#William Samuels Architects

[arc-hus]

Studio House, Nelson, New Zealand - William Samuels Architects

[keepingitneutral]

"Studio House," Nelson, New Zealand,

William Samuels Architects,

Photographs: Simon Devitt

[earthshiptrooper]

This Studio House / Tiny house by William Samuels Architects

More images

[archinform]

Graceland Cemetery images

Photos by Roger Jones 2024

Dexter Graves tomb, "Eternal Silence" by Lorado Taft

Martin Ryerson tomb, Louis Sullivan, architect

William Kimball tomb

Goodman tomb, Howard van Doren Shaw, architect

Palmer tomb, McKim, Mead & White, architects

John Wellborn Root monument, DH Burnham and Co., architects

Samuel Klump Martin tomb

Lucius Fisher columbarium, sculpture by Richard Bock

John Spry Holmes tomb

Louis Henri Sullivan monument

Schoenhofen tomb

Hoyt tomb

Mausoleum

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

The story of Globe Theatre started with William Shakespeare's acting company, Lord Chamberlain's Men.

William Shakespeare (baptized 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was a part-owner or sharer in the company, as well as an actor and resident playwright.

From its inception in 1594 AD, Lord Chamberlain's Men performed at Theatre, a playhouse located in Shoreditch.

However, by 1598, their patrons, including Earl of Southampton, had fallen out of favour with the Queen.

Theatre's landlord, Giles Alleyn, had intentions to cancel the company's lease and tear the building down.

While Alleyn did own the land, he did not own the materials with which the theatre had been built.

So, on 28 December 1598, after leasing a new site in Southwark, Cuthbert and Richard Burbage led the rest of the company of actors, sharers, and volunteers in taking the building down, timber by timber, loading it on to barges, and making their way across Thames.

Working together, the actors built the new theatre as quickly as they could.

The ground on the new site was marshy and prone to flooding, but foundations were built by digging trenches, filling them with limestone, constructing brick walls above stone, and then raising wooden beams on top of that.

A funnel caught rainwater and drained it into ditch surrounding the theatre and down into Thames.

The theatre was 30m in diameter and had 20 sides, giving it its perceived circular shape. 

Structure was similar to that of their old theatre, as well as that of the neighbouring bear garden.

The rectangular stage, at 5ft high, projected halfway into the yard and circular galleries.

Pillars were painted to look like Italian marble, sky painted midnight blue, and images of gods overlooked balcony. It could hold up to 3,000 people.

By May 1599, the new theatre was ready to be opened.

Burbage named it Globe after the figure of Hercules carrying the globe on his back — for in like manner, the actors carried Globe's framework on their backs across Thames.

A flag of Hercules with globe was raised above theatre with Latin motto: 'totus mundus agit histrionem' ('all the world's a playhouse'). 

Shakespeare's plays that were performed there early on included: 

Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, Hamlet, Measure for Measure, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra.

Here, the Lord Chamberlain's Men enjoyed much success and gained the patronage of King James I in 1603, subsequently becoming The King's Men.

During a fateful performance of Henry VIII on 29 June 1613, a cannon announcing the unexpected arrival of the king at the end of Act 1 set fire to the thatched roof, and within an hour, the Globe burned to ground.

Everyone escaped safely, save for one man whose breeches reportedly caught fire. Two different songs had been written about it by the next day.

Globe was rebuilt by February 1614. The company could then afford to decorate it extravagantly, and it had a tiled roof instead of thatched.

However, by this point, Shakespeare's influence had lessened. He was spending more and more time back in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Disaster struck again in 1642 when the Parliament ordered the closure of London theatres.

In 1644-45, Globe was destroyed and the land sold for building.

In 1970, American actor and director, Samuel Wanamaker CBE (born Wattenmacker; 14 June 1919 – 18 December 1993), set up the Shakespeare's Globe Trust to pursue his dream of reconstructing the original Globe Theatre.

For what would be almost the next 30 years, he and his team worked and fought to obtain the permissions, funds, and research necessary for a project of this scope. 

Historians, scholars and architects all worked together in their efforts to build the Globe in the same way Lord Chamberlain's Men did, down to the green oak pillars and thatched roof.

Their work and dreams were fulfilled when the new Globe Theatre opened in 1997, one street away from where original stood.

