Willis G. Hale
Encyclopedia
Willis Gaylord Hale was a late-19th century architect who worked primarily in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
. His flamboyant, highly-ornate style was popular in the 1880s and 1890s, but quickly fell out of fashion in the 20th century.
He married a niece of chemical manufacturer William Weightman
, who was one of the largest landowners in the city. For Weightman, he designed dozens of blocks of Philadelphia middle-class housing, and also for clients such as Peter A. B. Widener and William L. Elkins
. His lively facades often contrasted sculpture, tile, inventive brick- and stone-work, in an exuberant high-Victorian style:
He designed a massive city house for Widener at the corner of Broad Street and Girard Avenue, and a country house for Weightman in Germantown
: "Ravenhill" (now part of Philadelphia University
).
Widener's city house was one of the most notable in Philadelphia. An ornate Flemish-style eclectic design in highly-wrought brownstone and brick, it had a 53-foot (16.2 m) facade on Broad Street and a 144-foot (43.9 m) facade on Girard Avenue. The over-the-top interiors were decorated by George Herzog
, and included buxom nudes as newel posts, walls embellished with alabaster and bronze, and murals of the Widener children in Renaissance dress. Almost an anachronism when completed in 1887, the family lived there only a dozen years before building a sedate neo-Georgian palace in the suburbs: Lynnewood Hall
. The city house served as a branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia
, 1900–1946; the offices of an architectural firm, and in 1970 became the Conwell School of Theology's Institute for Black Ministries. It suffered a catastrophic fire in 1980, and was demolished.
In 1892 Hale designed the Lorraine Apartment House at Broad and Fairmount Streets in Philadelphia, completed in 1894. Purchased by radio evangelist Father Divine
in 1948, the building is now known as the Divine Lorraine Hotel
.
Hale designed numerous ornate office buildings in Center City Philadelphia, but few survive unaltered. He built his own office building at the southwest corner of Chestnut and Juniper Streets (1887, expanded 1892, altered), an unsuccessful investment that almost bankrupted him. The critic for the magazine Architectural Record declared it an "architectural aberration":
Hale's architectural office was destroyed in a March 23, 1896 fire. He was a near-pauper in his later years, supported by the ever-loyal Weightman. He is buried just outside Philadelphia, in Fernwood Cemetery in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania
.
A portfolio of photographs of Hale's work is at the American Philosophical Society
.
, who he admired. But Hale's buildings tended to be derivative and decorative rather than innovative, half-a-decade behind the times rather than ahead of them, more concerned with surface ornament than ideas:
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
. His flamboyant, highly-ornate style was popular in the 1880s and 1890s, but quickly fell out of fashion in the 20th century.
Career
Hale came to Philadelphia in the 1860s, and apprenticed under architects Samuel Sloan and John McArthur, Jr.John McArthur, Jr.
John McArthur Jr was a prominent American architect practicing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Designer of some of the city's most ambitious buildings of the Civil War era, few of his works survive...
He married a niece of chemical manufacturer William Weightman
William Weightman
William Weightman I was a chemical manufacturer and one of the largest landowners in the United States.-Biography:...
, who was one of the largest landowners in the city. For Weightman, he designed dozens of blocks of Philadelphia middle-class housing, and also for clients such as Peter A. B. Widener and William L. Elkins
William Lukens Elkins
William Lukens Elkins was an American businessman, inventor, and art collector.-Career:Although his father was a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, William Elkins was born in Wheeling, West Virginia. He started his working life at a grocery store in Philadelphia where his family had returned to...
. His lively facades often contrasted sculpture, tile, inventive brick- and stone-work, in an exuberant high-Victorian style:
"Hale's genius was to take ... essentially identical rowhouses, with their mass-produced industrial parts and lathe-turned woodwork, and to make them distinctive."
He designed a massive city house for Widener at the corner of Broad Street and Girard Avenue, and a country house for Weightman in Germantown
Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Germantown is a neighborhood in the northwest section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, about 7–8 miles northwest from the center of the city...
: "Ravenhill" (now part of Philadelphia University
Philadelphia University
Philadelphia University, founded in 1884, is a private university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Philadelphia University's student body consists of about 3,500 individuals from all 50 states and over 50 countries...
).
