American architect and author
Herman Lee Meader
(December 21, 1874,
New Orleans
[3]
– February 14, 1930) was an American architect and author.
[4]
Life and career
[
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]
Meader was born in
New Orleans
, the son of Herman Frederick Louis Meader and Susanne Lee Meader (
nee
Equen). Meader was educated at
Soule Business College
[5]
and
Tulane
,
Cornell
and
Harvard
Universities,
[3]
and received a
Bachelor of Science
from Harvard in 1898.
[3]
He worked as an architect in New York, first in the office of
Ernest Flagg
until 1905, and then
Raymond Almirall
afterwards for about four years.
[3]
[5]
Both Flagg and Almirall were known for
terra cotta
and color effects in their architecture.
[6]
Meader married Queenie Ethel Carr in New York on March 17, 1909.
[5]
After travelling abroad, he returned to New York in 1913 to start his own practice,
[5]
receiving commissions to design several prominent buildings in Manhattan, both commercial and residential. He also did much work for the
Astor estate
, including the
Waldorf Hotel
at 8
West 33rd Street
,
[4]
then the heart of the fashionable shopping district. Meader lived in the Waldorf Hotel penthouse, where he created a surrounding rooftop Italian garden.
[7]
There he held elaborate parties which attracted musicians, artists, writers, prizefighters, chess players and others – at one, Meader staged a fight between a black snake and a king snake.
[6]
Meader was a member of the Harvard Club, the Strollers Club, the Astor
Masonic Lodge
, the
National Geographic Society
and the New York Southern Society.
[5]
He was also a
yachtsman
.
[4]
Architecture
[
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]
Meader was intensely interested in
Mayan
and
Aztec
architecture and made regular expeditions to
Chichen Itza
in the
Yucatan
and other sites.
[6]
Among the buildings he designed are:
Also, in 1920?22, Meader designed an L-shaped addition to the
American Surety Company Building
at 100 Broadway, fronting both Broadway and Pine Streets, which complemented
Bruce Price
's original 1894?1896 design.
[17]
[18]
Changes in building codes as well as the necessities of visual balance required Meader to make some alterations to Price's building, such as replacing the original gilded parapet with "an elaborate cornice topped by a row of anthemia" on top of the new two-story penthouse.
[19]
Writings
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]
Meader published several collections of epigrams, such as "A rake may be old at 40, but he has a bunch of reminiscences that will cheer him up until he is 60." These titles including
Reflections of the morning after
(1903),
Thro' the rye: more reflections
(1906),
Cupid the Surgeon
(1908),
Four Ways to Win a Woman
and
Alimony
.
[3]
[5]
He also wrote the children's book,
Motor Goose Rhymes for Motor Ganders
(1905) about the dangers of "motoring".
References
[
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]
Notes
- ^
a
b
White & Willensky, p. 213
- ^
White & Willensky, p.193
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Leonard, John William; Hamersly, Lewis Randolph and Holmes, Frank R.
Who's Who in New York City and State, Volume 4
. New York: L.R. Hamersly, 1909.
- ^
a
b
c
The New York Times
(Feb. 15, 1930)
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Harvard College Class of 1898 quindecennial report
(1913), p. 219.
- ^
a
b
c
The New York Times
(Jan 6, 2002)
- ^
Popular Science
(November 1924)
- ^
"154 West 14th Street"
NYCLPC Designation Report
- ^
White & Willensky, p. 335
- ^
Gray, Christopher Gray and Braley, Suzanne.
New York streetscapes: tales of Manhattan's significant buildings and landmarks
. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2003.
ISBN
978-0-8109-4441-1
- ^
"37 West 37th Street"
on SkyscraperPage.com
- ^
"37 West 37th Street"
[
dead link
]
on Emporis.com
- ^
"10 East 39th Street"
on Emporis.com
- ^
"509 5th Avenue"
on Emporis.com
- ^
Mackay, Constance d'Arcy.
The Little Theatre in the United States
New York: Henry Holt, 1917. pp. 73?75.
- ^
Stern, Robert A. M.; Gilmartin, Patrick; Mellins, Thomas (1987).
New York 1930: Architecture and Urbanism Between the Two World Wars
. New York: Rizzoli. p. 781.
ISBN
978-0-8478-3096-1
.
OCLC
13860977
.
- ^
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
;
Dolkart, Andrew S.
; Postal, Matthew A. (2009). Postal, Matthew A. (ed.).
Guide to New York City Landmarks
(4th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. p. 12.
ISBN
978-0-470-28963-1
.
- ^
Landau, Sarah; Condit, Carl W. (1996).
Rise of the New York Skyscraper, 1865?1913
. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. pp. 231?233.
ISBN
978-0-300-07739-1
.
OCLC
32819286
.
- ^
Harris, Gale.
"American Surety Company Building Designation Report"
,
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
(June 24, 1997).
Note:
According to this source, Meader designed a two-story addition to the "Schermerhorn Building" in 1916, but whether this refers to the building at
376-380 Lafayette Street
(
Henry Hardenbergh
, 1888-89) or to
Audubon House
(
George B. Post
, 1890-91), both of which were originally called the "Schermerhorn Building", is unclear, as both buildings have what could be two-story additions on top.
Bibliography
External links
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