■■■•n 
 
 ts^aaeis^B^BBii 
 
 w:'.:iPi.-;i!:n| 
 
 606.1 Report of A.J. Bloor. 
 
 C43pBL delegate of the New york| 
 A. I. A., to the 26th 
 annual convention . . . 
 held in Chicago, Oct. 20-22, 1892, 
 
 (1893)
 
 ILli^^Oi5 HISTORICAL SURVEY
 
 REPOET OF A. J. BLOOR, DELEGATE 
 OF THE NEW YORK CHAPTER A. I. A. 
 TO THE TWENTY SIXTH ANNUAL 
 CONVENTION OF THE INSTITUTE, 
 HELD IN CHICAGO. OCTOBER 20tli, 
 2Ist and 22nd, 1892.
 
 ILUNOrS'HlSTORICAl SUPM: 
 
 '^v-^-y
 
 REPORT OF A. J. BLOOR, DELEGATE 
 OF THE NEW YORK CHAPTER A. I. A. 
 TO THE TWENTY SIXTH ANNUAL 
 CONVENTION OF THE INSTITUTE, 
 HELD IN CHICACO, OOTOBER 20th, 
 2Ist and 22nd, 1892.
 
 Ph£ss of 
 
 ISAAC H. BLANCHARD, 
 
 New Yosk.
 
 CL. 
 
 IT) 
 
 CH3pBL 
 
 REPORT. 
 
 f Welles Building, 18 Broadway, 
 '(JYew York, February 2d, 1893. 
 
 To the New York Chapter of the American Institute 
 of Architects : 
 
 Those practitiouers or students in architecture who were 
 privileged last October to survey, under the guidance, in some 
 cases, of tlie designers tliemselves, one after another of the 
 wonderful congeries of buildings which have sprung up, as 
 if in fairyland, under tlie inspiration of genius, the impulse 
 of energy, tlie guidance of skill and the hand cf industry, to 
 serve tlie at once patriotic and international purposes of the 
 World's Exhibition in honor of the modern discoverer of tliis 
 liemisphere, saw what has probab'y, as a group, never been 
 surpassed, in the architectural development of the world, 
 since El-Karnak, with its forest of Cyclopean pillars, rose 
 from the eastern shore of old Nile and stretched forth -past 
 all its courts and pylons, and its retinue of lesser temples 
 and obelisks and royal colossi — mirrored in its sacred lakes 
 — its long processions of woman-headed and ram headed 
 sphinxes to meet El-Uxur, with its most beautiful of colon- 
 nades, and its own similar array of satellite structures and 
 advance-guard of obelisks and statues; while on the liither 
 shore, across the lotus-lined flood which only yesterday 
 "2^ yielded up, to the quest of so many thousand years, the 
 
 3--
 
 mystery of its source, tnere blended with the eastern group, 
 in one transcendent vision, the Ramesium, with its surpassing 
 sculpture and graving and coloring, and tlie Amenophium 
 with its colossal Memnon waiting daily for the setting sun to 
 make vocal its lips of stone, and the towered palace-temple 
 of Medeemet-Haboo, each the centre of its own subsidiaries; 
 and altogether, on both shores, spreading with their varied 
 splendors over eight square miles of territory; while each 
 flashed, under the Egyptian sun and cloudless sky, the sharp 
 arrises of its slant-lined obelisks and court-vvalls and pro- 
 pylsea against the dark flanks of the outlying western moun- 
 tain, its rocky base hewn out into the labyrinthine corridors 
 and vaults of the Tombs of the Kings, whose mummied 
 features, unwrapped from the cerements of ages, to-day meet 
 the photographer's gaze still set in the stateliest lines of 
 imperial dignity. 
 
 Whoever was thus privileged to inspect, with its creators 
 as ciceroni, what can but be allowed to be, on the whole, a 
 most harmonious outcome of the immense project of the 
 White City, must surely mark as red-lelter ones the three 
 days coincident with the Institute's twenty-sixth annual Con- 
 vention. For the building-' — the main ones at least, and a 
 majority of those put up by the various States — were really 
 finished, from the engineer's and architect's point of view, 
 and their interior construction not yet hidden by their pro- 
 posed contents ; while the incomplete sculptural decoration 
 did not too much distract the attention from theraain masses 
 and lines, and the experiments as to color-decoration covered, 
 as yet, such small space that they were still less likely to do 
 80. The color-schemes were indeed so meagrely rendered, as 
 yet, that they hardly came into consideration, except oc-
 
 casionally to pique curiosity and give play to irresponsible 
 and harmless suggestions, born of active imagination or of 
 tliat caeoethes carpendi wliicli one occasionally detects in the 
 average display of human nature. 
 
 With the outside attractions presented by the Exposition 
 buildings, it was hardly to be expected that even half of the 
 " visiting architects" would be found in attendance at either 
 of the two sessions of the Convention at one time; but I was 
 informed that over a hundred, representing nearly twenty 
 States, registered at the Institute of Building Arts, that ad- 
 mirable organization, founded and carried on, at his own 
 cost, with iiianifold good results to the profession in the 
 North West, by Henry Lord Gay, for so many years; till, 
 in fact, he presented it as a gift to the Illinois Chapter of the 
 Institute. Here the successive arrivals, (which included 
 many ladies accompanying their husbands and fathers), were 
 welcomed by Mr. Perce, the manager of the Building Arts 
 Institute, and by Mr. Beaumont, Secretary of the Illinois 
 Chapter A. I. A., and by them, as the Chapter's guests, re- 
 freshed in the inner man, after their journey; as well as pro- 
 vided with badges and tickets to serve throughout the three 
 days, as passports to the grounds and buildings of the Fair. 
 The occasion vras therefore^ inaugurated — and it continued — 
 as if of the nature of a picnic (as everything that yields a 
 pleasant time -and that without necessary reference to 
 sylvan banquetting — is class.-d by the ingenuous youth of the 
 period). But a picnic, the world over, is an occasion much 
 more suitable for facilitating amenability in a voting body 
 than it is for the serious transaction of the business of an 
 assemblage, presumably collected to promote the permanent 
 interests of an artistic and scientific fraternity.
 
 How little— outside of the Exposition buildings them- 
 selves—there was in the ostensible proceedings, for the trans- 
 action of which the call was made, to interest the profession 
 at large, may be inferred from a glance at the reports of the 
 Convention in the columns of the principal periodicals of the 
 Union representing our specialty ; and it may be mentioned 
 that Messrs. Wm. Rotch Ware, Editor of the "American 
 Architect," F. S. Hunt, of the "North-western Architect," 
 and H.^C. Meyers, of " Engineering," were, as well as R. C. 
 McLean, of the "Inland Architect," present in person; while 
 "Architecture and Building," and other serials, were repre- 
 sented by special deputies. The pioneer of all of them, and 
 which has easily held its own among them for excellent 
 literary quality and for judicious devotion (with an occa- 
 sional aberration) to the best interests of our art and prac- 
 tice— "The American Architect and Building News "—gave 
 simply the reports of the Directors and two of the Committees 
 with the President's opening address and Mn Baumann's 
 weighty and careful " Thoughts on Style " without one word 
 of minor matter, or of the debates, such as they were. " The 
 North-western Architect "—which sprang, several years ago, 
 under new editorship and management, from the " Building 
 Budget," the monthly which Mr. Henry Lord Gay, at no 
 small sacrifice of time, strength and money, so long carried 
 on simultaneously with his Institute of Building Arts, in 
 the interest of improved conditions for practitioners in his 
 locality— gave three of its columns to the proceedings. "The 
 Inland Architect," always alert in securing at a Convention 
 more copy than the other architectural or ywas^architectural 
 serials have found it possible to get, this time overflowed into 
 some fourteen columns; while " Architecture and Building,"
 
