A. H. Davenport and Company was a late 19th-century, early 20th-century American furniture manufacturer, cabinetmaker, and interior decoration firm. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it sold luxury items at its showrooms in Boston and New York City, and produced furniture and interiors for many notable buildings, including The White House. The word "davenport," meaning a boxy sofa or sleeper-sofa, comes from the company.
The company was founded by Albert H. Davenport (1845-1905), who began as a bookkeeper at the Boston Furniture Company in 1866, and bought the business about 1880 following the death of its owner. [1] He changed the company's name, and expanded it, opening a showroom in New York City. It produced high-end and custom-made furniture, which it retailed alongside fabrics, wallpaper, hardware, decorative items, and quality goods from a variety of makers. One of Davenport's first big commissions was for 225 pieces of furniture and decorative items for the Iolani Palace in Honolulu, Hawaii. [2]
The company formed a close relationship with architect H. H. Richardson. Boston Furniture Company–Davenport & Co. likely executed the furniture for his Winn Memorial Library (1879) in Woburn, Massachusetts. [3] [4] [5] Davenport & Co. executed the furniture and interiors for his Thomas Crane Public Library (1881) in Quincy, Massachusetts; his Billings Library (1883) in Burlington, Vermont; and his Converse Memorial Library (1885) in Malden, Massachusetts. [6] [7]
Richardson designed the New York Court of Appeals Room (1883–84), on the third floor of the New York State Capitol in Albany. Davenport & Co. executed its highly carved, Byzantine-Romanesque-style cabinetwork and furniture. [8] Lord Coleridge, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, described it as "the finest courtroom in the world." [9] In 1916, Richardson's courtroom was disassembled and relocated to the New York Court of Appeals Building. [10]
In 1885, Davenport hired an architect from Richardson's office, Francis H. Bacon, to be his chief designer. Bacon soon was promoted to vice-president of Davenport & Co.
Richardson died in 1886. The dining room furniture for his John J. Glessner House (1885–87) in Chicago, Illinois, was designed by an associate, Charles Coolidge, and executed by Davenport & Co. [11] Coolidge also designed the desk in the study. [12] The custom-designed case for the Steinway grand piano was made by the company, and is attributed to Bacon. [13] [14]
The Warder Mansion (1885–88) in Washington, D.C., was one of Richardson's final buildings. Davenport & Co. made the furniture, but it is unclear whether design is partially attributable to Richardson, or wholly attributable to Bacon. [15]
Davenport & Co. did work on the James J. Hill House (1891) in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The architects, Peabody and Stearns, were fired before the building's completion and its interiors were completed by Irving & Casson.
The company produced furniture and interiors for architect Charles Brigham's 1895 annex to the Massachusetts State House in Boston. [16]
To the designs of architect Stanford White, the company executed cabinetwork and furnishings for the Villard Houses (1882–84) in New York City; Naumkeag (1885–86) in Stockbridge, MA; Algonquin Club of Boston (1886-1888) in Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts; Harbor Hill (1899-1902) in Roslyn, New York; [17] and the Payne Whitney House (1902–06) in New York City. [18]
To execute his interior designs for the Frederick William Vanderbilt Mansion (1896–99), in Hyde Park, New York, architect Charles Follen McKim assembled the team of Herter Brothers (floors, walls and ceilings), Davenport & Co. (furniture), and Edward F. Caldwell & Co. (lighting fixtures). McKim would reunite the team a couple years later to renovate The White House.
McKim, Mead and White designed the interiors for the George Eastman House (1905) in Rochester, New York. Davenport & Co. executed the work, including a dining room similar to McKim's State Dining Room. [19]
The company did work on the Henry Clay Frick House (1912–14) in New York City, Thomas Hastings, architect. The Frick Papers include receipts for "furniture and interior woodwork, fabrics and wall coverings, decorative painting." [20]
Davenport & Co. made a set of sofas and chairs for the Cross Hall during the second Grover Cleveland Administration. [21]
McKim, Mead and White renovated the public rooms of The White House during the Theodore Roosevelt Administration, removing the grand staircase and nearly doubling the size of the State Dining Room. McKim's goal was "to make changes so that the house would not have to be altered again." [22] Herter Brothers executed plasterwork, paneling and cabinetwork for several of the public rooms, helping to turn a stylistic hodge-podge of interiors into a unified Neo-Classical whole. Edward F. Caldwell & Co. made the lighting fixtures, and Leon Marcotte & Co. and Davenport & Co. made the furniture.
