THE CASTLE:
A GREAT HOUSE OF THE GILDED AGE
Author: Guy Altree
(former student of John Paine from early 70s)
INTRO
The Castle at Noble and Greenough School is an architectural treasure, which does not receive the attention it deserves. This building is a magnificent leftover of the Gilded Age. By considering the luxury, size and design of The Castle, we gain an insight into some of the values which shaped our civilization in a critical stage of its development.
The Castle is an important example of the work, philosophy and achievement of the greatest American architect of the 19th century, perhaps the greatest of our history, Henry Hobson Richardson. The actual design of The Castle was the work of Richardson's architectural office, specifically the work of his students, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, since Richardson died in 1886, just before the preliminary plans were drawn. Nonetheless, Richardsonian ideals and values inspired the building of The Castle, and we can truly say it is his creation. (1)
Russell Sturgis, a distinguished architect and historian of 19th century building, says of The Castle:
"In the whole of this large mansion of unusual plan and varied character of design, there are details demanding most careful study. No private dwelling is more worthy to form the subject of a detailed monograph than this." (2)
This paper is a discussion of a great house of the Gilded Age and the men who made it and of what it can tell us of the history of our country. (3)
SECTION I
The post-Civil War period was a time of transition in America. The nation was moving from the countryside into the cities. With the development of new technologies, the agrarian method of production was taken over by cheaper, more efficient machine-age production. New industries were born, such as steel, oil, communications and railroads. A great deal of money was made. Many fortunes were established. This was the time of the great "robber barons."
At this time there was much building to be done, and architecture became a vital field. Economic activities demanded new kinds of architecture, new materials and new forms of building. Warehouses, railroad stations and factories were suddenly needed. Few architects were able to get a grasp on the situation because of their lack of training and experience. When they could invent no style of their own, they borrowed modes from Europe.
At first Greek Revival was used, then Gothic, Renaissance and Second Empire revivals were tried out. American traditional architecture gradually disintegrated. American architects copied in a confused way without a clear understanding of the styles they were using or the needs of the times. Sometimes they put opposite styles into the same building. American architecture was in an incoherent state at the time Richardson began his career. The opportunity was great, and he was prepared by training, class, background and talent to seize the opportunity of the times.
Unlike his fellow architects, Richardson was superbly trained. From Harvard University, he had gone to Paris where he attended L'Ecole des Beaux Arts for a six-year apprenticeship, a unique experience then for an American. Because the Civil War cut off funds from his parents, Richardson also worked for prominent French architects as a paid assistant. He was employed by the French government in such projects as the renovation of the Tuileries. This work gave him much practical experience. From his French experience he learned the importance of industry, discipline, tradition, respect for order and logic.
Richardson's personality and temperament suited the times. He was a vivacious and energetic man. He had the ability to find the center of a problem and solve it. He was a do-er and not a theorist. He always said, "Patience makes draughtsmen--not architects." This attitude appealed to industrialists. Practical men respect his "know-how." He had a love for the good life. He was famous for his bright yellow vests and his capacity for champagne. He always did things in a big way. His personality gave Richardson an instinctive liking for the grand and the massive.
Richardson was also an upper-class person. He came from one of the first families of Louisiana. On his mother's side he was the grandson of the great philosopher Joseph Priestley. When he attended Harvard, he was admitted as a matter of course to the Porcellion Club in which he made many influential friends who helped him get business in later life. This class background made Richardson feel at ease when dealing with the new leaders of the industrial age. The "lords of creation" treated him like an equal. Professional and temperamentally, Richardson fitted in with the needs of those around him. He had an instinctive sympathy with the spirit and building needs of those days.
When Richardson returned to the United States from Paris in 1867, he spent four years in New York trying to find his way in the architectural scene. Through skill and knowledge, he gradually began to rise to the top of his confused profession. In 1872 he got the commission for Trinity Church in Boston and he was thrust into national fame. In 1880 a jury of architects selected the ten best buildings of our history, and five of these were designed by Richardson. One author says, "Richardson's work was in a true sense the integration of all dominant forces of this period, not merely the practical, but the spiritual forces."