 which is seemingly the special vehicle for the output of such 
 moral courage as is doubtless latent in the profession, made 
 its usual brave fight to secure equal editorial rights, and 
 evidently tried subsequently to atone for the imperfect or 
 belated copy doled out to it, as well as to purify the situation 
 generally, by several successive editorials, e. ^r., "The In- 
 stitute Meeting " issue of Oct. 29th, 1892; "The Institute 
 Secretaryship "— Decem. 24th, 1892— an untitled editorial- 
 April 29th, 1893— and the " International Congress of Arch- 
 itects "—May 13th, 1893. In the first of these, "Architecture 
 and Building" truly said — " Of the meeting itself there is 
 more to be said about what it did not do than what it actually 
 accomplished. Mr. Kendall's address [as President], and 
 Mr. Adler's report [as Secretary, on behalf of the Directors], 
 briefly reviewed the most important topics naturally falling to 
 these officials and were chiefly concerned with the relations 
 of the Chapters and the Institute to the State, together with 
 a summary of what had been accomplished in the agitation 
 for the betterment of Government Architecture and a refer- 
 ence to the failure of the passage of the license law in New 
 York. To complete the record, it might be added that the 
 Treasurer's report showed a satisfactory financial condition, 
 that certain distinguished gentlemen were made honorary 
 members and that the paper of the meeting was read by Mr. 
 Baumanu. In addition, there was an eating of lunches and 
 a seeing of sights which seemed to have well nigh dominated 
 the entire proceedings. Useful and entertaining as the latter 
 parts of the programme unquestionably were, they were 
 scarcely the things to hold the foremost place in the pro- 
 gramme of so important a meeting."
 
 FIRST DAY. 
 
 The Convention opened in "Recital Hall," a large assem- 
 bly room in Adler and Sullivan's colossal "Auditorium Build- 
 ing," on the evening of October 20tli, 1893. 
 
 The inaugural address of President Kendall showed that 
 he had broken important ground in procuring from the vari- 
 ous Chapters of the Institute such information, in regard to 
 their local work and functions, as might afford a means of 
 comparing and stimulating, by worthy emulation, their 
 influence for good, in relation to the building interests of 
 their respective communities. The information he quoted 
 showed that, with two or three exceptions, the Jnstitute 
 Chapters throughout the Union took an active part in framing 
 the building laws under which they work, and some of them, 
 e. g. the New^York and Boston Chapters, have much author- 
 ity thereunder (the duties of the New York Chapter being the 
 more numerous and its authority the greater), not only in 
 respect to constructional but to art questions. In both of 
 these a veto power, in conjunction with several other art 
 societies, is vested, in relation to the placing of statues, etc., 
 in the public parks, etc. The Boston Chapter, moreover, is 
 a member of the local society representing the Archaeological 
 Institute of America ; its members have special privileges at 
 the Public Library and Art Museum ; it officially criticizes 
 the monthly work of the students in architecture at the 
 Massachusetts Institute of Technology aud usually awards 
 two annual prizes for the best work done by them ; and the 
 Trustees of the Rotch Travelling Scholarship wisely entrust 
 to it the examination and the general oversight of the schol- 
 ars' work. Similar beneflcent functions might well be sought
 
 9 
 
 by the other Chapters, care being taken to vest their official 
 responsibilities as to the building interests of their respective 
 communities in those members who are amply experienced 
 in practice, as well as versed in theory. The President also 
 bespoke the co-operation and financial support of the pro- 
 fession toward a project laid before the Executive Committee 
 of the Institute by Baron H. von Geymiiller, an eminent 
 architect of the French capital, who proposes to delineate the 
 work and reproduce in fac-simile the drawings of the famous 
 architects from the 15th to the 18th centuries, which would 
 become archives of the greatest artistic, constructional and 
 historic Value to the profession and the art public. Alluding 
 to the success of a Committee of the Institute in dealing with 
 the Federal authorities on the question of improved methods 
 in carrying out the architectural service of the national 
 government, one evidence of which, as enunciated by one of 
 the Federal officials, was that the conditions to be established 
 for such service, with reference to the selection of or com- 
 petition among architects should be approved by the Insti- 
 tute, the President compared the latter's preeent influential 
 position with tlie legislative conception of it, not more than 
 15 years ago, as an association of mere dilettanti, when its 
 New York Chapter was named, by a New York State Senator, 
 the Royal Order of Lollipops; and after a complimentary 
 reference to the splendid housing of the Convention in the 
 Columbian Exposition as the Institute's credentials of capa- 
 city to those of whatever nationality who might assemble 
 therein, he closed with a recommendation of some eminent 
 names for enrollment in the Honorary Membership of its 
 ranks. 
 The Report of the Board of Directors repeated this
 
 10 
 
 recommendation, as well as the information in the President's 
 address as to the progress made in Washington in rela- 
 tion to a reform in the conduct of the architectural de- 
 sign and administration of the buildings of the United 
 States Government ; it censured certain parties for opposing 
 the passage of a license law for architects in the Legislature 
 of the State of New York ; mourned the death of four of 
 the Institute fellows ; gave the figures of the accession to its 
 ranks during the year, including four new chapters ; dwelt 
 on the difficulties ( the magnitude of which, those who have 
 done the most of the correspondence and work of the Institute 
 know best) of finding an altogethei satisfactory determin- 
 ation of the relative status of the Institute, its chapters and 
 their respective members ; with reference to these difficul- 
 ties, presented a proposed amendment to the Institute By- 
 Laws offered by A. J. Bloor, and recommended its adop- 
 tion in the hope that it would suffice to cover all present 
 needs of the Institute ; and also recommended the appoint- 
 ment of a committee to revise the existing regimen of the 
 Institute. Tlie Directors' report was referred, for consider- 
 ation of its recommendations, to Messrs. Scofield, McLaugh- 
 lin and lUsley. 
 
 Treasurer S. A. Treat's report showed the receipts for the 
 year to have been $3,887.03, which, with a balance from the 
 preceding year of $3,215.07, produced a fund of $0,102.09. 
 The expenditures for the year had been $4,191.20, including 
 $1,052.68 for the traveling expenses of the Executive Com- 
 mittee, only $114.77 for Treasurer's expenses, and $1,944.81 
 for Secretary's salary and expenses. This item for Secre- 
 tary's account would have been increased to $2,044.81 if tlie 
 last item of disbursements shown in the report, viz. : $100 to
 
 11 
 
 " A. J. Bloor for collecting, assorting, etc., tlie archives and 
 illustrations of the Institute," had been included, as it properly 
 should have been, in the Secretary's bill. As a personal favor 
 to the Institute Secretary, who pleaded that he had no leisure 
 to attend to such labor, though he required its results for a 
 project he had formed of making an index of the Institute's 
 archives, your delegate had it done under his own super- 
 vision by a third party, on condition that his bill for it 
 should be paid, the service being part of the legitimate work 
 of the Institute Secretary, out of that Secretary's salary. It 
 is noticeable, as a similar instance was last year, that instead 
 of the outlays for account of the Secretary and Treasurer 
 being nearly equal, as formerly (and to an amount for 
 each generally within $300), the Secretary's call (including 
 the misplaced item) on the treasury, as compared with that 
 of the Treasurer himself, is not far from as 18 to 1, while last 
 year it was as about 28 to 1. The Treasurer's report was 
 referred to Messrs. Patton, Alexander and Shipman, as 
 Auditing Committee, and was iu due course certified as 
 
 correct. 
 
