Architects & Cottage Owners
(1885-1930)
Introduction
One of the more difficult areas to find and document were the specific architects that create the designs of the various York Harbor Cottages. Below is a list of known architects and their works in York Harbor. Also included are other well known architects of this era for context.
The Maine Historic Preservation Commission and Maine Preservation have put together an excellent Biographical Dictionary of Maine Architects in Maine under the direction of Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr. and Roger G. Reed. This directory can be access by this link: http://www.maine.gov/mhpc/architects_bio.html
The Maine Historic Preservation Commission and Maine Preservation have put together an excellent Biographical Dictionary of Maine Architects in Maine under the direction of Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr. and Roger G. Reed. This directory can be access by this link: http://www.maine.gov/mhpc/architects_bio.html
Architects
Click HERE for the complete updated list of all Architects that had projects in York Harbor (and surrounding area) between 1885 and 1930.
Edward B. Blaisdell (1845-1924) – was by far the most important local architect in York Harbor. He is credited with many of the large shingle style cottages in the area, and he had a very wide range of work including hotels, clubs, private cottages, churches, bridges, and banks. His commissions for cottages included: Stonecroft (1895), Brambles (1899), Tyn-Y-Coed (1899), Millbury Cottage (1899), Hubbard Brown Cottage, Youngholm (1900), Twin Cottage and Mayfair Cottage (1901), and Stetson House (1901). His hotels and clubs included the Albracca Hotel, the Passaconaway Inn (1892), and the York Country Clubhouse.
Click here for more information on Edward B. Blaisdell’s work.
Click here for more information on Edward B. Blaisdell’s work.
Fred C. Watson – in April 1901, FC Watson announced that he was no longer associated as an architect with E.B. and S.T. Blaisdell, Builders, but had established himself as architect in his own name. Watson was a graduate of the State Normal Art School of Boston.
When FC Watson was associated with EB and ST Blaisdell he designed the Roaring Rock Inn, which was not built, the summer residences of Mr. George L. Cheney of New York, Mr. H.B. Dominic of New York, the clubhouse of the York Country Club, the reconstruction of the old colonial mansion belonging to the Honorable E.O. Emerson of Titusville, PA., and the summer home of M.W.R. Mercer, also the private stables of Mr. J.D. Vermule and E.O. Emerson. We probably will never know how many of these cottages were the design of EB Blaisdell or his understudy FC Watson.
When FC Watson was associated with EB and ST Blaisdell he designed the Roaring Rock Inn, which was not built, the summer residences of Mr. George L. Cheney of New York, Mr. H.B. Dominic of New York, the clubhouse of the York Country Club, the reconstruction of the old colonial mansion belonging to the Honorable E.O. Emerson of Titusville, PA., and the summer home of M.W.R. Mercer, also the private stables of Mr. J.D. Vermule and E.O. Emerson. We probably will never know how many of these cottages were the design of EB Blaisdell or his understudy FC Watson.
John Calvin Stevens (1855 – 1940) was an American architect who worked in two related styles — the Shingle Style, in which he was a major innovator, and the Colonial Revival style, which dominated national domestic architecture for the first half of the 20th century. He designed more than 1,000 buildings in the state of Maine. He designed structures in Portland, Cape Elizabeth, Delano Park, and Winter Harbor – Grindstone Neck. In York Harbor, John Calvin Stevens designed the second Marshall House in 1917 after the first structure was destroyed by fire in 1916. He was also retained to do design work to combine a few cottages together as part of the Emerson Hotel.
William Ralph Emerson (1833 – 1917) was an American architect. Emerson was a cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and trained in the office of Jonathan Preston (1801–1888), an architect–builder in Boston, Massachusetts. He formed an architectural partnership with Preston (1857–1861), practiced alone for two years, then partnered with Carl Fehmer (1864–1873). He is best known for his Shingle Style houses and inns. He worked with fellow Boston designer Frederick Law Olmsted on the creation of the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., designing several of the zoo's first buildings.
William H. Dabney, Jr. (1855-1897) was at the forefront of the Boston Colonial Revival. He studied architecture at MIT from 1871 to 1875 and in his early career he was a draftsman and executed commissions for mills and other industrial buildings. He is known for an early barnlike cottage named ‘Redcote’ built on the York River. Other York commissions included Peters Cottage (Starboard Lane) in 1882, the Union Chapel & Library (1887), Additions to Overbank Cottage (1992). He is also attributed to the Stackpole Block (1895), but EB Blaisdell is also credited for this structure.
