At Large in the Archive: Frank's Island Ledger

Tulane University Libraries recently acquired contractor Benjamin Beal's ledger documenting Benjamin Henry Latrobe's ill-fated Lighthouse for the Northeast Pass of the Mississippi River. After the Louisiana Purchase, the United States government appropriated funds to build a grandiose navigational beacon at one of the river's mouths.  Massachusetts sea captain Winslow Lewis was awarded the building contract and sent Benjamin Beal to oversee construction. Latrobe visited the site in April 1819. An early season hurricane battered the island three months later. Lighthouse officials were so concerned by damages that they requested an expert assessment. Major Joseph Jenkins, then constructing the New Orleans Customs House, inspected the site and recommended new construction.  After Congress received Jenkins' report, Winslow Lewis was hired to demolish the tower  and build a new lighthouse according to his own design.  The resultant "Mississippi Light" was first illuminated on 20 March 1823.

Keeping the seasonal workers -- who spent hurricane seasons in Boston -- was no easy task. According to the ledger, some were discharged, some refused duty, some stole a boat and "absconded" and some were too drunk to perform their duties.

Architect and preservationist Samuel Wilson, Jr. (1911-1993) was fascinated by the lighthouse.  In November 1934, Wilson and his fellow Sea Scouts visited the crumbling ruins and took photographs. Later Wilson conducted archival research in Washington, D.C. and developed measured drawings for the structure. His records are included in the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) deposited in the Library of Congress.

Wilson's scrapbook -- retained in the Southeastern Architectural Archive -- records his personal account that was never submitted to HABS:

"Far down North East Pass, once the principal pass of the Mississippi river, now long abandoned, stands an ancient brick tower as abandoned as the pass itself. Strange tales are told of this old ruin by the people of Pilot Town, tales of ghostly figures, uttering piercing shrieks and waving signals of distress from its crumbling top, figures which on closer examination proved to be giant snakes licking out with huge tongues to seize low flying pelicans, to devour them at one gulp as they utter their last agonized cry. Other snakes are said to have been so large that it required ten minutes for their great length to pass the doorway.

"It was to this desolate spot by automobile motor launch and pirogue that the Bienville went in November, 1934, and brought back photographs and data which are now filed in the Library of Congress with the records of the Historic American Buildings Survey. Of course, the fantastic snake stories were proven false, although large snakes hibernating [sic] in inner crevices of the walls. The true story of how this tower came to be here and why and when it was abandoned is as interesting a narrative as any of the wildest tales now told of it in Pilot Town."



Image above:  Benjamin Beal. An Account of the Time Building the Lighthouse on Frank Island, New Orleans. New Orleans.  1818-1823. Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

NEW! Koch & Wilson Finding Aid

The Southeastern Architectural Archive (SEAA) recently finalized the processing of the Koch and Wilson Office Records. The expansive collection consists of architectural records and correspondence files associated with the partnership of Richard Koch and Samuel Wilson, Jr., as well as the earlier partnership of Charles R. Armstrong and Richard Koch. Also included are independent projects undertaken by Richard Koch and Samuel Wilson, Jr., as well as copies of architectural drawings by other architects whose buildings Koch and Wilson altered.

The Koch and Wilson practice became one of the most significant preservation firms of the twentieth century, undertaking the restoration of the French Market, the Pitot House, the Pontalba Apartments, Gallier House and the Ursuline Convent. Additionally, the architects produced a significant number of contemporary residences informed by French, British and American architectural traditions. Although primarily associated with Louisiana and Mississippi preservation, the firm’s output extended across the southeastern United States and was not exclusively devoted to historic renovations and adaptations. Koch and Wilson completed drawings for projects in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas; and the partners developed modernist designs, such as those for Metairie cemetery’s gates and fountain (1961-63). Their partnership continued until Koch’s death in 1971; since then, the firm has continued to operate under the name “Koch and Wilson, Architects.”

During the early 1970s, Samuel Wilson, Jr. prepared a series of National Register of Historic Places nomination forms for the U.S. General Services Administration. His research files included photographs, sketches and narratives associated with the histories of various Alabama and Mississippi federal buildings, including the James Knox Taylor (1857-1929) Selma Post Office (1908-09, shown above).  These documents are included in the Koch and Wilson Office Records.

Read more about the firm and see an inventory of its projects here.

Image above: Koch and Wilson, Architects. Selma, Alabama Federal Building and Court House; Old Post Office Building. Photograph by Samuel Wilson, Jr.  1974. Koch and Wilson Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

NEW! Samuel Wilson Finding Aid

The Southeastern Architectural Archive (SEAA) recently finalized the processing of the Samuel Wilson, Jr. Papers and Drawings. Architect and preservationist Samuel Wilson, Jr. (1911-1993) was an early donor to the SEAA and was a member of the American Institute of Architects' Committee on Architectural Archives. He championed the preservation of architectural records and encouraged others to financially support archival repositories. His extensive publication record was informed by research conducted in American and Europeans archives.

