PLEASANT DAYS IN SHORT HILLS: A ROOKWOOD WONDERLAND

When real estate tycoon Joseph P. Day purchased an 80-or-so acre estate in Short Hills, New Jersey in 1907, he did not realize that he was ultimately leaving us all a twenty-first century legacy. “Joseph P. Day (1874-1944) was a real estate broker, appraiser and pioneer auctioneer. Born in New York City, Joseph was the son of John W. and Catherine A. Hayes Day. ...Joseph entered the real estate field when he was 21 years old. His first great real estate coup came in 1907, when he sold 2,000 lots in six of the most successful lot sales ever held in New York City. From then on his career was one tremendous sale after another. ...Over a period of more than fifty years, Joseph Day sold about one-third of the Bronx, one-third of Queens, a generous slice of Brooklyn, and vast property in Westchester and North New Jersey. He also developed San Clemente, California, a project including 500 buildings and 1,000 residences.” (http://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/ResDayJ.html) 

“Selling real estate at the turn of the century was not a highly regarded profession[..., but] Day had new and novel ideas for turning real estate into a highly respected profession and a source of considerable esteem not to mention wealth. Working from his offices in the Commerce Building at 31 Nassau Street, he began an advertising campaign with the slogan ‘Originator of the Special Sales Days' and 'Pioneer of Concentrated Advertising.’ His ads told the story: Day's company concentrated its advertising of real estate sales through newspapers, booklets, electric signs, large and medium-sized posters, special cards, large fence posters, cards in street railway cars and hand painted wall signs.” (Daniel Alef, Joseph P. Day: The Great Salesman, Titans of Fortune Publishing, Santa Barbara, CA, 2009, p. 3; http://www.smashwords.com/extreader/read/2921/3/joseph-p-day-the-great-salesman)  

34 Gramercy Park East. (http://www.cityrealty.com/nyc/gramercy-park/34-gramercy-park-east/4850)

The Day family had two residences: 34 Gramercy Park East in Manhattan and “Pleasant Days” in Short Hills, New Jersey. “[34 Gramercy Park East, an] early luxury apartment building, which predates the Dakota, is one of the oldest in the city. Its generous apartments were advertised as "French Flats" in order to distinguish them from squalid working class tenements. In order to further enhance its marketability to upper class tenants, this Victorian red brick building was endowed with some of the features of a Fifth Avenue brownstone. Its lobby was clad in opulent materials, and its large apartments were limited to three per floor.” (http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GRP/GRP008.htm) 

(http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/476571-coop-34-gramercy-park-east-gramercy-park-new-york)

“Charles A. Gerlach...got the idea for a co-op apartment house on the park -- the first cooperative apartment in the city.  His 1883 Queen-Anne style building was designed by New Jersey architect George W. DaCunha.  DaCunha incorporated elaborate floral carvings, stained glass overlights, heavy leaded and beveled glass doors and other costly finishes.  The latest in residential design, the building had to entice wealthy New Yorkers who were unused to apartment living.” (http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2010/04/no-34-gramercy-park-gramercy.html)

A real-photo picture post card of the original "Pleasant Days" house, destroyed by fire in 1911. (Jennifer Connic, “Local History: Pleasant Days in Short Hills”, Millburn-Short Hills Patch, September 28, 2009; http://millburn.patch.com/articles/local-history-pleasant-days-in-short-hills)

“Pleasant Days was [originally] built by Pierre Noel, who reportedly held on its grounds the first polo game in the country. He sold the [80 acre] property to the Feigenspan brewing family, who in turn sold it to real estate mogul Joseph P. Day in 1907. An overstoked furnace led to its destruction by fire in 1911, after which Day built a mansion on the grounds.”  (Jennifer Connic, “Local History: Pleasant Days in Short Hills”, Millburn-Short Hills Patch, September 28, 2009; http://millburn.patch.com/articles/local-history-pleasant-days-in-short-hills)

