The Indianola Enterprise. (Indianola, Okla.), Vol. 5, No. 26, Ed. 1 Friday, March 19, 1909 Page: 4 of 8
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NOW dial every enter'iirlalng American city unci town
and village 1i.*ik be mm <•! I fit*r to "spruce up" or to
talk about doing It, having come of a sudden in ti
after all it Isn't exactly bountiful, th
about H 1
This question Is coming into tin* offices of archltectH and officials <*r various sorts
these days from a 11 parts of the country And something Is being done about It, in
fuel, a very groat deal Indeed. Hefore we of th«* present generation are all comfortably
In our graven we will see vast changes Just as astonishing changes an wo have seen
hIuco we wero children, and otic of the moat striking will be the great metamorphosis
conclusion that perhn
lucstion lias uiisen: What ran wo d
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OFFICE.
An tkAHPke Of COLOKIAU ARCKITSCTVAIL so TRVifi TOTNII 2 T*J|_t
5U«ROVN&in<« QVH.D N6«>,|T S OUtN w\i5TAKfM Fo* vfRy OLD BI/IUDING
MNAPOus
MARIE TTA . OHIO.
from ugliness to practical, helpful beauty In our
foundings.
Our big cities, which have the hardest problems of
unlovelincss and Inconvenience (which usually go hand
lu hand) are employing commissions of learned experts
to tell them what they should and can do. The smaller
cities are following suit with local art commissions and
sometimes they send for an expert. The towns and vil-
lages have local Improvement associations and art cul
ture clubs and they are all working in the same diree
ti on
"What's all this fuss about our town being not good
•Hough?" asks the hard-headed business man, who prides
himself on his scorn for all this art fol de-rol. it was
good enough for my folks before me and it's good enough
for me. I'm making money. Ain't we all pretty pros-
perous?"
"Yes, but." answers the culture club, "look at out-
rival down the line. It's got a new postotflce that's a
beauty. It's on a square with trees around it and the new
town hall opposite and a tine new hotel and three new
•tons are coming In on the square. The farmers are
Baying that we haven't any attractions over hero and
they are going over there to do their buving
"1 wondered why that man Jenkins hadn't been in
with an order for three weeks," growls the hard-headed
business man. and scratches his head to aid in the perco
lath a of the new idea.
And so a now convert is made to the belief that good
looks pay, whether it is the good looks oi the stock or
of the package and label or of the seller 01 the store,
the building, the sir* t or the town A pleasant view
gives pleasure just as surel> as does a pleasant face.
Whether tile view be of canned goods or diess ood> or
factories or mountains.
And the fact must be admitted that with the American
people as a whole looks have been considered lc > in the
past than almost anything else. So true is this that we
even forgot what we did tiner know about beauty, about
building farmhouses that were plcasaut and attractive
and public buildings that were dignified and really hand
some. We may have thought we did but now we are
being taught how little w e really undo: stood.
Our forefathers knew, though, and tin y set us an e\
ainj le. the excellence of which we arc just beginning to
appreciate.
The founders of the republic, the men of Washington's
time, brought with them from the old world tine tradi
tlon of the beautiful and ail Inherited instinct for the
value of simplicity Th* \ built courthouses still stand
tng in many little towns In the old south and of New
England that later generations despised but which to-
day have become the models for much of our best new
architecture. These old courthouses, set in the midst of
fine old trees, are genuinely beautiful, but it has taken
us a hundred years to find it out and profit by it be-
cause we lost the traditions of the forefathers and didn't
have time to go back to the old world for a new stock
80, we built queer, ungainly things that didn't lit and
now we are finding out what is the matter with us that
foreigners should laugh at our buildings and go home
and call us barbarians.
