Purcell and Elmslie, Architects

Purcell and Elmslie, Architects

Firm active :: 1907-1921

Minneapolis, Minnesota :: Chicago, Illinois
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania :: Portland, Oregon

Ye Older Grindstones

6/4/2003

Penny postcard

Construction, circa 1917
Original Parabiographies draft by Purcell, circa 1939, with Elmslie annotations, circa 1940s
Discernable differences between Sullivan and Elmslie, from the later Team perspective
Decidedly 2D stencil by Sullivan, Elmslie living it up in 4D at the National Farmers Bank, Owatonna

One thing leads to another, in a different direction. In correcting some bad links on the main Woodbury County Court House page I noticed the inexplicable absence of the U of M University of Minnesota Libraries online U Media Archive links for that commission. I added those 96 images, including updating the virtual catalog for terra-cotta drawings. Also linked to the web site maintained by Woodbury County, and credited some images earlier added here from that source but not so noted. Everything is now copasetic with the court house, some three hours later! Much improvement, also, with some of that "invisible housekeeping" to make sure that all pages referencing an outside link open in a new browser window. Note that I did all of this because of "proofreading" by a regular reader, to whom I give thanks for the prod.

Still deliberating the design for the Owatonna bank pages, so added some facsimiles of drafts from the Parabiographies, which illustrate the state of the available manuscripts and the process by which the documents evolved. Also added a miscellaneous sheet of terra-cotta photographs put together by John Jager and Fred Strauel in the 1950s, which most clearly shows the visible differences between Sullivan and Elmslie in the matter of terra-cotta exfoliation, something also seen overtly in the Owatonna bank. To this day, even people who should say better fail to make the distinction between the work of those two men.

6/3/2003

Woodbury County Court House, upper tower
Sculpture group by Alphonso Ianelli
National Farmers Bank, detail
National Farmers Bank, detail

Moving along. Added more web-based information, notably the HABS images for the Woodbury County Court House (Sioux City, Iowa 1915/1916). Made a few detail images from one 57MB file. Even if some came out slightly grainy due to the enlargement factor, they are good references because such close detail is not visible from the sidewalk. One of the great surprises of this pristine building is the encrustation of the under hang of the eaves with great masses of polychrome terracotta, all the more startling because of the monochrome finish of the building and the major figural groups by Alphonso Ianelli. There's a great set of photocopied letters in the Bill Marlin collection at the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, where Ianelli describes his very desperate financial situation in the midst of executing the many figural groups for this building. He signed on to do some, wound up doing ALOT more, and the good county commissioners turned a deaf ear to his earnest pleas for additional money. Ianelli got the job from a recommendation to Purcell by Gutzon Borglum, who wouldn't do a single figure for the money budgeted toward all pieces on the entire building. Ianelli had just left the Borglum atelier...makes me wonder under what circumstances! Finally started the large project of a web exhibit for the National Farmers' Bank in Owatonna, Elmslie's great achievement under Sullivan which P&E made alterations in the 1910s. This is going to take a few days, since there are about 150 images.

6/2/2003

International Aviation meet at Chicago, 1911
Trophy design by Elmslie for Aviation meet

Watkins Medical Offices and Factory
George W. Maher
Winona, Minnesota
Maher's Egyptian temple design, vs.

Purcell and Feick for the First National Bank, project (Winona)

Flying high. In an effort to jumpstart my progress back at the keyboard (since I'd rather be meditating now, basically, for the rest of my life), I surfed some more historical resources whose appearance on the web continues to amaze me. Above are some images from the Penny Postcards from Illinois page of the nationally encompassing RootsWeb presentation of historical postcards from across America. Elmslie designed four or five varied trophies for the International Aviation Meet of 1911, and somewhere around here I have an image of the one actually produced, though it wasn't exactly, apparently, from any of Elmslie's sketches. Only a few other Prairie examples were shown, but most interesting were three images of the Watkins Medical Offices and Factory in Winona (Winona County, bottom of the linked page) designed by George Washington Maher and located near his Egyptoid bank that beat out a kinder, gentler view of Light and the Customer by Mssrs. Purcell and Feick in 1907.

5/28/2003

The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya Which Liberates Upon Seeing (in Colorado, of all places)

In Passing. If meditation was taught alongside reading, writing, and arithmetic in school, you might be able to apply the word "civilization" to this world. Why I had to wait until I was 50 years old to get this unparalleled tool of self-development, I cannot say. Fortunate in "beginner's mind," I was. Now I know why Yoda always ends his sentences with a verb. Purcell always said, "Nouns are the ashes of verbs." Same message, exactly, different medium.

5/22/2003 - 5/27/2003

:: No updates for a week, as I'm going on retreat at a Buddhist meditation center. Have a good holiday ::

research courtesy mark hammons