NEW DISCOVERIES-I: THE TILED HOUSE OF JERE T. SMITH

In 1894 Jere T. Smith, the owner of a construction company that built a number of then-famous buildings in New York City, became the sole owner of a tile and terra cotta company in Menlo Park, New Jersey. Since 1888 Smith had been partners with world-renowned ceramic artist Charles Volkmar in the Menlo Park Ceramic Works. By 1894 the partners went their separate ways and Smith retained control of the Ceramic Works.

A Sanborn Map from 1903 showing the Menlo Park Ceramics Works alongside the Pennsylvania Railroad line in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

J.T. Smith was in the construction business with an office on 23rd Street in Manhattan. 

(From an 1893 photo on page 844 of King’s Handbook of New York City …, by Moses King; http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:(King1893NYC)_pg844_JER.T._SMITH_AND_MENLO_PARK_CERAMIC_WORKS,_23D_STREET,_OPPOSITE_MADISON_AVENUE.jpg)

From 1888 on the construction company and the tile and terra cotta showroom shared the same building. Jere Smith advertised that he was the builder of the Equitable Life Insurance Company building on Broadway and Cedar Street in Manhattan 

"The equitable life building was built in 1870 and was the first office building with passenger elevators. The building was destroyed by a fire in 1912." (Photos and quote courtesy of http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GON/GON079.htm)

and the original Metropolitan Life Insurance Company buildings on 23rd and 24th Streets and Madison Avenue in Manhattan (completed in 1893), among others.

"In 1893 The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company made a bold move, erecting its headquarters on 23rd Street and Madison Avenue facing Madison Square – far uptown from the other insurance firms.   
The impressive 11-story structure  invaded a well-to-do residential neighborhood, 
dwarfing the elegant brownstone mansions around the park." 
(http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2011/06/1909-metropolitan-life-insurance-tower.html; 
Picture Post Card courtesy of Museum of the City of New York; 
http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UAYW4I1I1I&SMLS=1&RW=1037&RH=564#/SearchResult&VBID=
24UAYW4I1I1I&SMLS=1&RW=1037&RH=564&PN=2)

It is reasonable to conjecture that Smith, being a businessman, handled the business aspects of both his construction company and the ceramic works from his Manhattan office while Volkmar handled the artistic side of the ceramic works from Menlo Park.

(Ads from the Catalogue of the Eleventh Annual Exhibition of the Architectural League of New York, 1896, p. 78a)

In about 1890 Smith built his residence in an area of Oceanport, New Jersey called Port-au-Peck. “Port-au-peck is an unincorporated community located within Oceanport in Monmouth County, New Jersey... . Port-au-peck covers 3.9 square miles (10 km2), approximately half of Oceanport[, ...and it] forms a peninsula jutting into the Shrewsbury River." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port-au-peck,_New_Jersey) 

A period engraved advertisment for the Port-Au-Peck community. Jere T. Smith’s house is illustrated at the top, third from the left, and below. (Courtesy of Gerard Carnevale)

While there was no direct rail line between Menlo Park and Port-Au-Peck/Oceanport/Long Branch, New Jersey in the 1890s, there was a direct rail line from Long Branch to Hoboken, with a ferry ride to Manhattan from there. It was more probable that Smith would have commuted from Port-Au-Peck to Manhattan, rather than to Menlo Park and the Ceramic Works.

(William Walton, “Charles Volkmar, Potter”, The International Studio, Vol. XXXVI, No. 143, January 1909)

When Smith built his house in Port-Au-Peck in 1890, he tiled much of the interior with tiles from the Menlo Park Ceramic Works. I assume that most, if not all, of the tile designs were the creation of Charles Volkmar and not Jere T. Smith.

Charles Volkmar (1841-1914) came from Baltimore. Volkmar had “the great advantage of starting as an artist. ...His grandfather was an engraver, and his father, educated in Dresden, a portrait painter and a skilful restorer… . [Charles studied]...under Barye at the Jardin des Plantes, ...and...with Harpignies...in and around Paris. ...while located at a studio...near Fontainebleau,...he became interested in ceramics through the proximity of a small pottery in which he [...tried] his hand at painting underglaze. His first appearance at the Salon had been made in 1875, with two oil paintings, and he became a frequent exhibitor with paintings, etchings and pottery.” (William Walton, “Charles Volkmar, Potter”, The International Studio, Vol. XXXVI, No. 143, January 1909, p. LXXV)