“In its heyday the Day estate consisted of a fanciful twenty-eight-room mansion, extensive formal gardens, and acres of lushly landscaped grounds. Of particular interest were the art tiles and unusual polychrome bas-relief panels that adorned the house, the service buildings, and the ornamental garden structures. [...In 1911, after the original house was destroyed, Day] assembled a team of tastemakers in the fields of architecture, landscaping, and decoration to assist him in building his dream house… . Day entrusted the architectural commission to...William Whetten Renwick, a nephew of the famous Gothic revival architect James Renwick, Jr… .” (Judith B. Tankard, “Pleasant Days”, The Magazine Antiques, Vol. 168, No. 1, July 2005, pp. 58-60) 

The Renwick house, “Vine Clad”, still retains its tile work and bas relief sculptures under the eves. The tiles between the pairs of second story windows are from the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works in Doylestown, PA. (Color photos courtesy of Michael Padwee unless otherwise noted)

“In 1908 Renwick designed his own house, Vine Clad, next door to the Day estate. ...Vine Clad was a prototype for the mansion Renwick designed and built a few years later for his friend and neighbor, Day. ...For [Pleasant Days’] design Renwick basically took the core of his own house...and enlarged it with wings and other enhancements...so that it assumed an asymmetrical form.” (Tankard, p. 61) The Day house was a 28-room Italianate mansion, which was approximately five times the size of Vine Clad.

The four larger tiles to the right of the windows are Moravian “Knight on horse” tiles.

“Day’s house was built of tile and stucco. ...The undulating gray-green whaleback slate roof added to its distinctive appearance, as did the unusual ornamental metope-like bas-relief panels,...which extended around the house under the overhang of the roof. The exterior was decorated with tile medallions of richly colored, glazed faience and masks manufactured by the Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati.” (Tankard, p. 61)

Metope-style bas relief panels under the eves of Renwick’s house. These were probably similar to those on Day's mansion.

On both sides of the steps from the upper terrace in the Day formal gardens were polychrome terra cotta panels by the New York sculptor Anthony di Francisci set in the stuccoed retaining wall. (These have since disappeared.)

Anthony di Francisci’s panels for the upper terrace leading to the mansion. (“The Two Winds of Di Francisci”, Art World, Vol. III, No. 4, Jan. 1918, p. 333)

“One panel shows the West Wind like an infant Herakles throttling the serpents--he is engaged in combat with the dragon of the upper firmament. In this part of the world the west wind generally brings good weather… . The other panel is the East Wind symbolized by a young Ethiope riding...the legendary dolphin… . ...this figure and the flying crane suggests the birds that seek shelter before the coming tempest.” (“The Two Winds of Di Francisci”, Art World, Vol. III, No. 4, Jan. 1918, pp. 333-334)

Entrance to the estate.

“The whole house was alive with decorative birds and flowers… . The main reception rooms, stairwell and principal bedroom suites were decorated with Renwick’s fresco-relief panels, made in collaboration with the sculptor Anthony De Francisci… . These polychrome panels, depicting highly stylized female figures, birds, flowers and beasts[,...including the highly-acclaimed stairwell panels of the Four Seasons] were all destroyed when the house was demolished in 1949.” (Tankard, pp. 61-62)

The Carriage House

The Carriage House was built in 1929. Many of the buildings have their construction dates in Rookwood faience attached to them.

The Carriage House and the Garage are the first two outbuildings seen on the way to the new main house built in the 1940s after the death of Joseph P. Day.

The Garage and Buildings 274C and 274D to the left.

“In addition to the mansion, Renwick designed or renovated several buildings on the estate in the style of the main house. All are still standing today. All have stucco exteriors, slate roofs, and Rookwood decorations. ...Renwick also rebuilt two staff cottages, ...adorning the facades with Rookwood medallions and masks.” (Tankard, p. 62)

Building 274C

The Rookwood faience decorations on the outbuildings and cottages and in the grottoes seem to be mostly stock items from the company catalog.

Building 274D, built in 1926; two ceramic (possibly Rookwood) urns by the door.

The gardens are “a unique example of the Arts and Crafts aesthetic applied to traditional, formal garden design. The strictly classical, Italian-inspired garden has axial layouts, terraces, allées, and controlled vistas. 