Globe stands today as a living monument to Shakespeare, greatest English playwright, home to productions of his plays and many other new ones every season.

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 9.4

Beer Birthdays

Samuel Simon Loeb (1862)

William Hamm, Jr. (1893)

Ken Weaver (1983)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Anton Bruckner; Austrian composer (1824)

Whitney Cummings; comedian (1982)

Candy Loving; Playboy playmate 1/79 (1956)

Darius Milhaud; French composer (1892)

Ione Skye; English-American actress (1971)

Famous Birthdays

Joan Aiken; English author (1924)

Al-Biruni; Persian physician and polymath (973)

Carl Heinrich Biber; Austrian composer (1681)

Janet Biehl; philosopher (1953)

Daniel Burnham; architect (1846)

Martin Chambers; English drummer and singer (1951)

Craig Claiborne; journalist, author (1920)

Darryl Cotton; Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (1949)

Francois Rene de Chateaubriand; French writer (1776)

Max Delbrück; German-American biophysicist (1906)

Edward Dmytryk; film director (1908)

Gary Duncan; rock guitarist (1946)

Danny Gatton; guitarist (1945)

Mitzi Gaynor; actor, dancer (1931)

Clive Granger, Welsh-American economist (1934)

George William Gray, British chemist, creator of liquid crystals (1926)

Max Greenfield; actor (1980)

Kevin Harrington; Australian actor (1959)

Paul Harvey; radio journalist (1918)

Jacqueline Hewitt; astrophysicist and astronomer (1958)

Syd Hoff; author and illustrator (1912)

Constantijn Huygens; Dutch poet and composer (1596)

Beyoncé Knowles; pop singer (1981)

Lewis Howard Latimer; inventor (1848)

Alexander Liberman, Russian-American artist (1912)

Dave Liebman; saxophonist (1946)

Donald McKay; shipbuilder (1810)

Kyle Mooney; comedian (1984)

Albert Joseph Moore; English artist (1841)

Stanford Moore; biochemist (1913)

Howard Morris; comedian (1919)

Gene Parsons; singer-songwriter, guitarist, and banjo player (1944)

George Percy; English explorer (1580)

Mike Piazza; New York Mets C (1968)

Drew Pinsky; radio and television host (1958)

Mary Renault; English writer (1905)

Oskar Schlemmer; German artist (1888)

Hanna Schwamborn; German actress (1992)

Jan Švankmajer; Czech filmmaker (1934)

Kim Thayil; guitarist and songwriter (1960)

Tom Watson; golfer (1949)

Damon Wayans; actor, comedian (1960)

Dallas Willard; philosopher (1935)

Gerald Wilson; trumpet player (1918)

Richard Wright; writer (1908)

Shinya Yamanaka; Japanese biologist (1962)

Dick York; actor (1928)

Bobby Jarzombek; drummer (1963)

[cpbhomes]

[sidewalkstamps]

Taylor & Berliner Los Angeles 220 Story Bldg (Photo taken February 25, 2024 by Scott Fajack at Clinton & Normandie, which you could maybe say is it the 'Melrose Hill' neighborhood)

I wonder if this is the first time I have a stamp with their address included in it! 220 Story Bldg was a unit in the 1909 Story Building, located at 610 N. Broadway Los Angeles, CA 90014. I know they were at least at this address by 1912, thanks to this advertisement:

Taylor & Berliner were Samuel W Berliner of 1202 S Bronson Ave and William J Taylor of 3973 La Salle Ave.

According to Find a Grave, Samuel W. Berliner was born in New York City on December 3, 1887 and died in the city of Los Angeles on August 29, 1963. He is buried at the Home of Peace Memorial Park in East Los Angeles. But, according to Southwest Jewry: An Account of Jewish Progress and Achievement in the Southland, he was born on December 12, 1887. He went to the College of City of New York and the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, where he received a degree in civil engineering in 1909. After arriving in Los Angeles in 1911, he began his work in general engineering and road construction. "Among the noted structures in which he had a large hand was the North Broadway Bridge, Bible Institute Building, Los Angeles Sewerage System." In 1926, he lived at 4507 W. 18th St. in Los Angeles and had an office as H. Berliner at 738 S. Los Angeles Ave. (apparently since 1918 he was involved in H's apparel manufacturing business) [Volume 1, Sunland Publishing Company, 1926]. And at some point, he may have been a civil engineering associate for 11 years, 5 months of the DWP, if it's the same Samuel W. Berliner; it seems like perhaps he did this as a later career, as it looks like he retired in 1952 (The Intake, Employees of the Department of Water and Power, 1952).