Davenport & Co. executed Stanford White's furniture designs for the State Dining Room. These consisted of two neo-Georgian-style dining tables, six William-and-Mary-style armchairs, fifty Queen-Anne-style side chairs, a long serving table supported by carved-eagle pedestals, [23] and two matching console tables. [24] The company executed McKim's Federal-style furniture designs for the Family Dining Room, which consisted of an oval table, armchairs and side chairs, a sideboard, server, mirror, and china cabinet. [25] For the Green Room, the company made a rolled-back sofa, a set of six matching armchairs, and two sets of cane-back side chairs, all painted white. [26] Davenport & Co. also provided furniture for four of the bedrooms, and a bookcase for the President's Study. [27]
First Lady Helen Herron Taft removed the Lincoln Bed from the President's Bedroom, replacing it with Colonial-Revival pieces made by Davenport & Co. [28]
Davenport & Co. executed McKim's furniture designs for the Executive Office and Cabinet Room. The pieces included the Theodore Roosevelt desk, the Cabinet Room's table and chairs, dark-green leather sofas with oversized brass tacks, and matching leather armchairs and sidechairs. [29]
President William Howard Taft moved the desk, sofas and chairs into the first Oval Office, which was completed in 1909. The furniture remained there for more than twenty years and was used by five presidents, until a December 24, 1929, fire. President Herbert Hoover rebuilt the Taft Oval Office, but accepted the donation of a new desk from a Michigan trade association. [30]
The White House bought a set of diminutive, cane-back mahogany armchairs from Davenport & Co. in 1902. Nearly-identical chairs, but with leather backs, had been made by the company for the Massachusetts State House. President Hoover installed six of the cane-back chairs his rebuilt Oval Office in 1930. [31] President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved them into the modern Oval Office, completed 1934, where they have been used by every president since. The chairs are currently in use in the Oval Office, including a pair flanking the Resolute Desk. [32]
The Theodore Roosevelt desk survived the 1929 fire, and was used in the modern Oval Office by Presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Recently, the desk was used by Vice-president Richard Cheney in his ceremonial office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Albert Henry Davenport (December 5, 1845, Malden, Massachusetts – June 22, 1905, Squirrel Island, Maine) married Ella Louise Stetson (1851-1925), and they had two children: Fred Albert Davenport (1873-1928) and Alice May Davenport (1878-1944). Neither child married or had children. [33]
Davenport built a mansion for his family in Malden, Massachusetts, in 1892. His daughter occupied it until her death, and bequeathed it to a non-profit organization to operate it as a residence for the elderly. The Davenport Memorial Home retains most of its original furniture and fixtures. [34]
Davenport and his family vacationed on Squirrel Island, Maine. He donated the island's public library and its first 4,000 books. [35]
Following Albert H. Davenport's 1905 death, Francis H. Bacon attempted to buy Davenport & Co., but was unsuccessful. Bacon established his own furniture and interior design business in 1908. [36]
Irving & Casson merged with Davenport & Co. about 1914, and continued in business until 1974. A collection of the joint-company's designs is at The Winterthur Library. [37]
Interiors by A. H. Davenport and Company survive in most of the buildings named above. Furniture by A. H. Davenport and Company is in the collection of the White House, the Smithsonian Institution, Historic New England, [38] the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago, [39] the Carnegie Museum of Art, [40] the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. [41]
The Oval Office is the formal working space of the president of the United States. Part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, it is in the West Wing of the White House, in Washington, D.C.
The Resolute desk, also known as the Hayes desk, is a nineteenth-century partners desk used by several presidents of the United States in the White House as the Oval Office desk, including the five most recent presidents. The desk was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880 and was built from the oak timbers of the British Arctic exploration ship HMS Resolute. The 1,300-pound (590-kilogram) desk was created by William Evenden, a skilled joiner at Chatham Dockyard in Kent, probably from a design by Morant, Boyd, & Blanford.
Warder Mansion is an apartment complex at 2633 16th Street Northwest, in the Meridian Hill Park neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It is the only surviving building in the city designed by architect Henry Hobson Richardson. In an early example of preservation commitment, the building was saved from demolition in the 1920s by being disassembled and moved 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of its original site. In the 1990s, the Warder-Totten House's prospects for survival again looked bleak, but the building was saved a second time.
The Blue Room is one of three state parlors on the first floor in the White House, the residence of the president of the United States. It is distinctive for its oval shape. The room is used for receptions and receiving lines and is occasionally set for small dinners. President Grover Cleveland married Frances Folsom in the room on June 2, 1886, the only wedding of a President and First Lady in the White House. The room is traditionally decorated in shades of blue. With the Yellow Oval Room above it and the Diplomatic Reception Room below it, the Blue Room is one of three oval rooms in James Hoban's original design for the White House.
The East Room is an event and reception room in the Executive Residence, which is a building of the White House complex, the home of the president of the United States. The East Room is the largest room in the Executive Residence; it is used for dances, receptions, press conferences, ceremonies, concerts, and banquets. The East Room was one of the last rooms to be finished and decorated, and it has undergone substantial redecoration over the past two centuries. Since 1964, the Committee for the Preservation of the White House has, by executive order, advised the president of the United States and first lady on the decor, preservation, and conservation of the East Room and other public rooms at the White House.