 Mr. R. M. Upjohn, as chairman of the Special Committee 
 on the Conservation of Public Architecture, presented a forci- 
 ble paper on his subject ; but confined his observations to 
 that of his own city, New York. He protested against the 
 vandalism of condemning, in the interest of commerce, such 
 fine monumental edifices as the present Treasury building, 
 of wlate marble— a magnificent work in Grecian Doric— and 
 the present Custom House, designed by Isaiah Rodgers, 
 architect, and built of Quincy granite— the perfection of ma- 
 terial and workmanship— in the Ionic order. Mr. Upjohn 
 disputed the claim hitherto made as to the real architect of
 
 12 
 
 the present Treasury building, and tliought it incumbent on 
 the Institute to recommend the Treasury Department to sub- 
 stitute the name of William Ross for that of Fraser, whose 
 name is cut on the building as its architect, but who was 
 only its superintendent, and incidentally expressed liis con- 
 viction that an architect's name should be signed to his own 
 buildings. 
 
 Mr. Charles E. Illsley, chairman of the Special Committee on 
 Competitions, presented a short series of rules calculated to 
 elucidate and ease this important and frequently disquieting 
 element in architectural practice. Your delegate is not 
 aware whether Mr. Illsley's labors had been lightened by 
 reference to papers on the subject issued by the Royal Insti- 
 tute of British Architects and by various architectural fra- 
 ternities in France, Germauy and elsewhere on the European 
 continent ; or by the best American word on the subject 
 known to your delegate, viz. : that contained in a pamplilet 
 prepared by Prof. Ware, of Columbia College, and published 
 by the Institute seventeen years aoro. 
 
 As usual in the last few Conventions, Chapter delegates 
 were afforded no opportunity to make use, for their constitu- 
 ents' mutual information, comparison, edification and en- 
 couragement, of the annual reports of their respective 
 Chapters, which were referred for consideration to Messrs. 
 J. G. Cutler, A. W. Longfellow and C. J. Clark, who on the 
 last day of the Convention reported thereon that it had found 
 them " of great .interest and worthy of careful consideration, 
 but since it would be impossible to take up and consider any 
 suggestions at that late hour of the Convention, the Com- 
 mittee contented itself with congratulating the Institute on 
 the general satisfactory activity manifested, and advised the
 
 13 
 
 reference of the reports to the Board of Directors for detailed 
 discussion and the publication of them, or such parts of 
 them as they might deem of sufficient importance to justify 
 
 such action." 
 
 Then followed what seemed to your delegate to be, from the 
 intellectual and scholarly point of view, Xh^piece de resistance of 
 the occasion, viz., Mr. Frederick Baumann's paper, entitled 
 " Thoughts on Style." It showed, however, considerably more 
 familiarity with German art criticism than with any other, and 
 contained au allusion to Ruskin which, taken by itself, might 
 convey an impression that is perhaps unjust to that greatest 
 of all art-inspirers (though by no means master of the tech- 
 nics of at least the architectural field of art); and I think 
 inappropriately and somewhat unfairly characterizes Fer- 
 gusson's dogmatism as springing from " haughtiness ; " 
 whereas, like the former, and indeed like nearly all the 
 writers on architecture, whether in English or foreign 
 tongues (Viollet-leDuc being almost the solitary exception), 
 who have achieved great reputation with the public, he sim- 
 ply lies under the disadvantage of having had only a dile- 
 ttante training in technics, so that the thoroughly grounded 
 student-especiaily if he has had opportunity to develop 
 into the experienced practitioner— detects deficiencies the 
 layman does not apprehend-deficiencies, moreover, which 
 are made more apparent in our days by our familiarity with 
 the new and rich fields uncovered and so profitably worked 
 by the archJEologist since Fergusson wrote. And it should 
 be remembered that if the technicalist takes particular pains, 
 in addressing the public, to make matters plain to them, he 
 will be very apt to illustrate the Latin proverb ^^ Brevis esse 
 laboi-o obscurusfio;" and also that, so far as the furtherance
 
 14 
 
 of mutually advantageous relations between the specialist 
 and the public which employs him is concerned, it is un- 
 doubtedly better that a book on architecture should be writ- 
 ten, if for miscellaneous and wide distribution, from the 
 amateur's and not fromtlie professional point of view ; archi- 
 tecture, from the fact of its overlapping at ils various points 
 with mechanics and with specially intractable material, being 
 that one of the fine arts which, above all others, is apt to be 
 unappreciated and undervalued in the popular estimation. 
 
 Starting with the theorem that "the convenient meta- 
 physical doctrine of abstract entities, though still applied by 
 some authorities, may at this day be regarded as extinct ; " 
 and that, owing to the practical quality of our epoch, " we 
 no further recognize a beauty in abstracto " hxit find itin- 
 stead to be subject to ' a Darwinian law " which has evolved 
 from " a few types " its present " manifold forms," he went 
 on to discuss the subject under the headings of " style of 
 mechanical art," "the art of building " and " style in fine 
 art." He noted that most of the great writers on the term 
 "■style" shun a strict definition, but quoted a few who had 
 attempted it. Of the trio -Leonardo da Vinci, Michael 
 Angelo and Raphael— in whom the Renaissance culminated, 
 he thought the first the strongest, though he made the least 
 contemporaneous show on account of having had " too 
 many irons in the fire." He thougiit the " style problem " 
 more difficult to master in architecture than in either of its 
 sister arts, and closed a very thoughtful and painstaking 
 essay with the assertion of the poet that— 
 
 " What dazzles for the moment spends its spirit ; 
 "What's genuine shall Posterity inherit."
 
 15 
 
 The Convention then (without reference to the distinction, 
 implied by the terms of ihe Constitution, between the two 
 grades of Honorary and Corresponding members) elected to 
 its Honorary Membership : President Elliot of Harvard and 
 President Low of Columbia, Mr. Marlin Brimmer, President 
 of the Boston Art Commission, and Mr. J. W. Gilder, Editor 
 of the Century Magazine It included in the like honor- 
 doubtless to their surprise on learning it, and it may be 
 hoped also to their gain in wholesome amusement — Professor 
 C. E. Norton of Harvard, Mr. F. L. Olmsted, the senior 
 Landscape Architect of the Fair grounds, and Professor Bab- 
 cock, of Cornell. This was done on the recommendation of 
 the Directors, obviously in blissful ignorance of the fact that 
 the last three have been for years on the Honorary roll of 
 the Institute and that the last two had been subsequently 
 dropped therefrom, having come under the operation of a 
 law duly passed by the Institute that Honorary Members who 
 enter the lists of current practice as rivals of those prac- 
 titioners whose dues give financial support to the Institute 
 should, in justice to the latter, be placed on the same finan- 
 cial footing with them ; and in apparent ignorance also that 
 Mr. Babcock had already been restored to the Honorary list. 
 Later on in the proceedings, after a fitting eulogium by Mr. 
 Henry Van Brunt, there was added to the Honorary roll the 
 name of Mr. H. S. Codman, one of the Exposition's Land- 
 scape Architects— those artists whose canvas is the face of 
 nature, the earth and sky, the hill and dale, the horizon and 
 the clouds, the woods and rocks and fields, the lake and 
 stream— whose peucil is their own imagination and fertility 
 of conception— and whose pigments are tlie sunshine and the 
 shade, with all that the arborist and horticulturist can yield.
 
 16 
 
 After some remarks from the Secretary eulogizing Mr. 
 Buruham, the Director of Works of the Exposition Build- 
 ings, for his instrumentality in securing, on the programme 
 for their impending dedication, a public recognition of the 
 services of their architects and of the various artists associ- 
 ated in their work, two committees were appointed for the 
 nomination of officers, etc., for the next ensuing yiar, and 
 tiie Convention adopted a resolution, offered by Mr. Henry 
 Van Brunt and seconded, with some complimentary remarks, 
 by Mr. Stone, thanking the Hon. John C Tarsney, Chair- 
 man of the U. S. House Committee on Buildings and 
 Grounds, and his fellow-committeemen, for their attention 
 in carrying through the House the bill, recommended by the 
 Institute, for the improvement of the national architecture. 
 
