Povey Brothers Studio, also known as Povey Brothers Art Glass Works or Povey Bros. Glass Co., was an American producer of stained glass windows based in Portland, Oregon. The studio was active from 1888 to 1928. [1] As the largest and best known art glass company in Oregon, it produced windows for homes, churches, and commercial buildings throughout the West. [2] When the firm was founded in 1888, it was the only creative window firm in Portland, then a city of 42,000 residents. [3]
Povey Brothers was known as the "Tiffany of the Northwest" [4] [5] and many of the company's windows still exist in historic buildings throughout the region, including those on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).
The windows were considered to have extraordinary quality and beauty, and the firm's work was virtually unequaled in the Pacific Northwest. [3] The heyday of Povey Brothers coincided with the growing economic affluence of the region, and the brothers' work was much sought after by the new rich to decorate the large houses they were building. [3] Of this sort of installation, art glass expert Michael McCary said, "People who put in that kind of glass were kind of showing off." [6] The Great Depression and changes in house styles eventually caused demand for the brothers' work to decline, however. [3] Today Povey Brothers windows are a mark of pride in many landmark buildings in Portland. [3]
The company was founded by David Lincoln Povey, the son of English-born stained glass window maker Joseph Povey, who immigrated to the United States in 1848 and subsequently worked in stained glass in Philadelphia, New York City, and Newark, New Jersey. [1] [3] [7] [8] The family, who had been in the stained glass trade for generations, eventually settled in St. Louis, Missouri. [1] [3] [7] [9] David Povey was born in 1865. [1] He studied art at Cooper Union in New York and traveled in Europe for further study before moving to Portland. [1] [7] David formed the glass company in 1888 with his brother John, shortly after working on a commission for First Presbyterian Church. [1] [2] [7] The company incorporated in 1893. [1] John was the main craftsman and did the glazing and leading, while David did the design and art work. [1] [7] Their brother George Povey later joined the company as its accountant and business manager, and two Povey sisters also worked for the company. [3] [7] All three of the brothers worked in various glass studios on the East Coast before establishing their Portland shop. [8] At the height of their business, the brothers employed 25 workers, including several Povey family members. [10] David died in 1924 and his sons David and Darrel took over the business. [1] In 1925, they hired Albert Gerlach, formerly of Giannini & Hilgart in Chicago and trained at the Art Institute of Chicago, to assist in the business. [1] The Povey Brothers sold the company to W. P. Fuller in 1930, [2] and Gerlach remained at the company until 1950. [1]
John Povey died in 1917. His Queen Anne Victorian home in the Irvington neighborhood, the John E. G. Povey House, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. [11] [12]
David Povey's daughter, Portland architect Polly Povey Thompson, had planned to write a book on her father's works, but she died in 1994 before it could be completed. [7]
The brothers imported their glass from Europe, but designed and constructed their windows in Portland. [7] They often used opalescent glass in their work, a style that John La Farge and Louis Tiffany had pioneered in the 1870s. [7] Their church windows were done in a Classical style often based on famous religious paintings, such as those by Raphael, and had images or scenes painted on nonopalescent glass. [2] [7] They were also noted for their use of "jewels", small, thickly cut faceted pieces of glass in rich colors, and for several other types and textures of glass, including Kokomo, crackle, rippled, granite-textured, and machine-rolled. [2] [10] [13] The studio's early residential work was colorful and ornate, often using Art Nouveau motifs, and later work was influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement. [2] [10] Popular motifs included grape clusters, roses, lilies, birds, and dogwood, which became a signature of the company. [2] Another notable feature of the studio's work was the use of clear glass in the background to allow light to pass through the windows on the Northwest's typically overcast days. [2]
Besides windows, the company also designed other glass products, including light fixtures that had a horizontal Prairie School design influence. [2]
The studio was known for using the latest equipment and trade techniques, and for working with architects and homeowners to create unique designs that set the Poveys apart. [10] David Povey, who developed a distinct style, designed virtually every window that left the studio. [10] While the company's residential work was often small in scale, its church installations could be quite massive, with multiple panels. [10]
