THE GILDED ARE 1870-1900
QUEEN ANN SHINGLE RICHARDSONIAN ROMANESQUE CHATEAUSQUE
The North emerged from the Civil War confident of long-range prosperity. Although the War caused financial problems for many New Haven industries, many of their largest markets had been in the South, by the mid 1870’s the City was on the road to a successful new future.
By 1888 the population of New Haven had reached eighty thousand and the city was ranked third largest in size and wealth in New England, and one of the leading manufacturing centers in the country. Nearly a thousand manufacturers were located within the city’s limits. The city’s business growth and prosperity was linked to the numerous means of communication that connected it with the rest of the nation. New Haven was not only an important railway center, with some seventy-five passenger and freight trains leaving the city every day, but also a port for steamships that traveled to and from New York daily. All this contributed to the expansion of the city and the increased wealth of many of its residences.
As the city expanded land was filled in, bridges built, streets widened and paved. New public safety, health and fire codes were set down as law. The city water, sewer, gas, electrical and telephone systems spread out in all directions. By the mid 1880’s New Haven had six horse railroad companies whose tracks radiated from the Green throughout the central portion of the city, to the railroad station, steamship landing, parks and suburbs. The main streets had double tracks and streetcars ran every six minutes.
Junction Elm & Broadway, New Haven, Conn.
(figure available in print form)
1900 Postcard
Local civil improvement organizations launched a campaign for the beautification of the parks which they felt had a very moral and social value. Under the leadership of men like Donald G. Mitchell, landscape designer, New Haven’s park system became one of the finest in the United States. By the close of the century the park system included ten separate areas for the citizens to enjoy: East Rock and West Rock essentially mountain parks; Waterside, Bay View, Fort Hale, Quinnipiac, and Clinton were marine parks; Edgewood extended along the West River; Fort Wooster on the heights of Beacon Hill; and finally Beaver Ponds, a chain of small lakes.
By the 1880’s something new was happening to the social structure in America. Up to this point the gap between the have and have-nots was relatively narrow. And the tastes of the rich were only the tastes of the poor on a more lavish scale. As the rich grew richer and the poor grew poorer the gulf between them grew wider and wider. For the rich, newly rich and nearly rich, where social competition was acute, came the realization that wealth and social position could be visibly manifested by the size and lavishness of one’s home. Home styles changed rapidly—Queen Ann, Shingle, Romanesque and Chateauesque. Money talked, all were rich extravagant displays, the excess so loved by the people of what Mark Twain called, “The Gilded Age”.
The Victorians invented the concept of the “World Fair”. The first held in London in 1851, followed by the New York Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, in 1853, and the gigantic Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876. Over 30,000 exhibitors form 51 nations showcased new forms of architecture, home furnishings, and household inventions. Between May and November of 1876 nearly ten million men and women were exposed to all that was new and exciting.
The style of architecture that caught the attention of many was the Queen Ann. By 1881 the style was being spread by pattern books like Palliser’s
Model Homes for People
published in Bridgeport, Connecticut and the first architectural magazine “The American Architect and Building Magazine”. This style was especially popular, by increasing the number of verandas and balconies with their steep pitched roofs, the size and impressiveness of the home could be magnified. Another style that grew out of the Queen Ann was the graceful refined Shingle style. This style was uniquely New England, reaching its highest point in the coastal resorts from Maine to Long Island.
If any one person could be held responsible for the development of American architecture during the last half of the nineteenth century the credit would have to go to Henry Hobson Richerdson. The large expensive showy homes reached a climax in the luxurious Richerdsonian Romanesque and Chateauesque styles at the close of the century. The Richerdsonian Romanesque home, constructed of stonework was expensive to build. For this reason they are not very common. Scattered examples can be found in the larger cities of the Northeast. Chateauesque is also a rare style used by architects for “landmark” homes. This style also called for massive masonry construction, stonework and elaborate expensive details. New Haven is very fortunate to have examples of all four styles.