 Mr. W. C. Smith tlien spoke some words of regret and 
 condolence in reference to several lately deceased Fellows of 
 the Institute, viz. : Messrs. Edward Burling, George M. 
 Goodwin, Henry Hudson Holly, Edward E. Schwabe and 
 Albert L. West, and offered the following, which was unani- 
 mously carried : 
 
 ''Resolved, That the Secretary be and is hereby directed to 
 prepare a suitable memorial page in memory of our late Fel- 
 lows, for publication in the Proceedings of this Convention, 
 availing liimself of such data as he may be able to obtain 
 from friends residing in or near the localities in which our 
 late brethren resided." * 
 
 /^'® ^'o'll.v proper lujimotiou has, however, been ouly partially re- 
 garded. The Profieedlugs show only a- black-bordered page, containing 
 the words, " Mortuary List of the American Institute of ArehltPcts," and 
 the names and late addresses of the defunct, without one word of '• such 
 data and with the Interpolation of the name of a party who never had 
 the slightest connection with the Institute.
 
 17 
 SECOND DAY. 
 
 The Second day of the Convention was devoted wholly to 
 a survey of the Exposition Buildings and to witnessing the 
 ceremonies attending their official dedication. As might be 
 expected where such colossal works, such limited time for 
 their production, and such an overflow of sightseers were in 
 question, not a few evidences of incompleteness met in the 
 nevertheless inspiring atmosphere, and considerable confu- 
 sion, but withal prevailing good-temper, was apparent in the 
 gala crowds, while the means of locomotion from the hotel 
 quarters of the city to the Fair Grounds were for the time 
 being quite inadequate. Your delegate, with other "visit- 
 ing architects," wasted several hours in experiment and 
 waiting before securing places in one of the incessant rail- 
 road trains to the Fair. But his colleagues, doubtless, like 
 himself felt repaid for any lost time or discomfort on arriving 
 at the Exposition. You probably do not expect from your 
 delegate any attempt at detailed criticism of either the con- 
 structional or art aspects of the buildings, especially as there 
 is plenty of it to be found elsewhere, this being generallyi 
 though not invariably, highly favorable in the American 
 press and somewhat less so in the foreign, and especially in 
 the French press. So far as the last is concerned the domi- 
 nant tone hitherto, in fact, has been distinctly censorious. 
 But we all know how the mind is affected by the value of 
 the material, as well as of the form, of a work of art. A copy 
 in plaster may, and often does, present finer lines and sur- 
 faces and really more of the spirit of the original statue than 
 a copy in marble, but the ignoble and fragile vehicle invites 
 depreciation to extend to the form moulded out of it.
 
 18 
 
 Brought up in the art field with a self -appreciation not al- 
 together without grounds, but of which they should not 
 expect the entire monopoly, so long as the old world, in the 
 capital of Scotland, and the new one in that ^^f Massachusetts, 
 each rejoices in its own modern Athens ; — imbued, moreover, 
 where architectural art is concerned, with the traditions of 
 that section of the Ecole des Beaux Arts devoted to it (though 
 seemingly somewhat out of current touch with it, for a revolt 
 began in that section, some time ago, against certain of its 
 methods and in favor of assimilating American features of 
 architectural instruction); and learning besides that nearly 
 all of this brave show in Jackson Park is made up of wood 
 and lath, and of plaster mixed with jute, or other fibrous 
 substance, and a little cement — thus handicap' ed for the 
 purposes of impartial criticism, our somewhat exigent Gallic 
 friend and critic, though by nature amiable, hospitable to 
 new ideas, where not at odds with his amour propre^ and 
 facile princeps in the application of art to the various phases 
 of beauty and the transmission of them to current needs, 
 dismisses the Columbian buildings as a group, takes each 
 by itself and proceeds to pick it to pieces; and so occasion- 
 ally, does his American imitator. 
 
 But even if, ignoring its proportions, its purity and its 
 elegance — using an often-belittled word where it is really ap- 
 plicable — it is claimed that the Fine Arts building though of 
 worthy material is of design too severe for a repositor}' of 
 fine-art productions; or that the Administration building 
 th^igh crowned with a dome to rank with that of the In- 
 valides or St. Peter's, and displaying an interior worthy of 
 being the vestibule to the whole group around the great 
 plaza, has not suflicient substructure to prevent the eye
 
 19 
 
 being discomforted by the feeling tliat the dome is crushing 
 it ; or that the fine pavilions of the Agriculture building are 
 marred (no matter what famous prototype may have been 
 followed) by the crowded columniatiou and enrichment 
 of the arcaded fa9ade between them ; or that the ornamented 
 features of the Transportation buihling, though exquisite in 
 their Oriental elaboration and delicacy, are out of keeping 
 with the prevailing classic and Renaissance spirit of the group, 
 or that the delightfully quaint and marvellously adapted 
 details of the Fisheries building— certainly quite up to the 
 mark of its prototype in the mother country— are still 
 more inconsonant with that group's dignity and refinement ; 
 even allowing any weight to such claims, your delegate 
 believes that no design worked out in the White City has 
 suffered one particle from a conscious or unconscious feeling, 
 on the part of tlie designer, that it was not worth while to 
 waste time and brain work on what was destined, alas! (and 
 how often did he hear the fact elicit expressions of sadness) 
 to endure for only a few months. He was assured by the 
 architect of the most colossal structure on the Fair grounds 
 that he never worked harder to achieve maximum results 
 from his training and experience ; and apart from the fact 
 that it is impossible for the true artist to do otherwise than 
 put the best of himself, as he is at the time of product, into 
 his creation, it ought to be evident even to those who look at 
 everything fmm the tradesman's point of view, that whether 
 with reference to self-advertisement or to experimentation 
 preparatory of future duplication in lasting material, it was 
 to the interest of every man engaged in the work of design 
 to do his "level best." 
 But with very few exceptions among the dozen buildings
 
 20 
 
 composing the main group (those exceptions, by the way, 
 when compared with tile majority, illustrating, as by an 
 object lesson, the advantage of careful technical training, even 
 to the practitioner who is recognized as having more or less 
 of real genius ; as also the great gain to the public that is 
 likely to come from the Institute's constant activity in behalf 
 of having the national patronage in architecture thrown open 
 to the profession) it is doubtless safe to say that if, under a 
 small jury of competent experts, representing adequate train 
 ing of the critical faculty, as well as different nationalities 
 and, above all, cosmopolitan spirit, eacli building were individ- 
 ually compared with an approximately similar example of 
 current practice in Europe, the buildings of the Columbian 
 Exposition would be held of certainly not less than equal 
 grade. 
 
