Richardsonian Romanesque
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Richardsonian Romanesque has both French and Spanish Romanesque characteristics, as seen in the First Presbyterian Church in Detroit, Michigan, by architects George D. Mason and Zachariah Rice in 1891

Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of American architecture named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson, whose masterpiece is Trinity Church, Boston (1872–77).

History and development

This very free revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish and Italian Romanesque characteristics. It emphasizes clear strong picturesque massing, round-headed "Romanesque" arches, often springing from clusters of short squat columns, recessed entrances, richly varied rustication, boldly blank stretches of walling contrasting with bands of windows, and cylindrical towers with conical caps embedded in the walling.

The style epitomizes work by the generation of architects practising in the 1880s— before the influx of Beaux-Arts styles— such as J. Cleaveland Cady of Cady, Bird and See in New York City, whose American Museum of Natural History's original 77th Street range epitomizes "Richardsonian Romanesque." Some of the practitioners who most faithfully followed Richardson's proportion, massing and detailing had worked in his office. These include Wadsworth Longfellow and Frank Alden (Longfellow, Alden & Harlow of Boston & Pittsburgh); George Shepley and Charles Coolidge (Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge of Boston); and Herbert Burdett (Marling & Burdett of Buffalo). The style influenced the Chicago school of architecture and architects Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. In Finland, Eliel Saarinen was influenced by Richardson.^{citation needed}

Dispersion

Research is currently ongoing to try to document the westward movement of the artisans and craftsmen, many immigrant Italians and Irish, who built in the Richardsonian Romanesque tradition. The style began in the East, in and around Boston and while it was losing favor there it was gaining popularity further west. Thus stone carvers and masons trained in the Richardsonian manner appear to have surfed the style west, until it died out in the early years of the 20th century.

As an example, four small bank buildings were built in Richardsonian Romanesque style in Osage County, Oklahoma, during 1904-1911.^[1]

Images

For pictures of H.H. Richardson’s own designs and some of the details, see Henry Hobson Richardson.

None of the following structures were designed by Richardson. They illustrate the strength of his architectural personality on progressive North American architecture from 1885 to 1905.

Pueblo Union Depot in Pueblo, Colorado, James A. McGonigle of Leavenworth, Kansas and Sprague and Newall of Chicago, Illinois, architects, 1889-90	Residential Richardsonian Romanesque & detail, Denver, Colorado	Starkweather Chapel, Ypsilanti, Michigan; George D. Mason of Detroit, Michigan, architect, 1888: Clearly-articulated clustered forms in a mock-military exercise in rustication	The High Service Building at Chestnut Hill Water Works, Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts; Arthur H. Vinal, architect, 1887
Cupples House on the campus of Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, 1888-1890	Minneapolis City Hall, Franklin Bidwell Long and Frederick G. Kees, architects, finished 1906	Cincinnati City Hall, Samuel Hannaford, architect, completed 1893.	Clocktower of Toronto City Hall, E. J. Lennox, architect, 1889-99: arcading and rusticated brownstone
Ontario Legislature, Toronto, Ontario	The Lee County, Texas Courthouse, 1899: cautious Romanesque features applied to a conservative design	Pillsbury Hall, on the University of Minnesota–Minneapolis campus; LeRoy Buffington, architect, Harvey Ellis, designer, 1887	Shadyside Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh. Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, architects. 1898.
Macdonald-Stewart Library Building, McGill University, completed in 1893 by Sir Andrew Taylor	Salt Lake City and County Building, Salt Lake City, Utah, Monheim, Bird, and Proudfoot architects, 1894	Brooklyn General Post Office, Cadman Plaza. Mifflin E. Bell, 1885-91	James J. Hill House 240 Summit Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota. Peabody & Stearns; Mark Fitzpatrick, architects, completed 1891.
Orton Hall, The Ohio State University, completed 1893.	Old Federal Courts Building, St. Paul MN (now Landmark Center), (Willoughby J. Edbrooke, designed 1892,‎ completed 1901).	Durand Art Institute, Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Illinois. Henry Ives Cobb architect, completed 1891.	The Barbour County Courthouse in Philippi, West Virginia, completed 1905.

See also

• Henry Hobson Richardson

References

Footnotes

Notations

• Kelsey, Mavis P. and Donald H. Dyal, The Courthouses of Texas: A Guide, Texas A&M University Press, College Station Texas 1993 ISBN 0890965471
• Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, Architectural Sculpture in America unpublished manuscript
• Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, Starkweather Memorial Chapel, Highland Cemetery, Ypsilanti, Michigan, Unpublished paper 1983
• Larson, Paul C., Editor, with Susan Brown, The Spirit of H.H. Richardson on the Midwest Prairies, University Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and Iowa State University Press, Ames 1988
• Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl, H.H.Richardson: Complete Architectural Works, MIT Press, Cambridge MA 1984 ISBN 0262150239
• Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl, and Andersen, Dennis Alan, Distant Corner: Seattle Architects and the Legacy of H. H. Richardson, University of Washington Press, Seattle WA 2003 ISBN 0-295-98238-1
• Van Rensselaer, Mariana Griswold, Henry Hobson Richardson and His Works, Dover Publications, Inc. NY 1959 (Reprint of 1888 edition) ISBN 0486223205

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Richardsonian Romanesque

• Digital archive of American architecture: Richardsonian Romanesque
• Richardsonian Romanesque described and illustrated by buildings in Buffalo, New York
• Starkweather Chapel, Ypsilanti, Michigan
• Pueblo Union Depot