"But it incorporates typical A&C-era materials such as stone walls and grottoes, linked by informal pebble walks. Paving stones, concrete staircases, pots and decorative designs of the period stand out amidst varied plantings and long views of the Watchung Range. Cincinnati’s famous Rookwood Pottery supplied the colorful collection of fantasy tiles.” (Patricia Poore, “A Garden for Study”, Arts and Crafts Homes and the Revival, Summer 2008, pp. 78, 80)

The Blanchard House (1949)

“In 1949, Peter P. Blanchard, Jr., and his wife, Dr. Adelaide Childs Frick Blanchard, purchased the house and gardens as a country retreat. By this time, the Day house had deteriorated significantly, so the Blanchards replaced it with a smaller house in the Colonial Revival style.

The new house contained at least one tiled fireplace which showed aspects of raising and training horses. This may have reflected the interests of the new owners of the property. We have not been able to determine the maker of these tiles.

A restored wrought iron gate made by Samuel Yellin for Joseph P. Day.

"Keeping the original Day-era gardens, they added their own ornaments and plantings and changed the name of the estate to The Greenwoods. After Mrs. Blanchard's untimely death in 1956, Mr. Blanchard continued to expand the gardens. With an eye on the distant future, he reassembled the property once owned by Joseph Day that had been purchased by separate owners in the 1940s. Once again the gardens were whole. Mr. Blanchard then donated more than 48 acres of his property, including the rolling meadow that was once the golf course of Pleasant Days, to Millburn Township for the establishment of Old Short Hills Park.” (http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=18fd7981-4f1f-4a1b-9abd-5afffd7a96a0)

The Blanchard house from the first garden tier. Two restored grottoes with Rookwood tiles are on either side of the stairs.

Grotto #1 (the Shell Grotto) before its restoration by Historic Building Architects, LLC. (http://www.hba-llc.com/prj_land_greenwoodgardens.html)

Grotto #1 restored.

Grotto #2

Grotto #3 between the stairs that lead from the road to the next set of stairs and the cascading pool. This is still waiting for restorattion

Behind Grotto #3 this stairway and cascading pool leads to the house level. There are more Rookwood sculptural “faces” on the concrete terraces to the left.

Two other outbuildings are covered shelters.

The two-storied Teahouse

With Alice in Wonderland sculptures

The ceiling in the bottom room of the teahouse.

The upper room of the Teahouse with its tiled floor.

According to one source, these tiles were from the Fulper Pottery in Trenton, New Jersey.

The other structure is on one side of the Garden of the Zodiac with its twelve pairs of classical columns arranged around a former reflecting pool and a bronze sculpture of a boy holding two geese, created by Emilio Angela (1889-1970). (From a Greenwood Gardens pamphlet, “Garden Guide and Walking Tour”)

Greenwood Gardens is only a short drive from New York City, and it will be a pleasant days' outing. Check the website for when the gardens are open, and to buy tickets, before you leave home.

*****

A RESOURCE FOR LOVERS OF CERAMICS

If you are a passionate fan of ceramic art pottery in all its forms, you should check out Robbie Hood's photos and posts at "Ceramics and Pottery Arts and Resources", which can be accessed here:  (http://www.veniceclayartists.com). The posts on this blog cover an incredible range of topics with excellent photos. Some are: Ceramic Tile Art at http://www.veniceclayartists.com/ceramic-tile-art/, Ceramic wall art, panels and plaques at http://www.veniceclayartists.com/ceramic-wall-art-panels-and-plaques/, and Christopher Dresser at http://www.veniceclayartists.com/design-innovator-christopher-dresser/, among many other topics and artists.

