Boston College. Color slides copyright Prof. Jeffery Howe.

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High Victorian Gothic

• comparison: High Victorian Gothic in England

Ware & Van Brunt: Memorial Hall,Harvard Univ., 1870-78	Ware & Van Brunt: Memorial  Hall, Harvard Univ., 1870-78	Ware & Van Brunt: Memorial Hall,Harvard Univ., 1870-78	Ware & Van Brunt: Memorial Hall,Harvard Univ., 1870-78
Ware & Van Brunt: Memorial Hall,Harvard Univ., 1870-78	Ware & Van Brunt: Memorial Hall,Harvard Univ., 1870-78	Ware & Van Brunt: Memorial Hall,Harvard Univ., 1870-78	Ware & Van Brunt: Memorial Hall,Harvard Univ., 1870-78
Ware & Van Brunt: Memorial Hall,Harvard Univ., 1870-78	Ware & Van Brunt: Memorial Hall,Harvard Univ., 1870-78	Ware & Van Brunt: Memorial Hall,Harvard Univ., 1870-78	Ware & Van Brunt: Memorial Hall,Harvard Univ., 1870-78

Sturgis and Brigham: Former  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1871-78	Copley Square, Boston
F. Furness: PA Academy  of Art, Philadelphia, 1876

1. Memorial Hall, Harvard, 1870-78. William Ware & Henry Van Brunt, architects. From an old postcard.
2. Memorial Hall, Harvard, 1870-78. Interior. William Ware & Henry Van Brunt, architects.
3. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 1871-78.(Demolished) Sturgis & Brigham, architects. From an old postcard.
4. Boston Public Library, 1888-1895. McKim, Mead, & White, architects. From an old postcard of Copley Square. (New Old South Church at right, 1874-75; Cummings & Sears, architects.

William Robert Ware (1832-1915) and Henry Van Brunt (1832-1903). Ware and Van Brunt were both pupils of Richard Morris Hunt and graduates of Harvard. They established a partnership between 1863 and 1881. Both men started their careers as Gothicists, inspired by John Ruskin. Ware was responsible for creating the first two architecture schools in the United States; at MIT in 1865 and at Columbia in 1881.

Frank Furness (1839-1912) was a Philadelphian who's work has been described as idiosyncratic. The mood of his work can be compared to Samuel Sanders Teulon (1812-73) and Bassett Keeling (1836-1886) because of the Gothic motifs that were combined with a general heaviness. Furness's style must be called Gothic but there are also many original elements. The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Building is his most notable work that survives today. (WJC)
 
 

High Victorian Gothic Churches

Ware and Van Brunt: First  Church, Boston, 1868	Ware and Van Brunt: First Church, Boston, 1868	Ware and Van Brunt: First Church, Boston, 1868	Ware and Van Brunt: First Church, Boston, 1868
Cummings and Sears: New  Old South  Church, Boston,  1874-75	Cummings and Sears: New Old South  Church, Boston, 1874-75	Cummings and Sears: New Old South  Church, Boston, 1874-75
Cummings and Sears: New Old  South  Church, Boston, 1874-75	Cummings and Sears: New Old South  Church, Boston, 1874-75
The tower of the New Old South Church is 246' high.  It began leaning shortly after construction, eventually leaning over 36" out of plumb.  It was taken down in 1931 and rebuilt in 1940.

1. First Church, Boston. 1868William Ware and Henry Van Brunt, architects.
2. First Church, Boston. 1868William Ware and Henry Van Brunt, architects. Restored by Paul Rudolph, 1971.
3. First Church, Boston. 1868William Ware and Henry Van Brunt, architects. Restored by Paul Rudolph, 1971.
4. First Church, Boston. 1868William Ware and Henry Van Brunt, architects. Restored by Paul Rudolph, 1971.
5. New Old South Church, Boston. 1874-75. Cummings and Sears, architects.
6. New Old South Church, Boston. 1874-75.Cummings and Sears, architects.

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Jeffery Howe: 1996, 1997, 1998. (email: [email protected])