![Herman Lee Meader Greenwich Village Theatre](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Herman_Lee_Meader_Greenwich_Village_Theatre.jpg)
Herman Lee Meader (December 21, 1874,
[Leonard, John William; Hamersly, Lewis Randolph and Holmes, Frank R]
''Who's Who in New York City and State, Volume 4''
New York: L.R. Hamersly, 1909. – February 14, 1930) was an American architect and author.
['']The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' (Feb. 15, 1930)
Life and career
Meader was born in
, the son of Herman Frederick Louis Meader and Susanne Lee Meader (
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Equen). Meader was educated at
Soule Business College
Soule Business College (sometimes called Soulé's Business College, Soule Commercial College, or Soule College) was an educational institution focused primary on practical business skills, established by George Soule in New Orleans, Louisiana in ...
[''Harvard College Class of 1898 quindecennial report'']
(1913), p. 219. and
Tulane
Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...
,
Cornell
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
and
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
Universities,
and received a
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...
from Harvard in 1898.
He worked as an architect in New York, first in the office of
Ernest Flagg
Ernest Flagg (February 6, 1857 – April 10, 1947) was an American architect in the Beaux-Arts style. He was also an advocate for urban reform and architecture's social responsibility.
Early life and education
Flagg was born in Brooklyn, New ...
until 1905, and then
Raymond Almirall afterwards for about four years.
Both Flagg and Almirall were known for
terra cotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...
and color effects in their architecture.
Meader married Queenie Ethel Carr in New York on March 17, 1909.
After travelling abroad, he returned to New York in 1913 to start his own practice,
receiving commissions to design several prominent buildings in Manhattan, both commercial and residential. He also did much work for the
Astor estate, including the
Waldorf Hotel at 8
West 33rd Street,
then the heart of the fashionable shopping district. Meader lived in the Waldorf Hotel penthouse, where he created a surrounding rooftop Italian garden.
['']Popular Science
''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...
'' (November 1924) There he held elaborate parties which attracted musicians, artists, writers, prizefighters, chess players and others – at one, Meader staged a fight between a black snake and a king snake.
['']The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' (Jan 6, 2002)
Meader was a member of the Harvard Club, the Strollers Club, the Astor
Masonic Lodge
A Masonic lodge, often termed a private lodge or constituent lodge, is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also commonly used as a term for a building in which such a unit meets. Every new lodge must be warranted or chartered ...
, the
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world.
Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, and ...
and the New York Southern Society.
He was also a
yacht
A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...
sman.
Architecture
Meader was intensely interested in
Mayan
Mayan most commonly refers to:
* Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America
* Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America
* Mayan languages, language family spoken ...
and
Aztec
The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...
architecture and made regular expeditions to
Chichén Itzá in the
Yucatán
Yucatán (, also , , ; yua, Yúukatan ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán,; yua, link=no, Xóot' Noj Lu'umil Yúukatan. is one of the 31 states which comprise the political divisions of Mexico, federal entities of Mexico. I ...
and other sites.
Among the buildings he designed are:
*1907: – Patton House in
Greenville, South Carolina
Greenville (; locally ) is a city in and the seat of Greenville County, South Carolina, United States. With a population of 70,720 at the 2020 census, it is the sixth-largest city in the state. Greenville is located approximately halfway be ...
, for his sister Bertha E. Meader and her husband, Avery Patton. The
American foursquare
The American Foursquare or American Four Square is an American house style popular from the mid-1890s to the late 1930s. A reaction to the ornate and mass-produced elements of the Victorian architecture, Victorian and other Revival styles popul ...
is
platform framed.
*1913: – 154-160
West 14th Street
14th Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, traveling between Eleventh Avenue on Manhattan's West Side and Avenue C on Manhattan's East Side. It forms a boundary between several neighborhoods and is so ...
, a loft building on the corner of
Seventh Avenue; designated a
New York City landmark
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
on June 28, 2011.
*1914: – The Cliff Dwelling apartment building at 243
Riverside Drive at
96th Street[White & Willensky, p. 335][Gray, Christopher Gray and Braley, Suzanne. ''New York streetscapes: tales of Manhattan's significant buildings and landmarks''. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2003. ]
*1915: – 37
West 37th Street between the
Avenue of the Americas
Sixth Avenue – also known as Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers, p.24 – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown". It is commercial ...
(Sixth Avenue) and
Seventh Avenue
*1915: – 10
East 39th Street
*1915-1916: – B.W. Mayer Building at 130
East 25th Street at
Lexington Avenue
Lexington Avenue, often colloquially abbreviated as "Lex", is an avenue on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that carries southbound one-way traffic from East 131st Street to Gramercy Park at East 21st Street. Along it ...
(restored 1995–1996 by Cindy Harden and Jan Van Arnam). Originally an office building, it is currently the Friends House of Rosehill.
*1917: – 509
Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...
*1917: Greenwich Village Theatre in
Sheridan Square at
4th Street and
Seventh Avenue; an intimate theatre that seated 450, no longer extant.
Also, in 1920–22, Meader designed an "L"-shaped addition to the
American Surety Company Building at 100 Broadway, fronting both Broadway and Pine Streets, which complemented
Bruce Price
Bruce Price (December 12, 1845 – May 29, 1903) was an American architect and an innovator in the Shingle Style. The stark geometry and compact massing of his cottages in Tuxedo Park, New York, influenced Modernist architects, including F ...
's original 1894–1896 design.
Changes in building codes as well as the necessities of visual balance required Meader to make some alterations to Price's building, such as replacing the original gilded parapet with "an elaborate cornice topped by a row of anthemia" on top of the new two-story penthouse.
[Harris, Gale]
"American Surety Company Building Designation Report"
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
(June 24, 1997).
''Note:'' According to this source, Meader designed a two-story addition to the "Schermerhorn Building" in 1916, but whether this refers to the building at 376-380 Lafayette Street ( Henry Hardenbergh, 1888-89) or to Audubon House ( George B. Post, 1890-91), both of which were originally called the "Schermerhorn Building", is unclear, as both buildings have what could be two-story additions on top.
Writings
Meader published several collections of epigrams, such as "A rake may be old at 40, but he has a bunch of reminiscences that will cheer him up until he is 60." These titles including ''Reflections of the morning after'' (1903), ''Thro' the rye: more reflections'' (1906), ''Cupid the Surgeon'' (1908), ''Four Ways to Win a Woman'' and ''Alimony''.
He also wrote the children's book, ''Motor Goose Rhymes for Motor Ganders'' (1905) about the dangers of "motoring".
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
External links
154-160 West 14th Street"Cliff Dwelling"on cityrealty.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meader, Herman Lee
1874 births
1930 deaths
20th-century American architects
Harvard University alumni
Cornell University alumni
Tulane University alumni
Theatre architects