Frederic Charles Hirons (March 28, 1882 - January 23, 1942) was an American architect, based in New York City, who designed the Classical George Rogers Clark National Memorial, in Vincennes, Indiana, among the last major Beaux-Arts style public works in the United States, completed in 1933. [1]
Hirons was born in Manhattan on March 28, 1882.
He was of French extraction and moved to Massachusetts as a child. Hirons worked as a draftsman in the Boston architectural office of Herbert Hale from 1898 until 1901, before entering the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; on graduating in 1904 he received a Rotch Travelling Scholarship [2] to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. MIT's Paris prize enabled him to continue his European studies until 1909.
On his return, he established an architectural practice in New York with Ethan Allen Dennison (1881–1954). [3] Hirons and Dennison produced many commercial structures in the Beaux-Arts and Art Deco styles including; [4] Delaware Title & Insurance Company, Wilmington, Delaware; Federal Trust Company Building, Newark; City National Bank, Bridgeport, Connecticut; Home Savings Bank, Albany, New York; State Bank & Trust Company, West 43rd Street and 8th Avenue, New York; Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, 304 East 44th Street; [5] Suffolk Title and Guarantee Company Building, 90-04 161st Street, Queens, New York; [6] The Mechanics Bank, New Haven Connecticut; The National State Bank, Elizabeth, New Jersey; The Erie Trust Company, Erie, Pennsylvania; The Society for Savings, Hartford, Connecticut; Trenton Banking Company, and the Trenton New Jersey. [7] Their Childs Restaurant in Coney Island, New York (1923), employs colorfully glazed terracotta tiles in a fanciful resort style combining elements of the Spanish Colonial revival with numerous maritime allusions that refer to its seaside location". [8] [9] The Davidson County Courthouse of 1936 by Hirons and Dennison (with involvement of Nashville local architect Emmons H. Woolwine) is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1929, Hirons formed a two-year partnership with F.W. Mellor of Philadelphia, and then practiced again under his own name until 1940, when he retired.
He designed many public buildings, including the Worcester Memorial Auditorium and the George Rogers Clark Memorial in Vincennes, Indiana.
He was president of the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design (1937–39), of which he was a founder. He taught architecture at Yale University and Columbia University. His portrait by Henry R. Rittenberg is in the collection of the National Academy of Design. [10]
Henry Bacon was an American Beaux-Arts architect who oversaw the engineering and design of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., built between 1915 and 1922, which was his final project before his 1924 death.
Rene Paul Chambellan was an American sculptor who specialized in architectural sculpture. He was also one of the foremost practitioners of what was then called the "French Modern Style" and has subsequently been labeled Zig-Zag Moderne, or Art Deco. He also frequently designed in the Greco Deco style.
Paul Philippe Cret was a French-born Philadelphia architect and industrial designer. For more than thirty years, he taught at a design studio in the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.
The Beaux-Arts Institute of Design was an art and architectural school at 304 East 44th Street in Turtle Bay, Manhattan, in New York City. It was founded in 1916 by Lloyd Warren for the training of American architects, sculptors and mural painters consistent with the educational agenda of the French École des Beaux-Arts.
Cyrus Lazelle Warner Eidlitz was an American architect best known for designing One Times Square, the former New York Times Building on Times Square. He is founder of the architecture firm presently known as HLW International, one of the oldest architecture firms in the United States.
The Hoge Building is a 17-story building constructed in 1911 by, and named for James D. Hoge, a banker and real estate investor, on the northwest corner of Second Avenue and Cherry Street in Seattle, Washington. The building was constructed primarily of tan brick and terracotta built over a steel frame in the architectural style of Second Renaissance Revival with elements of Beaux Arts. It was the tallest building in Seattle from 1911 to 1914, until the completion of Smith Tower.
Edward Lippincott Tilton was an American architect, with a practice in New York City, where he was born. He specialized in the design of libraries, completing about one hundred in the U.S. and Canada, including many Carnegie libraries and structures for educational institutions.