The collection includes correspondence, transcriptions and translations of primary documents, typescripts of his publications, receipts associated with various reprographic requests, scrapbooks, photographs  and sketches. Records date from 1930-1975.  Read more here.

Image above: Samuel Wilson, Jr. Circa 1943. Samuel Wilson, Jr. Papers and Drawings, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Port-au-Prince

Louisiana State University geographer Jay Dearborn Edwards has frequently addressed the relationship between Saint-Domingue (Haiti) and New Orleans building typologies by drawing on pictorial sources housed in the New Orleans Notarial Archive, the Historic New Orleans Collection and the Southeastern Architectural Archive.(1)  Late architectural historian and architect Samuel Wilson, Jr. (1911-1993) shared an interest in Saint-Domingue, an interest that is reflected in a small collection of historic photographs and research notes that may be located amid his personal papers. From what remains, Wilson was particularly interested in Cap François, the French colony's administrative capitol.  He gathered together a 1723 perspective view of the village, and translated Médéric-Louis-Elie Moreau de Saint-Méry's 1797 narrative description:

"The houses almost all have the same arrangement. There are rooms fifteen to eighteen feet square which have very high ceilings, and which have on the street a doorway between two windows, or one doorway and one window. These openings are repeated on the courtyard side where ordinarily there is a more or less wide gallery. There are lean-to sheds along the walls of this courtyard, and their division into small rooms furnishes kitchens, offices, and lodgings for the negroes."(2)

His file includes two twentieth-century photographs of structures in Port-au-Prince, one identified as "old house near cathedral" (undated, top image); the other as "Old House" (1961, lower image).

(1) See, for example his "Shotgun: The Most Contested House in America." Buildings & Landscapes XVI:1 (Spring 2009): pp. 62-96.

(2) Médéric-Louis-Elie Moreau de Saint-Méry. Description topographique, physique, civile, politique et historique de la partie francaise de l'isle Saint-Domingue. Avec des observations générales sur la population, sur le caractère & les moeurs de ses divers habitans; sur son climat, sa culture, ses productions, son administration, &c. &c. Accompagnées des détails les plus propres à faire connâitre l'état de cette colonie à l'époque du 18 octobre 1789; et d'une nouvelle carte de la totalité de l'isle. (Philadelphia, Paris, & Hamburg, 1797) Volume I, p. 300. The John Carter Brown Library's copy has been digitized and is available via the Internet Archive at: http://archive.org/details/descriptiontopog00more

Images above:  Old House Near Cathedral/Port-au-Prince, undated; & Port-au-Prince/Old House, 1961. Box 27, "Saint-Domingue," Samuel Wilson, Jr. Papers, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

1930's Germany

New Orleans architect and preservationist Samuel Wilson, Jr. (1911-1993) visited Europe in the late 1930s, venturing through France, Austria, Germany and Finland. As he traveled, he documented historic and contemporary architecture, public monuments, and countryside.

Judging by his photographs, he had a heightened interest in what he saw in Bayreuth, Dresden, and Nuremberg. He recorded Otto Ernst Schweizer's (1890-1965) modernist Nuremberg Municipal Stadium and Swimming Baths (1926-28); Albert Speer's newly constructed Zeppelin Grandstand (1935-37); and National Socialist banners along Richard-Wagner Straße in Bayreuth.

Architects' travels have been discussed in a number of previous posts, which can be accessed by following the Label Link "Travel and Tourism" (at right).

Images above from the Samuel Wilson, Jr. Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries:

Samuel Wilson, Jr., photographer. Albert Speer, architect. Zeppelin Field Grandstand, Nuremberg. c. 1937.

Samuel Wilson, Jr., photographer. Otto Ernst Schweizer, architect. Stadium Swimming Baths, Nuremberg. c. 1937.

Samuel Wilson, Jr., photographer. Richard-Wagner Straße, Bayreuth. c. 1937.

First Lady's New Orleans Visit

In the summer of 1970, First Lady Patricia Nixon (1916-1993) visited a hurricane-damaged New Orleans. Architectural historian Samuel Wilson, Jr. (1911-1993) hosted her August tour of St. Mary's Assumption Church. She was a captive audience and took notes, including the following:

Cornerstone laid Ap. 25, 1858

$68,500 cost over three years. 1858-1860

Tower 190' high

Within two weeks of her tour, Mrs. Nixon sent Wilson a thank you letter, and carefully folded inside the card were her handwritten notes itemizing the structure's architectural features. The church has been attributed to Albert Diettel (1824-1896)* and was eventually restored after Hurricane Betsy (1965) by Nolan, Norman & Nolan and Koch & Wilson. Structural assessment of the building conducted by architect-engineer Alvin Fromherz revealed that the side walls' foundations were comprised of shell mortar poured concrete (lime mortar of clam shells and river sand). **

The church reopened to the public 15 August 1975.

