The "Jewel Boxes' of Louis Sullivan

Many Dartmouth students have undertaken to preserveour rivers and forests; some of our students in the arts haveundertaken to study and preserve our architectural heritage.This essay by Clark Graff testifies to his persistence insearching through the literature on Sullivan's work, hisjudgment of the importance of these buildings, and hisdedication in traveling to the scattered midwestern cities inorder to inspect and photograph the buildings.

—FRANK ROBINSON Assistant Professor of Art

An aspect of the environmental and urban crisis not usually made much of is the destruction of our architectural heritage. The works of Louis Sullivan, a great American architect, are systematically being destroyed for economic reasons and by the insensitive modification and expansion of the exterior and interior portions of many of his buildings. Generally, when a renowned work of Sullivan's such as the Chicago Auditorium is endangered, notice is usually taken and the work is, hopefully, saved; but when it happens to his lesser known provincial buildings, some of which are of great interest and beauty, it goes relatively unnoticed. Sullivan's bank in Sidney, Ohio has been preserved. Two of his other banks, the Home Building Association Bank of Newark, Ohio and the Purdue State Bank of West Lafayette, Indiana are prime examples of architectural bastardization.

The People's Savings & Loan Association Bank of Sidney is the least changed of Sullivan's banks. The only marked change that has occurred since its completion in 1917 is the removal of four brick lamp posts which were placed at the front and side of the. bank. The Sidney bank, like the Newark one, is situated on a corner, providing a focus for the architecture of the entire street. The monochromatic use of color and the formalized handling of the shape and ornamentation give it a monumental or tomb-like presence. The mass of the building, constructed in a very rich and dark red colored brick, is given shape and definition by a tan terra cotta band at the top, a middle band of gray which also feeds into the arch on the front elevation, and by a bottom band or foundation strip of coarse veined black marble. The Thrift mosaic that lies under the arch abandons the duller earth colors of the brick and of the bands for a brighter range of colors that is predominantly blue, supported by various yellows, greens, and browns.

A feature unusual for 1917 is an interior wall surface executed in brick. However, the brick used in the interior is darker, and has a finer texture than that used on the exterior. The skylight is an "iridescent mother-of-pearl color" and the large green stained translucent glass windows of the wall create the strongest visual image inside the bank; they are the largest architectural elements in the building, and they are the only areas in the interior that employ the vivid use of color.

The Home Building Association Bank in Newark is no longer, at least in the sense of its original function, a bank. Since its completion the building has been used not only as a bank, but as a trust company, a butcher shop, and for the past 22 years as a jewelry shop. There have been drastic changes of the interior and partial alteration of the exterior.

The exterior of the building has undergone only minor alterations in comparison with the interior. The doorway and windows have been enlarged, and awnings have been added to the lower windows. The number of exterior alterations is limited, but the damage done to the symmetry and unity of its facade is not so negligible. By extending the display windows below the still visible terra-cotta borders the tight symmetrical design of the facade is destroyed. The awnings are destructive in the sense that they obscure the proportional relationships formed by these window panels with the ones above them. But the most blatant and incongruous alteration exists with the entranceway; it has been placed on an angle by chopping through the corner of the building and is framed on either side by curved glass showcases. In order to make this possible, the load-bearing masonry of the corner has been replaced by a steel support.

The interior space of the Newark building has undergone complete alteration, except for the vault, which still remains. The ceiling has been lowered so that we no longer see Sullivan's original stained glass panels, and the richly ornamented and textured wall surfaces have been painted over.

The Purdue State Bank, one of Sullivan's more simple designs, has been grossly disfigured by incompatible exterior and interior alterations and expansion. The appendage of a larger contemporary structure replaces the original Sullivan building as the main area of business. As a result, the entrance to the building, which assumed a commanding position on the street corner, has been partially bricked-up to form a show window, surmounted by an oversized sign. The entrance, originally a primary focal area in the design, is no longer of any importance visually or functionally.

The new addition is in complete contradiction to the Sullivan building in both style and in the choice of materials used in its construction. In place of a deep-red brick, the addition uses a light, irregularly laid stonework; in place of intricate detail and ornamentation there is delineation; and in place of the self-contained, vault-like presence that characterizes the Sullivan building, there exists, instead, a glass-walled nakedness and openness.

In relation to the surrounding architecture today the building exists in an architectural void; this feeling is enhanced by the island setting of the block, the nondescript architecture of a Burger Chef upstreet from it, and a Mobil station and residential area behind it. Except for the service station the remaining buildings are far removed from the site by location and the width of the streets, and with the characterless image they project, all tend to have a negative influence upon the building. The bank looks as if Sullivan anticipated future block development behind it, with his bank providing the cornerstone. Since nothing of this nature has happened, the building looks incomplete and somewhat inadequate. It needs supporting and reinforcing members such as the neighboring structures that border and surround the banks in Newark and Sidney.

Although the handling of details and ornamentation and the quality of materials used here are not as powerful as in most of Sullivan's designs, the bright use of color in the ornamental bands that frame the doorway and windows and certain other ornamental details are a redeeming factor. The enameled shine of the green and yellow colored surfaces is almost jewel-like in quality. And in this respect it is easy to see why Sullivan referred to these banks as his "jewelboxes"; the bank in Sidney with its flourish of color and ornamentation and colored windows is the Sullivan "jewelbox" personified.

The interior of the Purdue bank epitomizes the bastardization of Sullivan's work. There are no longer any characteristic features which could be remotely related to Sullivan's hand. The clearest example of Purdue's "modernization" is the treatment of the window in contrast to Sullivan's window design in the Sidney bank.

What has happened to the Purdue National Bank and the Home Building Association Bank is tragic in that we are destroying not just beautiful works of architecture, but our very own heritage as well. It is to be hoped that these buildings and others like them will be saved from further destruction by legislation designed to preserve and protect such works. The Peoples Savings and Loan Association Bank at Sidney, which has been declared an historical landmark, is a prime example of what can be done and should be done.

Best preserved of the banks designed by Louis Sullivan isPeople's Savings & Loan Association, Sidney, Ohio.

Striking features are the tan terra cotta border at top, richexterior ornamentation, and stained glass windows.

An interior view of the green translucent glass windows, adistinctive architectural element of the Sidney bank.

Intimations of the original beauty of this Newark, Ohiobuilding remain amidst deplorable exterior changes, butinside there is very little left of Sullivan's design.

In West Lafayette, Indiana, the Purdue National Bank standsin an architectural void, its original entrance now a window,its annex an incongruous glassed-in box.

Details of Louis Sullivan's rich exterior ornamentation, and the unusual drinking fountain preserved in the Sidney bank.

Details of Louis Sullivan's rich exterior ornamentation, and the unusual drinking fountain preserved in the Sidney bank.

Details of Louis Sullivan's rich exterior ornamentation, and the unusual drinking fountain preserved in the Sidney bank.