Because of his work on Trinity Church, Richardson moved to Boston in 1874. This was a very strategic move for a young architect to make. Boston was the center of economic and intellectual activity in the country. The city was a place of wealth and power. Many of Richardson's friends had become rich and influential, men like Higginson, Ames, Aggasiz and Rumrill, all big businessmen. They became his patrons.
Richardson was now in a good position. He had security, and he could do as he pleased, sure of the confidence and respect of his sponsors. He made his home in Brookline, an affluent suburb, where he was surrounded by a close circle of friends, scholars and thinkers like F.L. Olmsted and Charles Sprague Sargent. This atmosphere stimulated Richardson, and his practice flourished. He gradually enlarged his office in his home on Cottage Street. More and more additions were made to the office and his students jokingly referred to it as "the chicken coop." This office was the first modern architectural office. Many students worked for Richardson, and they became great architects and later carried his influence throughout the nation. The firm still exists, the oldest in the world and one of the greatest. (4)
During those years, Richardson slowly developed his style. It was based on what he thought the times needed in buildings. He sensed a demand for grandeur, vitality and color, but also saw the need for stability and usefulness. He often said he wanted his buildings to have a "quiet" style, not a restless, fussy style. What he did was influenced by the model of the Romanesque buildings of Southern France and Spain, along with the elements like the Syrian arch. He was impressed by the big stone warehouses that used to be along the Boston waterfront which were made by Alexander Parris and Gridley Bryant. He also liked the Shaker buildings of granite which he had seen in his Harvard student years. (5) Richardson used these models as a source of inspiration, not a quarry. His integrity made him a creator, not a copier. He borrowed and adjusted to gain the effects he thought best: large balanced masses, beautiful stonework, fine craftsmanship were among the results. His taste made him truly original.
Richardson also got to be very much concerned with the materials used in construction. He tried to get materials near the construction site to cut down costs and to fit regional character. In his Boston buildings, he used stones from Longmeadow, Roxbury Puddingstone, Milford and Quincy granite. He liked decoration and ornamentation for the interior of his buildings. He was the first architect to employ such artists as Saint-Gaudens and La Farge to decorate the interior of his buildings.
At the close of his life, Richardson, after ten years of intensive work, had become a great architect. As he saw his designs on paper turned into stone over the years, he gradually became more orderly and refined in his work. He made his buildings more composed and unified and beautiful. At the same time, he tried to make his buildings increasingly useful and functional. Some of the best structures are in the Boston area: the Stoughton House in Cambridge, the Quincy Library, Sever Hall at Harvard, Trinity Church. Other great buildings are the Allegheny Courthouse, the Watts Sherman House in Newport, and the Marshall Field Warehouse in Chicago. He did all kinds of work. He made public buildings and commercial buildings, in the country and in the city, residences that were very luxurious and some that were very small, one of the best of which cost only $2,500. He often said he was willing to design anything from a cathedral to a chicken coop.
Richardson died on April 27, 1886, from a lifetime of overwork and from Bright's disease. His death could have been a mortal blow to an intimate practice such as his, but he had designated three of his students as his successors. This successor-firm took the names of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge. These men, through intensive training by Richardson over a long period, had learned to think as the master did. Richardson had always left a major part of design and drafting to his principal aides, so they knew what he wanted and how he wanted it done. An architectural historian, Professor O'Gorman, says, "Richardson's genius shows best in the men that gathered around him." (6)
George F. Shepley (1858-1903) was the head of the new firm. He came from St. Louis, where he graduated from Washington University in 1880. He later came to Boston and became a student at M.I.T. He joined Richardson's firm and, after Richardson's death, married his daughter, Julia. This marriage maintained the firm's family ties. The oldest of the partners was Charles H. Rutan (1851-1914), who was the third partner. He was a native of Boston and a graduate of Harvard and M.I.T. In 1889 he married Shepley's sister, and this strengthened the family character of the firm. It had always been a family firm. Today such distinguished descendants of the original partners as Joseph Richardson and Daniel Coolidge are partners.