 As for the ensemble of the group, it is generally conceded 
 by foreigners, as well as claimed by our own people, that no 
 grouping of structures in the World's Exhibitions hiilierto 
 has exceeded the Columbian display in general effect, even 
 if some have possessed features of interest and attraction 
 wanting to ours; while it cannot of course be gainsaid that 
 none have approached it in magnitude, either of conception 
 or of individual structure; Geo. B. Post's Building for Manu- 
 factures and Liberal Arts covering, for instance, an area 
 nearly three limes that of tlie Pyramid of Cheops, and more 
 than six times that of the Colosseum in Rome. Standing by 
 the side of this tremendous work, but looking away from it — 
 for its vast proportions would destroy the illusion — across the 
 lagoon and over the grouping at each side, those who have 
 been in Venice can liardly help fancying, at the tirst glance, 
 that they are standing on the lliva dei Schiavoni and looking
 
 21 
 
 across the Grand Canal, especially as the eye falls on the 
 gondolas that seemingly wait the ^' poppe^'' call; but as one 
 realizes the narrower strip of water before him and remem- 
 bers the ancient quiet city's water-worn leaning walls and 
 weather-stained facades, so small-scaled compared with the 
 seemingly endless stretches around him, and so many of them 
 of Gothic vwtif, one soon throws aside this train of reverie, 
 but only to fall under the spell of another, and to wonder if 
 what his vision covers is not the realization of the classic 
 and Renaissance phase of his older dream, (born of some 
 " Wightwick's Palace of Architecture") of student days, 
 — a realization evoked from the swampy waste of yesterday 
 not, as it might almost be imagined, by Aladdin's genii, but 
 (after tlie interchange, as it is understood, of counsel among 
 suitable experts and eminent men of affairs) by the selection, 
 from architects experienced in large work, of designers ade- 
 quate in number for the numerous proposed buildings, and in 
 capacity for their separate tasks ; tlie productions of all being 
 co-ordinated, as far as necessary for current construction, 
 under one director of works. It is also understood that the 
 admirable scheme — which even the layman must conceive 
 could have been no easy task — for the layout of the whole 
 Fair. Grounds (including the allotment of sites for the various 
 buildings) was projected by the late lamented J. W. Root 
 (partner of the Directer of Works, D. H. Burnham) and by 
 F. L. Olmsted, who no less alive than of old (as may be 
 judged by Mr. Van Brunt's references to Mr. Codman) to the 
 necessity of suitable associateship in his professional labors, 
 began so manj' years ago, with Calvert Vaux as partner in the 
 layout of New York's Central Park and the Brooklyn 
 Park, that goodly work for the public health, comfort and
 
 22 
 
 delectation, which he has since accomplished. The Fair 
 Grounds were of course in a very inchoate condition at the 
 time of the Convention, but it is not difficult to imagine what 
 a resplendent scene wilTlbe presented when the buildings 
 shall be viewed rising from the finished work of the Land- 
 scape Architects. 
 
 Tlie dedication of the buildings has been made so familiar 
 through the press that your delegate need only advert, 
 currente calamo, to the ceremonies attending it bearing spe- 
 cially on the Building Art. These took place in the largest 
 building of the group, which its architect told him is covered 
 by about thirty-seven acres of roofing (supported on trusses, 
 of peculiar interest to the architect and engineer, having the 
 enormous span of some 800 feet) and, with the additional 
 capacity of the galleries, afifords a floor space of about f jrty 
 four acres. Your delegate, like others doubtless, had re- 
 ceived the impression that provision had been made for the 
 members of the Convention to hear as well as to see the 
 ceremonies, but preferring to " stick by his crowd " he had 
 declined an invitation which would have enabled him to do 
 so at very close range. The box to which his ticket assigned 
 him gave however no such opportunity. Even the chorus of 
 some eight thousand voices rendering the music of G. W. 
 Chadwick and otliers reached your delegate's place with 
 much of its volume subdued, but perhaps with none of its 
 inspiring effect lost. The chorus was supplementary to a fit- 
 ting ode of Harriet S Monroe ("read however by another lady), 
 in which tender allusion was made to J. W. Root, who had 
 died on the very threshold of his work for the Fair, and 
 whom the poet supposed to be present :
 
 23 
 
 "Back with the old glad smile comes one we know — 
 We bade him rear our house of joy to-day ; 
 But beauty opened wide her starry way, 
 And he passed on." • 
 
 The immensity of the building is such that though your 
 delegate's box was nearly opposite the scene of the dedi- 
 catory ceremonies it was not merely impossible to hear any- 
 thing of tjiem. but it was only by the aid of a field-glass that 
 he saw them distinctly. And they were worth coming any dis- 
 tance to see, especially for one who has a personal recollection 
 of the day of small things in the Institute, and whose re- 
 searches, in behalf of the art and practitioners of architecture 
 in America, reach back beyond its inception, and outside of 
 its still too narrow limits of to-day. To such a one the scene 
 was probably really as interesting as and more pleasant 
 than to some of the participants in it. For the remem- 
 brance of previous not always Christian-like struggles for a 
 place in a field of emolument and reputation may some- 
 times intrude in a more or less disquieting way on the 
 sati<: faction of a participant in the honors accorded to it. 
 
 Here is the case however as it stood, attesting the profes- 
 sion's prestige so far gained and its status as promised there- 
 by : In the presence of the highest Governmental officials, 
 Judicial, Legislative and Executive, of the American Union 
 (President Harrison's promised attendance, however, being 
 unhappily prevented by the dangerous illness of his wife) of 
 its component States and Territories, and of its local subdi- 
 visions, as well as of the representatives of trans-Atlaulic and 
 trans-Pacific powers, ushered to the occasion by all the pomp 
 of military, civic and municipal splendor, and by tens of
 
 24 
 
 thousands from the veteran to the school child, the Director 
 General of the Exposition, G. R Davis, with its President, 
 T. W. Palmer, and its Art Director, H. C. Ives, by his side, 
 introduced, as the mouth-piece of the architects, engineers 
 and various artists of the buildings, its Director of Works 
 D. H. Burnham, who (doubtless realizing that his role was 
 much greater than it would have been simply as one of a 
 tirm to whom deserved local partiality— as well perhaps 
 as a less worthy spirit of separativeness and exclvsiveness 
 —might have assigned a task beyond the capacity 
 of any two architects in the world) in a few sentences 
 not, on the whole, more grandiose than might reasonably 
 be expected under circumstances so unique, called at- 
 tention to the results laid before the multitude (he 
 himself estimated the assemblage before him at two hundred 
 thousand) by his professional colleagues and their adminis- 
 trative, engineering and art coadjutors ; on which H. N. 
 Higinbotham, President of the Board of Directors, formally 
 accepted the buildings, " exulting in the belief that these 
 beautiful structures furnish proof to the world that, with all 
 our material growth and prosperity since the Columbian dis- 
 covery of America, we have not neglected those civilizing 
 arts which minister to a people's refinements and become the 
 chief glory of a nation." Then quoting Milton's assurance 
 that 
 
 " Peace hath her victories, no less renowned than war," 
 Mr. Higinbotliam proceeded to decorate a group 
 around him with bronze medals, the work of the artist Ved- 
 
 der, and inscribed with these woids " To 
 
 one of the designers of the World's Columbian Exposition, 
 ou the four hundredth anniversary of the landing of Columbus,
 
 35 
 
 October 21, 1892." Tlie following are the names of the re- 
 cipients, arranged by sex and alphabetically : 
 
 WOMEN: Miss M. Cassalt, Miss S. G. Hayden, Mrs. F. 
 MacMonnies, Miss H. S. Monroe, Miss A. Rideout, Miss E. 
 Yandall. 
 
 MEN: Adler D. : Alvord, J. W ; Armstrong, M. 
 Atwo )d, C. B. ; Baur, T ; Beckwith, J. C. ; Bemau, S. S. 
 Bitter, C. ; Blankiugsliip, J. A. ; Blashfield, E. H. ; Bock 
 K. W. ; Boyle, J. J. ; Buruham, D. H. ; Chadwick, Q. W. 
 Cobb, H. I.; Codnian, H. S. ; Cox. K.; Dodge, W. L. 
 E.lbrook, VV. J. ; French, D. C. ; Garnsey, E. E. ; Gelert, 
 J. ; Graham, E. R. ; Grogan, F. W. ; Healey, G. L. ; Hola- 
 bird, W. ; Howe. F. M. ; Hunt, R. M. : Jenny, W. L. B 
 Kemeys, E. ; Kraus, R. ; MacHarg, W. S. ; MacMonnies, F. 
 Martiny, P. ; Maynard. G. ; McEwen, W. ; McKim, C. F. 
 McNeil, H. ; Meade, W. R. ; Mdchers, G. ; Millet, F. D. 
 Millet, L. J. ; Olmsted, F. L. ; Olmsted, J. C. ; Paine, J. K. 
 Peabody, R* S. ; Post, G. B. ; Potter, E. C. ; Procter, A. P 
 Reid, R. ; Reinhart, C. ; Roche, M. ; Rohl-Smith, C. 
 Sandier, A. ; Sargent, F. ; Schladermundt, H. T. ; Shank 
 land, E. C. : Shirlaw, W. ; Simmons, E. E. ; Stearns, J. G. 
 St. Gaudens, A. ; Sullivan, L. ; Taft, L. ; Thomas, T. 
 Tomlins, W. L. ; Turner, C. Y. ; Ulrich. R. ; Van Brunt, H. 
 Waagen, M. A.; Warner, O. L. : Weir, J. A. ; White, S. 
 Whitehouse, F. 
 
