Henry Janeway Hardenbergh

Henry Janeway Hardenbergh (February 6, 1847 – March 13, 1918) was an American architect, best known for his hotels and apartment buildings, and as a "master of a new building form -- the skyscraper."[2]'

Life and career

Hardenbergh was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, of a Dutch family, and attended the Hasbrouck Institute in Jersey City. He apprenticed in New York from 1865 to 1870 under Detlef Lienau, and, in 1870, opened his own practice there.[3]

He obtained his first contracts for three buildings at Rutgers College in New Brunswick, New Jersey—the expansion of Alexander Johnston Hall (1871), designing and building Geology Hall (1872) and the Kirkpatrick Chapel (1873)—through family connections. Hardenbergh's great-great grandfather, the Reverend Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh, had been the first president of Rutgers College from 1785 to 1790, when it was still called "Queen's College".

He then got the contract to design the "Vancorlear" on West 55th Street, the first apartment hotel in New York City, in 1879.[1] The following year he was commissioned by Edward S. Clark, then head of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, to build a housing development. As part of this work, he designed the pioneering Dakota Apartments in Central Park West, novel in its location, very far north of the center of the city.

Subsequently, Hardenbergh received commissions to build the Waldorf (1893) and the adjoining Astoria (1897) hotels for William Waldorf Astor and Mrs. Astor, respectively. The two competing hotels were later joined together as the Waldorf-Astoria, which was demolished in 1929 for the construction of the Empire State Building.

Hardenbergh lived for some time in Bernardsville, New Jersey[4] the town in which he designed the building for the school house built with funds donated by Frederic P. Olcott.[2] The school house is in Hardenberghs architectural style and is a landmark in the town.[5] Hardenbergh died at his home in Manhattan, New York City on March 13, 1918.[1] He is buried in Woodland Cemetery, in Stamford, Connecticut.

Organizations

Hardenbergh was elected to the American Institute of Architects in 1861, and was made a Fellow in 1877. He was president of the Architectural League of New York from 1901 to 1902, and was an associate of the National Academy of Design. Hardenbergh was one of the founders of the American Fine Arts Society as well as the Municipal Art Society.[3] He was also a member of the Sculpture Society and the Century, Riding, Grolier and Church Clubs.[1]

