THE GREEK REVIVAL

This column first appeared in the April 2015 edition of GreeneSPEAK!

The Behm Row is an exceptionally fine collection of four Greek Revival houses built in the early 1850s.

Greek Revival was the prevalent American architectural style in the decades before the Civil War.  While most towns in Southwestern Pennsylvania have lost their Greek Revival structures, or never had them, Waynesburg is fortunate to retain a wealth of these early gems.   Foremost are the Greene County Court House and Hanna Hall, both built in 1850-51.  

On West High Street there’s an extraordinary collection of six surviving Greek Revival houses in a single block bound by Morris and Richhill Streets.  Today, four are owned by Behm Funeral Home.   They were erected at the same time as the Court House and Hanna Hall.  The Dr. Blachley House at the corner of High and Morris, and the center section of the Denny House are even earlier, begun in the 1830s. 

Greek Revival architecture originated with Thomas Jefferson.  Based on the Greek ideals of democracy, beauty and simplicity, it was considered appropriate for the new American democracy.  Many of the first buildings in Washington, D.C., were built in this style.  

The Lindsay-Rinehart House as it appeared in Waynesburg Prosperous & Beautiful, 1907.

Greek Revival houses have low-pitched gable roofs and heavy cornices.  Their façades are symmetrical, either 3- or 5-bays wide.  In the 5-bay version, the front door is centered with a pair of windows on either side.  The windows are elongated, double-hung, six-over-six.  In the 3-bay plan, the entrance is placed in the right or left quadrant beside two windows.   Doors are 4-paneled with sidelights and a fanlight.  Ornamentation is handsome but sparse as these buildings pre-date the development of sawmills and mass-produced wood trim. 

Classic Greek Revival entrance with 4-panel door, sidelights, tripartite transom and carved stone lintel.

The eastern most house in the Behm Row was the home of Judge James and Sarah Lindsey and their descendants named Munnell and Rinehart.   Its original red brick façade is well preserved.    Next door was J. L. McConnell, publisher of the first map of Greene County.   He built both houses which share a second story wing over an open carriageway.   The house closest to Richhill Street was the home of Rev. Phillip Axtell, pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and a founder of Waynesburg College.   Its façade is also unaltered except for Victorian brackets added long ago.

The Lindsay-Rinehart House is little changed today.  The next three houses (painted white) were united by funeral director Samuel P. Weaver in 1935.

Samuel P. Weaver united three of the houses in 1935, creating the first funeral home in Greene County.  Previously, funerals had been held at home or in a church.  He painted the buildings white and remodeled the middle two in the style of Colonial Williamsburg.   He added a central arched window and broken pediment above the main entrance, and either brick arches or shutters to the remaining windows.  The result is an attractive composition accented with green paint on the doors, shutters and standing seam metal roof. 

 

Anchoring the SW corner of High and Morris Streets since the 1830s or earlier, this Greek Revival house later became Jimmie's Lunch, famous for its hot dogs.   Photo credit: Cover of Images of America: Waynesburg, 2015, by Glenn Toothman and Candice Buchanan, courtesy of greeneconnections. com. 
    

Two generations of Dr. Blachleys lived and practiced at the corner of High and Morris Streets from 1834 until 1882, followed by Doctors Ullom and Iams.  In the 20th century, the house became Jimmie's Lunch famous for its hot dogs.   There have been many additions and alternations to this building including a lintel over an early addition that's dated 1849.

The middle section of the Denny House was built in 1836 in the Greek Revival style.   It was expanded in the rear in 1878.  The High Street facade with distinctive Dutch step-gable roof was added in 1902.

The Denny House began as a Greek Revival design in 1836, expanded in the rear in 1878 and front in 1902.  The original entrance faced east and is today covered by a porch.  Inside the early woodwork is preserved.   Like most Waynesburg people, the Dennys did not destroy the past.  Rather, they added on while preserving the original.  I wish more people would do that today.

FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

This article was first published in the March 2005 edition of GreeneSPEAK!

Postcard view printed by W. T. Hays shortly after the building was completed in 1907.  Photo credit: greeneconnections.com

 Located at the corner of Richhill and Franklin Streets, the First United Methodist Church is an architectural gem, built in 1905-1907 when the congregation was known as Methodist Episcopal.   Church archives retain a full set of architectural drawings that document the design and materials.  The exterior walls were built of Hummelstown brownstone from the same quarry in Dauphin County, PA, that supplied the famous brownstone districts of New York City.   There have been few major changes in the intervening century, aside from replacing the roof.  

A huge cast iron bell hangs in the bell tower, manufactured in 1881 by A. Fulton & Son of Pittsburgh.   It was moved from the congregation’s earlier building on South Washington Street.

The altar of First United Methodist Church today.  The pendant lights were a later addition.