It was at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 that Volkmar “saw for the first time...French pottery that was decorated with an underglaze ‘slip’. ...Fascinated…, he returned to France...to observe the local potters employing this method. Charles [joined] the Theodore Deck pottery, later taking an apprenticeship at the Haviland factory… .”  (“The Volkmar Legacy to American Art Pottery”, a booklet published by The Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut, 1985) “[Volkmar] took up the French technique of barbotine—painting on a vase with liquid clay or slip. [He was o]ne of the most skilled practitioners of this technique… .” (http://www.antiquesandfineart.com/articles/article.cfm?request=953) 

Volkmar moved his pottery from place to place during the last part of the Nineteenth century and prior to his death in 1914. “Charles built a kiln at Greenpoint, Long Island, in 1879 where he produced tiles and vases. He was the first potter to use underglaze slip painting in the United States.” (http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!213244!0)

In 1888 Volkmar moved to Menlo Park, New Jersey where he and J.T. Smith started the Menlo Park Ceramic Works. Volkmar “...used opaque glazes and low relief lines to define compositions, instead of the high line relief commonly employed at the time.” (Norman Karlson, The Encyclopedia of American Art Tiles, Volume I, Region 2, Schiffer Publishing Company, Atglen, PA, 2005, p. 127) While they were partners, their tiles were marked “MENLO PARK/CERAMIC WORKS/VOLKMAR TILES” on the reverse. After their partnership dissolved, Smith took over and the last line in the marking, "VOLKMAR TILES", was changed to “J  T  S”. (Michael Padwee, A Field Guide to the Key Patterns on the Backs of United States Ceramic Tiles, 1870s-1930s, 3rd Ed., 2nd Printing, Jan. 2011, Appendix I; http://tilefieldguide.omeka.net/items/show/49) 

According to the Tile Heritage Foundation, "Charles Volkmar decorated tiles with opaque enamels to tone with onyx, marble etc., or in old gold or old ivory." (Email to Michael Padwee dated 12/11/12 and titled "Fwd: Volkmar and Poor from THF files") 

37-39 Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn. Once the site of the Volkmar Keramic Company. (Photo courtesy of Michael Padwee)

“In 1895 Volkmar...opened the VOLKMAR KERAMIC CO. at 39 Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn, producing art tiles and household ceramics, primarily in a Delft-inspired style. The same year, he and artist Kate Cory established VOLKMAR & CORY in the Corona section of the Bronx. The designs produced here were similar to those of Volkmar Keramic--Delft-style American scenes in blue underglaze on a white background. […T]hese pieces [had] ...a greater amount of detail and texture than the traditional Dutch [Delftware] ceramics. [This] work ...won a gold medal at the 1895 Atlanta Exposition. By late 1896, however, this partnership was dissolved. Volkmar continued the pottery alone as CROWN POINT POTTERY, and then as VOLKMAR POTTERY.” (Karlson, p. 127)


“[Volkmar's] son, Leon, was an accomplished potter and [in 1903 they] formed a partnership. When the kiln was moved to Metuchen, New Jersey, the name was changed to [Volkmar Kilns and then] Charles Volkmar and Son. In 1911 the partnership dissolved and Leon moved to Bedford, New York[...and] established Durant kilns… .” (http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!213244!0)  Charles Volkmar died in 1914.

The Jere T. Smith house in 2012. (Courtesy of Google maps)

The Jere T. Smith house still stands, but the exterior has been changed over the years. The interior, however, still has its original tile work--walls, floors, and fireplace surrounds. Below are contemporary interior photos of the Jere T. Smith house.

The entry hall has a mosaic floor, and you can see some of the tile work around the radiator. (All color photos courtesy of Gerard Carnevale unless otherwise noted. All interior photos edited by Michael Padwee.)

A view of part of the entry hall with the mosaic floor and tiled walls.

The dining room.

Detail of the dining room wall.

This house interior may be the only remaining structure with significant interior installations of Charles Volkmar’s tiles--the output of the Menlo Park Ceramic Works from 1888-1894 when Volkmar was a partner. The interior is an historic treasure that should be protected by the State of New Jersey.

*****

I would like to thank Gerard Carnevale for informing me about the existence of this house and for the use of the interior photos.