Buildings

• 1870: Addition to the Rutgers Preparatory School building (now Alexander Johnston Hall) in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
• 1871–72: library, chapel[1] and Geology Hall, at Rutgers College (now university), in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
• 1873: Sophia Astley Kirkpatrick Memorial Chapel at Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jersey, with windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany (renovated 1916)[6]
• 1873: Suydam Hall at New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Brunswick, New Jersey (razed 1966)
• 1876: Kingfisher Tower near Cooperstown, New York
• 1878: Windsor Hotel in Montreal[1] (demolished except for North Annex, 1975
• 1879: The Vancolear, West 55th Street and Seventh Avenue, the city's first apartment hotel[1]
• 1879: Loch Ada, 590 Proctor Road, Glen Spey, Lumberland, Sullivan County, New York (razed 1996)
• 1879-80: two row houses at 101 and 103 West 73rd Street in Manhattan, New York City [7]
• 1880–84: The Dakota Apartments located on Manhattan's Upper West Side, in New York City (NYC landmark)[8]
• 1882-84: Western Union Telegraph Building, located at 186 Fifth Avenue at 23rd Street in Manhattan, New York City[9]
• 1882-1885: Several Row houses at 15A-19 and 41-65 West 73rd Street on Manhattan's Upper West Side, New York City[7]
• 1883: Hotel Albert (now the Albert Apartments) in Manhattan, New York City[7]
• 1883-84: 1845 Broadway in Manhattan, New York City[10]
• 1886-87: 337 & 339 East 87th Street, Manhattan, New York City[11]
• 1888: Schermerhorn Building at 376-380 Lafayette Street in Manhattan, New York City
• 1888-89: Apartment building at 121 East 89th Street part of the Hardenbergh/Rhinelander Historic District [8]
• 1888-89: Row houses at 1340, 1342, 1344, 1346, 1348 and 1350 Lexington Avenue part of the Hardenbergh/Rhinelander Historic District [8]
• 1891–92: American Fine Arts Society building, home of the Art Students League of New York, in Manhattan, New York City (NYC landmark)[8]
• 1893: Waldorf Hotel located at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City (demolished 1929 to build Empire State Building)
• 1893: Hotel Manhattan located on the northwest corner of Madison Avenue and 42nd Street in New York City, New York.
• 1895: Wolfe Building, at William Street and Maiden Lane, New York City (demolished in 1974)
• 1897: Astoria Hotel located at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City (demolished 1929 to build Empire State Building)
• 1897: William Murray Houses, located at 13 and 15 West 54th Street, Manhattan, New York City (NYC landmark)[8]
• 1897–1900: Hotel Martinique on Broadway in Manhattan, New York City (enlarged 1907-11)[7] a NYC landmark [8]
• 1900-1901: Textile Building on Leonard Street and Church Street in Manhattan, New York City (penthouse added in 2001) a NYC landmark [8]
• 1901: Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C.
• 1902: Sunnyside Island, in the 1000 Islands, New York
• 1902–04: Whitehall Building in Manhattan, New York City (NYC landmark)[8]
• 1903: Preston B. Moss House, 914 Division St., Billings, Montana
• 1904: All Angels' Church – Manhattan, New York City
• 1904: Van Norden Trust Company Building, 751 5th Ave., New York City, demolished.[12]
• 1905–07: Plaza Hotel at corner of Fifth Avenue and Central Park South (West 59th Street) in Midtown Manhattan, New York City[13] a NYC landmark [8]
• 1908: Trinity Episcopal Church in York Harbor, Maine
• 1910: Palmer Physical Laboratory, at Princeton University[14]
• 1911: The Raleigh Hotel at 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington D.C. (demolished 1965)
• 1912: Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts
• 1912: Stamford Trust Company Building, 300 Main St., Stamford, Connecticut[15]
• 1914: Palmer Stadium, the football stadium and track arena at Princeton University, in Princeton, New Jersey (demolished 1998)[16]
• 1915: Consolidated Edison Company Building in Manhattan, New York City (the building only, not the tower)
• 1917–1918: New Jersey Zinc Company Headquarters, Maiden Lane, Manhattan, New York City.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Janeway_Hardenbergh

Son of:

• John Pool Hardenburgh
• and Frances Eliza Eddy

2nd husband of:

• Emily Irene Leeds

Hardenbergh the Hotel Master Jun 12, 2018 | architect Henry Janeway Hardenbergh Henry Janeway Hardenbergh (1847-1918)

Architect Henry J. Hardenbergh was born in 1847 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, into a family of Dutch lineage.[1] He was a student at the Hasbrouck Institute, a preparatory school in Jersey City that aimed to prepare young men in Jersey City to attend the most prestigious colleges and universities in the country and to enter public service.[2] He then went on to complete his architectural training from 1865-70 under Detlef Lienau, a Beaux-Arts trained architect. Hardenbergh started his own architectural practice in 1870 in New York and became one of NYC’s best-known and most respected architects. Hardenbergh designed many buildings in multiple styles over the course of his career. He designed buildings that were both picturesque and practical, taking inspiration from the German, Dutch, French and Italian Renaissance styles. In terms of use, Hardenbergh designed many types of buildings, including country homes, rowhouses, and office buildings. However, he is best known for his luxury hotels and apartment houses.[3] Hardenbergh appears to have mostly worked as a solo architect, but he did practice for a short time with John P. Hardenbergh Jr. and Adriance Hardenbergh, supposedly his brother and nephew.[4]

One of Hardenbergh’s early commissions was for a chapel, a library (demolished) and a geology building (demolished) for Rutgers College (New Brunswick, NJ) from 1871 to 1873. He received the commission, supposedly, through a set of family connections. Hardenbergh’s success started in 1880, when Edward S. Clark, head of Singer Sewing Machine Co. saw his Van Corlear (1879), an apartment block on West 55th Street (NYC) and commissioned him to build a set of housing developments for the three social classes between what is now called West 72nd and 73rd Streets and Eighth and Ninth Avenues. The commission resulted in a set of row houses (some were destroyed), lower-middle-class apartments, and the famous Dakota Apartments (1880-84, NYC Landmark, in the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District), all with a mixture of style in their facades, including German Renaissance and French Chateau.