Edmund M. Wheelwright (1854-1912) – is attributed to the design of The Haven cottage, and Dr. F. B. Stackpole cottage in York Harbor. He served as city architect for Boston, Massachusetts from 1891-1895. He graduated from Harvard University in 1876. He studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later in Europe, after which he worked in the offices of Peabody and Stearns and of firms in New York and Albany. His other commissions include: the Boston Public Library (while working for the firm of McKim, Mead, and White), Harvard Lampoon Building, Larz Anderson Auto Museum, and the Longfellow Bridge.
John Russell Pope (1874 – 1937) was an American architect whose firm is widely known for designing of the National Archives and Records Administration building (completed in 1935), the Jefferson Memorial (completed in 1943) and the West Building of the National Gallery of Art (completed in 1941), all in Washington, DC. Throughout his career, Pope designed private houses such as Vanderbilt houses, his personal residence at Newport, Rhode Island, and other public buildings besides the Jefferson Memorial and the National Gallery, such as the massive Masonic House of the Temple (1911–1915), also in Washington, and the triumphal-arch Theodore Roosevelt Memorial (1936) at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. He also designed the extension of the Henry Clay Frick mansion in New York City that created the Garden Court and music room among other features as it was expanded to become a museum. He is credited with designing ‘Millbury Meadows’ Cottage.
Cram & Wentworth - Ralph Adams Cram (1863 – 1942) was a prolific and influential America architect of collegiate and ecclesiastical buildings, often in the Gothic Revival style. Cram and business partner Charles Wentworth started business in Boston in April 1889 as Cram and Wentworth. They had landed only four or five church commissions before they were joined by Bertram Goodhue in 1892 to form Cram, Wentworth and Goodhue. Goodhue brought an award-winning commission in Dallas (never built) and brilliant drafting skills to the Boston office. Wentworth died in 1897 and the firm's name changed to Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson to include draftsman Frank Ferguson. Cram & Wentworth are credited with designing 'The Ledges'.
George Foster Shepley - Architect and partner at Shepley Rutan and Coolidge, a prominent Boston firm and the successor firm to H. H. Richardson. Fergus Reid’s Cottage is attributed to this firm.
Frank H. Furness (1839 -1912) was an American architect of the Victorian era. He designed more than 600 buildings, most in the Philadelphia area, and is remembered for his eclectic, muscular, often idiosyncratically scaled buildings, and for his influence on the Chicago architect Louis Sullivan. Furness was also a Medal of Honor recipient for his bravery during the Civil War. His strong architectural will is seen in the unorthodox way he combined materials: stone, iron, glass, terra cotta, and brick. And his straightforward use of these materials, often in innovative or technologically advanced ways, reflected Philadelphia's industrial-realist culture of the post–Civil War period. Toward the end of his life, his bold style fell out of fashion, and many of his significant works were demolished in the 20th century. Among his most important surviving buildings are the University of Pennsylvania Library (now the Fisher Fine Arts Library), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, all in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is credited with designing ‘The Pines’ cottage along the York River near the York Country Club.
Joseph H Taft (D: 1911). Taft first appears in New York City in 1887 and continues to practice there until 1909. He was a member of the Architectural League of New York, and an Associate of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts & Sciences. He designed a number of distinctive brownstone terraces of townhouses in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, several of which have recently been designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. He was a cousin of President Taft.
Projects included: Thomas Edison Laboratory, West Orange, NJ, 1887. The Charles B. Alexander Cottage, Tuxedo Park, NY, 1887. Townhouse, 310 West 113 Street, NY in the Flemish Revival style, 1889. 20 Townhouse for William Earl Dodge Stokes on West End Avenue, between 86th and 88th Street, NYC, 1889. Residence for RL Burton, Cedarhurst, Long Island, 1902. The First Church of Christ Scientist, Kitchener, Ontario, 1900. He is credited with designing Greystone in Cape Neddick in 1894.
Projects included: Thomas Edison Laboratory, West Orange, NJ, 1887. The Charles B. Alexander Cottage, Tuxedo Park, NY, 1887. Townhouse, 310 West 113 Street, NY in the Flemish Revival style, 1889. 20 Townhouse for William Earl Dodge Stokes on West End Avenue, between 86th and 88th Street, NYC, 1889. Residence for RL Burton, Cedarhurst, Long Island, 1902. The First Church of Christ Scientist, Kitchener, Ontario, 1900. He is credited with designing Greystone in Cape Neddick in 1894.
Andrew & Jaques - Andrews, Jacques and Rantoul was an American architectural firm. Villa Tranquille (John Ropes owner) is attributed to this firm.