The first job of the new firm was to finish the twenty-five projects left unfinished in Richardson's office. These projects were in various stages of development. After the work was done, the partners gave the $85,000 in fees to Richardson's widow, who had been left in poor financial circumstances. In the beginning years, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge were able to capture in their buildings the old Richardsonian mood and flair more than anyone else, and one historian says, " . . . the direct influence from Richardson can probably be seen in the purest form in the work of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge." (7)
The firm did some of its best work in these early days. The Allegheny Courthouse and the Marshall Field Warehouse are examples. The firm also erected several beautiful residences, designed by Richardson, like the Glessner House in Chicago and the Gratwick House in Buffalo, New York. And, of course, the construction was undertaken of The Castle, the original ideas for which Richardson had discussed with Mr. A.W. Nickerson, the owner of the new house. Commenting on this particular new commission, Wayne Anders, the architectural historian, says:
"Though Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, who inherited his practice, could not always maintain his (Richardson's) standards, they were so deeply moved by his example that they created one country house of which the master might have been proud. This is the tremendous, boulder-hewn residence at Dedham, Massachusetts of A.W. Nickerson, one of the magnates of the Santa Fe." (8)
SECTION II
The big industrialists of the Gilded Age changed the economic and cultural course of our country. These "lords of creation" were strong men who asserted themselves. Oftentimes they were domineering and self-confident. Though they changed American into a progressive society, the industrialists realized that much was lost in our materialism and exclusion of the agrarian past. They sought for ties to the past and security from the tidal wave of progress. they wanted a cultural life equal to their economic power.
One way these men found to assure themselves of this desire for place and power was in the houses they built for themselves. The greatest collection of such mansions can be seen in places like Newport, Rhode Island. The Vanderbilt home in Ashville, North Carolina, was the most extensive structure in the world under one roof. More people were employed to maintain that one estate than were employed in the whole Department of Agriculture. It was at this time and in this atmosphere that Mr. A.W. Nickerson approached Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge to build The Castle. Mr. Nickerson was a typical "baron" of the age, and he wanted a beautiful and impressive house to establish his place in society. (9)
Albert Winslow Nickerson was born on May 21, 1840, Jamaica Plain. He was the eldest son of Joseph Nickerson, a well-known Boston businessman. Joseph Nickerson was born in Brewster on Cape Cod. He ran off to sea at the age of 16, becoming captain of his own ship at 24. Late in life he became a ships' chandler in Boston, and he had a prosperous warehouse on Harrison Avenue. With the decline of American shipping, he invested his money in railroads and textiles. He eventually bought 12,000 shares in the Atchison, Santa Fe and Topeka Railway Company, of which his brother Thomas was President. He had great financial success and, when he died, was one of the richest men in Boston. He left his son Albert a great fortune.
Albert Nickerson was educated at a private institution known as the Eliot School in Jamaica Plain. By the time of his father's death in 1880, Albert had proved himself a very able businessman on his own. He had accumulated holdings worth three million dollars according to some estimates. With his father's legacy, he was a very rich man. He became a director of the Atchison, Santa Fe, Topeka Line and President of the Arlington Mills of Lawrence. He was also a director of the Mexican Central Railway. Eventually his private resources were rumored to be between ten and twenty million dollars, an immense sum for those days.
Mr. Nickerson lived in the family residence in Jamaica Plain until 1877 when he had the sudden impulse to build a house of his own. He bought an estate in Dedham near Connecticut Corner. He took an active part in community affairs and made generous donations to charitable causes. However, he had a conflict with local officials over certain adjustments in streets which he wanted eliminated to improve his estate. He was refused permission. His taxes were also raised above the amount he thought fair, and eventually he left Dedham for Marion, Massachusetts, on Buzzards Bay.
