Sanatorium Architects - Historic Saranac Lake

Sanatorium Architects

"Sanatorium Architects" by Pat and Tom Willis, photo of display taken 2/2009. Click on the image to enlarge the display. ISAAC GALE PERRY

Original Text by Pat and Tom Willis

Isaac Gale Perry (1822-1909), an architect best known for completing the monumental York State Capitol in Albany, also played an important role in the early development of Gabriels Sanatorium. The first years of Perry’s career (1832-1854) were spent in Keeseville, New York, learning and practicing carpentry and trying his hand as a designer. After leaving school at age 10, he worked with his father, Seneca Perry, building many homes in the Keeseville area. Their signature feature was the spiral staircase, a specialty that required exceptional skill in layout and execution.

In 1852 Perry relocated to New York City to apprentice in the office of architect Thomas R. Jackson. Perry rose to the position of junior partner by 1856 and the next year won for himself the commission to design the State_Inebriate_Asylum_New York State Inebriate Asylum, the first institution in the world for the treatment of alcoholism. This large project marked a turning point in Perry’s career. Supervising its construction occupied most of his time until 1866.

Perry moved his practice to Binghamton in 1872 and designed and built many prominent ecclesiastical, commercial and residential structures there and in the southern tier of New York and in adjacent Pennsylvania. His successful experience in public buildings was a decisive factor in his appointment in 1883 to become the Commissioner of the new Capitol in Albany, responsible for completing the building. This appointment placed him in charge of one of the largest and most controversial public works in 19th Century United States. The Capitol, begun in 1867, was then years behind schedule and greatly over budget. The first two architects had been fired and Perry was charged with completing his predecessors unfinished designs.

During the next 16 years he supervised construction of the Capitol’s Senate Staircase, and extensively reworked studies for the State Library and the Great Western Staircase. He developed new designs for the exterior entrance from the east including a monumental exterior granite staircase.

Because work on the Capitol was frequently interrupted for want of legislative appropriations between 1886-1899, Perry, as the state’s only paid architect, was called upon to design other public buildings, such as the remodeling of the Executive Mansion, the Matteawan Asylum for Insane Criminals, the St. Lawrence Asylum for the Insane in Ogdensburg, and over 40 armories. When the Capitol was finally completed in 1899, Perry retired and returned to Binghamton.

Between 1895 and 1897, without charging a fee, Perry designed and supervised the construction of three of the first buildings at Gabriels Sanatorium: the Administration Building, Rest-a-While Cottage and Kerin Cottage. Today (2002) only Kerin Cottage remains. It is also possible that he designed the chapel, planned from the beginning but not begun until 1904, the year Perry died. Two factors made his work convenient for Perry: first, the work at Gabriels took place at the same time he was overseeing construction at the St. Lawrence Asylum in Ogdensburg and there was good rail travel from Gabriels to Malone and then to Ogdensburg. Second, Perry is thought to have had a camp on Jones Pond, adjacent to the Sanatorium property. Mother Mary Kieran attempted to change the name of Jones Pond to Lake Lucretia in honor of Perry’s wife, but the new name did not “take” and the lake is still known as “Jones Pond” today.

Sources:

Haymes, Wesley. “Isaac Perry, Craftsman-Architect.” Adirondack Architectural Heritage Newsletter, Vol.9, No. 1, Summer 2000.
Hotaling, Mary. “Isaac Perry’s ‘Lost Project.’” Adirondack Architectural Heritage Newsletter, Vol. 9, No. 1, Summer 2000.

JOHN RUSSELL POPE

John Russell Pope (1874-1937), the last great American neo-classical architect, famous for many Washington, DC buildings, also designed buildings for Gabriels Sanatorium between 1925 and 1931.