 An interesting point in relation to these names has been 
 brought to your delegate's attention. This is — and it in- 
 directly illustrates the shortsightedness of those who 
 insisted that the Exposition should be held on the Atlantic 
 seaboard, professedly and mainly on the ground that it
 
 26 
 
 would be more central as regards European visitors, but no 
 doubt largely also from mere sectional prejudice— that, so 
 far at least as regards those parties practising as architects 
 and nearly as completely so with reference to others, the names 
 represent only those who received their professional train- 
 ing in the East of our own country or still further to 
 the East, in some trans-A.tlantic centre. Thus the West, 
 or rather, speaking geogniphically, the Eastern centre of 
 our land ffor the people of Cliicago are Easterners to those 
 of Omaha or Denver or San Francisco) has furnished the 
 site and the sea-board East has furnished the designs for the 
 Columbian Exposition. Tlieir hands are inseparably joined 
 for their mutual support, and the result to the foreigner is 
 simply American. 
 
 The occasion would have seemed to most New Yorkers 
 but partially improved if Chauncey M. Depew had not been 
 invited to its oratory, for one of those addresses in which he 
 so well mingles shrewdness for the passing hours with illus- 
 trations from historical retrospect and with forecast for tlie 
 coming day; and he seems, judging by his published words, 
 to have realized that it demanded tiie full benefit of his 
 talents. The unlocalized character of the proceedings showed 
 in another address by the Southron, Henry Watterson, and 
 its just and cosmopolitan spirit was evinced by the part as- 
 signed to the Chief of the Woman's Board, Mrs. Potter Palmer, 
 and by its religious exercises being conducted mainly by the 
 Protestant Bishop Fowler, from the Pacific coast, and by 
 Cardinal Gibbons, of the most ancient Catholic seat on the 
 Atlantic coast, within the original thirteen States. A 
 memorable occasion for practitioners in Architecture and its 
 cognate Arts, and very different from the opening of the
 
 27 
 
 first of the World's Exiiibitions in America (which occurred 
 in New\"ork about 1856), when the architects, engineers and 
 decorators of its Crj-stal Palace (as it was called in imitation 
 of its London prototype of 1853), liad no official place on the 
 programme. Tiie dedication of the Columbian buildings is 
 not to be recalled by any professor of the building art. or of 
 its constructive and decorative allies, without profound sat- 
 isfaction. So far as 3'our delegate is concerned the only 
 drawback to his enjoyment in recalling the White City (out- 
 side of the incongruity of holding an Institute Convention 
 coincidentally) is tiiat, in a short conversation he had the 
 privilege of holding on Dedication Day with President 
 Palmer, he learned that that gentleman feared that the enor- 
 mous cost of maintenance would probably forbid the buildings 
 (except the very few designed for permanent use) being on 
 exhibition much beyond the close of the Fair. 
 
 Your delegate has prepared a series of questions (see ap- 
 pendix) addressed to the designers of the various buildings, 
 the hoped-for answers to which will, he thinks, present data 
 available for future use in behalf of the profession. 
 
 Your delegate ventures, in closing this brief record of the 
 official recognition before the world of the worth of the pro- 
 fessional service involved in the Exposition buildings, to 
 quote the following words from a lecture of his own, pub- 
 lished by the Institute in 1869. After adverting to the pub- 
 lic inappreciation of the worth of such service he said : 
 " What extensive public work of combined art, in New York 
 City, would probably receive the most votes as, on the whole, 
 the most satisfactory? Probably the Central Park, a monu- 
 ment of co-operation, for a great practical purpose, in 
 aesthetic science and art. To whom will the next age assign
 
 28 
 
 the credit for this most creditable product of American 
 art ?— the initiators, who prophesied its necessity and uses— 
 the public, whose generous instincts ordered, sanctioned and 
 sustained it— the Commissioners who administered it— the 
 various designers who projected it — the superintendent, 
 whose arduous and delicate task it was to mould its working 
 processes and to harmonize the diverse and easily discordant 
 elements of its complex principal working stages— or the 
 corps of engineers, gardeners and architects who brought 
 out its masses and elaborated its detail? Will it not have 
 learnt to distribute the credit among the different workers 
 according to the mark they made, and thank Providence 
 that the necessities of co-operation were so strong as to ren- 
 der possible, for a long enougli period, that sufflcicnt har- 
 mony for practical purposes which is so rare among artists— 
 to destroy the sordid schemes of politicians and other ad- 
 verse possibilities, and to secure to our own and future gen- 
 erations so valuable a boon ? " The hope therein implied 
 of a future official recognition of the value of sesthetical ser- 
 vice in greal works, has been realized long before " the next 
 age." It is less than quarter of a century since it was uttered, 
 yet it has already been fulfilled in the dedication ceremonies 
 of the buildings of the Columbian World's Fair ; and if most 
 of those buildings must vanish, like "the stuff that dreams 
 are made of," the repository for Art treasures will at least 
 remain, and Jackson Park, projected by tlie same fertile 
 brain that so largely helped to plan the Central Park and 
 many another will, like the latter and Boston Common, re- 
 main " a joy forever," or at least as long as public ethics are 
 pure and active enough to keep them out of the hands of the 
 corner-grocery politicians.
 
 29 
 THIRD DAY. 
 
 The mid-day ceremonies of Dedication Day, and still more 
 perhaps its abundant and varied post-crepuscular celebra- 
 tions, were hardly conducive to early rising, and it was not 
 a great while before high noon when the proceedings of the 
 third day were opened in the Convention Hall of W. L. B. 
 Jenny's Horticultural Building with one of President Ken- 
 dall's customary pitliy but not less graceful little speeches, an 
 aptness for which is a quite beueficeut gift in a presiding 
 officer (or moderator as the canny Scotcli call him) and one 
 not too common in our profession. Between Mr. Kendall's 
 concise and witty remarks in opening a meeting there is, 
 moreover, generally to be detected, by tliose familiar with 
 the Institute, a desire in the interest of harmony and of 
 " maliing things pleasant generally " to oil the wheels about 
 to be set in motion. Formally, the session began with an 
 acknowledgment from the Chair of that due fmm tlie Insti- 
 tute—and lie might have added, from the wliole profession 
 and from the art world throughout — for " the splendid recog- 
 nition," secured through Mr. Burnham, in Cliicago, " of the 
 architects, painters, sculptors and decorators of America." 
 The suggestion made by the Chair was speedily adopted bj^ 
 the Convention and, on motion of Mr. Stone, it passed an ex- 
 pression of its indebtedness to him and to his deceased partner, 
 Mr. Root ; Mr. Adler at the same time, at the request of 
 Mr. Ferry, enlarging in liis usual lucid manner on the import- 
 ance of the prominent example afforded by the Exposition 
 buildings in " giving to our profession, as a whole, a step for- 
 ward" and in establishing a precedent by which the architect 
 and his art coadjutor would no longer be placed upon " the
 
 30 
 
 plane of a mere employe, not worthy of recognition for the 
 work he has done because he is paid or is going to be paid 
 some time," and he might, if some instances had been 
 adduced, have added to ths last clause, " if it sliould be 
 foimd that there is no legal way of escaping any payment at 
 all." He added a tribute to Mr. Olmsted and thought 
 " that if it had not been for the admirable setting which he 
 has given it, the work of the architects, or at least much of 
 that which is now admired, would have been lost." 
 