There he bought a vast estate called "Great Hill." The house had forty rooms and an acreage of seven square miles covered with forests and winding driveways of many miles. The estate took up five or six miles along the coastline. He extensively remodeled the house, richly redecorated it, and added conservatories and extensive stables. Although a moderate Republican himself, he entertained his good friend President Cleveland here on occasion. He induced Cleveland to buy an adjoining estate called "Grey Gables."
However, Mr. Nickerson again had a dispute with local officials over taxes, and then moved back to Dedham. Here he bought "Riverdale," which at one time had been the home of the great American historian John Lathrop Motley. The estate was made up of six hundred acres which bordered the Charles River, and it was in this beautiful setting that he eventually built The Castle.
Mr. Nickerson was a commanding figure. In appearance he was a heavily-built man of large frame. He had iron-grey hair and his countenance was usually stern. He had a harsh manner, which covered up a kindly and charitable disposition. He was sometimes stubborn and overbearing, but he was a good friend to his subordinates. He was famous for his discreet good deeds for the fisherman of Marion. He frequently gave large sums of money to the Town of Dedham for the public benefit and to many charities in the Boston area. (10)
His life was luxurious and leisurely. He entertained many famous people at Great Hill and Riverdale, among whom was the opera singer Mojeska. He traveled in a private railway car which on one occasion was attacked by Indians as he was traveling in the west. He had a large steam yacht, but he was not a very good sailor. However, he was a great athlete and horseman. He was able to pick up a handkerchief from the ground while riding full astride a horse. His stables were famous for beautiful horses. While at Riverdale one of Mr. Nickerson's favorite pastimes was scaling the giant trees on the property. He was a lover of nature, and he never allowed the destruction of any plant or animal on his grounds. He would change the course of a road to avoid cutting down a desirable tree. His particular interest was the care and management of his two great estates.
Mr. Nickerson died on May 17, 1893 of a burst appendix. His funeral at St. Paul's Church, Dedham, was a considerable event, and special trains were run out from Boston to accommodate the many mourners. Because of speculation on the stock market and the bad management of his affairs by assistants, Mr. Nickerson's fortune was much reduced at his death. The family was obliged to sell off for low prices his 60,000 shares in the Atchison, Topeka, Santa Fe Line to pay off the obligations of his estate.
The Great Hill estate was sold to make possible keeping The Castle, which Mr. Nickerson's wife tried hard for many years to hold in the family. In old age she was obliged to give up, and she went to live in Europe, where she finally died. On August 30, 1921, the property was sold to Noble and Greenough.
The Castle is an appropriate mansion for a captain of industry. (11) It is a baronial structure. The building gives a very definite impression. The size and setting are dominating characteristics. The expanse of The Castle makes it a monumental piece of architecture, massive and "stony." Its volume, grandeur and amplitude give it a very great presence. The walls of rough-hewn granite lend an impressive quality of perpetuity, stability and security.
The setting of The Castle is striking. The building is perched on a rocky ledge. The building seems to grow out of the rock and flows out into the surrounding dense woods. Sloping gently down in front, the green grass runs to the winding Charles. The building has a complete oneness with its natural surroundings. All this gives The Castle the atmosphere of a romantic chateau of the Loire Valley, dramatically silhouetted against the sky. The building is almost alive, a crouching animal.
The facade of The Castle is a dominant feature. The materials used in the walls are Roxbury Puddingstone and granite from Dedham, ______, Quincy, Weymouth and Westerly, Rhode Island. Sandstone from Longmeadow, Massachusetts and brownstone from Delaware are also used. The stone has been cut in a natural cleft manner, producing a steeled, or axed, finish. The stone has been put together in a very calculated and scaled manner, to achieve a regular design. The masonry is random ashlar in construction.