Subway Tiles--Part III, the Squire Vickers Era

(All photos were taken in 2012 by Michael Padwee unless otherwise noted)

A "Vickers eagle" mosaic tile panel that replaced a Grueby faience eagle which was possibly damaged at the IRT #6, 33rd Street station (color enhanced)

    “...the first subway, which ran from City Hall to Broadway and 145th Street and opened in October 1904, was constructed by a company called Interborough Rapid Transit [the IRT line, designated by numbers], even though the first route was Manhattan-only. Soon, lines were built into Brooklyn, justifying the name. Beginning in the 1910s, a company called Brooklyn Rapid Transit built a network of surface lines and subways between Brooklyn and Manhattan; when that company went bankrupt after a train crash in a tunnel at Malbone Street, Brooklyn, in 1918, it reorganized as Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit, or the BMT [, designated by letters starting with "L"]. Finally, in the mid-1920s, the City of New York began planning and building its own set of subway lines, called the Independent [the IND line, designated by letters from "A" to "H"].” (http://forgotten-ny.com/2012/03/high-street-station/)

(Most of the mosaic plaques were dingy, damaged and/or filthy and had to be edited in some way)

Mosaic train engine, Grand Central Station (color enhanced)

     The architects George C. Heins & Christopher G. LaFarge presided over the original IRT construction from 1901 to about 1907. Overlapping Heins & LaFarge at the end of their contract was Squire J. Vickers (1872-1947), an architect contracted by the City in 1906 to oversee some of the IRT construction, and in 1913, the IRT/BMT "dual contract" lines and, later, the City-owned IND. Vickers worked for the subway system until 1943. We have already discussed the tile ornamentation during the Heins & LaFarge period (see "Subway Tiles--Parts I and II"). The decorative tilework was distinctly different under Squire Vickers. (An excellent bibliography of the history of the dual contract lines is at http://www.nycsubway.org/ wiki/The_Dual_Contracts)

City Hall Station, historic mosaic panel, "R" train platform (color enhanced)

     "It is clear that Vickers oversaw all of the design work and had a strong hand in choosing the material to be used. ...We...know that at least four [historic plaques] were done by Vicker's Cornell friend, Jay Van Everen, who was then painting in New York. ...In his painting Van Everen was influenced by Synchromist painters who were experimenting with unconventional use of color. ...there is clear evidence that...[Van Everen] created...[these] plaques: 14th Street/Union Square and Canal Street on the BMT; 125th Street and Clark Street on the IRT." (Lee Stookey, Subway Ceramics: A History and Iconography, published by Lee Stookey, Brooklyn, NY, 1992, pp. 60-62)

Although much of the original mosaic tilework is gone from Union Square, there are some preserved sections of it. This was probably designed by Jay Van Everen.

     "Another of the designers was Vickers' Cornell friend, Herbert Dole... . ...Vickers credited him with 'most' of the historic plaques. He designed the small hexagonal plaques set in fine mosaic bands at Christopher and Canal Streets, as well as the...bolder plaque at Borough Hall on the 7th Avenue [IRT line]." (Lee Stookey, Subway Ceramics: A History and Iconography, published by Lee Stookey, Brooklyn, NY, 1992, p. 62)

Herbert Dole's historic plaque at Borough Hall, Brooklyn

Borough Hall mosaic name plaque (color enhanced)

     According to one reviewer of the Transit Museum's 2007 exhibit, “Squire Vickers and the Subway’s Modern Age,” "[f]or both aesthetic and budgetary reasons Vickers pushed the subway onto a much more pared-down, modern path than that of his Beaux-Arts predecessors." Vickers and his designers used "...quiltlike geometric abstractions, evoking Piet Mondrian and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, [which] began to put a straight edge to the subway’s swoops and curlicues, its terra-cotta cornucopias and floral medallions. ...Mosaic elements were made flat, for example, in part 'to avoid dust ledges,' ...[Vickers] wrote, so they would be cheaper to clean. They could also be set by hand in the factory instead of piece by piece on the wall, making them less expensive to install. And yet, in many places, in design elements like...flat mosaic picture plaque[s,]...Vickers was still able pull off beautiful low-cost effects." (Randy Kennedy, "Underground Renaissance Man: Watch the Aesthetic Walls, Please" in The New York Times, August 3, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/03/arts/ design/03subw.html?pagewanted=all)

Historic plaque at Chambers Street, #1 Platform

     “The Chambers Street station was among the first underground stations built by Brooklyn Rapid Transit, the predecessor of the BMT (Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit). Hence, the stations under Centre Street, Chambers, Canal, and Bowery, look somewhat different from the BMT stations that followed it. The BMT used a diamond pattern  
in station art, but here it shows up on the ID plaques as well as sanserif lettering.
     Beginning later in the 1910s, the BRT/BMT would shift to serifed letters, which in turn reverted back to sanserif with the IND in the 1930s.” (http://forgotten-ny.com/2012/04/back-in-chambers/)