Henry Janeway Hardenbergh (1847 - 1918) known as HJ Hardenberg was an American architect, best known for his hotels and apartment buildings. He designed the Trinity Episcopal Church in York Harbor (1908). His other works include: The Plaza Hotel – Manhattan, New York City, 1905–07, Waldorf Hotel – Manhattan, New York City, 1893, demolished 1929, Astoria Hotel – Manhattan, New York City, 1897, demolished 1929, and the Copley Plaza Hotel – Boston, Massachusetts, 1912.
The following larger architectural firms were active in Newport, RI and Bar Harbor, Maine during the 1880-1930 timeframe. A few of the architects that designed cottages in York Harbor apprenticed at these firms.
Fred Savage (1861 - 1924) was the most influential architect in the development of Mount Desert and northeastern Maine, designing over three hundred buildings. Savage, a local architect, designed many of the iconic Shingle and Revival style cottages in Northeast Harbor and Bar Harbor, Maine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He did not do work in York Harbor to our knowledge.
McKim, Mead & White was a prominent American architectural firm at the turn of the twentieth century and in the history of American architecture. The firm's founding partners were Charles Follen McKim (1847–1909), William Rutherford Mead (1846–1928) and Stanford White (1853–1906). The firm was a major training ground for many other prominent architects -partners, associates, designers and draftsmen. They practiced in NY, Newport, RI, and Boston.
Peabody & Stearns was a premier architectural firm in the Eastern United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the firm consisted of Robert Swain Peabody (1845-1917) and John Goddard Stearns, Jr. (1843-1917).
Rotch & Tilden was an American architectural firm active in Boston, Massachusetts from 1880 through 1895. The firm was organized by partners Arthur Rotch and George Thomas Tilden.
Fred Savage (1861 - 1924) was the most influential architect in the development of Mount Desert and northeastern Maine, designing over three hundred buildings. Savage, a local architect, designed many of the iconic Shingle and Revival style cottages in Northeast Harbor and Bar Harbor, Maine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He did not do work in York Harbor to our knowledge.
McKim, Mead & White was a prominent American architectural firm at the turn of the twentieth century and in the history of American architecture. The firm's founding partners were Charles Follen McKim (1847–1909), William Rutherford Mead (1846–1928) and Stanford White (1853–1906). The firm was a major training ground for many other prominent architects -partners, associates, designers and draftsmen. They practiced in NY, Newport, RI, and Boston.
Peabody & Stearns was a premier architectural firm in the Eastern United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the firm consisted of Robert Swain Peabody (1845-1917) and John Goddard Stearns, Jr. (1843-1917).
Rotch & Tilden was an American architectural firm active in Boston, Massachusetts from 1880 through 1895. The firm was organized by partners Arthur Rotch and George Thomas Tilden.
Landscape Architects
The Olmsted Brothers was an influential landscape design firm in the United States, formed in 1898 by stepbrothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. (1870–1957), who were the sons of the eminent landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was considered to be the father of American landscape architecture,
The Olmsted brothers inherited the nation's first landscape architecture business from their father Frederick Law Olmsted. This firm was a successor to the earlier firm of Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot after the death of their partner Charles Eliot in 1897. The two brothers were among the founding members of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and played an influential role in creating the National Park Service. Prior to their takeover of the firm, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. had worked as an apprentice under his father, helping to design projects such as Biltmore Estate and the World's Columbian Exposition before graduating from Harvard University. The firm employed nearly 60 staff at its peak in the early 1930s. Notable landscape architects in the firm included James Frederick Dawson and Percival Gallagher. The last Olmsted family member in the firm, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., retired in 1949. The firm itself remained in operation until 1980. (Source: Wikipedia)
The Olmsted brothers inherited the nation's first landscape architecture business from their father Frederick Law Olmsted. This firm was a successor to the earlier firm of Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot after the death of their partner Charles Eliot in 1897. The two brothers were among the founding members of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and played an influential role in creating the National Park Service. Prior to their takeover of the firm, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. had worked as an apprentice under his father, helping to design projects such as Biltmore Estate and the World's Columbian Exposition before graduating from Harvard University. The firm employed nearly 60 staff at its peak in the early 1930s. Notable landscape architects in the firm included James Frederick Dawson and Percival Gallagher. The last Olmsted family member in the firm, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., retired in 1949. The firm itself remained in operation until 1980. (Source: Wikipedia)