ARCHITECTURAL ART TILES IN READING, PENNSYLVANIA

My wife and I recently visited Reading, PA to try to locate “The Scar” on Mt. Penn--a grown-over quarry that was being developed as an amphitheater by WPA workers in the 1930s. While in Reading I also decided to try to locate some tile installations that I had read about in an article published in 1997*.  *[Beulah B. Fehr's “Arts and Crafts Tiles in Berks County, PA”, Tile Heritage, Vol. IV, No. 1, Summer 1997]

Reading, and Berks County, has a long history of tile-making, as well as art tile architectural decoration. One early tile maker in and around Berks County was Jacob Albrecht,

a Revolutionary War soldier and a famous evangelist. (The family changed its name to Albright after Jacob's death, and his group became known as the "Albright People".) "Dr. Raymond W. Albright, a descendant and former curator of the Historical Society of Berks County [...helped locate] the site of a former [Albrecht] tile kiln and clay pit. This is important because both Jacob Albrecht and his father were tile makers, digging the clay and baking the yellow-red plates that were hung on roofs, one fastened to the other... . The skill is a lost folk art. The clay tiles...still may be found on many old buildings in the area and are prized in the modern restoration of old Oley Valley homesteads." (Wayne E. Homan, "He Guarded Hessians: Albrecht the tile maker", Church and Home, May 1, 1965, pp. 13-15)

My first stop in Reading was the Historical Society of Berks County. “Founded in 1869, the Historical Society of Berks County is a museum and library located at 940 Centre Ave... . The Society's mission, as described on its website, is ‘to focus attention on the unique local history, the vast material culture, and the diverse cultural heritage of Berks County… .’” (http://www.goreadingberks.com/historicsites.php)

The first thing you notice as you enter the building is the mosaic seal of the Historical Society made by Henry Mercer's Moravian Tile Works of Doylestown, Pennsylvania. This seal is three feet in diameter and was a special order in 1944. (Beulah B. Fehr, “Arts and Crafts Tiles in Berks County, PA”, Tile Heritage, Vol. IV, No. 1, Summer 1997, p. 12)

The lunch room is paved with a Moravian tile floor with a number of embedded mosaic roundels:

These are all derived from Henry Mercer’s 1903 patent, No. 733,668, for creating a decorative tile mosaic.

According to local historian Beulah Fehr, “In 1902 the American Tile and Mantel Company, 230 Penn Street[, Reading], became the first tile dealer in Reading to place an order with Mercer’s Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, thus initiating the use of handmade Arts and Crafts-type tiles in the area. ...The originality of designs and the muted glazes of Mercer’s tiles appealed to Charles H. Muhlenberg of the architectural firm of Muhlenberg Bros., who, in turn, did much to promote and popularize these tiles among his clients.” (Beulah B. Fehr, “Arts and Crafts Tiles in Berks County, PA”, Tile Heritage, Vol. IV, No. 1, Summer 1997, pp. 14-15)

“Born in Reading, PA, and a founding member of the prosperous Muhlenberg Bros. office[, 511 Penn Street], Charles H. Muhlenberg[, 1870-1960,] was educated in the Carroll Institute in Reading but then graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. By 1893 Muhlenberg Bros. had been established in Reading. Charles H. Muhlenberg, Sr., retired in 1940. Muhlenberg...was also organizer and past president of the Reading Architectural Society.” (http://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/22994) “Established by Charles H. Muhlenberg, Sr. in 1893, Muhlenberg Brothers [was] the dominant architecture/engineering firm in Reading, PA, for over sixty years. Schools, clubs, churches, banks, etc., [were all designed…] out of [this] office.” (http://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/26287)

“Oliver Mohr Landis [1868-1931], an enterprising business man of...Reading, Pa., engaged in doing mantel, fire-place, grate, tile and mosaic work, is a native of Berks county… . In 1892 Mr. Landis located in Reading and engaged in business under the firm name of 0. M. Landis & Co… . [A few years later he…] entered into partnership with H. C. Geisler, Sr., and for six years they carried on a business under the name of the American Tile & Mantel Company… .” (http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=schwenk&id=I060597)

I.O.R.M. Hall, 833 Walnut Street

In 1909 Muhlenberg Bros. designed the “Improved Order of the Red Men” Hall at 833 Walnut Street with Moravian tiles on the exterior front facade. “The Improved Order of Red Men (IORM) traces it’s origin from the Sons of Liberty patriots who were active before the American Revolutionary War and are well known for their participation in the ‘Boston Tea Party.’ The Sons of Liberty—and in turn the IORM—emulated in their organization, philosophy, and regalia the League of the Iroquois… .” In 1834 the “Order of Red Men, the precursor to the IORM was reorganized in Baltimore into the IORM with three mottoes: Freedom, Freindship and Charity. (http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/masonicmuseum/fraternalism/red_men.htm)

In 1914 the Catholic Literary and Social Union Hall was built at 126 N. 10th Street. It, too, had a Moravian tile-decorated facade. 

