Ogden Codman Jr. (January 19, 1863 – January 8, 1951) was an American architect and interior decorator in the
Beaux-Arts styles, and co-author with
Edith Wharton of ''
The Decoration of Houses
''The Decoration of Houses'', a manual of interior design written by Edith Wharton with architect Ogden Codman, was first published in 1897. In the book, the authors denounce Victorian-style interior decoration and interior design, especially room ...
'' (1897), which became a standard in American interior design.
Early life
![Ogden Codman, Sr](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Ogden_Codman%2C_Sr._and_wife_Sarah_Bradlee_Codman.jpg)
Codman was born on January 19, 1863, in
Boston, Massachusetts. He was the eldest of six children born to
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
native Ogden Codman Sr. (1839–1904) and the former Sarah Fletcher Bradlee.
His paternal grandparents were Charles Russell Codman and Sarah (
née Ogden) Codman.
His paternal aunt, Frances Anne Codman, was married to noted architect and builder
John Hubbard Sturgis
John Hubbard Sturgis (August 5, 1834 – February 14, 1888)Boit, Robert Apthorp p. 207 was an American architect and builder who was active in the New England area during the late 19th century. His most prominent works included Codman House, Li ...
,
who designed his parents' home,
Codman House
The Codman House (also known as The Grange) is a historic house set on a estate at 36 Codman Road, Lincoln, Massachusetts. Thanks to a gift by Dorothy Codman, it has been owned by Historic New England since 1969 and is open to the public June 1 ...
in
Lincoln, Massachusetts
Lincoln is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The population was 7,014 according to the 2020 United States Census, including residents of Hanscom Air Force Base that live within town limits. The town, loc ...
, and the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
, along with
Charles Brigham
Charles Brigham (June 21, 1841 – July 1925) was an American architect based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Life
Brigham was born, raised, and educated in Watertown, Massachusetts schools and graduated at age 15 in 1856 in the first class of Wa ...
.
His maternal grandparents were James Bowdoin Bradlee and Mary (née May) Bradlee. His maternal aunt, Katherine May Bradlee, was married to
Benjamin W. Crowninshield and was the mother of
Bowdoin Bradlee Crowninshield, Codman's first cousin.
Codman spent much of his youth from 1875 to 1884 at
Dinard
Dinard (; br, Dinarzh, ; Gallo: ''Dinard'') is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department, Brittany, northwestern France.
Dinard is on the Côte d'Émeraude of Brittany. Its beaches and mild climate make it a holiday destination, and this ...
, an American resort colony in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
, and on returning to America in 1884, studied at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
.
Career
He was influenced in his career by two uncles,
John Hubbard Sturgis
John Hubbard Sturgis (August 5, 1834 – February 14, 1888)Boit, Robert Apthorp p. 207 was an American architect and builder who was active in the New England area during the late 19th century. His most prominent works included Codman House, Li ...
, an architect, and Richard Ogden, a decorator. He greatly admired Italian and French architecture of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, as well as English
Georgian architecture and the colonial architecture of Boston.
After brief apprenticeships with Boston architectural firms, Codman started his own practice in Boston, where he kept offices from 1891 to 1893, after which time he relocated his main practice from Boston to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
.
Codman also opened offices in
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...
as early as 1891, and it was in Newport that he first met novelist
Edith Wharton. She became one of his first Newport clients for her home there, Land's End. In her autobiography, ''A Backward Glance'', Wharton wrote:
We asked him to alter and decorate the house—a somewhat new departure, since the architects of that day looked down on house-decoration as a branch of dress-making, and left the field up to the upholsterers, who crammed every room with curtains, lambrequins, jardinières of artificial plants, wobbly velvet-covered tables littered with silver gew-gaws, and festoons of lace on mantelpieces and dressing tables.
Codman viewed interior design as "a branch of architecture".
Architectural works
![Lucy Drexel Dahlgren House 9806](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Lucy_Drexel_Dahlgren_House_9806.JPG)
Wharton subsequently introduced Codman to
Cornelius Vanderbilt II, who hired Codman in 1894 to design the second and third floor rooms of his Newport summer home,
The Breakers
The Breakers is a Gilded Age mansion located at 44 Ochre Point Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island, US. It was built between 1893 and 1895 as a summer residence for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, a member of the wealthy Vanderbilt family.
The 70-room man ...
, which he did in a clean eighteenth-century French and Italian classical style. Codman was not a draftsman, and it is said that in Paris he hired a talented group of students from the
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...
to draw up the sketches for Vanderbilt.
In 1907, Codman built what was later to be known at the
Codman–Davis House in
Washington, D.C. for his cousin
Martha Codman Karolik
Martha Catherine Codman Karolik (July 24, 1858 – April 21, 1948) was a philanthropist and American art collector based in Newport, Rhode Island. In 1939 and 1947 she and her husband Maxim Karolik donated two major collections of early American ...
. It is currently the official residence of the Ambassador of
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
, and one of the few intact homes that he designed. He also designed the
Codman Carriage House and Stable, located a few blocks south.
Codman's New York clients included
John D. Rockefeller Jr.
John Davison Rockefeller Jr. (January 29, 1874 – May 11, 1960) was an American financier and philanthropist, and the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller.
He was involved in the development of the vast office complex in M ...
, for whom he designed the interiors of the
Rockefeller family
The Rockefeller family () is an American industrial, political, and banking family that owns one of the world's largest fortunes. The fortune was made in the American petroleum industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries by brot ...
mansion of
Kykuit
Kykuit ( ), known also as the John D. Rockefeller Estate, is a 40-room historic house museum in Pocantico Hills, a hamlet in the town of Mount Pleasant, New York 25 miles north of New York City. The house was built for oil tycoon and Rockefelle ...
in 1913, and
Frederick William Vanderbilt
Frederick William Vanderbilt (February 2, 1856 – June 29, 1938) was a member of the American Vanderbilt family. He was a director of the New York Central Railroad for 61 years, and also a director of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad and o ...