The six hexagonal towers give movement and boundary to the walls. These towers rise above the eaves to emphasize the height of the roof. Two pairs of segmental arches open up loggia on the second story. These arches have elongated voussoirs. Above these arches, on the third floor, are five rectangular openings, which also give in on the loggia. The arches and rectangles form a band across the front of the building, resulting in a very clear horizontal effect. The lintels of the rectangles are huge and weigh seventeen tons. The loggia are trimmed inside with Longmeadow sandstone. The arches and rectangles form pools of shadow in the lighter expanse of the wall. Solids and voids alternate. The interplay of light and shadow is very pleasing. The general horizontality of the facade, the large size of the elements, and the shadows contribute to Richardson's effort to secure a "quiet" style.
The windows are trimmed in Longmeadow sandstone. They have deep reveals which show the massiveness of the walls inside and out. These windows are copies of the windows of the Barcellow Palace in Florence. The grouped windows contribute to the low horizontal effect. Four ______ windows are indented over two feet, and they further accentuate the horizontality and thickness of the walls.
The vast hipped roof of The Castle is an important and assertive feature of the design. The upper series of dormers have been added by the school and help destroy the whole effect of the roof. The lower dormers are also hipped and diminish the verticality of the building and give life to the roof construction. The windows are double-hung and have muntins. On the back roof there are "eye-lid" dormers, which were a special Richardsonian development. The high ridge line of the roof makes for a picturesque outline against the sky.
The front entrance is one of Richardson's usual Syrian arches. It is made of seam-faced granite. The arch has a very low springing line which adds to the general feeling of overwhelming mass in the structure above. The Castle rests on the solid foundation of the front terrace. There is a slight batter to the terrace which gives a feeling of upward sweep. The terrace has a design somewhat like Richardson's famous stone bridge in the Fenway. The terrace contributes to the rootedness of the building because the bottom line follows the original slope of the ground and hugs the land. This inclination contributes to the naturalness of the building and its growth out of the earth.
The interior of the house follows Richardson's ideas. A characteristic of his domestic architecture is to avoid chopping up a house into a lot of disconnected cubicles. He wanted a great central hall to provide the main focus for a series of rooms which flow into each other in an interconnected fashion. He wanted easy flow and circulation inside his houses. The arrangement of rooms in The Castle tries to work out that idea.
The entrance arch leads into a vaulted hall of gray sandstone. The floor is bluestone finished with Ohio freestone. The dimensions of the hall are 37 by 33 feet. To the right of the entrance there is a fireplace. The room has an inglenook, a bit of design that Richardson liked very much. On this level are various rooms for laundry storage, a wine-cellar, and heating facilities including two steam boilers.
A winding stairway, with a floor of bluestone and walls of limestone, leads up to the music room. Here the dimensions are 65 feet by 50 feet. This room is really the center of the house. The ceiling has solid oak beams which introduce inside the horizontality of the exterior. There is a beautiful fireplace with the family crest in a mantlepiece of carved lions, peacocks and flowers. This is one of the showpieces of the building.
To the right of the music room is the dining room which is 64 by 40 feet. The east tower of the facade adds a semicircular extension to the room. The fireplace mantle is of mahogany and has finely carved features of an antique English design. Various other related rooms serve as a butcher's pantry, meat rooms with ice chests, servants' quarters and closets.
Opening out of the music room to the left is a small reception room which is finished in fine satinwood from Ceylon beautifully carved. The mantle over the fireplace is of Italian marble. The living room has the largest fireplace in the house and is finished like those in the music and dining rooms. The room has an oak-beamed ceiling, paneled oak walls and an oak floor. The room is irregular in shape (64 feet by 60 feet) because of a semicircular extension formed by the west tower of the exterior wall.