 With reference to the old question of anomalous member- 
 ship and to regulations rendered obsolete or nugatory by the 
 unification of the former Western Association of Architects 
 and other causes, in rectification of which the Board of 
 Directors had recommended the adoption of a motion 
 oifered by A. J. Bloor, and covered b}^ propositions tliat 
 wherever there exists more than one Chapter witliin tlie 
 limits of any State, and where it is desired to communicate 
 officially on behalf of the Institute or of tlie profession of 
 architecture with that State's legislature, executive or ju- 
 diciarj', then the Chapters in tliat State shall unite, forming 
 a state association, bearing the name of that State ; and such 
 state association shull represent sucli Chapters and shall 
 report to the Institute for the purpose of anj' transaction 
 with sucli state authority ; and it shall be unlawful, as far as 
 the Institute is concerned, for anj^ individual Chapter to 
 hold communication with state authorities except under the 
 direction of the state association so formed — the following 
 was passed : 
 
 " Resolved, That so much of the report of the Board of Di- 
 rectors as relates to the matters just mentioned be referred
 
 31 
 
 to a Committee of three, to be appointed by tlie Chair; that 
 this Committee of three shall take in hand the revision of our 
 Constitution and By-Laws and the proper formulation of 
 those clauses relating to the formation of state architectural 
 societies for certain purposes ; and that this Committee be 
 given till the next annual Convention to complete its work 
 and report same to that Convention for action and adoption." 
 
 Tliis was followed by the passage of a resolution, offered 
 by Mr. Preston, that the Chair also appoint a special Com- 
 mittee of three to revise the schedule of charges, with special 
 reference to a proper additional percentage in the case of 
 alterations of builrlings as distinct from new work. 
 
 Apropos of the subject of anomalous relations between the 
 Institute and its Chapters, Mr. E. H. Taylor asked a question 
 which reminded your delegate that among the archives of the 
 Institute there ought to be extant some valuable letters of his. 
 illustrating the theme from the point of view in western en- 
 vironments, and which might materially assist the cogitations 
 of any Committee charged with reducing those relations to 
 feasibility. It is to be hoped indeed that future Committees, 
 charged with revision of Institute regimen, will at once save 
 weariness to the readers of their reports and their own time 
 by ascertaining tlie stage at which antecedent action has left 
 the subject referred to them ; and will reserve their strength 
 for the development of a more advanced field for discussion 
 and action upon it ; and it is also not too much perhaps to 
 hope that the amounts disbursed in the Secretary's office since 
 Consolidation (which, as shown by the Treasurer's report, 
 was last year from six to ten times as much as the usual 
 charges therefor^ in previous years) have resulted by this
 
 32 
 
 time in the production of an index to the Institute's archives, 
 printed and manuscript, wliich might malie the necessary 
 collations therefrom a comparatively very easy matter for 
 those gentlemen. 
 
 Thanks for courtesies tendered to the Convention were 
 voted to the World's Fair Commission, to Mr. Higinbotham 
 and to the Illinois Chapter ; as well as to the press of Chicago, 
 for its reports of the Convention. 
 
 Penaing the collection of ballots for the Officers and Stand- 
 ing Committees for the ensuing year the Secretary presented 
 the extraordinary proposition that the Institute should have a 
 permanent Secretary " but no one from its [your] members" 
 at an annual salary of three thousand dollars. Mr. Yost, 
 though, evidently, like probably nearly all present, not catch- 
 ing the whole import of a proposition so incongruous, objected 
 that such a step might be found inconsistent with " the best 
 policy for the welfare of tlie Institute at large," and that it 
 might not be easy, in such an appointee, to find a person com- 
 petent to do the organization's work •' and yet uphold the 
 dignity of the Institute as a Secretary ought to do, in corre- 
 spondence with perhaps foreign bodies." 
 
 If a proposition, however quietly introduced, to hand 
 over the complex and delicate responsibilities of the 
 Institute Secretaryship to any other than one of its 
 Fellows had been made ui.der other circumstances, members 
 familiar with combinations larger than those of architects' 
 offices would doubtless have detected in it a door openable 
 to processes not consonant with those that ought to prevail 
 in a professional body ; and the suggestion would probably 
 have been negatived with substantial unanimity. Your dele- 
 gate will not at present detain you with all the points of
 
 33 
 
 I 
 
 t ethics and expedience involved in such a proposition, further 
 
 than to hint that while the $3,000 annual salary suggested in 
 
 tit would be very moderate remuneration for an experienced 
 practitioner also competent for the secretarial work of the 
 Institute it would seem to be money better thrown into the 
 sea than appropriated to one with no responsibilities to pro- 
 fessional training or brotherhood and who in addition to 
 being incompetent might use the Institute simply as a trading 
 £;round to earn that and such additional profits as from his 
 tradesman's point of view he would perhaps consider legiti- 
 mate. The present financial provision for the Secretary is 
 made not on the theory that it rises to the real value of the 
 higher work inseparable from the adequate fulfillment of the 
 duties of his office, but to protect those duties from the 
 wasteful drudgery of mere clerical service. Such reflections 
 would under ordinary circumstances naturally occur to the 
 average member of the Institute, even if but partially ac- 
 quainted with the responsibilities of its Secretaryship; but, 
 on the qui vive for adjourn ment and all the opportimity 
 possible for further inspection of the wonderful architectural 
 scene every where around them, the meeting hurriedly gave its 
 consent that the Board of Directors should have the option of 
 experimenting in the matter; after the President had stated 
 that action in it would be tentative "and would not be per- 
 sisted in if not found consistent." 
 
 Then followed an episode which it is to be hoped will not 
 occupy too prominent a place in the proceedings of the Con- 
 vention, when put into permanent shape. The most perti- 
 nent statement that occurred in it, was made by the parly 
 who nevertheless was the most persistent interlocutor, and 
 was that the matter should have been reserved for a " per-
 
 34 
 
 sonal conversation," and that "there was nothing in it that 
 should take the time of the Convention." A little while 
 before, Mr. Gibson, alluding to the paucity of professional 
 papers produced in recent years at the Conventions, had got 
 a resolution passed that the Administration should select and 
 invite members to prepare such for the next Convention. In 
 supporting him Mr. H. Van Brunt had adverted to the pro- 
 bability that the next Convention would be "held before 
 representatives of the profession from all paris of the world," 
 and Mr. Carr had asked if anything would be done "about 
 adding a collection of drawings of the architects of this 
 country to theWorld's Columbian Exposition," to which Mr. 
 R. M. Hunt, ex-President of the Institute, replied that he 
 was a member of a Committee f r that purpose. It now ap- 
 peared that Mr. K. C. McLean had been appointed by its 
 own members the Secretary of a local Committee, itself ap- 
 pointed by a sub-division (tlie World's Congress Auxiliary) 
 of the Administration of the Exposition, to "get up" a 
 World's Congress of Architects at the Fair next August. 
 The local Committee's Secretary seemed to have but a mod- 
 erate memory for what had been already accomplished iu the 
 direction of such duties as would naturally fall to his office, 
 and a still more moderate conception of what would be neces- 
 sary therefor ; and it seemed that the same hard fate, in the 
 way of losing important papers or of never receiving expected 
 ones, observable in his case at the close of or after former 
 Conventions, still pursued him, for he informed the meeting 
 of more than one such case. Having referred to ex-President 
 Hunt as Chairman of the Institute's Committee on Foreign 
 Correspondence, that gentleman stated that a number of 
 architects had been in correspondence with him on the sub-
 