In 1910, Berliner built a two-storey residence with eleven rooms on Bronson Ave. between Pico and Country Club Blvd for Sallie Berliner. At this time, Samuel's office was at 202 Jefferies Bluilding (Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer, Volume 6, Engineers and Architects Association of Southern California, 1910). I'm unclear what this building was, but perhaps that was a typo and it was the Jeffries Building at 117 E. Winston St., which was built in 1906 for W. P. Jeffries Company, a printing and engraving business (thejeffriesla.com) but of course are now apartments.

In 1912, Taylor & Berliner lost a contract in Lordsburg, CA (a place I had never heard of because it is now called La Verne!) and submitted a bid in Los Angeles to improve Virgil Avenue between Fountain Avenue and Santa Monica Blvd., involving grading, graveling and oiling; cement curb; concrete gutter; "vit. blk. gutter;" cement sidewalk; and storm drain (Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer, Volume 10, Engineers and Architects Association of Southern California, 1912).

In 1913, they were the lowest bidder to improve Section 2 of the Newport Beach Road in Santa Ana, CA and were awarded a contract from E. D. Silent Co. to construct cement curbs, gutters, and sidewalks "in Ardmore Heights, Normandie, Mariposa, Clinton an Torrence Aves." in Los Angeles, CA (Good Roads, Volume 44, E.L. Powers Company, 1913). Weirdly one of the listings in this publication shows them at 618 S. Broadway, which is not the address of the Story Building (610 S. Broadway), but I am assuming that's an error. Later that year, they submitted a bid for Sec. H. of "the state highway" (Western Machinery and Steel, Volume 3, Cal. Western Engineering Publishing Company, 1913).

In 1914, Taylor & Berliner was awarded the contract for Section A of Division VI, Route 4 in Merced County, "from the south boundary to the City of Merced (VI--Mer.--4--A): Laid out as State Highway Oct. 22, 1912" (California Highway Bulletin, Volume III, Number 1, January 1, 1915, California Highway Commission, Department of Engineering, State of California, California State Printing Office, Sacramento). They also got the contract for 14 miles of state highway in Merced county and "for asphalt-conc. paving and cement sidewalks, curbs, etc., in Brand blvd." in Tropico (now Glendale) [The American Contractor, Volume 35, F. W. Dodge Corporation, 1914].

I know the photo is from before 1915, because by that year's city directory Taylor & Berliner were located at 606 S Hill, room 211, just around the corner, and listed as "road contractors," which is very clearly what they are from all the bids (Los Angeles City Directory, 1915, Los Angeles Directory Company, 1915). That year they won a contract for the construction of Glenn County, Div. 3, Route 7, Sec. B. roadway (Engineering and Contracting, Volume 44, Engineering and Contracting Publishing Company, 1915). In the same year, they submitted bids for Contra Costa Co. Div. 4, Route 14, Sec. A; Tulare Co., Div. 4, Route 10, Sec. A.; and Kings Co., Div 6, Route 10, Sec. A (Building and Engineering News, Volume 15, Issue 1, 1915).

Calkins v. Berliner et al. (Civ. 1576) in the District Court of Appeal, Second District, California, February 19, 1915 was an appeal to a previous suit "for compensation due for the use of horses and wagons." The court found "that payment should be made on the 10th of each month for the preceding month, or as soon thereafter as defendants received their money for grading" the Ardmore Heights Tract in Los Angeles County and did not reverse the original decision. 'Berliner et al.' was Samuel Berliner and William J. Taylor, "partners trading as Taylor & Berliner" (The Pacific Reporter, Volume 147, West Publishing Company, 1915).

Elmer Wright "plead guilty to the charge of burglary against him for breaking into the tool house of Taylor & Berliner at Richfield" in 1917. George Mueller was an accomplice. Both had been "trust employees of Taylor & Berliner and competent workmen" and, in a twist, Taylor & Berliner agreed to hire them again ("100 years ago: Teen gets probation for burglary," The Times-Standard, August 29, 2018)!