Beulah Fehr wrote that “the entrance windows on the front exterior...were bordered by six panels of ‘Arrangement No. 40’...which is described in the Moravian catalog: ‘A border of relief tiles in silhouette, banded with flat rectangular tiles, the whole representing a grapevine, with fruit and leaves in three repeating patterns.’ ...Mercer designed the grapevine border in 1907 and had it installed [...in his home,] Fonthill… .”  (Beulah B. Fehr, “Arts and Crafts Tiles in Berks County, PA”, Tile Heritage, Vol. IV, No. 1, Summer 1997, pp. 15-16) This building has been repurposed and is now the home of the Civic Opera Society.

In 1927 Muhlenberg wrote to Mercer “requesting suggestions for the panels over each of the four entrance doors to [the] Tyson-Schoener Elementary School, 315 S. 5th Street.

”The panel Mercer suggested and designed for one of the doorways consisted of three 20” round mosaics representing ‘Spring,’ ‘Summer’ and ‘Bird & Leaf.’” (Beulah B. Fehr, “Arts and Crafts Tiles in Berks County, PA”, Tile Heritage, Vol. IV, No. 1, Summer 1997, p. 16)

(The school was named for "Adam Schoener[,1798-1882, who]...began practicing medicine in Rehresburg...[and] had a large general practice and spent a lot of time in Lebanon and Berks Counties. He...[also] was a Justice of the Peace for nearly twenty years. ...In 1838 he was elected to the State House of Representatives [...and] was a member of the House when the controversial bill establishing the 'common schools' was passed. He was the only representative from Berks County to encourage support for this bill and to vote for its passage. ...Benjamin Tyson [b. 1804]...was also a proponent of the 'common school' bill*. He served in the State Legislature from 1848 to 1856.) (http://tsel.readingsd.net/site_res_view_template.aspx?id=2f79f78f-ac69-4a9c-a698-2e6ffb696d2b)

*["The era of universal public education arrived in Pennsylvania in 1834 with the enactment of the Free Schools Act. ...the creation of common schools ushered in a new era of educational policy and state government regulation of curriculum, standards, and finances." (http://explorepahistory.com/story.php?storyId=1-9-21)]

In addition to these Moravian panels there are twenty-one tiles, each about 12” x 12”, in a band below the first floor windows on the school facade. It was not known who designed these tiles which depict “either a scene from history, a fairy tale, a children’s story, or legend” until 1986. The artist was Virginia Muhlenberg Brooke, the sister of the architect. At the time--1927--she was a student at Parsons School of Design in New York City. Her brother “was looking for some appropriate artwork for the outside of the building--preferably something that would appeal to children.” Mrs. Brooke noted that she “started with the flight of (Charles A.) Lindbergh… . ‘It was 1928 and everyone was talking about Lindbergh’s flight the year before. Then, I thought I should depict the first great crossing, that of Columbus… . After that I went on to fairy tales.’ Each tile was colorfully designed by Brooke and given to her brother for incorporation within the building. She then forgot all about her artistic endeavor [...for almost sixty years].” (Paula M. Flippin, “By Jove! They cracked the tile mystery.”, Reading Times, Tuesday, May 13, 1986)

The Spirit of St. Louis

The Niña, the Pinta and the Santa María

The witch's house; Hansel and Gretel

“From left to right [under the windows] are to be found: Jack Be Nimble, Jack Sprat, The Fox and the Grapes, Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, The Witch’s House from Hansel and Gretel, Columbus’s 3 ships, ‘The Spirit of St. Louis’…, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels, Jack and the Beanstalk, Miss Muffet, The 3 Bears, Henny Penny, Little Red Riding Hood, Babes in the Woods, Cinderella, Winken, Blynken, and Nod, Hiawatha, Sir Gallahad, William Tell’s son, and William Tell.

