STAIR HALL TO THE CHAMBER AND COMMITTEE ROOMS, CONGRESS HALL, tion of the funds necessary to carry out By all means, the conduct of this important restoration, painstakingly and conscientiously carried out by the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, should encourage other cities, through their officials, to entrust similar works to the architectural profession, which will al CHESTNUT STREET ENTRANCE AND STAIRWAY, CONGRESS HALL, PHILADELPHIA, PA. ways be found willing to go considerably more than half way in such undertakings. The proof of the pudding is in its tasting. Arrangements are being made with the city of Philadelphia, through Mr. Milton B. Medary, president of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, to restore the old City Hall at the opposite end of the Independence Hall group (see "The Architectural Record." July, 1913). Therefore, when the Chapter shall have completed this new work, as well as the remodelling of Independence Square, now actually under way, with so able an architect as Mr. Horace Wells Sellers directing another committee, the Chapter will then have to its credit a patriotic achievement of lasting value to the entire nation, and of peculiar interest to all foreigners who may in the future visit the shrine of American liberty. Wood Carving in the Sacristy, St. Thomas' Church, New York City. Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson, Architects VOL. XXXV. CONTENTS FEBRUARY, 1914. SERIAL NO. 185 Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson, Architects FRONTISPIECE-ENTRANCE OF ST. THOMAS' CHURCH, NEW THE ART OF MAKING A STAINED GLASS WINDOW Notes on the Work of Clara M. Burd By Charles H. Dorr NOTES AND COMMENTS PAGE - 170-179 PHOTOGRAPHS AND MEASURED DRAWINGS OF AN ITALIAN CEILING 180 By Andrew R. Cobb PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD COMPANY 115-119 WEST FORTIETH STREET, NEW YORK F. W. DODGE, President MONTGOMERY SCHUYLER Yearly Subscription-United States $3.00 -Foreign $4.00-Single Copies 35 Cents F. T. MILLER, Secretary and Treasurer Contributing Editors C. MATLACK PRICE HERBERT D. CROLY Copyright 1913 by The Architectural Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson, Architects Photographs by B. G. Mitchell T SIX O'CLOCK on a rainy Tuesday morning the eighth of August, nineteen hundred and five, the old Saint Thomas' Church burned. The cause of the fire was probably defective insulation of the electric light wires in the organ loft. The fire spread rapidly to the wooden roof and in an incredibly short time had so completely demolished the church that it was impossible to rebuild it. Even the stone walls had crumbled from the tremendous heat, so that the corner of Fifty-third Street and Fifth Avenue, which on August seventh was the site of a great church, became on the day following a huge rubbish heap. The Rector, Dr. Ernest M. Stires, hurried from his vacation on Lake George to the scene of the disaster, horrified and stunned by what he saw. St. Thomas' was in ruins and in six weeks a congregation of fifteen hundred people would have returned from their summer holiday and there must be a church in which to receive them. Before him rose a Herculean task. He, the rector, must devise a way of raising a temple from the dust-he must accomplish a miracle rivaling the feats of the genii of Aladdin's lamp with only human means at his disposal. He accomplished the impossible. Never before within the memory of man has a church holding fifteen hundred people been built and equipped and made ready for service in sixty days. New York in August is not a fruitful field for labor of any sort-every one is away in the country-builders, carpenters, manufacturers, all taking advantage of the dead season, have fled the sultry heat rising from the pavements. Look |