George W. Keister | |
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| Born | (1859-01-10)January 10, 1859 Bellevue, Iowa, US |
| Died | December 27, 1945(1945-12-27) (aged 86) New York City, US |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Buildings | Apollo Theater,Belasco Theatre,Bronx Opera House,Hotel Gerard,Todd Haimes Theatre |
George W. Keister (January 10, 1859 – December 27, 1945)[1][2] was an American architect. His work includes theHotel Gerard (1893), theAstor Theatre (1906),[3] theBelasco Theatre (1907), theBronx Opera House (1913), theApollo Theater in Harlem (1914), theSelwyn Theatre (now Todd Haimes Theatre, 1918), and theFirst Baptist Church in the City of New York. He also designedWoodbridge Hall at 431 Riverside Drive (1901), which faced demolition in 1996, and theSigma Chi fraternity at 565 W. 113th St. (1903).
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George Keister was born inBellevue, Iowa, on January 10, 1859, to George W. and Mary R. Keister, née MacMurphy. He was educated in the schools of his hometown and those ofRochester, Minnesota, where his family later moved. He attendedCornell College before moving toBoston to study architecture at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology. During this time he also studied in the architecture firms ofWare & Van Brunt andGeorge F. Meacham. After leaving school he was a building superintendent in the office of Meacham for two years. In 1885 he went to New York to establish a private practice, and was nominally associated withRussell Sturgis until 1890.[2]
Keister was a skilled but little known architect who was active in New York City from the mid-1880s into the third decade of the twentieth century. He had a brief partnership with Frank E. Wallis (1887–88) and in the 1890s, served as secretary of theArchitectural League. Although barely a score of his buildings have been identified, the collection indicates a gifted and innovative architect with facile design ability in a variety of styles. Prior toDavid Belasco'sStuyvesant (now Belasco), he had designed three New York theaters: in 1905, the Colonial (Hampton's; at 1887 Broadway) andLoew's Yorkville Theater (157 East 86th Street), and theAstor Theater in the following year; all three have been demolished. Belasco's Stuyvesant Theater thus takes on the added significance of being the earliest extant theater of an architect who would later make theaters his specialty, executing at least a dozen others in New York by 1923.
Among his most notable were theGeorge M. Cohan's Theatre (1911; demolished), theBronx Opera House (1912–13), theApollo Theater in Harlem (1913–14), Broadway'sSelwyn Theater (1917–18, 229 West 42nd Street) and theEarl Carroll Theatre at 753-59 Seventh Avenue (1922; 1931 Art Deco remodeling; demolished).[4]
Although the circumstances of his commission from Belasco are obscure, Keister was most likely known to the producer as architect ofthe Gerard Apartment Hotel (1893) which was located immediately west of the site of Belasco's new theater. Rising 13 stories on West 44th Street, this fineneo-medieval/neo-Renaissance composite was one of the tallest buildings in the area.
Among Keister's other notable commissions is the eccentrically massedFirst Baptist Church (1891) on the northwest corner of Broadway and 79th Street.[4] Like Belasco's Stuyvesant, it features stained glass in its ceiling, although here rendered more boldly as a splendid stained glass barrel vault in appropriate ecclesiastical terms.
Keister's other works include neo-Grec and neo-Renaissance tenements inGreenwich Village, an eclectic group of rowhouses known as the Bertine Block (1891) on East 136th Street in the Bronx, the McAlpin-Miller residence at9 East 90th Street (purchased by a daughter ofAndrew Carnegie and now part of theCooper-Hewitt Museum),[5] as well as a neo-Gothic office building from 1925, located several doors west of the Belasco Theatre (No. 156).[4]
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Hotel Gerard was built in 1893 at 123 West 44th Street in Manhattan. It was added to theNational Register of Historic Places on February 10, 1983.[6]
TheBelasco Theatre is aBroadwaytheater at 111 West 44th Street in Manhattan, next to the Hotel Gerard. The theatre opened as the Stuyvesant Theatre on October 16, 1907, with themusicalA Grand Army Man withAntoinette Perry. Built forimpresarioDavid Belasco, the interior featuredTiffany lighting and ceiling panels, rich woodwork and expansivemurals by American artistEverett Shinn, and a ten-room duplexpenthouseapartment that Belasco utilized as combination living quarters/office space.
TheFirst Baptist Church in the City of New York is at Broadway and 79th Street in Manhattan. A balcony was added in 1903.
TheApollo Theater is at 253 West 125th Street in Manhattan. Opened as Hurtig & Seamon's New Theater, the Apollo was a burlesque house for white patrons.[7]
TheBronx Opera House, planned by Broadway's belovedGeorge M. Cohan, was instantly a hit in the early 1900s. The most famous performers of the time entertained mass audiences in the bustling neighborhood of the artsy South Bronx. Performances fromHarry Houdini,the Marx Brothers,David Warfield,George Burns,Eddie Cantor,John Barrymore, andLionel Barrymore attracted New York's top theatre aficionados. The Opera House manager, George M. Cohan, was so successful in his career that the famous Hammerstein actually donated and erected a statue of him in Times Square, New York, where it stands today. The original facade has been preserved and remains standing in the same place it was 100 years ago.
TheSelwyn Theatre at 227West 42nd Street was aBroadway theatre designed and decorated in anItalian Renaissance style. Built in 1918 by the Selwyn brothers,Edgar andArchie, it was used for musicals and other dramatic performances.[8]One of three theatres they built and controlled on42nd Street, along with theApollo and theTimes Square Theatre, it originally had 1,180 seats.[9] At the time of its opening, the design had several innovations, the most novel being separate smoking rooms for men and women.[9] Additionally, each dressing room was equipped with a shower and telephone.[9] Eventually it was converted to cinema before closing. It was used briefly as a visitor's center but stood vacant for years until a 1997 renovation and restoration.
TheVon Hoffman Building is at 29 West 26th Street in Manhattan. It was built in 1893–94 and was designed by George Keister in the Renaissance Revival style. It was originally a hotel and boarding house and was later converted into commercial lofts. It is located within the Madison Square North Historic District.[10]
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