The interior is dominated by a huge “preaching auditorium” with an adjoining lecture room.  Combined, they seat over 1,000.   Around the curved edge of the lecture room are small Sunday School classrooms.   This arrangement, known as the “Akron Plan,” was popular in the late 19^th and early 20^th century in Methodist, Congregational, Baptist and Presbyterian churches.

The Christ in the Temple window is attributed to William Reith Stained Glass Studio of Philadelphia

The church has a wealth of beautiful stained glass windows, 45 in all.  Facing Franklin Street, the largest is a copy of the famous painting by Heinrich Hofmann of “Christ in the Temple.”   It can be attributed to the William Reith Stained Glass Studio of Philadelphia.    

  The Resurrection window shows Mary and Martha at the tomb witnessing the Risen Christ.

 

The second triple window is positioned above the Cloister on the Richhill Street elevation.  It depicts the Resurrection.  Although the artist is unknown, a plaque identifies it as having been given in memory of Mrs. Harriet W. T. Sayers by her four surviving children.  The third large window is round in shape and illustrates Christ welcoming the children.   A beautiful art-glass dome tops the arched ceiling.  Behind the altar are the original pipes of a Hinner organ that was installed in 1909, partially financed by Andrew Carnegie.  

This is one of three windows--each with a different theme--in the cloister on the Richhill Street elevation.

The architect, J. C. Fulton of Uniontown, designed hundreds of schools, churches, houses and public buildings in our region.  Progressive Men of Pennsylvania, 1900, described him as “a rising architect who has gained more than a local reputation in Western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and West Virginia….He has no real rivals in his section nearer than Pittsburgh for public and private buildings.“  It also stated that “he has the faculty of combining beauty and utility in his buildings without sacrificing either.”  

The Somerset County PA Courthouse designed by J. C. Fulton.  Photo credit: www.flickr.com

Fulton designed five county court houses: Somerset and Butler in Pennsylvania; Monongalia, Barbour and Doddridge in West Virginia.  At California University of Pennsylvania, his work includes the east and west wings of Old Main, Dixon Hall and a library annex that has an interior dome similar to the Waynesburg church.  In Uniontown he designed Hotel Mahoney and Uniontown High School, and in Connellsville he created Hotel Wyman and the Dun & Paine Building, considered the finest in town.  

His ecclesiastical work includes Trinity Evangelical Lutheran (Connellsville), First Presbyterian (California), First Baptist (Meadville), United Presbyterian Church (Apollo), Calvary Presbyterian (Indiana), First Presbyterian (Windber), and the Methodist Episcopal and Presbyterian churches in Fairmont, WV.

Carhart Bowlby chaired the Waynesburg building committee, assisted by S. M. Smith, Dr. R. B. Blair, S. C. Brock, Capt. J. B. Donley, I. H. Knox and A. I. Strosnider.  The building cost $55,000, a sum fully subscribed by the time of dedication in September 1907.   This was an impressive accomplishment considering the recent failure of the town’s largest bank, Farmers & Drovers.   

THE BOWLBY HOUSE

This column was first published in the February 2015 issue of GreeneSPEAK!

The Bowlby House (right) as photographed soon after completion.   On the left is the Timothy Wisecarver House, since demolished.   Postcard published by W. T. Hays.  Source: Walter "Blackie" Markiewich Collection owned by Brice & Linda Rush, shared with greeneconnections.com

 

The Bowlby House (now Library) tells the story of Waynesburg’s “Prosperous and Beautiful” era.  A book of the same title, published in 1907, featured a photo similar to the one above, taken a few years after the house was completed.  The house looks much the same today, aside from a modern addition in the rear.  Commanding a terrace above North West Street, it continues to be treasured and enjoyed by all because of the generosity of its owner, Eva K. Bowlby, who bequeathed it in memory of her husband and grandson.

Visiting recently on a dark January afternoon, I entered through two elegant pairs of doors and a tiled vestibule into a large, bright space.  Packed with after-school activities, the house was as warm and alive as I’d remembered.   Growing up in Waynesburg, it was always my favorite-- the building that spurred a lifelong love of historic architecture.     

The “living hall” and grand staircase of Bowlby Library today.

The plan is typical of the early 20^th century when the large, open “living hall” was in fashion.  Richly trimmed in quarter-sawn oak, it was the perfect space for receiving guests.  The room has a tiled fireplace, pairs of Ionic columns and a staircase with a large stained glass window.  There are decidedly modern Arts & Crafts details in much of the woodwork.   A parlor and dining room are tucked into opposite corners.  They extend the living hall, but have pocket doors for privacy, as needed.   One imagines the house in the early 20^th century, full of rosy-cheeked children returning from winter games in the park or elegant ladies at tea, dressed in Edwardian finery.   

