George Henry Griebel
Encyclopedia
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
-born and trained architect
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...
who resided 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...
. He designed numerous public and private buildings, many of which are still standing in New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. However, because at the time an architect did not receive credit for his work unless he owned his own firm, Griebel is largely uncredited for buildings such as the Dakota Building and other luxury apartment buildings in New York City, a staircase in the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
, the design for Grant's Row, planned as the home of embassies in Washington, DC, and many other buildings. The original architectural drawing
Architectural drawing
An architectural drawing or architect's drawing is a technical drawing of a building that falls within the definition of architecture...
s of the Dakota building and the Singer Building
Singer Building
The Singer Building or Singer Tower at Liberty Street and Broadway in Manhattan, was a 47-story office building completed in 1908 as the headquarters of the Singer Manufacturing Company. It was demolished in 1968 and is now the site of 1 Liberty Plaza....
are in the private collection of the Griebel family.
Early Prussian life
The Griebels were a wealthy and influential family from BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Brandenburg
Province of Brandenburg
The Province of Brandenburg was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 to 1946.-History:The first people who are known to have inhabited Brandenburg were the Suevi. They were succeeded by the Slavonians, whom Henry II conquered and converted to Christianity in...
, Prussia
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
. George came from a musical family whose rank belongs to the royal orchestras of King Frederick II of Prussia
Frederick II of Prussia
Frederick II was a King in Prussia and a King of Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty. In his role as a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he was also Elector of Brandenburg. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel...
. His father, Julius Heinrich Griebel (1809-1865), was a cellist and music master of the Royal Prussian Court Orchestra
Staatskapelle Berlin
The Staatskapelle Berlin is a German orchestra, the orchestra of the Berlin State Opera .The orchestra traces its roots to 1570, when Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg established an orchestra at his court...
(königlich preußische Hofkapelle) and also conductor of the Soirren Quartet which gave concerts in many countries. His grandfather, Johann Heinrich Griebel, first teacher of the composer Albert Lortzing
Albert Lortzing
Gustav Albert Lortzing was a German composer, actor and singer. He is considered to be the main representative of the German Spieloper, a form similar to the French opéra comique, which grew out of the Singspiel.-Biography:Lortzing was born in Berlin to Johann Gottlieb Lortzing and Charlotte Sophie...
, and his great uncle, George Ritter, were bassoon
Bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
ists with the Imperial Chapel. His uncles, Heinrich Franz Griebel (oboe) and Ferdinand Griebel (violin), were also members of the Imperial Royal Chamber Music Orchestra. Since three generations of Griebels were employed by three generations of the House of Hohenzollern
House of Hohenzollern
The House of Hohenzollern is a noble family and royal dynasty of electors, kings and emperors of Prussia, Germany and Romania. It originated in the area around the town of Hechingen in Swabia during the 11th century. They took their name from their ancestral home, the Burg Hohenzollern castle near...
, Griebel had ample exposure to and training in the North German Renaissance
German Renaissance
The German Renaissance, part of the Northern Renaissance, was a cultural and artistic movement that spread among German thinkers in the 15th and 16th centuries, which originated from the Italian Renaissance in Italy...
style.
Training
George was educated at a military academyMilitary academy
A military academy or service academy is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps of the army, the navy, air force or coast guard, which normally provides education in a service environment, the exact definition depending on the country concerned.Three...
for the Engineer Corps of the Prussian Army
Prussian Army
The Royal Prussian Army was the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was vital to the development of Brandenburg-Prussia as a European power.The Prussian Army had its roots in the meager mercenary forces of Brandenburg during the Thirty Years' War...
. In 1865 he left the army and migrated to New York City with his brother, Maximilliam, a violinist. He continued his studies at Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
in Washington DC.
Career from 1865 to 1880
He moved to Washington, DC, in 1865 and opened an office. In 1869, he accepted employment in the War DepartmentUnited States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...
and for some years held the position of architect and engineer to the Quartermaster-General's Office, War Department. He was sent West to San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
, and built the quadrangle at Fort Sam Houston
Fort Sam Houston
Fort Sam Houston is a U.S. Army post in San Antonio, Texas.Known colloquially as "Fort Sam," it is named for the first President of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston....
in 1871.
In Washington, DC, he designed the staircase
Stairway
Stairway, staircase, stairwell, flight of stairs, or simply stairs are names for a construction designed to bridge a large vertical distance by dividing it into smaller vertical distances, called steps...
in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress. Next to the Library of Congress he designed residences for embassies in the land on which the Folger Shakespeare Library
Folger Shakespeare Library
The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare materials from the early modern period...
now stands. "Back in the early 70s, when old Washington was expected to grow to the east from the face of the Capital, Grant row was built in elaborate style after designs by a German architect named Griebel, in the belief that embassies and legations would be attracted to Capital Hill and that the section would become the most attractive residential section of the city....Failing in the original plan of becoming a focal point of the elite of Washington society, these houses, nevertheless, held a place of their own in Washington realty...Many members of the 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....
occupied these houses after their completion but for some reason the embassies did not spread in that direction." "The residents of Capitol Hill welcome this new structure in their neighborhood but they will not soon forget old Grant Row, a line of well built red brick houses set far back from the street on the site now occupied by the Folger Library."
Later career in New York City
In 1880 Griebel established himself in New York City. He married Frances Bourne of the John Gieb family of piano makers and the Bourne family known for arts; "Views of New York" NYHS, and anti-slavery work. He was almost fifty when his wife died and left him with three small children. In honor of his first daughter, Alma, he put a design of her on one of his buildings.He designed with Karl Jacobsen and "superintended the construction of the Dakota Apartment Hotel for the Clark Estate, while for the same estate, during a period of eighteen years, he erected several fine structures and rows of building, such as the Singer Manufacturing Company's Office Building, Third Avenue and Sixteenth Street; fourteen houses on West Eighty-fifth Street
85th Street (Manhattan)
85th Street is a Westbound-running street between East End Avenue and Riverside Drive in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. 85th Street provides access to the 85th/86th Street Transverse which runs east-west through Central Park heading between the Upper East Side and Upper West Side...
, with a row on West Seventy-third Street, both rows being near Columbus Avenue; the Barnett Store, Seventy-fourth Street and Columbus Avenue, and many others." Karl Jacobsen married Daisy, a friend of his daughter, Edna B. Griebel, who was a composer of classical music. He and the children lived most of their lives in an apartment that had been converted from a chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
. He was a gentle and amiable man, thin of frame, and possessing a strong Prussian accent.
Other buildings erected by him include the Aschenbroedel Clubhouse, on East Eighty-sixth Street, of which he was made a life member in recognition of his efficient services; the Unger Storage and Power Building, 46 Huston Street; the Ahren fireproof office building, corner of Elm and Franklin streets; the Majestic Apartment House, corner of St Nicholas and One Hundred and Forty-fifth Street, and many other buildings, equally prominent, including clubhouses, apartment hotels, and business buildings."
He died at 93 years of age.