Image above: Betsy Swanson, photographer. Mrs. Richard M. Nixon with Samuel Wilson, Jr., St. Mary's Assumption Church, 901 Josephine Street, 14 August 1970. Box 52, Samuel Wilson, Jr. Papers, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

*Samuel Wilson had felt that similarities between St. Mary's and the churches Sts. Peter and Paul (Diettel and Howard, 1860) and St. John the Baptist (Diettel designer, Thomas Mulligan builder; 1869) suggested Diettel's presence. See Samuel Wilson, Jr., "The Church of St. Mary's Assumption" (January 1966) p. 2, typescript. Box 47, Samuel Wilson, Jr. Papers, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Tulane University Libraries.

**Ibid., p. 12.

Samuel Wilson's Quest

During the late 1950s, New Orleans architectural historian Samuel Wilson, Jr. participated in a coordinated effort to develop a national architectural archive system. Based on an initial proposal from Mrs. Eric Mendelsohn to develop an American architectural museum, a small group of architects convened informally to discuss such an endeavor and how it related to architectural archives. A preliminary program was developed and presented to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Executive Committee in late 1955. The AIA then organized a Joint Committee on Architectural Archives consisting of members from the AIA, the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH), the College Art Association (CAA), the American Historical Association (AHA), the American Association of Architectural Bibliographers, the Association of State and Local History, the Library of Congress and the National Park Service (NPS). The committee hoped to establish a means of preserving this nation's architectural records for future study and sought funds from the Council on Library Resources (established by the Ford Foundation) to determine the best methods for collecting, storing and servicing such records in both original and surrogate formats.

Wilson's committee stated the problem:

"Although ideally the architectural history of a country should be written in the main directly from its buildings, in practice this is not feasible. Buildings are subject to destruction all the time, they are immovable and have to be examined in situ, and many details are either not easily ascertainable or else have been greatly changed.

Consequently, it is necessary to rely in large measure on the written documentation of the building -- drawings, specifications, correspondence and printed contemporary descriptions. The drawings, however, offer peculiar problems of storage, cataloging and servicing in bulk, which must be satisfactorily resolved. Of even more importance is determining what should be saved since practical considerations of cost and space obviate the possibility of saving all such records." (undated, c. 1957)

Information gleaned from "Architectural Archives Problems/Investigation Committee." Box 3, Samuel Wilson, Jr. Papers Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Prefabrication and New Orleans

The Museum of Modern Art just opened its new exhibition, Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling (July 20-October 20 2008). The curators have developed a very informative website that includes a timeline of prefabricated housing and archival footage of American mass production beginning with Henry Ford's Model-T (1908). One of the contemporary projects featured in the Museum's Fifty-fourth Street lot is the Larry Sass/MIT Digitally Fabricated Housing for New Orleans, a 196-square-foot shotgun house that implements laser-cut joinery. The prefabrication, comprised of some 600 plywood and plastic sheets, is documented in stages on YouTube.

Noted New Orleans architectural historian Samuel Wilson, Jr. (1911-1993) wrote that as early as 1849, documents in the city's notarial archives made mention of prefabrication, in portable ready-made structures of canvas and cement. The Paris Universal Exposition of 1867 featured a "demountable" cypress Louisiana Cottage fabricated by the local Roberts and Company, which once occupied 299-307 Gravier Street. To read Wilson's article in The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians [22:1 March 1963 pp. 38-39], consult JSTOR.

In 1935 New Orleans, concrete was being explored as a new material for affordable residential housing. The Lone Star Cement Corp., a subsidiary of International Cement Corp., approached the local firm of Weiss, Dreyfous and Seiferth with a commission to design a $10,000 concrete house. The so-called Lone Star Home, located at 5500 S. Claiborne Avenue, was erected in nine successive concrete pours with patented metal forms and was featured in both American Architect (January 1936) and Pencil Points (March 1936). For current photographs of the house, see TSA Visual Resources Curator Francine Stock's flickr Regional Modernism set.

In the late 1940s, the New Orleans-based Higgins Incorporated began to develop its own method, what came to be patented as the Thermo-Con Cellular Concrete System. Its concrete was an ambiguous admixture of Portland Cement, water, and "three chemicals." The company's advertising department took pains to communicate the product's heat-shielding properties (left) and to distinguish its approach from any correlation to prefabrication:

The Thermo-Con cellular concrete system is in no way a pre-fabricated construction method. The forms are designed on a one-foot modular principle and can be arranged to fit any desired plan for a home or commercial building. Any architectural style may be chosen and interior space arranged to suit individual needs.

The Southeastern Architectural Archive maintains project drawings for the Lone Star Home in its Weiss, Dreyfous and Seiferth Collection. Higgins company advertising brochures for "Thermo-Con" cellular concrete are located in the SEAA's Trade Catalogs Collection, Box 7.

Image: "Concrete Evidence" of heat-resistance of Thermo-Con Cellular Concrete. Photograph of a model's face being shielded from an active oxyacetelene torch by a Higgins Inc. concrete slab. From Higgins Inc. Booklet 72, SEAA.