Most Povey windows are not signed, which led to imitators passing off their work as the Poveys'. [7] It also makes the Poveys' work difficult to identify. [7] [13] In 1923, David Povey began signing the widows with "Povey Brothers Studio" and the year of completion. [7] This may have first been done for the windows of the First Christian Church in Portland, and the last such signatures may have been on the windows of Atkinson Memorial Church in 1924, the year David died. [7]
By 1889, the Povey Brothers Studio was located in the Phoenix Building at 124 SW Ash Street in Portland. [14] The building is a contributing property in the Skidmore/Old Town Historic District. [14]
In 1905, the company relocated to the Povey Building at 408 NW 5th Avenue in Portland, designed for them by architect Emil Schacht. [1] The company was still located there in 1926. [1] The Povey Building is a contributing property to the Portland New Chinatown/Japantown Historic District. [1]
First Christian Church in Eugene has Povey Brothers windows created for the current building constructed in 1911, as well as windows moved from a previous building that were made in about 1865 by other artists. [55]
Lawrence Hall at the University of Oregon has some of the stained glass panels originally installed as a skylight in 1915 in the NRHP-listed Johnson Hall, the school's administration building. [56] The panels were dispersed during a 1949 remodel of the hall; some were used in the school's Erb Memorial Union. [56] A 1998 restoration moved the panels to a boardroom of Johnson Hall and a hallway of Lawrence Hall. [56]
The Povey Brothers also completed commissions in the city of Bellingham, Washington, and in Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Northern California. [3] [8] [9]
Many Portland buildings that once had Povey glass windows have been demolished, but the Bosco-Milligan Foundation/Architectural Heritage Center holds several salvaged Povey windows in its building artifact collection. [35] [50]
Old Saint Peter's Landmark, commonly referred to simply as Old St. Peter's, is a historic building located at the corner of 3rd and Lincoln Streets in downtown The Dalles, Oregon. It was built in 1897 and dedicated on March 17, 1898 as St. Peter's Church, and served the local Roman Catholic congregation as its place of worship until 1968. It was saved from scheduled demolition in 1971 by a group of concerned citizens who formed Old St. Peter's Landmark, Inc., for that specific purpose, and which maintains the building as a museum and site for weddings, concerts and other cultural events.
The Seward Hotel, also known as the Governor Hotel, is a historic hotel building in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Built in 1909, it is one of two NRHP-listed buildings that make up the Sentinel Hotel, the other being the 1923-built Elks Temple. The Seward was renamed the Governor Hotel in 1931, closed in the mid-1980s, and reopened in 1992 joined with the former Elks building, and thereafter formed the east wing of a two-building hotel.
Built in 1912, the First Presbyterian Church of Redmond is the oldest standing church structure in the city of Redmond, Oregon, United States. It is also the second-oldest religious building in Deschutes County. The church was built in the Gothic Revival style with Queen Anne architectural detailing. It was the home of Protestant congregations from 1912 until 1979. Today, the building is privately owned and used as a special events venue. The First Presbyterian Church of Redmond was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
Huber's is a restaurant in Portland, Oregon that bills itself as the city's oldest restaurant, having been established in 1879. Known for its turkey dinner and Spanish coffee, Huber's is often listed as a recommended restaurant to eat at in Portland. The establishment has also been featured in a film by Gus Van Sant. Huber's is within the Railway Exchange Building.
The Mizpah Presbyterian Church of East Portland is a building in southeast Portland, Oregon listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Originally located in Southeast Portland near the Willamette River, The Mizpah Presbyterian Church was relocated in 1911 to its current location in Ladd's Addition. With this relocation the structure would be placed atop a concrete basement structure extending its prominent staircase entryway, further added to the structure in 1924 would be classrooms and meeting rooms at the East end of the building where its nave stands. Since, rehabilitations have ensued under the ownership of Arthur Lind who purchased the church in 1978, and the church has retained all architectural elements.