Widener's city house was one of the most notable in Philadelphia. An ornate Flemish-style eclectic design in highly-wrought brownstone and brick, it had a 53-foot (16.2 m) facade on Broad Street and a 144-foot (43.9 m) facade on Girard Avenue. The over-the-top interiors were decorated by George Herzog
George Herzog
George Herzog was an American interior designer and decorative painter, best known for his work on Philadelphia Masonic Temple.-Career:...
, and included buxom nudes as newel posts, walls embellished with alabaster and bronze, and murals of the Widener children in Renaissance dress. Almost an anachronism when completed in 1887, the family lived there only a dozen years before building a sedate neo-Georgian palace in the suburbs: Lynnewood Hall
Lynnewood Hall
Lynnewood Hall is a 110-room Neoclassical Revival mansion in Elkins Park, Montgomery County designed by architect Horace Trumbauer for industrialist Peter A. B. Widener between 1897 and 1900...
. The city house served as a branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia
Free Library of Philadelphia
The Free Library of Philadelphia is the public library system serving Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-History:History of the Free Library of Philadelphia: Initiated by the efforts of Dr...
, 1900–1946; the offices of an architectural firm, and in 1970 became the Conwell School of Theology's Institute for Black Ministries. It suffered a catastrophic fire in 1980, and was demolished.
In 1892 Hale designed the Lorraine Apartment House at Broad and Fairmount Streets in Philadelphia, completed in 1894. Purchased by radio evangelist Father Divine
Father Divine
Father Divine , also known as Reverend M. J. Divine, was an African American spiritual leader from about 1907 until his death. His full self-given name was Reverend Major Jealous Divine, and he was also known as "the Messenger" early in his life...
in 1948, the building is now known as the Divine Lorraine Hotel
Divine Lorraine Hotel
The Divine Lorraine Hotel, also known as the Lorraine Apartments, stands at the corner of Broad and Fairmount Streets in North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Designed by architect Willis G. Hale and built between 1892 and 1894, the building originally functioned as apartments, housing some of...
.
Hale designed numerous ornate office buildings in Center City Philadelphia, but few survive unaltered. He built his own office building at the southwest corner of Chestnut and Juniper Streets (1887, expanded 1892, altered), an unsuccessful investment that almost bankrupted him. The critic for the magazine Architectural Record declared it an "architectural aberration":
“Consider the Hale Building, how it grows. The problem was to erect a seven-story office building with a narrow front on the principal street, and with rooms devoted to similar purposes and of similar dimensions throughout. The danger was that this uniformity would produce monotony. There is nothing of which your Philadelphia architect is so afraid as of monotony. In fact it is the only architectural defect of which he seems to go in fear. Variety he must have at all cost, and by securing variety he makes sure that he has avoided monotony, whereas in truth his heterogeneousness is more tiresome than any repetition could be. ...[E]very precaution has been taken, and with success, to insure that the building shall lack unity, shall lack harmony, shall lack repose and shall be a restless jumble.”
Hale's architectural office was destroyed in a March 23, 1896 fire. He was a near-pauper in his later years, supported by the ever-loyal Weightman. He is buried just outside Philadelphia, in Fernwood Cemetery in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania
Lansdowne, Pennsylvania
Lansdowne is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States located southwest of downtown Philadelphia. It was named for the Marquess of Lansdowne. The borough grew quickly in the early part of the twentieth century when a railroad stop was established near the intersection of...
.
A portfolio of photographs of Hale's work is at the American Philosophical Society
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...
.
Frank Furness
Hale is sometimes compared to his Philadelphia contemporary Frank FurnessFrank Furness
Frank Heyling Furness was an acclaimed American architect of the Victorian era. He designed more than 600 buildings, most in the Philadelphia area, and is remembered for his eclectic, muscular, often idiosyncratically scaled buildings, and for his influence on the Chicago architect Louis Sullivan...
, who he admired. But Hale's buildings tended to be derivative and decorative rather than innovative, half-a-decade behind the times rather than ahead of them, more concerned with surface ornament than ideas:
"Hale's later fate was exemplary for the followers of Furness. For them, style was an affair of specacular massing, audacious surfaces, and whimsical detail. ... Their walls were always more clever than their plans; when they were forced to change brick and brownstone arches for marble cornices, as the tastes of the nineties demanded, the new work showed seams. Overdone and uncertain at the same time, Hale's last works were execulted for one or two loyal clients from the eighties."
Residential
- Morris Fleisher house, 2223 Green Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (circa 1880).
- "Havod" (A. Loudon Snowden house), 429 West Montgomery Avenue, Haverford, Pennsylvania (1881).
- 2100-block North Uber Street rowhouses, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1885–86).
- 1500-block North 17th Street (west side), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1886). Development of 29 rowhouses for Peter A. B. Widener and William L. ElkinsWilliam Lukens ElkinsWilliam Lukens Elkins was an American businessman, inventor, and art collector.-Career:Although his father was a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, William Elkins was born in Wheeling, West Virginia. He started his working life at a grocery store in Philadelphia where his family had returned to...
. - Peter A. B. Widener mansion, northwest corner Broad Street & Girard Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1887, burned 1980, demolished).
- "Ravenhill" (William WeightmanWilliam WeightmanWilliam Weightman I was a chemical manufacturer and one of the largest landowners in the United States.-Biography:...
house), 3480-90 School House Lane, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1887). Now part of Philadelphia UniversityPhiladelphia UniversityPhiladelphia University, founded in 1884, is a private university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Philadelphia University's student body consists of about 3,500 individuals from all 50 states and over 50 countries...
. - 4500-block Chester Avenue rowhouses (south side), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1889).
- J. & Benjamin Ketcham house, 1708 Green Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1891–92). The contractor for the Hale Building (1887) was Benjamin Ketcham's Sons.
Commercial/Institutional
- Philadelphia Home for Incurables, 48th Street and Woodland Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1880, demolished).
- Saint Stephen Roman Catholic Church, 3805 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1884).
- Philadelphia Record Building, 917-19 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1886, demolished).
- Hale Building (a.k.a. Lucas Building or Keystone National Bank), 1326-28 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1887, expanded 1892, altered). Now Penfield Building.
- Three Banks (Quaker City National Bank; Commonwealth Title & Trust Company; Union Trust Co.), 713-21 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1888–89, altered). Only the facade of Quaker City National Bank (721 Chestnut Street) survives.
- Weightman Building, 1524-26 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1889, burned 1896). The fire also destroyed Hale's architectural office.
- Myers Building, 521-25 Main Street, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (1890).
- Athletic Club of the Schuylkill Navy, 1624-28 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1891, demolished).
- Heywood Chair FactoryHeywood Chair FactoryThe Heywood Chair Factory was a manufacturing facility for bentwood chairs built at 1010-1014 Race St. in Center City, Philadelphia in 1892. It is now located in Philadelphia's Chinatown and has been converted into condominiums. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in...
, 1010-14 Race Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1892). - Divine Lorraine HotelDivine Lorraine HotelThe Divine Lorraine Hotel, also known as the Lorraine Apartments, stands at the corner of Broad and Fairmount Streets in North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Designed by architect Willis G. Hale and built between 1892 and 1894, the building originally functioned as apartments, housing some of...
, Broad and Fairmount Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1894–96, interior gutted 2000s). - Garrick Theatre, 1330 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1900–01, demolished). Built for Weightman, this 1,561-seat theater stood beside the Hale Building.
- Powelton Apartments, 3500-20 Powelton Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (begun 1902). The initial design is attributed to Hale, but the project was left unfinished; completed by Milligan & Weber in 1908.
External links
- Willis G. Hale from Bryn Mawr College.
- Willis G. Hale from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings.
- The Widener Mansion from phillyhistory.org.
- Peter A. B. Widener House from HABSHistoric American Buildings SurveyThe Historic American Buildings Survey , Historic American Engineering Record , and Historic American Landscapes Survey are programs of the National Park Service established for the purpose of documenting historic places. Records consists of measured drawings, archival photographs, and written...
. - The Divine Lorraine Hotel from phillyhistory.org.
- Father Divine historical marker from ExplorePAhistory.com.
- Divine Lorraine Hotel from HABSHistoric American Buildings SurveyThe Historic American Buildings Survey , Historic American Engineering Record , and Historic American Landscapes Survey are programs of the National Park Service established for the purpose of documenting historic places. Records consists of measured drawings, archival photographs, and written...
. - After the Fair: The Development of Parkside from phillyhistory.org.