Mosaic-tiled diamond motifs and station names with serif lettering, "J" train platform at Fulton Street, Manhattan

Mosaic "TS" diamond panel in Times Square

     "[Vickers']...works include the following New York subway stations, all of which are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

In Manhattan:

181st Street Subway Station (IND), Fort Washington Avenue between 185th and 181st Streets; A train

190th Street Subway Station (IND), under Fort Washington Avenue between Fort Tryon Park (Cabrini Boulevard) and W. 190th Street; A train

86th Street Subway Station (Dual System IRT), under Lexington Avenue, between E. 85th and E. 87th Streets; 4, 5,6 trains

West 28th Street Subway Station (Dual System IRT), Seventh Avenue between W. 26th and W. 29th Streets; 1, 2 trains

West Fourth Street Subway Station (IND), under Sixth Avenue between W. 3rd Street and Waverly Place; A, B, C, D, E, F, M trains

Chambers Street Subway Station (Dual System IRT), under West Broadway between Warren, Chambers and Reade Streets; 1, 2, 3 trains

In Brooklyn:

Ninth Avenue Station (Dual System BMT), 38th Street and Ninth Avenue near the junction of New Utrecht Avenue; D train

Avenue U Station (Dual System BMT), between Avenue U and Avenue T and Seventh and Eighth Streets; N train

Bay Parkway Station (Dual System BMT), above Bay Parkway at 86th Street; D train

New Utrecht Avenue Station (Dual System BMT), beneath the junction of New Utrecht Avenue with 15th Avenue and 62nd Street; N train

Ocean Parkway Station (Dual System BMT), above the junction of Brighton Beach Avenue and Ocean Parkway; Q train

Wilson Avenue Subway Station (Dual System BMT), Chauncey Street at Wilson Avenue; L train

In the Bronx:

Pelham Parkway Station (Dual System IRT), junction of White Plains Road and Pelham Parkway; 2, 5 trains

Westchester Square Station (Dual System IRT), above Westchester Avenue, from Overing Street to Ferris Place; 6 train

Woodlawn Station (Dual System IRT), junction of Bainbridge Avenue and Jerome Avenue; 4 train

In Queens:

Court Square Station (Dual System IRT), above 23rd Street between 44th Drive and 45th Road, Long Island City; 7 train

Main Street Subway Station (Dual System IRT), near junction of Roosevelt Avenue and Main Street, Flushing; 7 train" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squire_J._Vickers)

Whitehall Street mosaic panel, "R" train station (enhanced)

Court Street station, Brooklyn mosaic tile panel, "R" platform (enhanced)

"L" train station at Union Square, Manhattan

     Elevated stations provided their own decorative problems to be solved by Vickers. "In one essay Vickers explained frankly why elevated stations, as any frequent subway rider can now see, ended up badly short-changed in the design department: 'Our attempts to beautify have been of little avail, except in certain cases, on account of the cost.'" (Randy Kennedy, "Underground Renaissance Man: Watch the Aesthetic Walls, Please" in The New York Times, August 3, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/03/arts/ design/03subw.html?pagewanted=all)

Tile work on and between the concrete support columns. (From S.J. Vickers, "The Architectural Treatment of Special Elevated Stations of the Dual System, New York City", Journal of the American Institute of Architects, Vol. III, No. 11, November 1915, p. 501)

Vickers further explains that in the elevated stations a "systematic effort has also been made to simplify the detail and eliminate all ornament, admitting frankly the utilitarian nature of the structures. Although these stations will be orderly, we cannot hope they will be beautiful because of the conditions imposed. ...Inlaid colored tile is used where it seems desirable to add interest to the structure. A hand-made glazed tile with a semi-vitreous back is used... . The tile is set flush with the concrete in order that the surface may be enriched and still retain its simplicity." (From S.J. Vickers, "The Architectural Treatment of Special Elevated Stations of the Dual System, New York City", Journal of the American Institute of Architects, Vol. III, No. 11, November 1915, pp. 501-502)

The 33rd Street/Rawson Street/Queens Blvd. station, #7 train

Ft. Hamilton Parkway/New Utrecht Ave. station, "D" and "M" trains

Tiles installed in the station's concrete

     In later years, "as subway projects lurched through the Depression[,]...many of his aesthetic decisions were driven by the bottom line." (Randy Kennedy, "Underground Renaissance Man:...")