The same is true of the homes. All through the south
tod New England the traveler llnds charmiug old rest-
dene e s,
built from
60 to 100
years ago. He says they are beautiful specimens of pure
old Colonial architecture, the one style that is really
American We may agree that they are pleasing. Wo
don t, perhaps, know w hy, but we think It is just be
cause they are old. It has never occurred to us that
they were not far Inferior to our modern, turreted and
otherwise highly embellished residences with the corners
j U sliced off and bay windows bulging from every van-
tage point. Perhaps we liked to look at the old house
best ns it shone white and stately through the trees, but
we supposed it was just a little remnant of sentiment,
and as such, of course, not to be encouraged.
Hut the fact remains that it has taken the American
people neatly a hundred years to grow up to the point
where they could intelligently appreciate the architec-
tural worth of their own inheritance The awakening is
not yet complete, but we are learning vorv fast, in
deed.
An Interesting example of how we are returning to the
standard our forefathers set and are doing what we can
to preserve the title traditions that were theirs is the
Annapolis postottlec Annapolis, where the Culted States
naval academx is. is an old Colonial town. Almost every
building is in that style. Two or throe years ago con-
gress made an appropriation for a new postofflee there.
The matter was referred to the office of the supervising
architect of the treasury, which designs and builds all
I'ncle Sam's mail depots.
Now the supervising architect, Mr. .John Knox Taylor,
happens to be a man of discernment, culture and good
taste lie soon saw that the only kind of a post office that
would be harmonious, pleasing and creditable among all
those Colonial bouses would be one of the Colonial
style At first \nna polls was inclined t > be disappointed.
We are tiled of Colonial," they said. "Wh\ can't you
glv< us something uj to-dste in Queen Anne?"
So Mr. Taylor explained and discussed and went on
with his Colonial plans and built the charming post-
office. a photograph of which is shown on this page.
Quite recently a government official who was interest
oil in the work of the supervising architect s office and
hoard that there was a new postofflcc in Annapolis, re-
turned to Wasl.ii ti n from a visit there. Me at once
hunted up Mr Ta\!or and in a grieved tone remarked:
Say. Taylor. I thought you had just put up a now
postoflice in Anrapolis. I couldn't Hud it."
"We have,** said Mr. Taylor, and it is ——" (naming the
locality).
"Nonsense!" answered the official "l searched that
neighborhood thoroughly for one whole hour and 1 11
take my oath there, is not a building in It less than 75
years old."
Did )on notice that? said the architect, pointing to a
photograph on the wall of his office.
( ertaiuly, that was one of them," was the answer.
Mr. Taylor laughed.
"That is the highest compliment I have received in
the ten years 1 have been in this office." he said.
And now Annapolis, whiuh. by the way. has become
more than reconciled to its Colonial post office since it
has heaid the enthusiastic comments of its many promi-
nent visitors, is to have an
example of the other thing.
Recently congress appro-
priated $14,000,000 for a new
naval academy. With this, under the government's un-
systematic and ridiculous way of looking after its build-
ing operations, the supervising architect had nothing to
do. It was therefore perhaps natural that the winning
designs, passed on by laymen evidently lacking in either
discernment or taste, should be for buildings altogether
un-American in style and entirely incongruous with
either the purpose for which they are intended, the char-
acter of the town ami location or the traditions of the
country. The new naval academy is in the French style,
very fine of its kind, and done by an architect of note
(and French training), but it has the one fatal fault of
being wholly unsuitable. And suitability is the first
principle of good architecture just as it is the first prin-
ciple of a successful career or almost anvthiug else in
life.
This case the Annapolis naval academy is being
much cited these days as a typical and flagrant example
of what President Roosevelt sought to prevent when he
appointed the much-discussed council of fine arts and
gave it power over all executive building and park opera-
tions recently. He incurred the wrath of congress by
doing it. for congress is rs jealous as a spoiled child
in the mat tor of its petty powers, but he also voiced
the sentiment of a vast majority of the people. For it is
very evident that there l.as In , n a meat popular awaken
ing to the value of the art : ido of life and to the pressing
need for federal v« form and the « s ablishnient of stand-
ards and mot ho-.s that w:i! help the individual commu-
nities to help themselves. So great, in fact, is the senti-
ment tb.it both the hens^ ; mi senate are being forced
to consider bills intended to do by law what the president
did by ox< entir e order: turn the supervising architect's of-
fice of Ute treasury into a bureau of tine arts with super-
vision over the buildings and parks of all departments
and add an advisory council composed of leading archi-
tects. painters and sculptors.
