Scranton has been my home since before I was a thought and my ancestors were in boats seeking greener pastures. Instead of those green pastures, however, they settled in a city in its process of becoming, so thus I have always known the steel and stone face of this place. In Downtown Scranton, one particular building has always demanded my attention with its moody solidity, towering strength, and rich, red hue.
Credit: Photograph by William E. Fischer, Jr.
The Brooks Building is located at Courthouse Square, 436 Spruce Street, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The building's architectural design is owed to Lansing C. Holden, who created it on behalf of Judge Alfred Hand in 1891 and was completed in 1896. The name of the Brooks Building is owed to a prior tenant, a brokerage firm, and the original name of the structure is unknown. Information surrounding either Holden or Hand, as well as that of the building itself, is exceedingly difficult to ascertain, only popping up marginally in the few bits of architectural scholarship that deign to include it in its pages. While information on the building itself is scant, visual analysis and educated guesswork shall be our foundation. The popular style to which the Brooks Building fits to a tee is Romanesque Revival or Richardsonian Romanesque. While the history of the Brooks Building and the architect are hard to ascertain, visually we can extrapolate how the Romanesque style was implemented to fortify a fledgling city such as Scranton.
Pennsylvania was settled in the 1700s but Scranton came much later on, its urban development not beginning until the 19th century. The city's prosperity is owed to anthracite coal and iron industries, which helped to employ architects from the other city it wished to model itself: New York City. According to Buildings of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania by George E. Thomas, "The sudden flood of coal wealth brought the opportunity to spend money on architecture. Here, too, geography shaped culture. Just as two separate transportation systems, canal and rail, carried the region's coal to Philadelphia or New York, so they carried back architectural ideas…Scrantonians tended to favor New York City, employing such figures as Richard M. Upjohn, Little and O'Connor, and Raymond Hood. Lavish amounts of wealth were in play; a capable and savvy architect could use the anthracite regions as the launching pad for a national career" (441). Though not having been able to reach that national career, Lansing C. Holden was from the New York and Delaware area and he did design a centrally located building in Scranton's downtown area. Scranton, like its coal, burned too fast and bright, and when its resources were depleted, quickly fell into disrepair. This is assuredly one of the many reasons why the history in this area has either not been written or saved. But when it did have the means, Scranton and its people wished to compose a city that looked to last, and no building looks more like it will last, in my opinion, than the Brooks Building.
Since function oft determines form, it is necessary to note that the patron of the Brooks Building was Judge Alfred Hand and that the location of the building is on Courthouse Square. While it isn't clear why this building was commissioned, it is fair to assume based on the patron's occupation that it was most likely used as a law office. This is aided by the location of the building being in Downtown Scranton, a busy section of the city and on the square near the Scranton Courthouse. Due to the nature of the law and the government properties sitting adjacent, it is no wonder why the solidity of the Romanesque style was used, except transformed to fit the evolving nature of city life in the turn-of-the-century. According to A Field Guide to American Architecture by Carole Rifkind,"…it was commercial more than civic consideration that dominated urban mood, and it was commercial need that determined urban form" (Rifkind 193). Unfortunately since I was unable to enter the building, the focus of this paper will be on the exterior alone and how it fits into the larger Romanesque or Richardsonian Romanesque style as a whole.
According to What Style Is It?: A Guide to American Architecture by John C. Poppeliers and S. Allen Chambers, Jr., Richardsonian Romanesque architecture is characterized in a number of ways. "Whereas the earlier, pre-Civil War manifestation of the style had been based largely on German sources, the Romanesque of the 1870s and 1880s drew on Spanish and southern French influences. Even so, under Richardson's aegis, it became a uniquely American style. Still present were the round arches framing window and door openings (usually minus chevrons and lozenges), but gone were vertical silhouettes and smooth stone or brick facings. Richardson's buildings were more horizontal and rough in texture. Heaviness was an ever-present characteristic of the style— emphasized not only by the stone construction but also by deep window reveals, cavernous door openings and, occasionally, bands of windows. These openings were often further defined by a contrasting color or texture of tone or by short, robust columns" (78).