In 1961, Samuel W. Berliner was located at 217 S Swall Dr. in Beverly Hills, CA (Roster Civil and Professional Engineers and Surveyors, California Board of Registration for Professional Engineers, 1961).

Additional sources:

PE Professional Engineer, Volumes 12-13, National Society of Professional Engineers, 1942

Southwest Builder and Contractor, F. W. Dodge Company, 1922

[ultraheydudemestuff]

Union Club

1211 Euclid Ave.

Cleveland, OH

The Union Club of Cleveland, incorporated on September 25, 1872, is one of the oldest private social organizations in Cleveland. A group of many of the city’s industrialists, businessmen, and professional citizens who had originally belonged to the Cleveland Club formed the new group for the purpose of having a place for reading, for discussing the topics of the day, for entertaining and for promoting physical training and education. From the beginning, the Union Club was the center of social and commercial life, the place where the city’s leaders met and mingled with people of accomplishment and culture. Many of Cleveland’s great business and cultural achievements were first conceived and initiated within its sociable parlors and dining rooms.

During its distinguished history, the venerable Union Club has survived several stock market crashes and national depressions and recessions, two world wars, a global pandemic, explosive industrial growth followed by gradual decline, and civil unrest and rioting. Throughout the good times and bad, members saw themselves entwined in Cleveland's history. The 81 founders included such luminaries as William Bingham, Sylvester Everett, William Gordon, Marcus Hanna, Samuel Mather, Henry B. Payne, Amasa Stone and Jeptha Wade. These charter members contributed $600 each to acquire, as the Club’s new home (and first clubhouse), the Truman Handy mansion on Euclid Avenue just west of East 9th Street.

In the early years of the Union Club, the membership roster included U.S. Presidents Grant, Hayes, Garfield, McKinley and Taft. Other notable names included inventors Charles Brush, Caesar Grasselli, businessman William Rockefeller and famed surgeon George Crile. From its beginning, the Union Club was the center of social and commercial life, the place where the city's leaders met and mingled with people of accomplishment and culture. Many of Cleveland's great business and cultural achievements were first conceived and initiated within the sociable parlors and dining rooms.

By 1900, the membership had increased to 500 with a long waiting list of influential people clamoring to join what had become the most selective and prestigious club in Cleveland. Qualified candidates often had to wait as long as 10 years for admittance. The fortunes of the Club coincided with the extraordinary success of the City of Cleveland. With its exploding population and booming industries, the city had become an economic and political powerhouse by 1900. Meanwhile, the Union Club's facilities, which had been spacious and accommodating 30 years before, had become seriously overcrowded and outdated for its growing membership.

On June 25, 1901, the Club was incorporated for profit; it became the Union Club Co. and subsequently purchased the Castle property at East 12th and Euclid Ave. and worked with Cleveland architect Chas. F. Schweinfurth to design and construct a new clubhouse which was dedicated on December 6, 1905. The new clubhouse was built to accommodate the increased membership and remains the Club’s home. With its refined and stately classicism, Schweinfurth's massive building constructed of Berea sandstone was immediately recognized as an architectural jewel in the bustling center of Cleveland, widely admired for its quiet dignity and tasteful design.

On May 23, 1961, the Union Club Co. amended its 1901 articles of incorporation, becoming an Ohio corporation not for profit. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 15, 1974. In 1983 the first woman, Karen Horn, was admitted as a member will full privileges, allowing women entrance through the front door, use of the marble staircase, and access to the entire club. Mary Lynn Laughlin was named the first woman President of the Union Club in May 2007. On May 28, 2015, Randy McShepard was named the first African American President of the Union Club. On April 1, 2019 the Union Club welcomed the members of the Intown Club, a private invitation-only ladies’ luncheon club as members of the Union Club which grew the percentage of primary members who are women to over 33%. This is iconic as the Union Club till the early 80’s was men-only.