The First Congregational Church is a church located in downtown Portland, Oregon, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Construction took place over a period of six years, from 1889 to 1895. The building was designed by Swiss architect Henry J. Hefty in Venetian Gothic style. The interior includes stained-glass windows, commissioned in 1906, made by Portland's Povey Brothers Studio. The building's height to the top of the bell tower is 175 feet to 185 feet.
The First Presbyterian Church is a church building located in downtown Portland, Oregon, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Construction began in 1886 and was completed in 1890. The building has been called "one of the finest examples" of High Victorian Gothic architecture in the state of Oregon. It includes stained-glass windows made by Portland's Povey Brothers Art Glass Works and a church bell cast with bronze from captured Civil War cannons.
The First Unitarian Church of Portland is a church building located in downtown Portland, Oregon, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Located on S.W. 12th Avenue at Salmon Street, it was constructed and opened in 1924.
The Old Church, originally known as Calvary Presbyterian Church, is a Carpenter Gothic church located in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built in 1882, it was designed by Portland architect Warren Heywood Williams. The interior includes stained glass windows made by Portland's Povey Brothers Studio.
The Charles J. and Elsa Schnabel House is a house located in southwest Portland, Oregon listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its location on 2375 SW Park Place is in the King's Hill section of Goose Hollow.
The United States National Bank Building in downtown Portland, Oregon, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Designed by famed Portland architect A. E. Doyle in a Roman classical style, the four-story building's first section, facing Sixth Avenue, was completed and opened in 1917. An extension westward to Broadway, approximately doubling its size, was constructed in 1925. Since then the building has occupied one-half of a city block. It features a four-story-high colonnade of Corinthian order columns at its eastern end, originally the principal façade, and extensive use of glazed terracotta. The interior is also decorated extensively with highly textured materials. The building was constructed for the United States National Bank of Portland (USNB), which ultimately became part of U.S. Bancorp, whose retail banking division operates as U.S. Bank. In 2020, more than 100 years after the building's opening, it continues to serve as the bank's main Portland branch.
The Nathan Loeb House is a house located in northwest Portland, Oregon, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It features stained glass windows by the Povey Brothers.
The David Cole House is a house located in Portland, Oregon, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The house includes several stained glass windows made by Portland's Povey Brothers Studio. It is in the Kenton neighborhood of North Portland, and operates as an events venues called the Victorian Belle.
The Robert F. Lytle House is a house located in northeast Portland, Oregon, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The architect was David L. Williams. The interior includes stained-glass windows by Povey Brothers Glass Company.
The First Congregational Church of Oregon City, also known as Atkinson Memorial Congregational Church, is a historic building located at 6th and John Adams Sts. in Oregon City, Oregon. The congregation was formed in 1844 as a non-denominational Protestant congregation. In 1892 they affiliated with the Congregational Christian Church from the local Congregational Society that had been formed in 1849 from the 1844 congregation. The present building was constructed in the Gothic Revival style in 1925 after the previous building had been destroyed in a fire in 1923. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
The National Cash Register Building, commonly referred to as the St. Johns Theater & Pub, was a building that was first erected in St. Louis, Missouri, for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904 and then moved to Portland, Oregon, the next year for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition. It was moved a third and final time to the suburb of St. Johns, Oregon, which is now a part of Portland. It was given to the St. Johns Congregational Society by the NCR Corporation. It now houses a McMenamins theater and pub.
The Josef Jacobberger House at 1502 SW Upper Hall Street in Portland, Oregon was designed and built during 1906–07. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. It was a work of architect Joseph Jacobberger to serve as his own residence. Stained glass windows flanking its front door and elsewhere in the house are believed to be works by the firm of David L. Povey.
St. Patrick Catholic Church is a parish of the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon in the Northwest District of Portland, Oregon, United States. The historic church building is the oldest still used as such in Portland. In 1974, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church and Rectory.
Methodist Episcopal Church South is a historic former church in Roseburg, Oregon. It was completed in 1922 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
The John E. G. Povey House in northeast Portland, Oregon, is a Queen Anne-style house that was built in 1891. The house is asymmetrical and is about 28 feet (8.5 m) wide by 46 feet (14 m) deep. It was home of glass-maker John E. G. Povey (1867–1917).
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