 35 
 
 ject of a possible architects' congress in this country and that 
 he had forwarded papers on the subject to the local Com- 
 mittee in Chicago. Whereupon the Secretary of that Com- 
 mittee went on to say that they had never reached it, that 
 they had probably been sent somewhere else, and Mr. Hunt 
 promptly rejoined that they had certainly been sent to that 
 Committee, as his letters to it covering them had been 
 answered. Mr. Hunt then proceeded to give the Secretary 
 of the local Committee some information, obviously all news 
 to the Secretary, as to what he had himself done in the 
 premises and to offer him advice which he evidently ^tood 
 sorely in need of, as to what he ought to have done and ought 
 to go on doing if the proposed World's Congress of Archi- 
 tects was to be made successful. From all which it would ap- 
 pear to be very doubtful whether the "attitude of excep- 
 tional dignity " properly enjoined by Mr. H. Van Brunt on 
 the Institute, in its dealings with foreign architectural 
 bodies in relation to such a congress, can be adequately pre- 
 served simply in the hands of the Secretary of a Committee 
 apparently not included in the counsels and correspondence 
 of his office, and it is therefore to be hoped that influence 
 will be brought to bear by the Institute Administration on 
 the local Committee, which will yield a better promise than 
 now seems to exist of success for a fitting sequence to the 
 professi n's part in the ceremonies of Dedication Da}'. 
 
 The tellers, Messrs. Stone and Yost, reported the following 
 result of the two tickets presented by the nominating Com- 
 mittees:— President, E. H. Kendall, New York City; First 
 Vice-President, D. H. Burnham, Chicago ; Second Vice- 
 President, Henry Van Brunt, Kansas City, Mo. ; Secretary, 
 Dankmar Adler, Chicago ; Treasurer, S. A. Treat, Chicago ;
 
 36 
 
 Directors for three years, Alfred Stone, Providence, R. I.; 
 Geo. W. Rapp, Cincinnati ; Wm. G. Preston, Boston ; W. W. 
 Clay, Chicago; Joseph F. Banmann, Knoxville, Tenn.; P. P. 
 Furber, St. Louis ; R. W. Gibson, New York City ; C. H. 
 Johnson, St. Paul. Minn.; and Chicago was nominated as 
 the next place of meeting. 
 
 As regards the locality for the next annual Institute meeting: 
 it has been the custom for its Conventions simply to recom- 
 mend a place; subject to whatever decision, resulting from a 
 consideration of current circumstances, may be finally reached 
 by tl>e Institute Administration. Your delegate has herein- 
 before given his reasons against the concurrence of any 
 Institute Convention with such imescapable distractions as 
 those of the Columbian Exposition. His objections would of 
 course applj^ with still more force to one which should be 
 characterized by the extraordinary importance derivable from 
 the co-operation of a World's Congress of Architects. It is 
 true that unless a change comes over the methods— and par- 
 ticularly the secretarial methods— of the local committee in 
 .charge of such a congress, it would seem very problematical 
 whether any such co-operation will occur; but if it should, 
 it can hardly be questionable that a change of venue, as the 
 lawyers say, would be advisable. This would seem most 
 consistent with the interests the Institute represents, which 
 interests, — and not the "booming" of persons, places or 
 incidents— are certainly what all its Conventions are called 
 together to promote. Even if that committee has been, 
 meanwhile, acting on Mr. Hunt's suggestions and making up 
 for lost time, and should thus succeed in securing the attend- 
 ance of, and papers from, foreign architects, colloquial 
 explanations and amplifications of such papers, and a profit-
 
 I 
 
 37 
 
 able interchange of views on the technical points suggested 
 by them, could not be nearly so successfully carried on amid 
 the all-absorbing attractions of the Exposition as they would 
 be out of their immediate touch. Chicago and its magic- 
 sprung White City, with all the rest of its almost as swiftly 
 developed wonders, could then be absorbed without counter 
 engagements, en route either going to or coming from St. 
 Paul or Minneapolis, which are close by for these days of 
 swift railroading ; but if they are too far off, Milwaukee is 
 but two or three hours away. Such a change of venue, your 
 delegate ventures to say, might properly be suggested by this 
 Chapter before long, if it desires the utmost attainable success 
 for the projected World's Congress of Architects and con- 
 tinues to be unable to learn of any sign of promise for it ; 
 and though your delegate stood, for some time, almost alone 
 in the East, in insisting that the American Institute of Archi- 
 tects could not fairly justifj'its claim to national jurisdiction, 
 in respect to the interests of American Architecture and its 
 practitioners, unless it should become unified with whatever 
 other organizations in the Union worked sincerely, largely 
 and efficiently in the same cause, he takes it for granted that 
 if ever the time was when the vast majority of the better 
 elements of New York did not wish a national success to 
 Chicago in handling the Columbian World's Fair, that time 
 has long gone by ; and he indulges in the hope that our 
 Chicagoan colleagues, realizing this, will receive kindlj^ any 
 hints offered lo or bj' the Institute Administration, in the 
 real interests alike of our own usual Convention of this year, 
 of the much to be desired and perhaps still possible World's 
 Congress of Architects, and of Chicago's historical Exposi- 
 tion. Respectfully submitted, A. J. Blooe.
 
 38 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 5EW TOKK OIIAPTEK A. I. A., WELLES BUILDING, 
 18 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 
 
 January IGtIi, 1893. 
 
 Mr_ 
 
 Dear Sir : I have, since the Cohimbiau Exposition was 
 initiated, and of late more frequently than before, been called 
 on to answer various questions in regard to its buildings; 
 and I also need information on the subject for my own use, 
 in making my report, as Delegate of the New York Chapter 
 A. I. A., to the recent Convention of the Institute. Referr- 
 ing to the structure designed and executed by you, in the 
 Fair Grounds, will you kindly affix answers to the following 
 questions, as far as you can do so consistently with the just 
 interests of yourself or others ? 
 
 1 . What u the official name of ymtr building ? 
 
 2. Are the uses to which it will be put sufficiently covered by 
 
 this name ? 
 
 3. If not, to lohat other uses will it be put? 
 
 4-. What are its main dimensions ? (a) longitudinal 
 
 (b) transverse (c) vertical 
 
 ^. Of what material is it mainly co7istrueted ? 
 
 6. What, if any, features of its constntction are (a) original, 
 
 (b) rarely used hitherto, (c) used on a mucli 
 
 larger scale than hitherto ? 
 
 7. What terminology do you prefer to employ in characterizing 
 
 its style f e. g. Classic ; Grecian ; 
 
 Roman ; Oolhic {so called) ;
 
 39 
 
 Romanesque Seandinaman ; 
 
 Russian ; Renaissance ; 
 
 African* including Egyptian ; 
 
 Saracenic ; Moi'esqve ■ ; 
 
 Etc. Oriental, including Persian ; 
 
 Indian ; Burmese ; 
 
 Chinese ; Japanese ; 
 
 Etc. 
 More specifically, wiiat school of Gothic or Renaissance, 
 
 toith reference to location or epoch ? 
 If a mixture of styles is used, please name them. 
 8. What will be the cost of your building ? 
 
 Will such cost be less or more than contracted or estimated 
 for ? 
 O. Where did the designer or designers receive ?iis, her, or their 
 
 professional training ? 
 10. How long, in your opinion, would your building last, if it 
 were kept in such repair as its materials will admit of? 
 Volunteer remarks from designers, on the above or any 
 other pertinent points, will be appreciatively received by the 
 undersigned. 
 
 A. J. BLOOR, Secretary. 
 
 ■&* 
 
 ♦The word "African," though not customary In architectural termin- 
 ology la here Introduced for the sake of greater precl.-lon In differen- 
 tiating.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 3 0112 050753828