The Woodlawn (Bronx) IRT elevated station with exterior tiling. 1924 photo from http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?41758. David Pirmann collection.

     There are a few works that should be kept in mind if you're interested in the subway system and in subway art. Philip Ashforth Coppola's self-published, multi-volume Silver Connections: A Fresh Perspective on the New York Area Subway Systems, is not generally available, but can most likely be located in a library. Lee Stookey's self-published Subway Ceramics: A History and Iconography, published in Brooklyn, NY in 1992 can be purchased online. And, one online resource that I found indispensable was http://www.nycsubway.org/.

     For preservationists the condition of subway art and the seeming lack of interest by the MTA is a constant problem. A recent article by two Daily News writers notes that "A survey of three lines - the No. 6, the No. 1 and the L train - uncovered century-old tile nameplates and artwork that are falling apart because of neglect.  Missing and chipped tiles, water and rust stains, and thick cracks mar dozens of station decorations that should be the system's crowning glory. ...the decay...is only corrected when a station undergoes a top-to-bottom rehabilitation." (Caitlan Millat and Tracy Connor, "Subway ceramics in shameful state", New York Daily News, July 21, 2012, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/subway-ceramics-shameful-state-article-1.306133)

     An earlier New York Times article about nominating the entire subway system to the National Register for Historic Places stated that "Preservationists still bemoan Philip Johnson's makeover of the 49th Street station, blanketed with shiny orange tiles in 1975. 'Cheer is the word, like a big shopping center,' Mr. Johnson announced at the time. Or the demolition of the Bowling Green station starting in 1972, when huge red tiles replaced elegant mosaic name panels and neo-classical designs by Heins and LaFarge, who designed the 1904 and 1908 subway projects... . Or the alterations to the Broadway and 103d Street station, where classic white glazed brick-shaped tiles and at least one terra cotta escutcheon were covered by what [...one critic] called 'penal colony modern' beige walls. Or the destruction of almost all the distinctive above-ground kiosks, carted away in the 1960's, ostensibly because they blocked the sight lines of traffic. 'The real reason,' Mr. Tauranac said, 'is because they'd been neglected. The cast iron and glass were leaking.'" (Tracie Rozhon, "TURF; On the Express Track to Venerability", The New York Times, October 29, 1998,  http://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/29/garden/turf-on-the-express-track-to-venerability.html?pagewanted=1)

American Encaustic Tiling Company--Part I, Tile Showrooms

The New York Showrooms of the American Encaustic Tiling Company

AET factory in Zanesville, OH c. 1912

     The American Encaustic Tiling Company, founded in Zanesville, Ohio in 1877, became the largest floor and wall tile company in the country by the time the Great Depression caused its demise in 1935. In the last decade and a half of the 19th century through the 1920s, AET had a major presence in New York City, not just as a producer of floor and wall tiles, but also as a creator of art tiles and tiles used in architecture.
     AET had its office and showrooms at various locations in Manhattan during these years. However, after Leon V. Solon became artistic director of the company, he created new showrooms at 16 East 41st Street, Manhattan sometime around 1912.

16 East 41st Street c. 1920s and Leon V. Solon (E. Stanley Wires, "Decorative Tiles, Part III, Their Contribution to Architecture and Ceramic Art", New England Architect and Builder Illustrated, No. Sixteen, 1960)

     Leon V. Solon was born in England in 1872 "to a family of distinguished ceramic artists at Stoke-on-Trent... ." Leon was the son of "Marc Louis Emmanuel Solon...[who] had been hired in 1870 from the French national factory at Sevres to become head decorator at Minton's. ...Leon's maternal grandfather, Leon Arnoux, had been a highly accomplished ceramist at Sevres when Herbert Minton hired him to be his art director" from 1849-1892. Leon studied "...classical art...[and] was also trained to understand the practical aspects of contemporary ceramics manufacturing. ...In 1912 Leon became art director at the American Encaustic Tiling Co... . ...Leon's role was to direct the overall development of AET's tile lines." (quotes from Riley Doty, "British Tile Makers in the United States: 1910-1940" in Journal of the Tiles & Architectural Ceramics Society, Vol. 17, 2011, pp. 8-11)

The public domain image above is of one of the AET showrooms in 1918. The tile panel at the rear of the room may be Leon Solon's "Dancing Women" mural. ("Richard F. Bach, "The Art of Display in Up-to-Date Merchandising", Good Furniture Magazine, Vol. X, No. 5, May 1918, p. 292)