The three largest rooms--the living, dining and music rooms--can all be connected by opening the large doors to form a vista over 100 feet long. A passageway leads from the living room to what was Mr. Nickerson's private library, a room 37 feet by 31 feet. This small room has oak-paneled walls and an oak-beamed ceiling. Bookshelves covered three walls, and on the fourth was a fireplace with a carved oak mantlepiece. The floors of all these rooms where highly polished and were covered with rich oriental rugs.
From the center of the house, a broad staircase of oak leads up to a hall on the third floor which is 95 feet long. This hallway has staircases at each end. The staircases are enclosed in towers which appear in the back of the building. Off the main hallway on this floor are nine bedrooms and seven baths. Each of these bathrooms had beautiful marble basins and very large and deep bathtubs, now replaced by showers and tile floors. Each bedroom faces south and opens onto the loggia. All the windows of the house are placed to give a beautiful prospect of the Charles and the surrounding countryside from many different directions.
The broad central staircase continues up to the billiard room (40 feet by 30 feet). There are four bedrooms on this floor, a washroom, several storerooms and a cedar closet. The floor also contains the servants quarters with ten bedrooms, accommodations which indicate the scale of living. Above the fourth floor is the attic which extends 40 feet by 100 feet.
Richardson tried also to make each of his houses a unified whole. The exterior should have some evident relation to the interior, and the decoration and furnishing of the house should all be added in terms of the whole scheme for the house. Everything should fit the design--wallpaper, rugs, stained-glass, fireplaces, furniture and art work. He always sought to use the best artisans and the best materials.
He took special interest in the design and manufacture of the furniture which was used in his houses. Now almost all the furniture of The Castle has been scattered, but one gigantic carved table remains and illustrates the unique quality of the furnishings. The fireplaces are also outstanding.
The Castle was constructed by Norcross Brothers of Worcester. The architectural historian, James O'Gorman, in talking about how buildings are made, says:
"The discussion about patronage is recognized aspect of architectural history . . . but the caliber has largely been neglected. Unjustly so: for a good building is a tribute to both the architect and the builder, and a brilliant design and architectural prestige can be ruined by poor workmanship." (12)
This comment is certainly true of the great contracting firm that built The Castle. ___ ____, craftsmanship and composition __ ____ construction owe a great deal to the skill of its builders. (13)
H. H. Richardson employed Norcross Brothers for most of his buildings and for all his successful buildings. The firm constructed for sure thirty-three of Richardson's commissions, and many more are attributed to them. They built, for example, Trinity Church. In addition, the firm is responsible for many other great buildings throughout the country for other architects. They made the New York Public Library, the Chicago Art Museum, South Station and similar well-known structures. They reconstructed the White House when Theodore Roosevelt was President.
The Norcross firm was a forerunner of new industrial organization. The enterprise did not use old-fashioned methods and materials, but stressed quality, efficiency and time. They had the capacity to build an entire structure inside and out. They were one of the few firms to use their own stone quarries. They did all their own millwork in their Worcester shops. The concern grew to be the leading contractors in the country.
The brothers themselves, Orlando and James, were skilled artisans. They had begun life as carpenters, and they knew their trade thoroughly. Their father was a sawmill designer whose early death forced the two boys to make their own living. When they came back from the Civil War, they began a business at Swampscott. In 1865, the brothers moved to Worcester where one of their first great successes was the construction of Richardson's Worcester High School building. As time passed, they began to open offices for business in all the major cities of the country. James, who had a bent for figures, took care of the financial end of the business, and Orlando was the engineer and field manager. The brothers were so dependent upon each other than when James died the company ran into financial difficulties from which it did not recover. (14)
The relation between Orlando Norcross and Richardson was one of complete trust, respect and friendship. Richardson depended on Norcross for all the technical matters of construction and estimates of cost. He gave a great deal of responsibility to his builder, so much trust that some critics have said that Norcross' conservative dependence on certain materials and methods kept Richardson from progressing into the new age of steel construction and skyscraper design. In any case, Richardson and Norcross were intimate collaborators, and this relationship continued with Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge.
