Gervase Wheeler: A British Architect in America, 1847–1860

NEW YORK CITY, 1853–1860

[ 65 W heeler continued to roam during these years, as he had since his arrival in America. Most notable among his trips was a return to Europe, perhaps near the end of 1852. Little is known of this, though Wheeler specifically mentioned visiting London.1 Whatever the reason for the journey, by July 1853 he was back in the United States. A notice in The Horticulturist announced: “The friends of Gervase Wheeler, the accomplished architect and author of Rural Homes, will be glad to learn that he has returned from Europe and resumed the practice of his profession.”2 The notice was supplemented by ads placed by Wheeler in the August and november issues of the same magazine.3 Wheeler returned to new York City, where directories consistently listed his residence as 1 Elm Place, Brooklyn, a middle-class neighborhood, while he frequently changed offices. According to the American Architect for 1884, Henry Hudson Holly (1834–1892) apprenticed with him from 1854 until leaving for England in 1856. On his return Holly briefly joined in practice Charles Duggin (1830–1916), another immigrant. The subsequent work of both would show Wheeler’s influence.4 Holly worked with Wheeler at the time the latter was writing his second book, Homes for the People, in Suburb and Country; The Villa, the Mansion, and the Cottage, Adapted to American Climate and Wants (1855). It is safe to suggest that, if Holly did not in fact collaborate on the volume, he was familiar with the ideas and designs that Wheeler espoused. In the preface of his Country Seats, Holly noted that “the work was fully prepared for the press some two years since,” but its publication was hindered by the outbreak of the Civil War. In other words, Holly had drafted his book in late 1860 and early 1861, soon after Wheeler’s departure for England. The content and organization of Homes for the People will be discussed later, but some of the similarities between these two architects’ published works bear mention here. Both addressed the general public as opposed to an audience of architects and builders. Country Seats began, as had Homes for the People, with a brief history of architecture, and devoted several pages to a differentiation of the types of homes sought by differing classes of people. Several of Holly’s designs , though modified in plan, presented combinations of motifs or proportions reminiscent of Wheeler’s work in Homes for the People. As the book’s audience represented prospective clients, Holly, like Wheeler, championed hiring an New York City, 1853–1860 66 ] G E R V A S E W H E E L E R architect for the planning of a country house. He also followed Wheeler’s example in noting that the designs were “not intended for model houses, to be copied for all localities, but simply to show how important it is to have an original design adapted to the peculiarities of site.”5 Beyond the similarities in their books, Holly also shaped a professional course similar to Wheeler’s. Both designed executed buildings, but relied upon publication to popularize their domestic projects. Repeating a pattern set by Wheeler a quarter of a century earlier, in 1876 Holly began contributing a series of articles entitled “Modern Dwellings, Their Construction, Decoration and Furniture” to Harper’s New Monthly Magazine.6 The series would become the foundation for his second book, Modern Dwellings, published in 1878.7 The most conspicuous difference between the careers of the two men lay in organizational associations. Unlike Wheeler, Holly was from the outset involved in the a.i.a. and was elected to Fellowship in 1858, even before Wheeler’s departure. As we have seen, in 1855 Charles Scribner issued Wheeler’s second book. The author had in fact been working on the volume since 1852, but he tells us that the manuscript and all related papers, including the illustrations, were destroyed in a fire in 1854.8 One of the designs he published in A Book of Plans of 1853 had been intended for this publication. The work was taken up again, from memory, according to the author. Wheeler noted that the impetus for publishing anew lay in the numerous requests for assistance and professional advice “from all parts of the country,” which, if true, suggests his popular appeal and the considerable success of his first book. But Wheeler’s desire to publish may also have meant a lack of sufficient commissions in his...