     In the 1920s Solon re-designed the AET showrooms. According to Regina Lee Blaszczyk, "...Solon designed the American Encaustic offices as a virtual 'Tile Museum', as a showplace for parading the decorative potential of colorful architectural ceramics. ...If the exterior of the...showroom [the building facade] was the epitome of understatement, the building's interior communicated chromatic splendor that must have bedazzled architects and persuaded many to utilize tiles in their installations. ...This main display area, a virtual symphony in distinctive hues of brilliant blues, greens and gold, was Solon's tribute to maiolica potters of the Italian Renaissance. Here, under the watchful gaze of a pair of black lions, probably modeled after the Greek Nemean Lion, Solon negotiated...contracts." (Regina Lee Blaszczyk, " 'This Extraordinary Demand For Color': Leon Victor Solon and Architectural Polychromy, 1909-1939" in Flashpoint, the Newsletter of the Tile Heritage Foundation, Vol. 6, No. 3, July-September 1993, p. 14)

Photos courtesy of the Tile Heritage Foundation

The lobby

A showroom

A fountain

From Leon Solon, "The Display Rooms of a Tile Manufactory", http://tileresearcharticles.omeka.net/items/show/1

     "The entrance corridor is treated with studied simplicity: a dark Delft blue covers the floor, extending a short distance up the walls...terminating in a rope molding. Two...panels by Arthur Crisp are hung on rough stucco walls. ...[The Reception room] walls are covered with 3x3 inch tiles embossed with a simple Greek fret...colored alternately with red, black, and gold...set at random... . The floor is of large blue-green tiles... . One of the Parthenon metopes, reproduced in faience, is inserted in the wall over the telephone operator's desk. ...The grilles are of faience treated with a vermillion glaze. ...The visitor leaves the reception room through a little vaulted corridor, paved with Tuscan red faience tiles laid at random;...a recess...is decorated with American-Persian tiles... . ...The stylistic treatment [of the main display room] is that of the Italian Renaissance... ." (Leon Solon, "The Display Rooms of a Tile Manufactory", http://tileresearcharticles.omeka.net/items/show/1 )

     Leon Solon's AETCo art department in New York designed the facade and showrooms using a planned glaze color scheme, which is explained in his article. The street entrance and facade were decorated with polychrome faience, including a bear's head over the entrance.

"In 1927, Solon lamented the 'dull and lifeless buildings of today' and called for increased use of color in skyscrapers. ...At 16 East 41st Street Solon found the opportunity to put such theories into practice. The interior was a polychromed labyrinth of tile art, with majolica fountains, faience radiator grilles, niches, cornices and even ceilings in intensely shaded red, blue, gold, green and other colors. But for the exterior Solon sought a more subdued, neutral character. On a wall of light yellow roughened stucco, he laid out a polychrome network -- deep, burnt umber door and window enframements on the first floor, brilliant blue and gold heraldic plaques at the midsection and cream-and-blue rectangular patterns of square tile at the attic story. ...A company brochure of about 1930 shows that American Encaustic later tiled the ground-floor stuccoed facade with a wildly mottled pattern of small rectangular tiles." (Christopher Gray, "Terra Cotta Magic With a Polychromed Interior", New York Times, "Streetscapes", July 20, 1997. (http://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/20/ realestate/terra-cotta-magic-with-a-polychromed-interior.html?src=pm)

The front door and part of the remaining tiled facade, 2010 

(Photo courtesy of the author)

     According to Blaszczyk, "Sometime during the 1920s, Solon remodeled his office, on the first floor facing the street, to create another...showcase illustrating the adaptability of American Encaustic tiles to modernistic interiors. Included in this area...were Solon's interpretations of Augustin Lazo's costumes designed for the Carlos Chavez Aztec Ballet which debuted in...1928." (Regina Lee Blaszczyk, op. cit.) Below is one of ten tiles that Solon designed for the Aztec Ballet.

(E. Stanley Wires, "Decorative Tiles, Part III, Their Contribution to Architecture 

and Ceramic Art", New England Architect and Builder Illustrated, No. Sixteen, 1960)

     Along with his own tile designs, Solon encouraged other artists to design tile murals at AET. I plan to discuss some of these murals in another post.

     Although preservationists tried to have the building landmarked in 1993, this failed. It is believed that most, if not all of the tiled interior of the building has been demolished. Part of the exterior faience has also been destroyed by new tenants/landlords over the years. A restaurant now occupies the first floor of the building, and the two window bays to the left of the entrance have been destroyed.