[chatsworthbyrubes]

~william cavendish the 4th earl and 1st duke of devonshire~

The 4th Earl of Devonshire did not inherit his title and his fourtune until he was 43 years old after the death of his father William, by the time william had gained his title and fortune he had already built a reputation for himself. He went on to marry Lady Mary Butler the daughter of James Butler and they had four children together. By the 1680s Chatsworth had fallen into a poor state of repair, and william the 4th Earl began to do some work on the old house. Initially, the intention was only to alter the South Front, which was taken down in 1686 and replaced with new family rooms and a magnificent State Apartment. However William found the building so enjoyable that the East Front was soon also rebuilt. William Talman was the architect for the South and East Fronts of the building. The West of the building was designed by the Duke himself, working closely with his masons, and the North, with its bow front, by Thomas Archer. Decorations by Antonio Verrio, James Thornhill, and Samuel Watson. The new Chatsworth was finished just before the Duke died in 1707. He was then succeeded by his eldest son, William.  

Harvard referencing:

Encyclopedia (no date) The Diary of Samuel Pepys. Available at: https://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/13877/ (Accessed: 01 September 2023).

Glorious revolution (2023) Encyclopædia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/event/Glorious-Revolution (Accessed: 01 September 2023).

William Cavendish, 4th Earl and 1st duke of devonshire (1641–1707) (no date) Chatsworth House. Available at: https://www.chatsworth.org/visit-chatsworth/chatsworth-estate/history-of-chatsworth/4th-earl-and-1st-duke-of-devonshire/ (Accessed: 01 September 2023).

[the-paintrist]

Eugène Samuel Grasset (25 May 1845 �� 23 October 1917) was a Swiss decorative artist who worked in Paris, France in a variety of creative design fields during the Belle Époque. He is considered a pioneer in Art Nouveau design.

Art Nouveau (lit. 'New Art') is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and flowers. Other characteristics of Art Nouveau were a sense of dynamism and movement, often given by asymmetry or whiplash lines, and the use of modern materials, particularly iron, glass, ceramics and later concrete, to create unusual forms and larger open spaces. It was popular between 1890 and 1910 during the Belle Époque period, and was a reaction against the academicism, eclecticism and historicism of 19th century architecture and decorative art.

One major objective of Art Nouveau was to break down the traditional distinction between fine arts (especially painting and sculpture) and applied arts. It was most widely used in interior design, graphic arts, furniture, glass art, textiles, ceramics, jewellery and metal work. The style responded to leading 19-century theoreticians, such as French architect Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879) and British art critic John Ruskin (1819–1900). In Britain, it was influenced by William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. German architects and designers sought a spiritually uplifting Gesamtkunstwerk ('total work of art') that would unify the architecture, furnishings, and art in the interior in a common style, to uplift and inspire the residents.

The first Art Nouveau houses and interior decoration appeared in Brussels in the 1890s, in the architecture and interior design of houses designed by Paul Hankar, Henry van de Velde, and especially Victor Horta, whose Hôtel Tassel was completed in 1893. It moved quickly to Paris, where it was adapted by Hector Guimard, who saw Horta's work in Brussels and applied the style to the entrances of the new Paris Métro. It reached its peak at the 1900 Paris International Exposition, which introduced the Art Nouveau work of artists such as Louis Tiffany. It appeared in graphic arts in the posters of Alphonse Mucha, and the glassware of René Lalique and Émile Gallé.

From Britain, Belgium and France, Art Nouveau spread to the rest of Europe, taking on different names and characteristics in each country (see Naming section below). It often appeared not only in capitals, but also in rapidly growing cities that wanted to establish artistic identities (Turin and Palermo in Italy; Glasgow in Scotland; Munich and Darmstadt in Germany), as well as in centres of independence movements (Helsinki in Finland, then part of the Russian Empire; Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain).

By 1914, with the beginning of the First World War, Art Nouveau was largely exhausted. In the 1920s, it was replaced as the dominant architectural and decorative art style by Art Deco and then Modernism. The Art Nouveau style began to receive more positive attention from critics in the late 1960s, with a major exhibition of the work of Hector Guimard at the Museum of Modern Art in 1970.

Eugène Grasset.

[streetsofdublin]

THE BRIDGE THAT LOOKS LIKE A HARP

Architect Santiago Calatrava was the lead designer of the bridge. He was assisted with the civil and structural aspects of the design by Roughan & O'Donovan consulting engineers.