Both of Pope’s parents were artists, so he was brought up to appreciate beauty. His uncle, Dr. Alfred Loomis, a prominent NYC physician, influenced him to study medicine, which he did at CCNY. His best grades were in drawing however, and after he observed an operation he decided against medicine and switched to architecture at Columbia, graduating in 1894. In 1895 he won the McKim (of McKim, Mead & White) Traveling Fellowship as well as first prize of the American School of Architecture in Rome, Italy. He traveled to Rome and around Italy for 18 months and then attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He returned to New York City in 1900, fully steeped in the classical style and tradition.

He then entered the office of the architect Bruce Price but by 1903 he was practicing on his own. The Vanderbilt gatehouse, designed in 1905, attracted the attention of the press and helped him gain further commissions from Vanderbilt and his friends.

Pope designed over 200 projects during his career. In New York State, ten are on the National Register of Historic Places, including the City Hall (1917) and Macdonough Monument (1926) in Plattsburgh, the Roosevelt wing of the American Museum of Natural History in NYC (1929), the Marshall Field estate on Long Island (1925) the Vanderbilt residence in Manhattan (1930-31) and buildings on the Syracuse University and Hartwick College campuses. In the Adirondacks, in addition to the buildings at Gabriels Sanatorium, he was the principal architect for Camp Kill Kare near Raquette Lake.

Pope’s most famous projects were in Washington, DC where he designed the National Archives (1933-35), the National Gallery of Art (1937-41), and the Jefferson Memorial (1937-1943), the latter two completed after his death. Other major projects in the District of Columbia are Constitution Hall for the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Temple of the Scottish Rite and Meridan House. He also designed the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Frick Museum in New York City, and wings for London’s British Museum and Tate Modern.

At Gabriels Sanatorium, Pope designed two identical buildings for the Knights of Columbus (1925) for their members with TB, and a similar larger building, the Infirmary. These three buildings are still standing at Camp Gabriels. Pope designed a fourth building, a combination laboratory and isolation ward (1931) that we believe was never built. Historic Saranac Lake has the blueprints for this building, received from Branch and Callanan when they went out of business. Apparently Branch and Callanan had been selected to build based on the markings on the blue prints. It is assumed that the Sanatorium could not raise the money for it because of the Great Depression.

Pope may have been involved at Gabriels San through the influence again of his uncle, Dr. Alfred Loomis, who we suspect was the same Dr. Alfred Loomis who was a close associate and mentor for E.L. Trudeau and mentioned often in the latter’s autobiography.

Sources:

Bedford, Steven McLeod. “Introduction.” Architect of Empire. Internet under “John Russell Pope, National Archives,” 1998.
Lowry, Patricia. “Frick Park Restoration Unlocks Details of Noted Architect - Remaking a Grand Entrance.” Internet: Post Gazette.com, January 24, 2001.
MacKay, Baker & Traynor, Eds. Long Island Country Houses and Their Architects, 1860-1940. Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities and W.W. Norton of NY and London, 1997.

Trudeau, E.L. An Autobiography. Garden City, NY, Doubleday Page & Co., 1916.

J. LAWRENCE ASPINWALL

According to his personal card presented at the cornerstone laying, J. Lawrence Aspinwall was the architect for Stony Wold Sanatorium. A New York City architect, Aspinwall began his career with James Renwick in 1875 and was a partner in the firm from 1880 to 1925. As the firm Renwick, Aspinwall and Guard after 1925, the partners designed St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and as Renwick, Aspinwall and Tucker they designed the American Express Building, both in New York City.

Lawrence Aspinwall was a cousin of Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau and designed with Trudeau the latter’s first laboratory in 1894. Trudeau encouraged Mrs. Newcomb to build Stony Wold, and helped set out the plan for its buildings. The design for Stony Wold was done by the firm Renwick, Aspinwall and Owen. Aspinwall was present for the cornerstone ceremony on September 11, 1902, and was probably the chief architect for the Sanatorium. Another card presented at the cornerstone laying was another one of Aspinwall’s, with “W.L. Coulter Supervising Archit Sept 11 1902” written on the back. William L. Coulter was a well known architect of Saranac Lake.