In 1893, nearly ten years after the Dakota was completed, the Astor Estate hired Hardenbergh to design the opulent Waldorf Hotel (1893, destroyed 1931), and its equally famous addition, the Astoria Hotel (1896, destroyed 1931). Designed in the Edwardian Style, these two hotels made Hardenbergh even more famous, and established him as a master architect for Edwardian hotels. His other Edwardian hotels include the Martinique (1897, New York City), the Plaza (1907, New York City, interior altered), the Willard (1906, Washington, DC), the Copley Plaza (1912, Boston, MA), and the Windsor (1903, Montreal, Canada).[5]

The Van Corlear (1879); precursor of the Dakota (1880-84); these two buildings had the same architect (Hardenbergh) and developer (Edward Clark).

Part of what made Hardenbergh so successful in designing luxury hotels was his understanding of their functional nature. In 1902 he wrote a new set of standards for the planning and placement of bathrooms and kitchens, and also wrote formulas for adding elevator service.

Hardenbergh was also a member of multiple professional organizations over his lifetime. He was a founding member of the American Fine Arts Society and the NYC Municipal Art Society. He was elected a fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1877 after having joined the society in 1867. He was the president of the Architectural League of New York from 1901 to 1902 and he showed his work at many of the League’s annual exhibitions. Finally, he was an associate of the National Academy of Design from 1910. [6]

In regards to Hardenberg’s personal life, the information is scarce. He married Emily Irene Leeds Keene in 1893 but they did not have any children.[7] The 1900 census lists him as a widower. He split his time between living in New York and his home state of New Jersey, in a large town house that he had designed at 12 East 56th Street in New York City, and at 121 West 73rd Street in Jersey City. When World War I began, Hardenbergh was still working as an architect. The war led to a limited construction market, which put his career on pause. He died in New York City in 1918 at the age of 71, before he could resume his career.[8]

Bibliography This post referenced information from the following LPC designation report: Consolidated Edison Building: 4 Irving Place, Manhattan Broderick, Mosette Glaser. “Hardenbergh, Henry Janeway.” In The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art. : Oxford University Press, 2011. http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195335798.001.... Gray, Christopher. (2000, May 07). “An architect who left an indelible imprint.” New York Times. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-c... “Hasbrouck Institute 50 Crescent Avenue, between Crescent and Harrison Avenues Jersey City Heights.” Lincoln Park. Accessed June 07, 2018. https://www.njcu.edu/programs/jchistory/Pages/H_Pages/Hasbrouck_Ins... Stone, May N. “Hardenbergh, Henry Janeway (1847-1918), architect.” American National Biography. Accessed June 07, 2018. http://www.anb.org.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/view/10.1093/anb/978019...

• [1] Consolidated Edison Building: 4 Irving Place, Manhattan.
• [2] Consolidated Edison Building: 4 Irving Place, Manhattan; “Hasbrouck Institute 50 Crescent Avenue, between Crescent and Harrison Avenues Jersey City Heights,” Lincoln Park, , accessed June 07, 2018.
• [3] Consolidated Edison Building: 4 Irving Place, Manhattan.
• [4] Christopher Gray. (2000, May 07). “An architect who left an indelible imprint.” New York Times.
• [5] Mosette Glaser Broderick, The Grove Encycolpeadia of American Art (Oxford University Press, 2011), s.v. “Hardenbergh, Henry Janeway,” accessed June 7, 2018.
• [6] May N. Stone, “Hardenbergh, Henry Janeway (1847-1918), architect.” American National Biography. Accessed June 7, 2018.
• [7] May N. Stone, “Hardenbergh, Henry Janeway (1847-1918), architect.” American National Biography. Accessed June 7, 2018.
• [8] Christopher Gray. (2000, May 07). “An architect who left an indelible imprint.” New York Times.
• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jun 24 2021, 4:22:47 UTC