Henry Bacon | |
|---|---|
 Bacon,c. 1920 | |
| Born | (1866-11-28)November 28, 1866 Watseka, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | February 16, 1924(1924-02-16) (aged 57) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Awards | AIA Gold Medal |
| Projects | Lincoln Memorial |
Henry Bacon (November 28, 1866 – February 16, 1924)[1] was an AmericanBeaux-Arts architect who oversaw the engineering and design of theLincoln Memorial inWashington, D.C., built between 1915 and 1922, which was his final project before his 1924 death.
Bacon was born inWatseka, Illinois. He studied briefly at theUniversity of Illinois, Urbana, in 1884, but left to begin hisarchitectural career as a draftsman.
Bacon initially worked in the office ofMcKim, Mead & White inNew York City, one of the best-known architectural firms at the time. His works of that period were in the lateGreek Revival andBeaux-Arts styles with which the firm was associated. They included the1889 World Expo inParis,Boston Public Library inBoston, theNew York Herald Building,Harvard Club of New York City,Columbia University'sMorningside Heights campus, andPennsylvania Station, each inNew York City, and theWorld's Columbian Exposition inChicago in 1893.
While at McKim, Mead & White, Bacon won, in 1889, the Rotch Traveling Scholarship for architectural students. This gave him two years of study and travel in Europe, which he spent learning and drawing details ofRoman andGreek architecture. InTurkey, he met his future wife, Laura Florence Calvert, daughter of a British consul. He traveled with another fellowship student,Albert Kahn fromDetroit, Michigan, who also went on to become a leading industrial architect.
After returning to the U.S., Bacon worked for a few more years with his mentor,Charles McKim, including on such projects as theRhode Island State House inProvidence, Rhode Island. He served as McKim's personal representative inParis during theWorld Exposition in 1889 and inChicago for theWorld's Columbian Exposition in 1893, for which McKim, Mead & White was designing several buildings.
In 1897, Bacon left withJames Brite, a younger architect from the firm, to found the partnership of Brite and Bacon Architects. Brite was in charge of financial, administrative, and contracting aspects of the partnership, while Bacon was in charge of the architectural design and construction. The partnership immediately won the competition for theJersey City, New Jersey's public library and the Hall of History (now Hurst Hall) forAmerican University inWashington, D.C. They built a number of public buildings and a small number of private residences, which most notably includedLa Fetra Mansion inSummit, New Jersey.
The partnership was selected in 1897 to build three private residences:La Fetra Mansion; Laurel Hill, a three-storyGeorgian mansion inColumbia, North Carolina; and Donald McRae House inWilmington, North Carolina. The La Fetra Mansion was designed and built by Bacon, and his design was published in the September 1901 issue ofArchitecture, the preeminent architectural professional journal of its time. The LeFetra Mansion fully exhibits Bacon's preference for Beaux-Arts Neo-Greek and Roman architectural styles. His simple and elegant lines, and his skill in dimensions and proportions, were described as expressing a stately elegance, peaceful tranquility, and sense of divine protection.
In 1897, following theassassination of Abraham Lincoln, Bacon was also approached by a group, which had organized to raise public and private funds to build a monument in Washington, D.C., to memorialize PresidentAbraham Lincoln. Bacon began his conceptual, artistic, and architectural design for theLincoln Memorial that year. He continued in the effort, although the funding to build the project was not secured until years later. The Brite and Bacon Partnership dissolved in 1902, partly resulting from Brite's disagreement over Bacon's passion and the unpaid time he spent on the memorial design.
After that, Bacon practiced under his own name with significant success, building a large number of public buildings and monuments which became renowned, until his death in 1924. His later works included theDanforth Memorial Library inPaterson, New Jersey, in 1908, theRidgewood, New Jersey 1924 War Memorial in Van Neste Park; the train station inNaugatuck, Connecticut; Waterbury HospitalWaterbury, Connecticut; Court of the Four Seasons at thePanama–Pacific International Exposition inSan Francisco in 1915; World War I Memorial atYale University inNew Haven, Connecticut, theLincoln Memorial inWashington, D.C., the Confederate Memorial inWilmington, North Carolina; and many other distinguished public buildings and monuments.
In 1913, Bacon was elected into theNational Academy of Design as an associate member, and he became a full member in 1917.
Bacon was very active as a designer of monuments and settings for public sculpture. He designed the Court of the Four Seasons for the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, and the World War I Memorial atYale University. He collaborated with sculptorAugustus Saint-Gaudens on the Sen.Mark Hanna Monument inCleveland, Ohio, and withDaniel Chester French on several monuments, notably the Lincoln Memorial's pensive colossal Lincoln. Olin Memorial Library, one of Bacon's buildings atWesleyan University, houses many of Bacon's documents and blueprints of the Lincoln Memorial.
Bacon rarely found time to design private residences. There are three known residential projects that are clearly his work. The first is the La Fetra Mansion in Summit, New Jersey, designed and built by the firm of Brite & Bacon from 1897 to 1900. Bacon skillfully integrated into a residential setting many of his signature Greek Revival and Roman Renaissance elements and proportions. The resulting elegance was astoundingly masterful. The La Fetra Mansion was commissioned by industrialist Harold A. La Fetra of the Royal Baking Powder Company, which later merged withRJR Nabisco. The second is Donald McRae House inWilmington, North Carolina, built for his close friend Donald McRae.
The third Bacon-designed private residence isChesterwood House, which he designed for his friend, the noted sculptorDaniel Chester French, as his summer home and studio atStockbridge, Massachusetts. Its exterior bears similarity to the La Fetra Mansion.
Bacon served as a member of theU.S. Commission of Fine Arts from 1921 until his death in 1924.[2][3]
In May 1923, PresidentWarren G. Harding presented Bacon with theAmerican Institute of Architects'sGold Medal, making him the sixth recipient of the honor.
Bacon died of cancer inNew York City, and he is buried atOakdale Cemetery inWilmington, North Carolina.
DuringWorld War II, aU.S. NavyLiberty Ship, theSSHenry Bacon, was named for Bacon. It was commissioned on November 11, 1942.[4] In 1964, sculptorJoseph Kiselewski[5] created the Henry Bacon Medal for Memorial Architecture, cast in bronze by the Medallic Arts Company in honor of Bacon.
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