While I am unsure of the exact materials used to construct the Brooks Building, based upon its height and the time period of its construction, it appears to be a high-rise building. This means that it uses steel, or more likely iron based upon Scranton's local industries, as its foundational support, though faced with stone for the aesthetic solidity the medium exudes. "The most eloquent demonstration of the era's accomplishments, of its ingenuity, and its driving energy, was the tall building— a remarkable advance whose development scarcely spanned a generation. By the 1890s, in any number of the nation's cities, the masonry-sheathed, steel-framed office buildings rose ten, twelve, sixteen stories or more" (Rifkind 193). Also like a high-rise, it has the conceptual appearance of a column. "Stone, brick, and timber are employed to suggest weight and permanence. Ashlar masonry is laid in regular courses with fine mortar joints…The Romanesque elaborates on the Greek Revival. Characteristically, it also employs round-arch openings, heavy masonry piers, and richly profiled cornices" (Rifkind 180-181). The bottom or commercial floor acts as the base with its rusticated stone, the proceeding floors made in a smoother brick material act as the shaft, and the green metal that crowns the top of the building is the capital. It was not meant to be viewed in the round, however, and more acts like an engaged column as it sits flush with the buildings surrounding it. Based upon the photo below from the Lackawanna Historical Society, an old photo based upon the black-and-white color and the model of cars appearing in the image, only two of the four sides of the building were meant to be seen.
Credit: Lackawanna Historical Society
The Brooks Building primarily uses a strong square and rectangular shape, reserving the rounded arches and pillars associated with the Romanesque to add emphasis and visual intrigue. The shape of the building is a typical rectangle with square windows echoing its overall sharp shape. The rounded arches are used sparingly, and of the eight floors that comprise the building, only the sixth floor bears a series of rounded arch windows. Rounded arches are inlaid in the building itself, but most likely just for design rather than structure.
The use of rounded arches or shapes is used most importantly in the entryway and bay windows. The entryway goes up four floors, the fourth of which bears simple, decorative columns with a spiral design running along the lower shafts. If the purpose of the Brooks Building was indeed a law office, it is interesting then that this feature of the structure skirts the law. According to History Set in Stone: A Guide to Downtown Scranton Architecture by the Lackawanna Heritage Valley and Lackawanna Historical Society, "This office building was designed in 1891 by Lansing Holden for Judge Alfred Hand. The large bay window entrance allowed Hand to circumvent the city's sidewalk reservation law and extend the space of the building" (7). The bay windows, along with the entryway, are used to add life to what would otherwise be a very static building. "Window openings, variously shaped and sized, activate the façade…Although five or six stories tall, a structure's apparent height is diminished when several stories are grouped within a single motif" (Rifkind 195). It is actually these bay windows that we see the use of the more industrial materials breaking through this rusticated, Romanesque gilding. There is also an occasional use of columns near the windows and colonettes used as decoration in order to visually lengthen the building, as well as to round out the sharpness of the geometric build, resembling the rusticated, rounded nature of the stone on the bottom floor.
Credit: Abigail Wilson
The colors of the building are the most striking features of the building. It is predominantly an earthen, venetian red, making the whole of the building all the more bold and breathtaking. "Brownstone and dark-toned granite are dressed to enhance their visual and tactile appeal: hewn for a rough rockiness; cut, for an elegant urbanity; polished, for a mirror like smoothness; drilled for a lacy ornamentality" (Rifkind 194). The color of the stone combined with the rough texture lend an air of solidity, heaviness, and permanence to the structure. The bay windows and the crown of the building are a lighter, duller, and cooler green used to offset the rich warmth of the red stone. The windows themselves, with the glass reflecting the sky, allow breathing room for the red stone to shine, especially when the glass reflects a crisp blue sky. Only one part of the stone is discolored from the rest, possibly due to the stone being quarried from a different source or purposefully to differentiate if it was a repair to the building. To add to the earthen red, a whorling floral design wraps like a band around the building, giving the stone an organic touch to match its rounded forms. This band is also used to demarcate the original design of the building from the later addition of the floors above it. Due to the high placement of the design, it was most likely meant to be viewed from the buildings across or adjacent to the Brooks Building. It is possibly an inspiration from the Art Nouveau which was popular around the time of the building's construction. If it was an inspiration of the style, it is interesting to note the shortness of the style's reign touching what appears to be a building steeped in a style known for its sense of permanence.
Credit: Unknown
In closing, scholarship surrounding the Romanesque is wide and varied but not for every building, especially one such as the Brooks Building. I have adored this building because although it is not a skyscraper, this building exudes atmosphere. It is weighty, imposing, and visually striking in its use of venetian red, rusticated stone and rounded entryway. While it may stand flush with the buildings beside it, the Richardsonian Romanesque style allows it to stand alone in its moodiness and sense of permanence. This permanence is so incredibly important for a city like Scranton that has seen its rise and fall in glory, that a symbol from its glory days still stands, promising in its past a prosperity for the future.
Works Cited:
Lackawanna Heritage Valley and Lackawanna Historical Society. History Set in Stone: A Guide to Downtown Scranton Architecture, Lackawanna Heritage Valley, Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Poppeliers, John C., et al. What Style Is It?: A Guide to American Architecture. Wiley, 2003.
Rifkind, Carole. Field Guide to American Architecture. Signet, 1980.
Thomas, George E. Buildings of Pennsylvania Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania. Univ. of Virginia Press, 2010.
No comments:
Post a Comment