Frederick Clarke Withers

Frederick Clarke Withers (4 February 1828–7 January 1901) was an successful English architect in America, especially renowned for his Gothic Revival church designs.

Contents

Biography

Born in Shepton Mallet, Somersetshire[1], Withers studied architecture in England for eight years. He came to the United States in 1851/52 at the invitation of the prominent American architect Andrew Jackson Downing. Downing drowned that year, attempting to save his mother, following the explosion of the steamboat Henry Clay. Calvert Vaux, Downing's partner, then took Withers in as a partner, at Newburgh, New York.[2] Vaux included a design for a bookcase credited to Withers among those in his Villas and Cottages (New York, 1857), which records both designs of Downing and Vaux and Vaux and Withers.[3]

At the outset of the American Civil War, Withers volunteered and received a commission as a lieutenant in the 1st New York Volunteer Engineer Regiment. This experience added invaluable engineering experience to his architectural expertise. After war's end, he moved his practice to New York City where he became renowned for his church designs. As an independent architect in New York working largely in the Gothic revival mode, Withers wrote about architecture and designed in the highly-colored "Ruskinian Gothic" manner. Withers' only cast-iron building stands at 448 Broome Street, Manhattan.[4]

When A. J. Bicknell published Withers' Church Architecture (1873),[5] it was a sign that Withers' reputation was secured. Among his prestigious commissions was the "William Backhouse Astor, Sr. Memorial Altar and Reredos" (1876-77) at Trinity Church. In the 1880s Withers worked in partnership with Walter Dickson (1835-1903), originally from Albany, New York.

Works

References

Notes
  1. ^ Francis R. Kowsky, The Architecture of Frederick Clarke Withers and the Progress of the Gothic Revival in America after 1850, 1980, is the standard monograph.
  2. ^ " National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination". National Park Service. 1977-05-24.
  3. ^ Bookcase, p. 80; Withers is credited (p. vii) with preparing the outlines of the architecture on wood engraving blocks; the Vaux & Withers designs are 1 "A simple Suburban Cottage", 5 "A Suburban House", 10 "A Suburban House with Attics", 13, "A Brick Villa with Tower and without attics", 19 "An Irregular Wooden Country House", 22 "An Irregular Brick Villa", 23 "A Suburban House with Curvilinear Roof", Vignette "Design for a Square House, 28 "A Picturesque Villa with Wing and Attics", 29 "A Town House", Vignette "Design for a Roomy Country house"
  4. ^ " National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination". National Park Service. 1977-05-24.
  5. ^ Withers, Church architecture: plans, elevations, and views of twenty-one churches and two school-houses, photo-lithographed from original drawings, with numerous illustrations shewing details of construction, church fittings... (Bicknell: New York) 1873.
  6. ^ " National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination". National Park Service. 1977-05-24.
  7. ^ Drawings in the Frederick Withers Collection, Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania.

External links