening in 1913 and the last, Moulton Hall, opening in 1917. It was added to the...
(Kent State UniversityKent State UniversityKent State University is a public research university located in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university has eight campuses around the northeast Ohio region with the main campus in Kent being the largest...
), 1911-15 including:- Lowry Hall
- Merrill Hall
- Administration Building (later renamed Cartwright Hall)
- Science Hall (later renamed Kent Hall)
- Electric Building (1900) at 700 Prospect Avenue
- Original South Brooklyn Public Library (1905), in Cleveland. The library has since moved...
- Industrial Building (1909) 2336-2344 of Canal Road in Cleveland
- McKinley High SchoolCanton McKinley High SchoolCanton McKinley Senior High School is a public high school in Canton, Stark County, Ohio, U.S. It is one of the largest and oldest high schools in Ohio.-Athletics:...
(1921), 800 North Market Street a classical revival school building in Cleveland.