The Red Room is one of three state parlors on the State Floor in the White House, the Washington D.C. home of the president of the United States. The room has served as a parlor and music room, and recent presidents have held small dinner parties in it. It has been traditionally decorated in shades of red. The room is approximately 28 by 22.5 feet. It has six doors, which open into the Cross Hall, Blue Room, South Portico, and State Dining Room.
The Green Room is one of three state parlors on the first floor of the White House, the home of the president of the United States. It is used for small receptions and teas. During a state dinner, guests are served cocktails in the three state parlors before the president, first lady, and a visiting head of state descend the Grand Staircase for dinner. The room is traditionally decorated in shades of green. The room is approximately 28 by 22.5 feet. It has six doors, which open into the Cross Hall, East Room, South Portico, and Blue Room.
The State Dining Room is the larger of two dining rooms on the State Floor of the Executive Residence of the White House, the home of the president of the United States in Washington, D.C. It is used for receptions, luncheons, larger formal dinners, and state dinners for visiting heads of state on state visits. The room seats 140 and measures approximately 48 by 36 feet.
The Diplomatic Reception Room is one of three oval rooms in the Executive Residence of the White House, the official home of the president of the United States. It is located on the ground floor and is used as an entrance from the South Lawn and a reception room for foreign ambassadors to present their credentials, a ceremony formerly conducted in the Blue Room. The room is the point of entry to the White House for a visiting head of state following the State Arrival Ceremony on the South Lawn. The room has four doors, which lead to the Map Room, the Center Hall, the China Room, and a vestibule that leads to the South Lawn.
The Yellow Oval Room is an oval room located on the south side of the second floor in the White House, the official residence of the president of the United States. First used as a drawing room in the John Adams administration, it has been used as a library, office, and family parlor. It was designated the Yellow Oval Room during the restoration overseen by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Today the Yellow Oval Room is used for small receptions and for greeting heads of state immediately before a State Dinner.
The Family Dining Room is a dining room located on the State Floor of the White House, the official residence of the president of the United States. The room is used for smaller, more private meals than those served in the State Dining Room. Used in the 1800s as a space for the First Family to have their meals, the Family Dining Room was used less for family meals and more for working lunches and small dinners in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Daniel Pabst was a German-born American cabinetmaker of the Victorian Era. He is credited with some of the most extraordinary custom interiors and hand-crafted furniture in the United States. Sometimes working in collaboration with architect Frank Furness (1839–1912), he made pieces in the Renaissance Revival, Neo-Grec, Modern Gothic, and Colonial Revival styles. Examples of his work are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Warder Public Library is a historically significant building in Springfield, Ohio, United States. A robust example of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture, it was a gift to the city from industrialist Benjamin H. Warder, and served as the main branch of the Clark County Public Library from 1890 to 1989. It now houses the Clark County (Warder) Literacy Center.
Benjamin Head Warder was an American manufacturer of agricultural machinery, based in Springfield, Ohio, for much of his career. After he had retired, in 1902 the company he co-founded merged with four others to form International Harvester. Warder commissioned and donated a new library for Springfield in 1890, as a memorial to his parents.
Kimbel & Cabus was a Victorian-era furniture and decorative arts firm based in New York City. The partnership was formed in 1862 between German-born cabinetmaker Anthony Kimbel and French-born cabinetmaker Joseph Cabus (1824–1894). The company was noted for its Modern Gothic and Anglo-Japanese style furniture, which it popularized at the 1876 Centennial Exposition.
The desk in the Vice President's Ceremonial Office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, colloquially known as the Theodore Roosevelt desk, is a large mahogany pedestal desk in the collection of the White House. It is the first of six desks that have been used by U.S. presidents in the Oval Office, and since 1961 has been the used as the desk of the U.S. Vice President.
The Hoover desk, also known colloquially as FDR's Oval Office desk, is a large block front desk, used by Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Oval Office. Created in 1930 as a part of a 17-piece office suite by furniture makers from Grand Rapids, Michigan, the Art Deco desk was given to the White House by the Grand Rapids Furniture Manufacturers Association during the Hoover administration. The desk was designed by J. Stuart Clingman, and was built by the Robert W. Irwin Company from American lumber and faced with Michigan-grown maple burl wood veneer. After Roosevelt's sudden death in 1945, Harry S. Truman removed the desk from the Oval Office and gave it to Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor Roosevelt. She displayed it at, and later donated it to, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York. The desk has been on display there ever since. The Hoover desk is one of only six desks to be used by a president in the Oval Office.
The Johnson desk is a mahogany partners desk that was used by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson in the Oval Office as his Oval Office desk. One of only six desks used by a president in the Oval Office, it was designed by Thomas D. Wadelton and built in 1909 by S. Karpen and Bros. in Chicago. The desk was built as part of 125 seven-piece office sets for senators' offices in the Russell Senate Office Building, and was used by Johnson during his terms as U.S. Senator, Vice President, and President. It is currently located at Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum as part of a replica Oval Office.