O.C. Simonds (1855 – 1931) - A founding member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, Simonds was educated as an architect and civil engineer, and preferred to call himself a landscape gardener. His early design work in Chicago led to his appointment as superintendent of Graceland Cemetery, a project which cultivated his strong conviction that the best landscape design is inspired by nature, informed by local landforms, and constructed using indigenous plant materials. In his 1915 publication of The Prairie Spirit in Landscape Gardening, Wilhelm Miller credits Simonds, Jens Jensen, and Walter Burley Griffin as creators of the Prairie Style. Simonds, in response, simply advocated the designer’s responsibility to create the most beautiful effect possible, responsive to the site. His design accomplishments are many, throughout the U.S. and particularly in the Midwest. They cover a breadth of landscape types, from residential design, estates, and boulevards to college campuses, parks, and cemeteries. Simonds’ treatise, Landscape Gardening, published in 1920, is the best record of his design philosophy and his self-appointed role as defender of the Native American landscape. His notable projects include Sinnissippi Farm, Oregon, Illinois; the Morton Arboretum, Lisle, Illinois; Frick Park in Pittsburgh; Washington Park, Springfield, Illinois, and Palmer Park and Subdivision in Detroit. (Source: Barbara Geiger)
Ellen Biddle Shipman, hailed as one of America’s greatest “flower-garden makers,” belonged to a generation of women landscape architects who were pioneers in a field that had been dominated by men up to the turn of the century. Daughter of Ellen Fish McGowan Biddle and Colonel James Biddle, she spent much of her youth on frontier outposts in Nevada and Arizona. When the uprising of a local tribe threatened their safety, Ellen, her mother and her brothers took up residence on her grandparents’ farm in New Jersey. It was there that she first became acquainted with apple orchards, white picket fences, and old-fashioned flower varieties.
Donald Ross brother of Alex Ross, first golf professional at the York Country Club. Donald Ross, the famous golf course architect who helped to lay out parts of the York course. Between his birth in 1872 in Dornoch, Scotland and his death in Pinehurst, North Carolina in 1948, Donald James Ross managed to help reshape the face of American sports. He left behind a legacy of 399 golf courses that he either designed or redesigned. During his heyday in the 1920s, he was the country’s most prolific creator of golf courses. From 1919 through 1931, eight of the thirteen U.S. Opens were contested on layouts he had designed or redone. (Excerpted from the book by Brad Klein, Winner of the USGA 2001 International Book Award, “Discovering Donald Ross”, Sleeping Bear Press, Chelsea, MI)
Cottage Owners - Profiles
Francis Lynde Stetson (April 23, 1846–December 5, 1920) was an American lawyer. He was graduated from Williams College in 1867 and from Columbia Law School in 1869. He was admitted to the bar in 1869 and practiced in New York City. He devoted attention chiefly to corporation and railway law, becoming eminent in those lines. He became general counsel of the International Mercantile Marine Company, the Northern Pacific Railway, the Southern Railway, and the United States Rubber Company; also director in several railway companies and other corporations. In 1894, he formed the firm of Stetson, Jennings & Russell (a predecessor to the modern-day Davis Polk & Wardwell), which represented J. P. Morgan's United States Steel Corporation; he was also Morgan's personal attorney. President Grover Cleveland was a partner in the firm between his two terms as President, and a close friend. Stetson also served as counsel for Samuel J. Tilden in the controversy over the 1876 presidential election. He was president of the New York City Bar Association from 1910-1911. (Source: Wikipedia)
Thomas Nelson Page (April 23, 1853 – November 1, 1922) was a lawyer and American writer. He also served as the U.S. ambassador to Italy during the administration of President Woodrow Wilson, including the important period of World War I. Born at Oakland, one of the Nelson family plantations he was a scion of the prominent Nelson and Page families, each First Families of Virginia. Although he was from once-wealthy lineage, his parents and their relatives were largely impoverished during Reconstruction after the Civil War. From 1873 to 1874, he was enrolled in the law school of the University of Virginia in pursuit of a legal career. He practiced as a lawyer in Richmond between 1876 and 1893, and also began his writing career. He was married to Anne Seddon Bruce on July 28, 1886. She died on December 21, 1888 of a throat hemorrhage. He remarried on June 6, 1893, to Florence Lathrop Field, a widowed sister-in-law of retailer Marshall Field. In the same year Page gave up his law practice entirely and moved with his wife to Washington, D.C. There, he kept up his writing, which amounted to eighteen volumes when they were compiled and published in 1912. Page popularized the plantation tradition genre of Southern writing, which told of an idealized version of life before the Civil War, with contented slaves working for beloved masters and their families. Under President Woodrow Wilson, Page served as U.S. ambassador to Italy for six years between 1913 and 1919. His book entitled Italy and the World War (1920) is a memoir of his service there. He died in 1922 at Oakland in Hanover County, Virginia. (Source: Wikipedia)
Russell A. Alger, Jr., (1873-1930) son of Michigan's Governor Russell Alger, became interested in the automobile industry and perhaps had more to do with the moving of the Packard Motor Car company plant to Detroit from Warren, Ohio, than anyone else. Alger became a key investor and Vice President of the Packard Motor Car Company.
