Lord & Burnham
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Lord & Burnham are noted American greenhouse manufacturers, and builders of major public conservatories in the United States.
The company began in 1849 when Frederick A. Lord, a carpenter, started building wood and glass greenhouses for neighbors in Buffalo, New York. It became Lord's fulltime profession in 1856 as production moved to Syracuse, New York and then to Irvington, New York to be closer to his customers in the large Hudson River estates. In 1872 Lord's son-in-law William Addison Burnham joined the firm.
Their first major commission came in the 1876 when California philanthropist James Lick hired the firm to create a 12,000 square foot (1100 m²) conservatory similar to that in Kew Gardens. Its parts were fabricated in New York and sailed to California. After Lick's untimely death, it became the Golden Gate Park Conservatory of Flowers.
In 1881 the firm constructed the first steel-framed curvilinear greenhouse in the United States for railroad magnate Jay Gould, on a property now open as Lyndhurst. In 1883 the partnership incorporated as Lord's Horticultural Manufacturing Company, and in 1890 the name was changed to today's Lord & Burnham Company.
Major Lord & Burnham conservatories include:
- Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens, Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, 1892-1893
- Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens, Buffalo, New York, 1895-1899
- New York Botanical Garden, 1899-1902
- Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion State Historic Park, Canandaigua, New York, 1903-1915
- Reynolda Gardens, 1912
- United States Botanic Garden, Washington, DC 1933
Minor Lord & Burnham conservatories include:
- Austill Conservatory, Montrose Village, Montrose AL 1973
Early greenhouses were made of cypress and iron or steel. Although experimentation with aluminum began in 1932 with the United States Botanic Garden, commercial production was not economical until 1955.
[edit] Architectural records
Lord & Burnham's historical records are archived at the New York Botanical Garden. The collection includes over 140,000 architectural plans for more than 7,000 glass structures.
