Monday, March 12, 2012

The Benjamin W. Arnold Residence

The Benjamin Walworth Arnold residence designed by McKim, Mead & White c. 1902 in Albany, New York. Arnold was involved in the lumber business and was president of the Duluth and Northern Minnesota Railroad. The residence is within the Washington Park Historic District. Click HERE to see the Arnold residence on google street view.









Photos from Architectural Record, 1905.

8 comments:

The Ancient said...

I wonder when Arnold found the time to go to India and bag not one but two tigers ...

In any event, here's the third Mrs Arnold, who stayed in the house until 1945:

http://www.nyhistory.org/node/46816

Arnold also had a house in Northeast Harbor, and was a member of the Jekyll Island Club.

The Ancient said...

http://www.ddarch.com/ourt-building

(The carriage house across the street, now home to an architectural practice.)

P.S. Stanny's affair with Evelyn Nesbit happened *before* her marriage to the dreadful Harry Thaw.

The Down East Dilettante said...

Arnold had a very nice house in Northeast Harbor---and by coincidence, I drove past it this very afternoon.

The Albany house is a nice solid example of McK,M&W in their Beacon Hill mode. Liking the billiard room inglenook a lot. This facade has precedent in their grand house for the Andrew family on Commonwealth, and a smaller, but similar facade for the Beebe family, also on Commonwealth in Boston. The window casings on the Arnold house are directly inspired by those on Charles Bulfinch's sublime Third Harrison Gray Otis House on Beacon St.

The Down East Dilettante said...

Beebe House: http://www.bosarchitecture.com/backbay/commonwealth/199.html

Andrew House:
http://mrmhadams.typepad.com/.a/6a015434a64eda970c016300a176f4970d-pi

Third Harrison Gray Otis House:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:3rd_Harrison_Gray_Otis_House_-_DSC00189.JPG

And that, class, concludes our tutorial in how McKim Mead & White arrived at a design for the Arnold house.

The Down East Dilettante said...

And last, here is the Arnold House in Northeast Harbor, designed by Fred Savage, a local architect who had been a draftsman for Peabody & Stearns before going into practice for himself.

The most recent owner was the late Edward McCormick Blair, who was the son of William McCormick Blair who built a sublime colonial by David Adler in Lake Bluff.

And that concludes our session on six degrees of architectural separation.

ChipSF said...

Down East -
Thanks! Liking all those Bostonian references. Where is the Northeast Harbor link?
Help - inquiring minds are dying to see....

The Down East Dilettante said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Down East Dilettante said...

Oops, once again DED performs his amazing invisible link trick.

Here is the Northeast Harbor link. (When looking at these typical WASP summer house interiors, it is amusing to remember that Ned Blair's brother, William McCormick Blair and wife Deeda commmissioned some of Billy Baldwin's most famous interiors)

http://www.knowlesco.com/showcase/?listingid=477