When Norcross Brothers received a contract for a building like The Castle, it was a big operation. On June 4, 1887, the work began on the foundations. It took two and three-quarter years to complete the structure at a final cost of $450,000. At times the work force numbered 200 men. A special railroad was built into the site to bring the stone from the Dedham quarries. Other material was brought from all parts of the country--Ohio, Illinois, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Much of the material came from Norcross-owned mills, forests and quarries. The work force was organized into special details for various aspects of the construction, each under a foreman, with the different parties supervised by a field-manager, O.J. Clark, who had great authority. Orlando Norcross would visit the site only occasionally. The innovative techniques and systematic organization resulted in a unified structure, not a soup made by too many cooks. The production of all building and materials and every detail of construction was a centralized procedure under the watchful eye of Norcross.
In addition to Orlando Norcross, another great craftsman made a contribution to the construction of The Castle, Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted, the greatest landscape architect of our history. Olmsted designed Central Park in New York, the Boston Park system, and the Vanderbilt Estate in North Carolina, as well as many other important projects throughout the country. Richardson and Olmsted had much in common. They were intimate friends and Brookline neighbors. They had the same artistic ideals. As a result of their compatibility, they collaborated on many building enterprises, such as the buildings in North Boston for the Ames family.
After Richardson's death, Olmsted and his firm worked with Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge on common enterprises. Stanford University is the joint product of this combination of architectural designers. The Olmsted firm designed the grounds for The Castle.
Olmsted wanted his landscape work to be naturalistic. He liked the rugged and the informal. He wanted his landscapes to be beautiful, but not in a phony or pretentious way. He wanted to preserve where possible the natural environment. All the ideals of Olmsted were expressed in the grounds of the Riverdale Estate, which spread out into 80 acres of large trees of oak, pine, chestnut, walnut and birch, blended with 40 acres of rolling grasslands, rivers and meadows. (15) This landscaping was part of Richardson's version of architecture as a unified design of all elements in a building and in its surroundings.
SECTION III
H.H. Richardson started a new era in American architecture. He set standards of excellence. Richardson stressed the importance of originality, draftsmanship, new ideas, unity of design and continuity of space. Though he wanted new forms for a new age, he did not hesitate to adapt the ideas and forms of the past to fit the present needs of his times. Richardson inspired many of the architects who came after him to do better things, such as Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge and their work on The Castle and many other great architects like Frank Lloyd Wright. Richardson started the modern age of architecture.
The Castle is a symbol of certain values in an important era in our history, the Gilded Age. This building represents the way of life of the American entrepreneur, a man who did big things and who got big rewards. These people were responsible for leading this country into its great industrial development. The Castle is an expression of the hopes and beliefs of this important class in the late 19th century; the power, self-confidence, materialism, workmanship, the large design.
The Castle is an asset to Noble and Greenough School. Though the architectural design of this building is not extraordinary, the building is a great structure and a model of craftsmanship. It is a finished construction materially and artistically. The Castle is a "window" into our past, a connection which leads to further understanding of our history. Noble and Greenough ought to pay more attention to The Castle. This structure represents the pride, strength and stability of the school's tradition. The Castle comes out of Richardson's great gifts, the Gilded Age, the character of A.W. Nickerson, and what Nobles stands for. The Castle is a treasure of which we must be aware.
A Note
The problem of who actually drew the plans for The Castle is doubt. Many people have thought that Richardson drew the design. More informed authorities say that Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge are responsible.
The original drawings for The Castle in the Houghton Library at Harvard (some of which are attached) give no indication of authorship. Some people declare these drawings to be those of Richardson. Mr. Ludovico Borge says they are not in Richardson's style. Mr. Daniel Coolidge believes that the drawings may be by his grandfather, Charles Allerton Coolidge.