The rough-cut sandstone exterior is the work of Waynesburg’s master stonemason, A. I. Rinehart.  The stone came from a quarry south of town on the Smith Creek Road.  Handsome keystone lintels top the windows and smooth faced quoins trim the corners.   Below the roofline, the wide cornice is trimmed with brackets and dentils.  On the second floor, what appears to be an art glass Palladian window is actually a door leading to a small porch.  Balustrades surround it and the wrap-around porch below that is supported by Doric columns.   Three handsome dormers highlight the design of the third floor front elevation.   The central dormer is rounded while the others are gabled.  This is a typical design element of the Colonial Revival style, as is the bow window on the south elevation and the overall boxy shape of the structure.  

Carhart, Dorothy and Eva K. Bowlby.  Source: greeneconnections.com

Carhart Bowlby was a successful cattle dealer and business man who traveled frequently to Chicago where he would have been introduced to the work of America’s leading architects, Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright.  In addition to his home, Bowlby created at least three more monumental buildings in Waynesburg.  From 1905-08, he chaired the building committee for the Methodist Episcopal Church (today First Methodist), designed by architect J. C. Fulton of Uniontown.  Nearly two decades later, as president of Citizens National Bank, he supervised construction of what is now First National Bank whose architects, Dennison & Hirons, were leaders of the Beaux Arts movement in New York City.  A year later, immediately after the Downey House fire, he organized the Fort Jackson Hotel Company to rebuild the town’s central hotel corner, hiring prominent Pittsburgh architects, Paul Bartholomew and Brandon Smith.  

Today, Waynesburg’s citizens continue to enjoy these beautiful buildings, and feel grateful for the gift of the library.

 

FIRST NATIONAL BANK

This column first appeared in the December 2014 issue of GreeneSPEAK!

The “Roaring '20s” was a time of economic confidence in Waynesburg and the nation.  During this era, local investors created two monumental Beaux-Arts bank buildings that continue to add grandeur to Waynesburg’s downtown almost 100 years later.   

This article is about First National Bank, originally Citizens National Bank, a building with excellent architectectural credentials.  It was designed in 1922 by the prominent New York City firm of Dennison and Hirons who created many elegant commercial buildings throughout the northeastern United States.  Their other major commission in western Pennsylvania is the 14-story Erie Trust Building, the city’s tallest structure, now known as Renaissance Center.

In a photo dated December 31, 1923, Citizens National Bank nears completion.   Source: Greene County Historical Society & Museum, via greeneconnections.com

Ethan Allen Dennison and Frederic Charles Hirons met in Paris at Les Ecoles des Beaux Arts, the prestigious international architecture school where America’s best architects gained credentials.  Both had previously studied in the United States, Hirons having graduated from MIT.  Returning to New York City, they began their practice in 1910 with Hirons as primary designer and Dennison as business manager.  Both were leaders of the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects of New York.  Hirons taught architecture at Yale and Columbia and founded the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design.  His portrait hangs in the National Academy of Design.

The Waynesburg men behind Citizens National, Waynesburg’s second oldest bank, founded in 1890, were George Wisecarver, Ezra M. Sayers and Dennis Smith, a Greene Township farmer and stock raiser who moved to Waynesburg in 1903 to become co-owner of Waynesburg Hardware.  Smith was elected bank president in 1908 and served until his death in April, 1921.  It was Smith who negotiated the contract with Dennison and Hirons, and his successor, Carhart Bowlby, who saw the construction through to completion.  When the contract was published in July 1922, for “bank and office building at High & Washington Streets,” the cost was estimated at $275,000.00, almost $4 million today.

About 25 years ago, Andrew Corfont, a bank employee, discovered a photo album documenting the entire construction process from demolition of the early 19^th century buildings through steel frame construction.  He placed the photos in the archives of Greene County Historical Society where Candice Buchanan digitized and posted them on her Greene Connections flickr site in the “Waynesburg Series” album.  Two views of this fascinating pictorial record are shown here.

Photographed one month later, this view shows both the office and bank buildings.   In the distance, the Downey House Hotel will be destroyed by fire less than two years later.  Photo source: Greene County Historical Society via greeneconnections.com.

The office building was constructed first, beginning in September 1922.  It has since been demolished but the bank building continues in a good state of preservation.  An excellent example of Hirons’ work, it combines Beaux-Arts principles of symmetry, solidity and monumentality with a modern classicism associated with Art Deco design.  Both the interior and exterior are finished with elegant materials—largely Indiana limestone—detailed in sleek, modern form.  The entrance is framed in brown granite, surrounded by four massive Ionic columns.  Far above the columns, carved griffins add a touch of whimsy to the corners of the frieze.  Appropriately, griffins were believed to guard treasure.  

According to the back of this postcard, the Silveus Dining Room was: “The Elite Dining Parlor of Waynesburg, Pa. where the Elite Meet and Eat and Enjoy the Treat where you always find ‘Good Eats’ and a home-like atmosphere.”   It was located in the bank's office building.  Source: Postcard collection, Teaching with Primary Sources program, Waynesburg University.