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900 Stewart Avenue (Ithaca, New York)
900 Stewart Avenue is a building in Ithaca, New York, noted for its Egyptian Revival architecture, its dramatic placement partway down a cliff, and being the residence of astronomer Carl Sagan. The building is on a ledge about below street level, overlooking Fall Creek (New York), Fall Creek and Ithaca Falls. One of just two Egyptian Revival buildings in Tompkins County, New York, Tompkins County, along with the Masonic Temple in downtown Ithaca, it is part of the Cornell Heights Historic District. History The building was built as the meeting place of the Sphinx Head Society, a Cornell University secret society formed in 1890. The society had discussed building a meeting place since the early 1900s, and bought the site in 1908. At the time, the site was far away from campus, secluded by trees, and lacking neighbors across the gorge. After raising $25,000 they hired local architect J. Lakin Bainbridge, who also designed the Tompkins County Courthouse. Ground was broken in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Egyptian Revival
Egyptian Revival is an architectural style that uses the motifs and imagery of ancient Egypt. It is attributed generally to the public awareness of ancient Egyptian monuments generated by Napoleon's conquest of Egypt and Admiral Nelson's defeat of the French Navy at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. Napoleon took a scientific expedition with him to Egypt. Publication of the expedition's work, the ''Description de l'Égypte'', began in 1809 and was published as a series through 1826. The size and monumentality of the façades discovered during his adventure cemented the hold of Egyptian aesthetics on the Parisian elite. However, works of art and architecture (such as funerary monuments) in the Egyptian style had been made or built occasionally on the European continent and the British Isles since the time of the Renaissance. History Egyptian influence before Napoleon Much of the early knowledge about ancient Egyptian arts and architecture was filtered through the lens of the Classi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