Winken, Blynken and Nod

William Tell

"There are several more tiles by an unknown artist [i.e., the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works] mounted into the lintels of the main entrance ways. These portray various aspects of the seasons. Spring and Summer are over the northern entrance: a medallion picturing a bird and the Latin sentence, ‘Silva vocal,’ separate each.

"Fall and Winter are to be seen over the southern doorway; between them is a medallion of a pirate ship, the ‘Aves.’” (Post 1986, unsigned typewritten and handwritten notes in folder VF F11 MS-1 in the Henry Janssen Library of the Historical Society of Berks County, PA)

Although the tile maker of Virginia Muhlenberg Brooke’s tile designs is not known*, it is possible that Charles Muhlenberg asked Henry Mercer to make tiles of his sister’s designs. It is also possible that he asked another tilemaker, whose work was popular in Reading to make the tiles--Herman Carl Mueller. (The author tried to discover who actually made these tiles. Both the Tile Heritage Foundation and Susan Tunick of the Friends of Terra Cotta have suggested that the tile maker may have been the company that supplied the terra cotta for the building, rather than either Mercer or Mueller.)

*[Thanks to "Bungalow Bill" Sheshko, the maker of these tiles has just been identified as the Federal Seaboard Terra Cotta Company of Perth Amboy, New Jersey. The Aesops Fable tile of the fox and grapes pictured in the auction below is one of the school tiles. The tiles are 14" square rather than 12" square.  http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/203876]

St Peter the Apostle Rectory

Just across the street from this school is St. Peter the Apostle Roman Catholic Church and Rectory at 322 South 5th Street. According to Ms. Fehr the Rectory has two large fireplaces tiled with Moravian tiles. The building, however, was closed when I visited, but I could see that the Rectory foyer was also tiled with Moravian tiles.

The Rectory foyer.

St. Joseph's Catholic Church

The Mueller Mosaic Company of Trenton, New Jersey installed much interior and exterior tile work throughout Berks County. One installation of Mueller Mosaic polychrome tiles was the remodeling of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, 1018 N. 8th Street, by the architect G.C. Freeman in 1926.

G.C. Freeman designed many buildings in Berks County including the William Penn Fire Tower on Skyline Drive at the top of Mt. Penn. 

“The William Penn Memorial Fire Tower was built in 1939 as a fire observation tower and tourist attraction. The Tower is named in honor of William Penn, founder of the Province of Pennsylvania. The imposing stone and reinforced concrete tower is 120 feet tall and sits atop Mt. Penn, overlooking the City of Reading and its surroundings. The tower is situated in a park setting on Skyline Drive, one mile from Reading's landmark Pagoda. ...G.C. Freeman designed the new tower, incorporating cosmetic and functional elements from over a half-dozen towers scattered throughout the county as far away as St. Paul, Minnesota. Initial design elements were obvious; the tower would be constructed of entirely fireproof materials. Stone supplied the base for which the brick tower was built. ...Inlaid on the entry wall is the "shield of arms" of the William Penn Family designed in colored tiling. 

(Photo from http://www.goreadingberks.com/historicsites.php) 

The exterior and interior walls of the tower have a sand finish with molded shale brick, and a center entrance floor of brick-and-stone design. All stone used in construction is local to the mountain.” (http://www.goreadingberks.com/historicsites.php) "The...Fire Tower...was built by stone masons Frank Ferrara, Joseph Ferrara [and] James Ciliberti." (http://www.frankferrara.com/about/History)

Reading from the area on Mt. Penn where "the Scar" should have been.

We never did find the actual "scar" on Mt. Penn nor the remains of the WPA era amphitheater, but it was a great day's outing. 

I would like to thank the staff of the Library of the Historical Society of Berks County for their knowledge and help in locating tile-related materials. Thanks, also to the Tile Heritage Foundation, Susan Tunick of the Friends of Terra Cotta and "Bungalow Bill" Shesko for the Tyson-Schoener Elementary School tile attribution. And a special thanks to Beulah B. Fehr for doing the original research about the tile installations in Berks County, and then writing about them.