Samuel Hannaford

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“ It has been well said that the architectural beauty of Cincinnati commands the unqualified admiration of every visitor to our city, come they from the metropolitan centers of our own country or be they wayfarers from the farthest limits of Europe... And the man from whose brains and artistic taste much of the beauty has emanated, was Samuel Hannaford, whose reputation as an architect was known throughout the country. ”

—John Calvin Hover, [1]

Samuel Hannaford (10 April 1835 - 1911) is one of the most admired architects in Cincinnati history. His reputation has endured along with his buildings. Some of the best known landmarks in the city, such as Music Hall and City Hall, were of his design. Hannaford is more than a local architect although the bulk of his work, over 300 buildings, was done in the tri-state region. His homes extend from New England to the Midwest and the South. His reputation as a man who carefully and promptly carried out his commissions, and as a capable architect, earned the trust and fame that his firm, Hannaford & Sons, had until its close in the early 1960s. He is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery and it was his explicit order that he not have a tombstone. Samuel Hannaford was inducted into the Greater Cincinnati Business Hall of Fame in September 2000.

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[edit] Journey to Cincinnati

He was born on 10 April 1835, the third in a family of eleven children, in the parish of Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Devon, England. His parents, Roger and Mary (Northcott) Hannaford, both came from prosperous farming backgrounds. Roger’s brothers, Samuel and John William, each had a nearby farm in Devon. Roger’s family left Southcombe Farm which had been in the Hannaford family for over three centuries, emigrating to America in 1844. The economics of farm life in Devon had declined as a result of England’s industrialization. Another reason for leaving England at this time was a fire in 1840 which destroyed their home and it was not rebuilt. The family was living with Roger’s brother Samuel on his farm during this four year period.

Samuel was nine when he arrived in America with his parents and seven siblings who differed in ages not more than fourteen months. They left Liverpool for New York in the sailing packet Siddons (named for the actress) of the Collins Line. In an account he wrote about his trip he relates that the "Bowsprit was ornamented with a life size figure of the actress with the right arm outstretched and pointing onward. In the preceding voyage the arm had been broken off in a storm. We were five weeks and three days on the ocean." The ship was crowded, water seeped in on the lower deck and rats occupied the cabins but the family stayed healthy during this month long voyage.

After staying in New York for two weeks, they traveled to Philadelphia. From there they went on to Baltimore in a small coasting vessel that went down Delaware Bay. They traveled by railroad to Cumberland, Maryland, arriving in time for breakfast. He remembered this breakfast years later, "... we had ham and eggs and also country sausages in abundance. We were awfully hungry and hollow and I was pretty nearly filled, when I noticed the waiters began to serve piping hot, delicious looking, nicely browned pancakes -- as I thought. We immediately requisitioned our share and we were served - but one mouthful satisfied us and we gagged, but managed to maintain the proprieties of the table. It was our first experience with Buckwheat cakes and the taste to us was strange and vile.”

In Maryland they took a stagecoach across the Cumberland Mountains going to Wheeling, West Virginia. From Wheeling they traveled to Cincinnati on the steamboat Revenue. According to his memoirs the entire trip took seven weeks. The family with their eight children arrived in Cincinnati in November of 1844. Traveling with them was John Payne, his wife and two children. He earned their passage by attending to the Hannaford children as a tutor. They "lodged in a house situated on the S.E. corner of Walnut and 9th Sts. At that time there were not many houses beyond that. I think that Smith and Nixon kept a grocery store in that corner. The proprietor of the boarding house or hotel was named 'Hook.'" It cost $30.00 a week to stay.

[edit] Early life

They next lived in a house on Catherine Street (between John and Mound) before purchasing, in June 1845, a 38 ½ acre farm in Cheviot (Green Township) for $4,000. The 1850 Green Township census lists Roger as a 46 year old farmer and his wife as 39. Roger, Jr. is 16 with the occupation of a farmer, Samuel was 15, Joseph 14, Sarah A. 11, Ebenezer 10, Edwin 8 and Robert 7. John, the eldest, was already on his own and was not listed in this census.