The most complete work on Richardson by Henry-Russell Hitchcock states that Richardson had talked over the plans with Mr. Nickerson before his death. I wrote a letter to Mr. Hitchcock asking him to substantiate this statement and he replied, "It seemed to be common knowledge around Dedham 40 years ago that this had been the fact."
No hard evidence exists that such conservations between Richardson and Nickerson took place, but it seems likely that they did. Mr. Nickerson and Richardson were distantly related and they moved in the same Boston circles. It does not seem likely that Mr. Nickerson would have given such an important commission to a new and untried firm of architects had he not previously consulted with Richardson for counsel and advice. Richardson at this time, immediately before his death, was drawing plans for a number of wealthy clients like Glessner, Gratwick, Anderson, Wardour, and it would have been a common sense thing for Mr. Nickerson to have approached Richardson with his own project.
We assume, therefore, that Mr. Nickerson talked to Richardson in the months prior to the latter's death and immediately preceding the building of The Castle. Given the way Richardson did business and the severity of his illness, the actual drafting of plans must have been done by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge. The Castle was certainly built under their supervision.
Footnotes
(1) See note at end of this paper.
(2) Sturgis, Russell, "Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge" The Architectural Record, July 1896, p. 4.
(3) I have had helpful conversation with the following people about the subject of this paper: Ludovico Borgo, Daniel Coolidge, Legére Cuyler, Richard Flood, Sr., Margaret Henderson Floyd, Eleanor Garvey, Jane Kibrick, Frank B. Lawson, Albert Nickerson, James O'Gorman, Cecil Wylde, Cynthia Ziatsevsky. I am also grateful to the following correspondents: Wayne Andrews, William Ellery Bright, Ralph Cross, Harold Dow, Richard Fannon, Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Alice McPhail, Philip McGrail, Anne Reynolds, William Sawyer, Charles Craig, Elizabeth Crane and Pamela Hubbard were good enough to make a series of photographs of The Castle for me.
(4) Forbes, J.D. "Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott: An Introduction," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Volume 18 #3 (1958 Autumn), pp. 19-25.
(5) Giedion, S., Spare Time and Architecture, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, pp. 356-359.
(6) O'Gorman, James, "O.W. Norcross, Richardson's 'Master Builder': A Preliminary Report," The Journal of Architectural Historians, May 1973, p. 109.
(7) Forbes, Ibid.
(8) Andrews, Wayne, Architecture, Ambitions and Americans, The Free Press, London, 1964, pp. 169.
(9) The biographical facts of Mr. A.W. Nickerson have been given to me by his grandson, Albert Nickerson, who talked to me in a helpful way at great length. I have also obtained certain facts from obituaries in the Boston Traveler and the Dedham Transcript.
(10) For example, in the Dedham Transcript of June 25, 1890, there is a report that he had given $5,000 for the construction of the Dedham Library. On March 22, 1890, there is a story reporting a contribution of $1,000 to "one of Boston's noble charities that of Mrs. Vincent's Hospital for Working People."
(11) Mr. Daniel Coolidge, with great consideration, took much time to show me over the entire building and tried to help me understand its different features. His grandfather drew the original plans, examples of which are attached to this paper. Dr. Borgo also gave me much help in looking at the building, as did Mr. Legére Cuyler.
(12) O'Gorman, James, "O.W. Norcross, Richardson's 'Master Builder': A Preliminary Report," The Journal of Architectural Historians, May 1973, p. 104.
(13) Ruth and Parsons Witbeck, presently students at Noble and Greenough, are members of the Norcross family.
(14) O'Gorman, Ibid. Also, Worcester: Its Past and Present, pp. 213-215: Rice, The Worcester of 1896, pp. 697-699 and 700-703. Mr. Ellery Bright was good enough to send me certain facts about Norcross Bros., which had come to him as a member of the family.
(15) My authority for saying that the Olmsted firm did the landscaping of The Castle is Cynthia Zaitsevsky, an authority on Richardson Olmsted. Mrs. Zaitsevsky has not yet published the results of her research.