The company was founded as the Ohio Automobile Company in Warren, Ohio by the two Packard brothers, James and William. When Henry Bourne Joy (another Grosse Pointer) and the others agreed to refinance the small company at a board meeting on October 13, 1902, they changed the name to Packard Motor Car Company. Russell Alger, Jr. was the first associate of Joy to invest $50,000 (Joy had also put in $50,000) and was followed by Fred M. Alger with $25,000 and Joy's brother, Richard P. Joy added $10,000. Other investors were Truman H. and John S. Newberry - $25,000 each, C.A. DuCharme, $10,000; D. M. Ferry, $5,000; Joseph Boyer, $25,000 and Phillip H. McMillan, $50,000. (all Grosse Pointers)
Beginning with a year-long stint (in the family lumber business) in Manistique, Alger quickly progressed to supervising a tract of timber in Canada. There he took Marion Jarves-daughter of pioneer Detroiter Deming Jarves-for his bride and they moved into their first home, a cabin. When it caught fire and burned to the ground, the young lumber baron learned a lesson. There is virtually no wood in his Lake Shore Drive home.
Near the turn of the century, Alger returned to Detroit at his father's request to become treasurer of Alger, Smith & Co., the family business. An energetic man with an uncommon interest in the world's activities, he epitomized the entrepreneurial spirit. Not only did he persuade the Packard Motor car co. to move from Warren, Ohio to Detroit, but he also helped finance the operation and became an active member of the company’s board of directors. Intrigued by the possibilities of flying, he followed the Wright brothers to France to watch their exhibition and upon their return, invested money in the first commercial airplane. (Source: to be inserted here).
The company was founded as the Ohio Automobile Company in Warren, Ohio by the two Packard brothers, James and William. When Henry Bourne Joy (another Grosse Pointer) and the others agreed to refinance the small company at a board meeting on October 13, 1902, they changed the name to Packard Motor Car Company. Russell Alger, Jr. was the first associate of Joy to invest $50,000 (Joy had also put in $50,000) and was followed by Fred M. Alger with $25,000 and Joy's brother, Richard P. Joy added $10,000. Other investors were Truman H. and John S. Newberry - $25,000 each, C.A. DuCharme, $10,000; D. M. Ferry, $5,000; Joseph Boyer, $25,000 and Phillip H. McMillan, $50,000. (all Grosse Pointers)
Beginning with a year-long stint (in the family lumber business) in Manistique, Alger quickly progressed to supervising a tract of timber in Canada. There he took Marion Jarves-daughter of pioneer Detroiter Deming Jarves-for his bride and they moved into their first home, a cabin. When it caught fire and burned to the ground, the young lumber baron learned a lesson. There is virtually no wood in his Lake Shore Drive home.
Near the turn of the century, Alger returned to Detroit at his father's request to become treasurer of Alger, Smith & Co., the family business. An energetic man with an uncommon interest in the world's activities, he epitomized the entrepreneurial spirit. Not only did he persuade the Packard Motor car co. to move from Warren, Ohio to Detroit, but he also helped finance the operation and became an active member of the company’s board of directors. Intrigued by the possibilities of flying, he followed the Wright brothers to France to watch their exhibition and upon their return, invested money in the first commercial airplane. (Source: to be inserted here).
