architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
of churches and houses in the United States in the early nineteenth century.
Life and career
Lafever began life as a carpenter around 1820. At this period in the United States there were no professional schools of architecture and few who claimed the title architect. Most structures were designed and put up by builders, and architects and builders were trained by working under master builders.
In 1829 Lafever published ''The Young Builders' General Instructor,'' followed by ''Modern Builders' Guide'' in 1833, ''The Beauties of Modern Architecture'' in 1835 and ''The Architectural Instructor'' in 1850. His
pattern book A pattern book, or architectural pattern book, is a book of architectural designs, usually providing enough for non-architects to build structures that are copies or significant derivatives of major architect-designed works.
A number of pattern boo ...
s were influential in spreading his
Greek Revival
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...
style.
Three of his buildings which were subsequently designated
National Historic Landmarks
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
are:
*
First Presbyterian Church (Sag Harbor)
First Presbyterian Church in Sag Harbor, New York, also known as Old Whaler's Church, is a historic and architecturally notable Presbyterian church built in 1844 in the Egyptian Revival style. The church is Sag Harbor's "most distinguished landmar ...
(tall steeple destroyed in a hurricane)
*
St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church
St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church is a historic Episcopal church located at the corner of Montague and Clinton streets in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City.
History
The building was built as Church of the Holy Trinit ...
*
Sailors' Snug Harbor
Sailors' Snug Harbor, also known as Sailors Snug Harbor and informally as Snug Harbor, is a collection of architecturally significant 19th-century buildings on Staten Island, New York City. The buildings are set in an park along the Kill Van K ...
Other notable buildings include:
* Benjamin Huntting House, now the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
Brooklyn Heights Historic District
__NOTOC__
The Brooklyn Heights Historic District is a historic district that comprises much of the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It was named a National Historic Landmark in January, 1965, designated a New York City L ...
pattern book A pattern book, or architectural pattern book, is a book of architectural designs, usually providing enough for non-architects to build structures that are copies or significant derivatives of major architect-designed works.
A number of pattern boo ...
s that were influential in spreading his
Greek Revival
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...
style, most notably "The Modern Builder's Guide" (1833) and "The Beauties of Modern Architecture" (1835). The Greek Revival
Government Street Presbyterian Church
Government Street Presbyterian Church in Mobile, Alabama is one of the oldest and least-altered Greek Revival church buildings in the United States. The architectural design is by James Gallier Sr., James H. Dakin, and Charles Dakin. The tri ...
in
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 cens ...
is a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
that was designed using many of the latter book's detailed guidelines. and That church's tall steeple, like the steeple of Lafever's First Presbyterian Church in Sag Harbor, was destroyed in a hurricane.
Other historic structures built using Lafever's designs include Rose Hill Mansion, a National Historic Landmark in western New York, which was built in the style of a two-story Greek temple with
Ionic columns
The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite or ...
Sevierville, Tennessee
Sevierville ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Sevier County, Tennessee, located in eastern Tennessee. The population was 17,889 at the 2020 United States Census.
History
Native Americans of the Woodland period were among the first human ...
, was modeled after Lafever's "Design for a Country Villa," which appeared as the frontispiece in both ''The Modern Builder's Guide'' and ''The Beauties of Modern Architecture''.Robbie Jones, ''The Historic Architecture of Sevier County, Tennessee'' (Sevierville, Tenn.: Smoky Mountain Historical Society, 1997), pp. 232-237.
Lafever did not confine himself to a single style. His St. James' Church, New York on James Street near Madison Street in Manhattan (1837) is
Greek Revival
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...
as is his building for Sailors' Snug Harbor, his
First Presbyterian Church (Sag Harbor)
First Presbyterian Church in Sag Harbor, New York, also known as Old Whaler's Church, is a historic and architecturally notable Presbyterian church built in 1844 in the Egyptian Revival style. The church is Sag Harbor's "most distinguished landmar ...
(1844) is
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 ...
, his brownstone
St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church
St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church is a historic Episcopal church located at the corner of Montague and Clinton streets in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City.
History
The building was built as Church of the Holy Trinit ...
at Montague and Clinton Streets in Brooklyn Heights (1847) is
Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
and his Church of the Holy Apostles at Ninth Avenue and 28th Street in Manhattan (1848–1854) is Romanesque/Italianate.
His last commission was the
Packer Collegiate Institute
The Packer Collegiate Institute is an independent college preparatory school for students from pre-kindergarten through grade 12. Formerly the Brooklyn Female Academy, Packer has been located at 170 Joralemon Street in the historic district of Br ...
in Brooklyn, which opened in 1854. The Packer building is in Tudor Gothic style, with 30 schoolrooms, and a two-story-high chapel on the third floor. It has two towers of different size, and the “off-center arrangement of two large peaked gables, give the school the exterior appearance of picturesque irregularity common to the Gothic revival.” However, the interior is compact and symmetrical, with long crossed hallways dividing the building into quadrants.
Architectural historian
Andrew Dolkart
Andrew Scott Dolkart is a professor of Historic Preservation at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) and the former Director of the school's Historic Preservation Program. Professor Dolkart i ...
calls Lafever’s design of Packer ''one of the earliest and most sophisticated evocations of English-inspired Collegiate Gothic, creating the educational atmosphere of Oxford and Cambridge.''
A list of his churches, extant and not, and a well-researched biography is included in a 2006 nomination for
First Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Kingston
The Old Dutch Church, officially known as the First Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Kingston, is located on Wall Street in Kingston, New York, United States. Formally organized in 1659, it is one of the oldest continuously existing congregat ...
.
Books by Minard Lafever
* ''The Young Builder's General Instructor'',1829
* ''The Modern Builder's Guide'',1833
* ''The Beauties of Modern Architecture'', 1835
* ''The Modern Practice of Staircase and Handrail Construction'',1838
* ''The Architectural Instructor'',1856
Sources
* ''The Architecture of Minard Lafever'', Jacob Landy, 1970.