Shortly after arriving in Cheviot, the family tutor left and since he had helped with the farming as well, the Hannaford children had to assist with the farm for the first time. The children attended the Cheviot public school for a short period and were withdrawn when another tutor, Mr. McCorkell, was hired for $100 a year and board. Roger Hannaford disapproved of the coarse manners and language his children were exposed to in the public school. After helping on the farm during the day, the children were tutored in the evening from 6 to 9. Their brother John was apprenticed to a druggist and later served as the tutor of his siblings. John eventually had his own drugstore on the SW corner of 6th and Western Row (1856).

In 1853, Samuel was enrolled at Farmers’ College, College Hill, Ohio. His father had purchased shares of stock in the Ohio Female College and was able to use the stock as a perpetual tuition scholarship at either college. The colleges were across the street from each other and gave College Hill its name. In 1852, Roger Hannaford, John McLean, Robert W. Burnet, Giles Richards and Samuel F. Cary were officers of the board of the Ohio Female College, and Rev. D. H. Allen of Lane Theological Seminary, John Probasco, J. W. Caldwell and Caleb B. Smith were among the members of the board. This is important because Roger was sitting on a board with many of the most influential people in the Cincinnati area. Several, such as Cary and Rev. Allen, were active in the Underground Railroad, hiding and moving escaped slaves out of Cincinnati. Roger’s contacts later proved valuable to Samuel as he worked for both Probasco (Probasco fountain) and Rev. Allen (Walnut Hills Presbyterian Church).

There is some disagreement as to whether or not Samuel graduated from Farmers’ College, but he stayed for only a short time. From the records of the College, he was not listed as a graduate and was not in attendance long enough to finish a full course of study and graduate. His course of study was agricultural science. He is thought to have been the architect for the cooling tower of the Ohio Female College while he was still a student across the street .

Why Samuel left Farmers’ College and switched interests is unknown. Hannaford did study with the architect John R. Hamilton in 1854, probably as a draftsman. While learning to be an architect he also worked in a drug store for his brother John. Hannaford remained with the Hamilton firm until 1857, when he left to start his own architectural business located on 3rd Street.

Mary Hannaford died in 1852 and is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery. That year saw Roger naturalized as a citizen. (Samuel never became naturalized). Roger remarried in 1853 to Mrs. Sarah B. Gest and started a second family of six additional children. The family remained on this farm until 1857, selling it for $13,000. They next moved to a larger farm in Butler County. The Hannafords prospered, and this second farm was large - having 140 acres (costing $80/acre). Roger complained in his diary that Cincinnati’s "climate is the worst in the world, too dry or too wet, too hot or too cold" and concluded that English weather was better. Roger decided to move in 1860 to Marion, Kansas, where a branch of the Hannaford family still remains today and owns a title company. Roger’s son, Joseph, joined his father and stepmother in Kansas and set up a surgical practice there.

[edit] Beginnings of his career and work in Cincinnati

When he was 17, Samuel left home. On January 8, 1857, Samuel married Phoebe Statham. Samuel was not prosperous at the start of his career. He rented a room in downtown and went home on the weekends, walking to Cheviot to save coach fare. He ate poorly, mainly bread with molasses, and contracted typhoid fever. During the summer months he held a second job working at a tree nursery. He also sold a roofing material that was water and fire proof.

Samuel joined the architectural firm of Edwin Anderson and William Tinsley in 1858. Tinsley was then age 54 and had many years of experience to share with his younger partners. Anderson & Hannaford were the architects for the castle fortress-like Workhouse.

In 1865 the house designed by Samuel for his growing family of three children was completed on the N.E. corner of Derby Avenue and Winton Road in Winton Place. Winton Place had been platted that year. Hannaford's frame house still stands. In one of its 10 rooms was a mantel carved by William Fry. All the woodwork was cherry. In the peak of the gable are his initials, SH. This house was Samuel’s home until his death on January 7, 1911.

When the Hannaford's moved to Winton Place in 1865, they joined the Winton Place Methodist Episcopal church, which was located on Gray Road. Eventually the church outgrew the building and a new one was erected in 1885, with Samuel Hannaford as the architect, on the corner of Epworth and North Edgewood streets. It is in the Gothic style and is trimmed in limestone. He and his sons were also responsible for building of the parsonage in 1888. His family also were active parish members for many years.

Cincinnati City Hall
Cincinnati City Hall

Hannaford tried working on his own again in 1871 with an office at 1777 W 5th Street. Having toured Europe and visited with relatives back in England, Hannaford’s designs started to show a European influence. It was during this time that he drew the plans and supervised the building of St. George's Church, a major commission. John B. Purcell officiated at the cornerstone ceremonies on Oct. 13, 1872.

Hannaford joined fellow architect Edwin Procter in 1874 and they drew the plans for Music Hall, but in 1876 Hannaford dissolved the partnership and worked alone until 1887 when his sons Harvey and Charles joined him in his office in the Hulbert Building at 6th and Vine streets. For seven years of this period (1878-1885) he was the supervising architect of the U. S. Custom House and Post Office.

In 1887-1893 Hannaford & Sons designed and supervised the construction of the city’s most important building, Cincinnati City Hall. This building more than any other made his firm’s reputation. Finished in 1893 at a cost of 1.8 million, it became known country wide. Hannaford and Sons were paid $54,000 for their work.

Hannaford preferred to work with certain contractors such as the David Hummel Building Company for stone, Joseph Earnshaw and Thomas Punshon as surveyors, and Francis Pedretti for frescos. Many of the fine homes had woodwork carved by Ben Pittman or Henry and William Fry.

[edit] Personal life

Phoebe Hannaford died May 26, 1871 of typhoid. She was buried in the Cheviot Cemetery next to the graves of her parents. This cemetery was later paved over by the City. The surviving children from this marriage were Harvey Eldridge (1857-1923) and Charles Edward (1860-1936), who joined their father to form Hannaford & Sons. Both were educated at the Chickering Classical and Scientific Institute on George St., following a classical and scientific curriculum. Harry went additionally to the Boston School of Technology before joining the firm. Their sister Anna Miriam died unmarried (1856-1886).

Hannaford married several times after the death of Phoebe. In June 1873 he married Anna Belle Hand. The Hannafords had four children before she died in 1883.

Following Anna Belle’s death, he married Ada Louise Moore. Mrs. Ada Hannaford outlived Samuel and died in 1941.

Samuel Hannaford retired from the firm in 1904 and had a stroke in 1909. He continued to write as the editor for the Western Architect and Builder, a trade magazine, until a few months before his death.

[edit] Civic life

Hannaford had a strong civic commitments. He served as the first and only mayor (1882) of Winton Place before it was annexed in 1903 into the City of Cincinnati. In the early years the Winton Place council room was the rear office of Mayor Hannaford’s residence. Edwin Anderson also served as a board member. While the mayor, Hannaford was commissioned to build the Winton Place Town Hall (1890-1893) at the NE corner of Epworth and Edgewood for $12,000.

A long time member of the school board, Hannaford was a teacher and officer in the Ohio Mechanics' Institute (1887), a founder of the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and member, trustee and superintendent of the Winton Place Methodist Episcopal Church. He was a Republican, a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (he built the Odd Fellow building on the NW corner of Elm & 7th Sts.), and president and treasure of the Winton Place Building Association. He believed in vocational education and took a keen interest in housing and education of the poor. He helped to develop the first building codes for Cincinnati. He worked for years on the problem of smoke abatement from smoke stacks and urged its control. One of his favorite projects was championing the building of the Mill Creek Valley sewer.

[edit] List of works

This list includes both works by Samuel Hannaford and his firm Samuel Hannaford and Sons:

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Memoirs of the Miami Valley, Vol. 3, pages 292-294.
  2. ^ "Samuel Hannaford used blue sandstone and Ohio River sandstone, popular buildings materials in Cincinnati at that time, for the construction of the Bell House. At the time of the construccion the house was actually in a suburb of Cincinnati-Walnut Hills". "American Victorian Architecture", by Arnold Lewis and Keith Morgan. Dover publications, 1975. 1886 pictures by Albert Levy