[mybeingthere]

John William Tristram（Australian, 1872-1938）

Born at Gillingham, Kent, England, Tristram was the first of eight children to his parents Samuel Herbert Tristram and Hannah Thompson. His father was a gunnery instructor in the British Army and accepted a posting in Australia which resulted in the family's emigration. John was 13 when they arrived in Sydney on 21 December 1883.

Tristram's artistic abilities were utilised in seeking employment and by April 1885 he was accepted as a junior draftsman in the Architect’s Branch of the Department of Public Instruction (which became the Department of Education in 1915). He was to remain in this career until he retired in 1930.

[archinform]

Pickwick Theatre, Park Ridge IL

The Pickwick Theatre is an art deco movie theater in Park Ridge, Illinois.

Designed by Roscoe Harold Zook, William F. McCaughey, and Alfonso Iannelli, the Pickwick opened in 1928 as a vaudeville stage and movie theater. It is notable for its marquee and 100-foot tower. The main auditorium, said to resemble an Aztec or Mayan temple, originally seated up to 1,400 people.

The theater was reportedly named for the title character Samuel Pickwick in Charles Dickens' novel The Pickwick Papers. The theater has been fully restored, with the addition of four smaller theaters in addition to the main auditorium.

Simple, restrained and without superfluous ornament, the Pickwick Theatre building yet frankly expresses its purpose. The mass and silhouette were carefully studied in clay before the detail drawings were made. The exterior is Indiana limestone above a base of Minnesota granite.

The American Architect, December 1929

I took these photos on October 12, 2024, when I attended a movie at the Pickwick.

Pickwick Theatre rendering, c. 1927

Images of the Pickwick were published in The American Architect, December 1929

Photographs from the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, Art Institute of Chicago:

Pickwick Theatre website

[royalpain16]

Holkham Hall  is an 18th-century country house located adjacent to the village of Holkham, Norfolk, England. The house was constructed in the Neo-Palladian style for the 1st Earl of Leicester (fifth creation)[2][3] by the architect William Kent, aided by the architect and aristocrat Lord Burlington.

Holkham Hall. The severely Palladian south facade with its Ionic portico is devoid of arms or motif; not even a blind window is allowed to break the void between the windows and roof-line, while the lower windows are mere piercings in the stark brickwork. The only hint of ornamentation is from the two terminating Venetian windows.

Holkham Hall is one of England's finest examples of the Palladian revival style of architecture, and the severity of its design is closer to Palladio's ideals than many of the other numerous Palladian style houses of the period. The Holkham Estate was built up by Sir Edward Coke, the founder of his family's fortune. He bought Neales manor in 1609, though never lived there, and made many other purchases of land in Norfolk to endow to his six sons. His fourth son, John, inherited the land and married heiress Meriel Wheatley in 1612. They made Hill Hall their home, and by 1659, John had complete ownership of all three Holkham manors. It is the ancestral home of the Coke family, who became Earls of Leicester.

The interior of the hall is opulent, but by the standards of the day, simply decorated and furnished. Ornament is used with such restraint that it was possible to decorate both private and state rooms in the same style, without oppressing the former.[4] The principal entrance is through the Marble Hall, which is in fact made of pink Derbyshire alabaster; this leads to the piano nobile, or the first floor, and state rooms. The most impressive of these rooms is the Saloon, which has walls lined with red velvet. Each of the major state rooms is symmetrical in its layout and design; in some rooms, false doors are necessary to fully achieve this balanced effect.

Work to the designs of William Kent on the park commenced in 1729, several years before the house was constructed. This event was commemorated by the construction in 1730 of the obelisk,[5] 80 feet (24 m) in height, standing on the highest point in the park. It is located over half a mile to the south and on axis with the centre of the house. An avenue of trees stretches over a mile south of the obelisk. Thousands of trees were planted on what had been windswept land; by 1770 the park covered 1,500 acres (6.1 km2).

Other garden buildings designed by Kent are, near the far end of the avenue the Triumphal Arch, designed in 1739 but only completed in 1752 and the domed doric temple (1730–1735) in the woods near the obelisk. Above the main entrance to the house within the Marble Hall is this inscription:

THIS SEAT, on an open barren Estate

Was planned, planted, built, decorated.

