Joseph Lyman Silsbee (November 25, 1848 – January 31, 1913) was a significant American architect during the 19th and early 20th centuries. He was well known for his facility of drawing and gift for designing buildings in a variety of styles. His most prominent works ran through Syracuse, Buffalo and Chicago. He was influential as mentor to a generation of architects, most notably architects of the Prairie School including the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Early life Joseph Lyman Silsbee was born on November 25, 1848, in Salem, Massachusetts. Silsbee graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1865 and Harvard in 1869. In 1870, he became an early student of the first school of architecture in the United States at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Career After graduating from Harvard and MIT, he served an apprenticeship with Boston architects William Robert Ware & Henry Van Brunt and William Ralph Emerson, respectively. Silsbee traveled around Europe before moving to Syracuse, New York in 1874. In 1875, he married Anna Baldwin Sedgwick, daughter of influential lawyer and politician Charles Baldwin Sedgwick. He had a prolific practice and at one point had three simultaneously operating offices. He had offices in Syracuse (1875–1885), Buffalo (Silsbee & Marling, 1882–1887), and Chicago (Silsbee and Kent, 1883–1884). From 1883 to 1885, his Syracuse office was a partnership with architect Ellis G. Hall. Silsbee's Chicago office had a number of architects who were later to become known in their own right, including: Frank Lloyd Wright George Grant Elmslie George W. Maher Irving J. Gill Henry G. Fiddelke Silsbee was one of the first professors of architecture at Syracuse University, another one of the earliest schools of architecture in the nation. He was a founding member of the Chicago and Illinois Chapters of the American Institute of Architects. In 1894, Silsbee was awarded the Peabody Medal by the Franklin Institute for his design for a Moving Sidewalk. This invention had its debut at the Worlds Columbian Exposition and saw usage in subsequent Worlds Fairs.
Style of architecture Among his most prominent architectural works is the landmark Syracuse Savings Bank Building (1876). Built next to the Erie Canal on Clinton Square in Syracuse, it is often referred to as a textbook example of the High Victorian Gothic style. Silsbee also designed the White Memorial Building (1876), the Amos Block (1878), and the Oakwood Cemetery Chapel (1879–80), all extant in Syracuse. Upland Farm (1892), the lost mansion designed for Frederick R. and Dora Sedgwick Hazard in nearby Solvay, New York, is an example of the fashionable residential work that Silsbee was best known for. Silsbee also designed various dwellings around New York State in Ballston Spa, Albany, and Peekskill (in the latter place for Henry Ward Beecher)
Silsbee designed the lavish interiors of Potter Palmer's "castle" in Chicago. Several of his residential designs survive in Riverside and Evanston Illinois. His most prominent surviving work in Chicago is the Lincoln Park Conservatory. Considerably smaller in scale but filled with such elegant details as mosaic floors and a graceful oak roof with "hammer-beams trusses and curved brackets" is his Horatio N. May Chapel on the grounds of Rosehill Cemetery."Costly Tombs of the Rich." Chicago Tribune. August 19, 1900. Silsbee designed the movable walkway at the World's Columbian Exposition pier in 1893, and submitted plans to provide this improvement for the Brooklyn Bridge in 1894, although these plans were never executed.
In his 1941 autobiography, Frank Lloyd Wright wrote:
Silsbee practiced architecture until his death in 1913.
Works Works include:
Building ImageDatesLocationCity, State DescriptionWilliam S. Warfield House1886 built1979 NRHP-listed1624 Maine St.Quincy, IllinoisBuilt in 1886 on Maine Street in a blend of the Richardsonian Romanesque and Queen Anne styles. The house features a stone exterior with terra cotta decorations, a massive plan, and a large western porch as well as several smaller porches throughout.Bryant H. and Lucie Barber Housec. 1901 built1993 NRHP-listed103 North Barber AvenuePolo, IllinoisConstructed around 1901, the house has brick walls, a stone foundation and incorporates steel into its construction.Bryant H. and Lucie Barber House, "Property Information Report", HAARGIS Database, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, accessed January 22, 2011.Henry D. Barber Housec.1891 built1974 NRHP-listed410 West Mason StreetPolo, IllinoisDesigned by Silsbee and constructed around 1891, with minor alterations in 1899,Henry D. Barber House, "Property Information Report", HAARGIS Database, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, accessed January 22, 2011. the brick and limestone home is cast in Classical Revival style.Amos Block1878 built1978 NRHP-listed210-216 West Water StreetSyracuse, New YorkRomanesque Revival building formerly fronting on the Erie Canal, from which goods were loaded and unloaded from boats and Accompanying 18 photos, exterior and interior, from 1977, 1978, and undated Syracuse Savings Bank1875 built1971 NRHP-listed102 N. Salina St.Downtown Syracuse, New YorkDesigned by Silsbee; built in 1875 adjacent to the Erie Canal; its passenger elevator, the first in Syracuse, was an attractionWhite Memorial Building1876 built1973 NRHP-listed100 E. Washington St.Syracuse, New YorkProminent, 1876-built, Gothic building with "exceedingly pleasant" dissimilatudes and Accompanying two Historic American Buildings Survey photos, exterior, from 1962 Unity Chapel1886 built1974 NRHP-listedS of Spring Green off WI 23Spring Green, WisconsinShingle style rural Wisconsin family chapel for the Chicago Unitarian minister Jenkin Lloyd Jones, designed by Silsbee (who was also building a Chicago church for him), with interior work left to Jones' young nephew Frank Lloyd Wright.Charles H. Sedgwick House1884 builtc.1925 demolishedJames St.Sedgwick neighborhood, Syracuse, New YorkIts roof had a "unique double-gable, a motif also seen on Silsbee's Thomas Drummond Home, built about a year later." Was built for Silsbee's brother-in-law, Charles Hamilton Sedgwick.Thomas Drummond Home
Gallery
References Notes
Further reading Syracuse-Onondaga County Planning Agency (1975). Onondaga Landmarks. Harley McKee, Patricia Earle, Paul Malo (1964). Architecture Worth Saving in Onondaga County. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. Angela Hess.
External links
Joseph Lyman Silsbee at buffalo.edu , Syracuse Syracuse Savings Bank photographs
Hazard Mansion photographs