The Downtown Albany Historic District is a 19-block, 66.6-acre (27.0 ha) area of Albany, New York, United States, centered on the junction of State and North and South Pearl streets. It is the oldest settled area of the city, originally planned and settled in the 17th century, and the nucleus of its later development and expansion. In 1980 it was designated a historic district by the city and then listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
49 Chambers, formerly known as the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank Building and 51 Chambers Street, is a residential building at 49–51 Chambers Street in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was built between 1909 and 1912 and was designed by Raymond F. Almirall in the Beaux-Arts style. The building occupies a slightly irregular lot bounded by Chambers Street to the south, Elk Street to the east, and Reade Street to the north.
John Torrey Windrim was an American architect. His long time chief designer was W. R. Morton Keast.
The Simsbury Bank and Trust Company Building, also known as the former Town Hall Building, is a historic commercial and civic building at 760 Hopmeadow Street in Simsbury, Connecticut. Built in 1917, it is a prominent local example of Colonial Revival architecture with Beaux Arts features. It originally housed the town's first bank, and was its town hall between 1969 and 1984. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
The Jamaica Savings Bank was a bank incorporated in 1866 in the Jamaica section of the borough of Queens in New York City. It had four branches across Queens before it was acquired by North Fork Bank in 1999, which itself was acquired by Capital One Bank in 2008.
Mowbray & Uffinger comprised an architectural partnership in New York City formed in 1895. Known for bank buildings and as vault engineers they designed over 400 banks in the pre-World War II era throughout the country. The principals were Louis Montayne Mowbray (1867-1921) and Justin Maximo Uffinger Sr. (1871-1948).
The Haffen Building is a New York City landmark constructed in 1901–1902 in the neighborhood of Mott Haven, Bronx, New York. The building is located at 2804 Third Avenue, also addressed as 507 Willis Avenue, in the middle of a triangular block between 148th Street, 147th Street, Third Avenue, and Willis Avenue, within the Hub business district. It was inspired by the economic growth and upper middle-class status that was prevalent in the area during the period. When constructed, the Third Avenue and Second Avenue elevated train lines stopped at 149th Street, a station in front of it.
Renaissance Centre, formerly known as the Erie Trust Company Building and the G. Daniel Baldwin Building, is a 198-foot (60 m) skyscraper located in Erie, Pennsylvania in the United States. Intended to be the headquarters for the largest bank in Erie, the Erie Trust Company Building was designed by the firm Dennison and Hiron in 1925. Completed in 1928 at the climax of the Roaring Twenties, the building's namesake bank failed in 1933 after the start of the Great Depression. It was renamed the G. Daniel Baldwin Building in 1943. In 1996, it became Renaissance Centre and was listed on National Register of Historic Places in 2000.
Egerton Swartwout was an American architect, most notably associated with his New York City architectural firm Tracy and Swartwout and McKim, Mead & White. His buildings, numbering over 100, were typically in the Beaux-Arts style. Six of his buildings are recognized on the National Register of Historic Places, and three others have been given landmark status by their city commissions.
The Childs Restaurant Building on the Boardwalk is a New York City designated landmark on the Riegelmann Boardwalk at West 21st Street in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. It was completed in 1923 for Childs Restaurants, an early restaurant chain and one of the largest in the United States at that time. It was designed in a "resort style with Spanish Revival influence" with colorful exterior terra cotta ornamentation that references its seaside location, with depictions of Poseidon, sailing ships, and sea creatures. It was a very large restaurant, with three stories and a roof garden.
Lansing Colton Holden Sr. was an American architect of the late 19th & early 20th centuries with several works in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He was also involved in architecture for refrigeration.
The Greenwich Savings Bank Building, also known as the Haier Building and 1356 Broadway, is an office building at 1352–1362 Broadway in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Constructed as the headquarters of the Greenwich Savings Bank from 1922 to 1924, it occupies a trapezoidal parcel bounded by 36th Street to the south, Sixth Avenue to the east, and Broadway to the west. The Greenwich Savings Bank Building was designed in the Classical Revival style by York and Sawyer.
The Bowery Savings Bank Building, also known as 130 Bowery, is an event venue and former bank building in the Little Italy and Chinatown neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Constructed for the defunct Bowery Savings Bank from 1893 to 1895, it occupies an "L"-shaped site bounded by Bowery to the east, Grand Street to the south, and Elizabeth Street to the west. The Bowery Savings Bank Building was designed by Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White. Since 2002, it has hosted an event venue called Capitale. The building's facade and interior are New York City designated landmarks, and the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.