John Codman Ropes (1836–1899) was a lawyer and American military historian and was the co-founder of law firm Ropes & Gray. Ropes was born in St. Petersburg in 1836, the son of a leading merchant of Boston who was engaged in business in Russia. He graduated from Harvard University in 1857 and received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1861. With John Chipman Gray in 1865 he founded the firm Ropes & Gray. A spinal disability kept him from military service during the Civil War, and Ropes became interested in military history, particularly after his brother was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg. In 1876 he founded the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, which eventually became the repository for his collections of military books and memorabilia. His published works include "Story of the Civil War," an unfinished book that chronicled the war's early years; "The Army Under Pope," which detailed the August to September 1862 Virginia campaign of General John Pope and helped restore the reputation of Fitz John Porter; and "The Campaign of Waterloo," one of the standard works on Napoleon's "Hundred Days" and defeat by Wellington. In 1897 he received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Harvard University. (Source: Bill McKern)
Colonel Louis R. Cheney (1859-1944) of Hartford, Hartford County, Conn. He was born in South Manchester, Conn, and was the son of George Wells Cheney and Harriet K. (Richmond) Cheney. He made his fortune in the family’s Silk manufacturing business, and in real estate. His cottage in York Harbor was ‘Tholassa’ located on Eastern Point. He was elected the (Republican) mayor of Hartford, Conn. from 1912-14 and after his term became a member of the Connecticut state senate in 1915. He died on December 17, 1944 (age 85 years), and is buried at the East Cemetery, Manchester, Conn.
In 1838, six Cheney brothers established the Mount Nebo Silk Company in Manchester, CT. The company adopted the family name in 1843. Aided by booming national markets, a protective tariff, and innovative production methods, the company grew into the nation's largest and most profitable silk mill by the late 1880s. The company pioneered the wastesilk spinning method and the Grant's reel. At the beginning of World War I, the company employed over 4,700 workers. One out of every four Manchester residents worked at the Cheney Mills in some capacity. The company was an integral part of the community covering over 175 acres, including mills buildings, churches, houses, schools, recreation centers, utility companies, and even a railroad. The company was also known nationally for its benevolent system of welfare capitalism. It was one of the first textile mills to use Frederick Taylor's methods of scientific management.
The company reached its peak in 1923, after which it quickly declined due to industry wide overproduction and competition from new synthetic fibers such as rayon. Although it revived slightly during World War II, the family sold the company to J. P. Stevens and Company in 1955. J. P. Stevens quickly liquidated the equipment and the remainder was sold to Gerli Incorporated of New York. In 1978, the mills and surrounding neighborhood were declared a National Historical Landmark District. The mill was permanently closed in 1984. Most of the mill buildings were sold to developers who converted them into luxury apartments and offices.
In 1838, six Cheney brothers established the Mount Nebo Silk Company in Manchester, CT. The company adopted the family name in 1843. Aided by booming national markets, a protective tariff, and innovative production methods, the company grew into the nation's largest and most profitable silk mill by the late 1880s. The company pioneered the wastesilk spinning method and the Grant's reel. At the beginning of World War I, the company employed over 4,700 workers. One out of every four Manchester residents worked at the Cheney Mills in some capacity. The company was an integral part of the community covering over 175 acres, including mills buildings, churches, houses, schools, recreation centers, utility companies, and even a railroad. The company was also known nationally for its benevolent system of welfare capitalism. It was one of the first textile mills to use Frederick Taylor's methods of scientific management.
The company reached its peak in 1923, after which it quickly declined due to industry wide overproduction and competition from new synthetic fibers such as rayon. Although it revived slightly during World War II, the family sold the company to J. P. Stevens and Company in 1955. J. P. Stevens quickly liquidated the equipment and the remainder was sold to Gerli Incorporated of New York. In 1978, the mills and surrounding neighborhood were declared a National Historical Landmark District. The mill was permanently closed in 1984. Most of the mill buildings were sold to developers who converted them into luxury apartments and offices.
Alexander Bliss (1827 -1896) was assistant quartermaster general of the Union forces and a Colonel in the United States Army during the American Civil War. He was a staff officer under General McClellan. Colonel Bliss was born in Boston and graduated from Harvard College in the class of 1847. When retired, he served as Secretary of Legation in Berlin. He was married to Eleanor Taylor Albert and they had two children: William Julian Albert Bliss and Elizabeth Bancroft Bliss. His father, Alexander Bliss of Springfield was at one time a partner of Daniel Webster. His mother Elizabeth Davis Bliss, later married George Bancroft, the eminent American historian. The Colonel was a member of a committee collecting manuscripts which were to be included in a lithographed volume of facsimiles entitled Autographed Leaves of Our Country's Authors, to be sold by the Baltimore Sanitary Fair. The Fair was to provide assistance to Civil War soldiers especially those ill in hospitals. On Colonel Bliss's behalf, Bancroft asked President Abraham Lincoln for a copy of the Gettysburg Address. The resulting copy of Lincoln's speech, known as the Bliss Copy, is one of only five known manuscript versions of the Gettysburg Address; it is preserved and on display in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House in Washington, DC.