It is even possible that congress will be forced by the
public demand to pass su h a measure, though there
is little doubt that the\ will avoid doing so if they can.
at least until after President Roosevelt goes out of
office, which means till the next session.
Instances of the need of such a bureau are especially
numerous at the seat of the national government, in
Washington, and here again the wisdom of our fore-
fathers is apparent. Those buildings that were built in
the early part of the last century are in the main dig-
nified monuments to the sincerity, the intelligence and
the good taste of that time. More than that, they were
placed according to a definite and all embracing group
plan, that of Maj. l'Fntant, which has not been improved
upon to this day. In later years not only was this great
and noble plan lost sight of entirely but such architec-
tural and monumental monstrosities were produced for
the uses of the government or the honor of national
heroes as will be one of the great American jokes for
generations to come
A cOiTLV BviuDlNC. OF THE. FRfiflCH 5TYlt with EXTR/VvA<,An-|
WAS7C- OF A. N O vvMOk.Lt U^iv/ITEO
TO iTi PVP^OSIL AM© tNvlf^ONMtHT
There is reason to fear that the danger of further such
blunders is not past, for congress is not inclined to be
dictated to. It swallowed the "llttrton Idea" measure
making expert advice on contemplated rivers and har-
bors improvements compulsory, but it did so with a
wrv face.
However, the president's council of fine arts is an
accomplished fact and for several years we have been
getting beautiful postoffices at the rate of a hundredvor
more a year. The new department buildings are also
so far ahead of what has gone before, and with all this
growing sentiment and the widespread educational move-
ment working towards more beautiful surroundings for
the next generation hope begins that we will not only
have beautiful architecture but architecture distinctly
American.
In this regard a study of the new postofTlces, the new*
department buildings at Washington and most of the best
new monumental buildings in the larger cities, shows
that architects have gone back for their models to the
original source of the Colonial -to what is known as the
classic style in old (Jivece and Rome are found the
simplest and n ■< t majestic monumental buildings ever
erected, 'flay are the purest source of architectural in-
spiration that man has. Their spirit, too. is in a large
measure 'be -| hit of our democracy—dignity and
strength witli simp.ieity and it seems to have been some
such idea as this that created the Colonial style.
Without forgetting the beauty and inspiration of (Mir
( olonial aivl.itcotinc, we have at last found time to go
back to tl:e old world to renew our nearly lost traditions.
The result is a widespread revival of the classic style,
modified to suit changed conditions and a new and dis-
tinct nationality, but so fundamentally true to the Amer-
ican spirit that we may feel at least that we are on the
road to an expression of ourselves that will picture us
truly to posterity.
Sure Cure For Pirates
A picture recently pvMlshcd in Munich shows that the
peculiar vanity which manifests itself In a desire to lit
photographed ofieu kills the sense of decency," savs a
writer in a lterllu paper. "The picture shows live imi
formed men slamlin^ on the smoking ruins of :i bulldlns
In front of them, propped up n«ainst the debris, are
eight mutilated corpses I utler the picture is this le
gend: The Indian coast has been Infested for hundreds
of years by MuIntra pirates Recently a body of Euro-
peans. conducted bv natives, pursued and captured one
of these robber bands, w hom Ihey bound and cast into
a pagoda, which they then blew up with dynatulte' The
men who |x.sc<! for n picture. In which they seemed to
gloat over the deed, the fruit of which forms the grew,
some foreground, were all Euroveans."
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Williams, B. W. The Indianola Enterprise. (Indianola, Okla.), Vol. 5, No. 26, Ed. 1 Friday, March 19, 1909, newspaper, March 19, 1909; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc269414/m1/4/: accessed April 23, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.