And inhabited the middle of the XVIIIth Century

By THO's COKE EARL of LEICESTER[25]

Under Coke of Norfolk, the great-nephew and heir of the builder, extensive improvements were made to the park and by his death in 1842 it had grown to its present extent of over 3,000 acres (12 km2). As well as planting over a million trees on the estate Coke employed the architect Samuel Wyatt to design over a number of buildings,[26] including a series of farm buildings and farmhouses in a simplified neo-classical style and, in the 1780s, the new walled kitchen gardens covering 6 acres (24,000 m2). The gardens stand to the west of the lake and include: A fig house, a peach house, a vinery, and other greenhouses. Wyatt's designs culminated in c. 1790 with the Great Barn, located in the park half a mile south-east of the obelisk. The cost of each farm was in the region of £1,500 to £2,600: Lodge Farm, Castle Acre, cost £2,604 6s. 5d. in 1797–1800. The lake to the west of the house, originally a marshy inlet or creek off the North Sea, was created in 1801–1803 by the landscape gardener William Eames.

After his death, Coke was commemorated by the Leicester Monument, designed by William Donthorne and erected in 1845–1848[27] at a cost to the tenants of the estate of £4,000. The monument consists of a Corinthian column 120 feet (37 m) high, surmounted by a drum supporting a wheatsheaf and a plinth decorated with bas-reliefs carved by John Henning Jr. The corners of the plinth support sculptures of an ox, sheep, plough and seed-drill. Coke's work to increase farm yields had resulted in the rental income of the estate rising between 1776 and 1816 from £2,200 to £20,000, and had considerable influence on agricultural methods in Britain.

In 1850, Thomas Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester

called in the architect William Burn to build new stables to the east of the house, in collaboration with W. A. Nesfield, who had designed the parterres. Work started at the same time on the terraces surrounding the house. This work continued until 1857 and included, to the south and on axis with the house, the monumental fountain of Saint George and the Dragon dated c. 1849–57 sculpted by Charles Raymond Smith. To the east of the house and overlooking the terrace, Burn designed the large stone orangery, with a three-bay pedimented centre and three-bay flanking wings. The orangery is now roofless and windowless.

Hologram Today

The cost of the construction of Holkham is thought to have been in the region of £90,000.[28] This vast cost nearly ruined the heirs of the 1st Earl, but had the result that they were financially unable to alter the house to suit the whims of taste. Thus, the house has remained almost untouched since its completion in 1764. Today, this perfect, if severe, example of Palladianism is at the heart of a thriving private estate of some 25,000 acres (100 km2).[24] Though open to the public on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays, it is still the family home of the Earls of Leicester of Holkham.

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 3.9

Beer Birthdays

William Cobbett (1763)

Daniel Curran

Five Favorite Birthdays

Juliette Binoche; actor (1965)

Bobby Fischer; chess player (1943)

Modest Mussorgsky; composer (1839)

Granville Redmond; artist (1871)

Socrates (469 BCE)

Famous Birthdays

Samuel Barber; composer (1910)

Barbie; Mattel doll (1959)

Luis Barragan; Mexican architect (1902)

John Cale; pop singer (1942)

Bert Campaneris; Oakland A's SS (1942)

Ornette Coleman; jazz saxophonist (1930)

Yamila Diaz-Rahi; Argentine model (1976)

Linda Fiorentino; actor (1960)

Eddie Foy Sr.; actor, dancer, entertainer (1856)

Martin Fry; pop singer (1958)

Yuri Gagarin; cosmonaut (1934)

Will Geer; actor (1902)

Charles Gibson; television host (1943)

Mickey Gilley; country singer (1936)

George Granville; English politician (1666)

Brian Green; actor (1962)

Glenda Jackson; actor (1936)

Raul Julia; actor (1940)

Paul Klipsch; engineer (1904)

Emmanuel Lewis; actor (1971)

Jeffrey Osborne; rock musician (1948)

Lloyd Price; songwriter (1933)

Vita Sackville-West; English writer (1892)

Keely Smith; singer (1932)

Mickey Spillane; writer (1918)

Leland Stanford; railroad builder (1824)

Robin Trower; rock musician (1945)

Trish Van Devere; actor (1943)

Amerigo Vespucci; explorer (1454)