Julian d’Este (1849-1927) born in Cambridge, England, was a wealthy man from Salem, MA who owned the Boston Excelslor Company. Excelsor, also called ‘wood wool’, is a product made of wood slivers cut from logs. It is mainly used in packaging, furniture upholstery, erosion control mats, and as a raw material for stuffed animals. He owned the Boston Excelsior Company Mill in Milo, ME where he kept a stately house, and operated his business out of Boston, MA. Julian married Mary Coleman Locke and had 5 children.
Lockwood de Forest (June 8, 1850 – April 3, 1932) was a key figure of the American Aesthetic Movement who, as the designer, introduced the East Indian craft revival to America during the Gilded Age. As a young man de Forest first worked as a painter, taking the lessons of his Hudson River School contemporaries. In 1879 de Forest began his career in the decorative arts working at Associated Artists along with Louis Comfort Tiffany, before starting his own decorating business that he ran for thirty years. Upon his retirement de Forest moved to Santa Barbara where he returned to his love of painting while still taking design commissions from local patrons. In 1879, de Forest became a partner of the design firm Associated Artists, with Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933), Samuel Colman (1832–1920) and Candace Wheeler (1827–1923) where he directed the production of architectural woodwork. Associated Artists lasted only four years, however the firm was one of the most influential decorating companies in the 19th century and at the forefront of the American Aesthetic Movement emphasizing hand work, intricate color and texture, and tasteful but exotic design themes. (Source: Wikipedia). Lockwood built his cottage about 1904 on Eastern Point in York Harbor.
Bryan Lathrop was a real estate investor, a collector of prints and drawings, and Trustee of the Chicago Art Institute (1893/1894 - 1916), Chicago Symphony Orchestra from (1894 – 1898), Newbery Library (1896-1916) and the Guarantor of the Poetry magazine. Lathrop formed a collection of James Whistler's etchings, which he bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago. He moved to Chicago in 1865, where he was a member of the Caxton Club, the Orchestral Association. Lathrop was the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Vice-President from 1894 to 1898 and President from 1899 to 1916.
Alexander Coburn Soper (1846-1930). Following his graduation from Hamilton College in 1867, Soper moved from his native Rome, N.Y., to Chicago where he soon went to work for the Park & Soper Lumber Co., in which his father was a partner. In 1870, just one year before the Great Chicago Fire, the younger Soper organized a new company, Pond & Soper, to operate a planing mill. In 1883 he re-joined family members to form the Soper Lumber Co. The business grew to large proportions, their trade reaching from Massachusetts to Colorado. At the turn of the century, the Sopers joined with another timber-oriented family from Pennsylvania, the Wheelers, to form the Soper-Wheeler Co., which was moved to California where it operates today. Founded in 1904, Soper-Wheeler Company was the first California timber company to practice sustainable forestry. From the beginning, the company has managed its lands conservatively, providing for healthy forests, diverse habitat, long-term careers, sustainable forest products, and economic benefit to our local communities. (Source: Hamilton Alumni Review).
Dr. William Palmer Wesselhoeft (1835-1909) was born in Bath, PA. His father William Wesselhoeft brought his family to Boston in 1842, and was one of the earliest physicians to practice homoeopathy in Massachusetts. Dr. WP Wesselhoeft was educated in a private school in Boston until he was about 16 when he went to Germany with his cousin, the late Dr. Conrad Wesselhoeft, m ’56. They returned to enter the Harvard Medical School. Dr. WP Wesselhoelf than began medical practice with his father, and became a leader in the homoeopathy school. He was one of the founders of the Mass. Homoeopathy Hospital and continued to serve it actively until about 1904, when he resigned from active service and was made consulting physician, which position he held until his death. Dr. Wesselhoeft held a particular position in the medical world. His reputation was a national one and his patients were from almost every state. He was for many years one of the most active of Boston’s physicians, and numbered among his patients members of its most influential families. Not alone in his skills as physician, nut his strong and enthusiastic personality and his optimism gained and held the confidence of his patients in a most unusual degree. Dr. Wesselhoeft leaves a son, Dr. WF Wesselhoeft and a daughter. (Source: The Harvard Graduates' Magazine, Volume 18 – 1909).
Joseph May (1836-1918) the son of the Rev. Samuel Joseph May and Lucretia Flagg Coffin May, was born in Boston on January 21, 1836. He received an AB from Harvard in 1857. After several years in Europe, he entered Harvard Divinity School and graduated in 1865. He was ordained by the First Unitarian Church in Yonkers, N.Y., on September 14, 1865, and served this church until September 1867. From July 1868 to December 1875, he served the First Religious Society of Newburyport, Massachusetts. In January 1876, he became minister of the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia, which he served for 25 years. After his retirement, he became pastor emeritus until his death on January 19, 1918. In 1886 he helped establish a community center for boys in Philadelphia known as the Evening Home and Library Association. He was a strong supporter of education for African Americans throughout his life. Jefferson Medical College honored him with an LLD degree in 1887, and he received the DD degree from Meadville Theological School in 1914. (Source: ANDOVER-HARVARD THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY, President and Fellows of Harvard College).