, for whom he designed the interiors for his
mansion in
Hyde Park, New York
Hyde Park is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States, bordering the Hudson River north of Poughkeepsie. Within the town are the hamlets of Hyde Park, East Park, Staatsburg, and Haviland. Hyde Park is known as the hometown of Fran ...
, and his house on
Fifth Avenue. He also collaborated with Wharton on the redesign of her
townhouse
A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residence ...
at 882–884
Park Avenue
Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Av ...
as well as on the design of
The Mount, her house in Lenox, Massachusetts. His suave and idiomatic suite of Régence and Georgian parade rooms for entertaining are preserved in the townhouse at 991
Fifth Avenue, now occupied by the
American Irish Historical Society
The American Irish Historical Society (AIHS) is a historical society devoted to Irish American history that was founded in Boston in the late 19th century. Non-partisan and non-sectarian since its inception in 1897, it maintains the most complete ...
. His French townhouse in the manner of
Gabriel
In Abrahamic religions ( Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብ ...
at 18 East 79th Street, for J. Woodward Haven (1908–09) is now occupied by
Acquavella Galleries.
![Villa Leopolda Villefranche-sur-Mer](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Villa_Leopolda_Villefranche-sur-Mer.JPG)
All told, Codman designed 22 houses to completion, as well as the East Wing of the
Metropolitan Club
The Metropolitan Club of New York is a private social club on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded as a gentlemen's club in 1891 for men only, but it was one of the first major clubs in New York to admit women, t ...
in New York. He also began the trend of lowering the townhouse entrance door from elevated stairways to the basement level. He designed a series of three houses in
Louis XIV
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Ver ...
style at 7 (his own residence), 12, and 15 East 96th Street from 1912 to 1916. The
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 ...
later described the facade of number 7 as being "full of gaiety and frivolous vitality" and further, "on approaching the house, Paris and the
Champs-Élysées
The Avenue des Champs-Élysées (, ; ) is an avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, long and wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc de Triomphe is l ...
immediately come to mind." ......
In 1920, Codman left New York to return to France, where he spent the last thirty-one years of his life at the
Château de Grégy, wintering at
Villa Leopolda
The Villa La Leopolda is a large detached villa in Villefranche-sur-Mer, in the Alpes-Maritimes department on the French Riviera. The villa is situated in of grounds. The villa has had several notable owners including Gianni and Marella Agnelli ...
in
Villefranche-sur-Mer
Villefranche-sur-Mer (, ; oc, Vilafranca de Mar ; it, Villafranca Marittima ) is a resort town in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region on the French Riviera and is l ...
, which he created by assembling a number of vernacular structures and their sites: it is his masterpiece, the fullest surviving expression of his esthetic.
Personal life
Codman was homosexual and pursued attractive young men throughout his life, but on October 8, 1904, he married
Leila Griswold Webb (1856-1910),
who was six years older than him and was the widow of railroad magnate
H. Walter Webb and the mother of
New York State Senator
The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature; the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate.
Partisan compo ...
J. Griswold Webb. Leila was the sister-in-law of Dr.
William Seward Webb
William Seward Webb (January 31, 1851 – October 29, 1926) was a businessman, and inspector general of the Vermont militia with the rank of colonel. He was a founder and former president of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Early life
Webb wa ...
, who was married to the former
Eliza Vanderbilt, and
Alexander S. Webb
Alexander Stewart Webb (February 15, 1835 – February 12, 1911) was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War who received the Medal of Honor for gallantry at the Battle of Gettysburg. After the war, he w ...
, the longstanding
President of City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...
. His wife died in 1910,
leaving him a fortune.
After her death, he sold their house on
15 East 51st Street (which he had designed for Leila while she was still married to her first husband) and built himself another home at
7 East 96th Street in 1912.
In 1918, Codman leased the former
Newport cottage of society leader
James Vanderburgh Parker, known as "Sans Souci" and located on Merton Road, for the summer.
Codman died at age 87 in 1951 at the
Château de Grégy in
Évry-Grégy-sur-Yerre,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
.
His architectural drawings and papers are collected at the
Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
; the Codman Family papers are also held by
Historic New England
Historic New England, previously known as the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA), is a charitable, non-profit, historic preservation organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is focused on New England ...
and the
Boston Athenaeum
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most ...
.
See also
*
Ogden Codman House
References
Further reading
*Codman, Florence. ''The clever young Boston architect.'' Augusta, Maine: KJ Litho, 1970.
*Doumato, Lamia (ed.) (1989) ''Ogden Codman Jr. (1863–1951): A Bibliography,'' Monticello, Illinois: Vance Bibliographies.
*Metcalf, Pauline C. (ed.) (1988) ''Ogden Codman and the Decoration of Houses,'' Boston: Boston Athenaeum and D.R. Godine
External links
Ogden Codman Architectural Drawings and Papers, circa 1793-1936, (bulk, circa 1890-1936)
* ttps://www.stackedstonetile.com/interior-design-famous-designers/ Ogden Codman Jr. - Famous Interior Designersbr>Ogden Codman Papers
at the Boston Athenaeum
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most ...
Historic photographs of works by Codman
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
.
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Codman, Ogden Jr.
20th-century American architects
American expatriates in France
Architects from Boston
1863 births
1951 deaths
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni