Elise Mercur

Elise Mercur
Born	1864 Towanda, Pennsylvania
Died	March 27, 1947 Ambridge, Pennsylvania
Nationality	American
Other names	Elise Mercur Wagner
Occupation	Architect
Years active	1889–1905
Notable work	The Women's Building at the Cotton States and International Exposition(1895)
Spouse(s)	Karl Rudolph Wagner

Elise Mercur (Wagner) (1869 – March 27, 1947) was Pennsylvania's first woman architect. Among her many architectural achievements is the Woman's Building at the Cotton States and International Exposition, built in 1895. Ms. Mercur designed and supervised the construction of private and public buildings, between 1895 and 1905, many of which have since been demolished. The sole documented Elise Mercur designed building is St. Paul Episcopal Church at 2601 Center Avenue in the Hill District of Pittsburgh.

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (c. 1895)

An exhibition space within the Academy

Biography

Elise Mercur (Wagner) was born in 1864 in Towanda to Anna Hubbard and Mahlon C. Mercur, a businessman and councilman. Mercur was also the niece of Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ulysses Mercur.^[1][2][3][4] Ms. Educated in France and Stuttgart, Ms Mercur studied art, mathematics, languages, and music.^[5] After the death of her father, Ms. Mercur returned to the United States where she studied design at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.^[6][7] In 1844, the Academy's Board of Directors' began welcoming women artists who "would have exclusive use of the statue gallery for professional purposes." in the museum on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, but it was not until 1860 that women students enrolled in drawing courses.^[8][9] The uniquely exquisite museum building by American architects Frank Furness and George Hewitt most likely inspired Ms. Mercur's architectural imagination.

In 1885, Ms. Mercur began working as a technical illustrator, then promoted to construction foreman, in the Pittsburgh office of prominent Australian architect, Thomas Boyd.^{[3][notes 1][6]} After six years, Ms. Mercur opened her own architecture practice in Pittsburgh's Westinghouse Building.^[9] In 1896, Ms. Mercur was a founding member of Pittsburg's Architectural Club, serving as first treasurer.^[10] A popular lecturer Ms. Mercur delivered many lectures on architecture topics including construction processes, sanitation, and more, at places like the Twentieth Century Club of Lansdowne and Pratt Institute School of Architecture, Brooklyn, N.Y.^[11][12] Ms. Mercur was commissioned to design public buildings, and she advertised architectural plans for private homes in the Sunday edition of the Pittsburgh Daily Post. ^[13] Around 1899, Ms. Mercur married Karl Rudolph Wagner, and within that year moved her practice to Economy, Pennsylvania.^{[14][15][notes 2]}

After relocating her architecture office, Ms. Mercur (Wagner) built at least two school buildings and a residence hall. Although documentation is limited, Ms. Mercur seems to have retired from practice in 1905. In 1924, Ms. Mercur published a history of the towns of Economy and Ambridge Pennsylvania.^[17]

Ms. Mercur (Wagner) died on March 27, 1947 in Ambridge, Pennsylvania.^[18]

Selected projects

In the April 1989 issue of"Home Monthly" Ms. Mercur was introduced to readers in Southwestern Pennsylvania on the job at a construction site: "Miss Mercur has found her profession not only full of honor, but financially profitable . . . . She goes out herself to oversee the construction of the buildings she designs, inspecting the laying of foundations and personally directing the different workmen from the first stone laid to the last nail driven, thereby acquiring a practical knowledge not possessed by every male architect."

Woman's Building

Woman's Building 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition, Architect Elise Mercur Wagner

In 1894, Ms. Mercur entered a design competition for the 1895 World's Fair in Atlanta, Georgia.^[19] When the announcement was made that Ms. Mercur had been granted the commission she became the first woman to win a major architecture competition in the South. The Woman's Building of the Cotton States and International Exposition, in Piedmont Park was considered "a diamond among jewels." The building was an impressive classical Georgian revival style structure measuring 150 feet by 128 feet. Ms. Mercur adorned the exterior with ornamental friezes, cornices; balustrades encircling the roof where crowned with statues resting on ornamental pedestals "symbolic of woman and her power." A dome rising 90-feet above the roof was surmounted by a statue of "Immortality." ^[20] Visitors entered the Women's building through a soaring central hall, flanked by a grand double stair finished in natural wood. The interior composed well-lit, airy rooms, including a Model Library, Assembly Hall, the Mary Ball Washington Tea Room, the Lucy Cobb room, and other exhibition rooms assigned to different states. The unifying theme theme among the exhibits was the contributions made by women to education, agriculture, health care, and fine and decorative arts.

A "Colonial" exhibit was said to symbolize "the growing bond of cooperation between the North and South." ^[21] Prototype hospital room, nursery, kindergarten classroom, and a model library, in actual working order where equipped with up-to-date features and furnishings. The model library collection, for example, comprised publications authored by women from every state in the nation, and a photography exhibit represented the accomplishments of women in every branch of literature. The National League of Mineral Painters, which included members Adelaïde Alsop Robineau and Mary Chase Perry, contributed decorative objects and artwork to the New York City section of the Women's Building.

Children's Building

In 1897, Ms. Mercur designed the Marshalsea Poor Farm children's hospital, later renamed Mayview State Hospital, in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania. At the time of comission, the hospital did not have a separate children's facility, and sick children were therefore admitted to the women's dormitory. Ms. Mercur's design for Marshalsea Poor Farm was a one-storey brick building measuring 48 ft. by 64 ft., and trimmed in stone. A front portico was supported by four pillars. The interior design provided a large central sitting room, and six sleeping areas with approximately one hundred beds, and separate areas for nurses and for dining.^[22]

McIlvaine Hall

In 1897, Ms. Mercur designed and supervised the construction of a brick and limestone home of the Washington Female Seminary,^[23][24] Ms. Mercur modeled the design for the building's portico after Mount Vernon.^[25] The interior included Seminary classrooms for several academic departments, laboratories, and faculty offices; an auditorium in the north wing.^[26] In 1881, a four-faced clock installed in the tower was dedicated to David F. McGill, and in 1937, a 26-note Stephen Collins Foster Carillon which chimes on the hour was a Founder's Day gift of the Women's Auxiliary of Allegheny County.

In 1940, Washington & Jefferson College acquired the building, and renamed it McIlvaine Hall after alumni Judge John Addison McIlvaine.^[27][27] The John L. Stewart Clock Tower was also named after a local newspaper publisher, and in the 1980s, its chimes were replaced with a cassette system. In 2008, the McIlvaine Hall was demolished and the site was rebuilt. Shortly before, President Tori Haring-Smith toured a group of alumni through Ms. Mercur's building.^[28]

Works

Economy, Pennsylvania, 4th ward school, 1904, Architect Elise Mercur Wagner

Washington Female Seminary line drawing

• 1895: Woman's Building, Cotton States and International Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia ^[29]
• 1895: Beaver College and Musical Institute, College Avenue at Turnpike Street, Beaver, Pennsylvania.^[30]
• 1896: colonial residence, Beaver, Pennsylvania.^[9]
• 1896: Christian Tabernacle Kodesh Church of Immanuel (St. Paul’s Episcopal Church), 2601 Centre Avenue, the Hill, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.^[31]
• 1897: St. Martin's Episcopal Church, Johnsonburg, Pennsylvania, demolished in 1965.^{[6] [15]}
• 1897: Children's Building at the Marshalsea Poor Farm, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania^[22] (now demolished).^[15]
• 1897: McCullough Building, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania^[32]
• 1897: Washington Female Seminary , later sold to Washington and Jefferson College in 1940, and renamed McIlvaine Hall ; demolition to replace with a science center in 2010, Washington, Pennsylvania. ^[15][33]
• 1898: Daughters of the American Revolution Home, at Fort Pitt Blockhouse, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ^[34]
• 1901: Tudor Revival style house on Fifth Avenue in Shadyside, built for Dr. William Mercur, the architect's brother
• 1904: Economy Public School (renamed Fourth Ward School) at Laughlin and 16th Streets in Ambridge, Pennsylvania (razed 1964) ^[35]
• 1904, Ambridge Recreational, Community College Practical Nursing School of Beaver County, renamed Second Ward School, Maplewood Avenue at Eighth Street in Ambridge, Pennsylvania (razed 1972)^[36]
• 1904, private residence in Economy, Pennsylvania.

Published works

• Wagner, Elise Mercur (1924). Economy of old and Ambridge of today: historical outlines, embracing the settlement and life of Economy of old, together with the vast development in recent years of Ambridge and surroundings on this historic spot. Ambridge, Pennsylvania. 

Notes

References

Sources

• Allaback, Sarah (2008). The First American Women Architects. Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-03321-6. 
• Cotton States Exposition Atlanta (1895). The official catalogue of the Cotton States and International Exposition: Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A., September 18 to December 31, 1895. Atlanta, Georgia: Claflin and Mellinchamp Publishing. 
• Harvey, Bruce G. (2014). World’s Fairs in a Southern Accent: Atlanta, Nashville, and Charleston, 1895–1902. Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 978-1-57233-865-4. 
• Heverly, Clement Ferdinand (1886). History of the Towandas, 1776–1886 : including the aborigines, Pennamites and Yankees, Together with Biographical Sketches and Matters of General Importance Connected with the County Seat. Towanda, Pennsylvania: Reporter-Journal Printing Company. 

External links

• Mayview Regional Service Area Plan
• Mayview State Hospital