Duncan Hunter was born at 26 Carlton Villas, Maida Vale, Paddington, London, England, son of Archibald Hunter & Mary Jane Grahame (both of Scottish heritage). Duncan immigrated to the United States 1882 and settled in Helena, Montana. He met his wife, Abby Frances Lippitt, daughter of Gov. Henry Lippitt of Rhode Island, on board a train in 1892. Four daughters were born in Montana, and in 1900 Duncan and his family moved to his wife's family home, The Governor Henry Lippitt House, 199 Hope St., in Providence, Rhode Island.
OBITUARY: New York Times, September 26, 1902. YORK HARBOR, Me., Sept. 25. - Duncan Hunter, a New York banker and broker, although a resident of Providence, R. I., died to-day of heart failure, following illness from diphtheria. Mr. Hunter was born in Scotland forty years ago, and received his education there, later travelling through Europe and studying at different universities. He came to this country and first engaged in business in Helena, Mon., later moving to New York and becoming a banker. Ten years ago he married the youngest daughter of ex-Gov. Lippitt of Rhode Island.
OBITUARY: New York Times, September 26, 1902. YORK HARBOR, Me., Sept. 25. - Duncan Hunter, a New York banker and broker, although a resident of Providence, R. I., died to-day of heart failure, following illness from diphtheria. Mr. Hunter was born in Scotland forty years ago, and received his education there, later travelling through Europe and studying at different universities. He came to this country and first engaged in business in Helena, Mon., later moving to New York and becoming a banker. Ten years ago he married the youngest daughter of ex-Gov. Lippitt of Rhode Island.
Hartley W. Mason (1844-1925) was a local resident of York and worked as a haserdasher, a salesman of woolen goods, a shopkeeper and a real estate developer. In 1881 he purchased the first land and enterprises that comprised most of his local real estate holdings. Six summer cottages were built on the knoll overlooking the outer harbor of York. These cottages were named: Sunny Side, Hill Top, Overbank, Rocky Knoll, The Lodge and The Octagon. In addition he owned a bathing pavilion on York Harbor beach and across York Street, two retail businesses. His will specified that upon his death the land would be used as ‘pleasure ground (park) forever’.
Edward Octavius Emerson (EO) Emerson (1834 – 1912), was a prominent lawyer and a businessman in the oil and gas in Titusville, PA. He was born in York, ME, attended Berwick Academy and Phillips Academy, Andover, MA. He was a cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
When the American Civil War in 1861 broke out, E O as he was known enlisted as a Private in the 19th Wisconsin Infantry. He was promoted twice and left the service as a 1st Lieutenant. After the Civil War in 1865, he arrived in Titusville, PA interested in the oil and gas business. He secured interest in fields in PA, OH and WV. In 1881 he drilled in what was the greatest gas well in the world. From this well, he laid a pipeline to the City of Pittsburgh. In 1890 he was elected Mayor of Titusville, PA.
While his first successes were in the oil business, his most important success, with his business partner, Joseph N Pew, was in the natural gas business. Together they founded the Peoples Natural Gas Company. In 1903, Standard Oil’s National Transit Co. acquired 100% of The Peoples Natural Gas Co. in Pittsburgh which quickly grew and became the Sun Oil Company, now known as Sunoco.
When the American Civil War in 1861 broke out, E O as he was known enlisted as a Private in the 19th Wisconsin Infantry. He was promoted twice and left the service as a 1st Lieutenant. After the Civil War in 1865, he arrived in Titusville, PA interested in the oil and gas business. He secured interest in fields in PA, OH and WV. In 1881 he drilled in what was the greatest gas well in the world. From this well, he laid a pipeline to the City of Pittsburgh. In 1890 he was elected Mayor of Titusville, PA.
While his first successes were in the oil business, his most important success, with his business partner, Joseph N Pew, was in the natural gas business. Together they founded the Peoples Natural Gas Company. In 1903, Standard Oil’s National Transit Co. acquired 100% of The Peoples Natural Gas Co. in Pittsburgh which quickly grew and became the Sun Oil Company, now known as Sunoco.