New York Herald Building (1895) – Atlanta

A good idea never dies, as proven by G.L. Norrman‘s design for the New York Herald Building at the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta.

More of a booth than a building, the structure’s primary purpose was to distribute copies of the New York Herald to exposition visitors, with the added service of delivering letters and telegrams sent to tourists from their friends and family in the North.²

The structure was built of cheap wood and intended to last for the duration of the exposition: a little over 3 months.³ But Norrman rarely did anything by half, so the booth was designed as a tiny tetrastyle temple — complete with a raised podium, a porch with 4 Ionic columns, and a decorative frieze and pediment. The entire building was also painted white,⁴ giving it the full classical effect.

Norrman’s inspiration for the project clearly came from his own 1892 design for the Georgia State Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

As conceived by Norrman, the Georgia State Building was to be a 50-by-150-foot hexastyle temple made entirely of Georgia materials,⁶ including “liberal use of parti-colored marbles”,⁷ marble tile floors, a terra cotta roof,⁸ and “dressed wood effects” to “remind the traveled beholder of the sublime artistic effects so frequently produced in Venetian and Florentine buildings”.⁹

The project wasn’t executed, as the state of Georgia couldn’t secure enough space for it at the exposition.^{10 11} Additionally, the estimated $10,000 building¹² had to be funded entirely by private donations, which failed to materialize.¹³

Norrman was obviously pleased with his design, however: Early in the project’s development, he suggested that the Georgia State Building be “lithographed and copyrighted”, with proceeds funding its construction.¹⁴

And the building was indeed lithographed — Norrman’s then-assistant, W.L. Stoddart, drew an exquisite pen-and-ink wash of the proposed design (pictured above), which was published in the American Architect and Building News in July 1892.

An illustration of the building was also entered into the Architectural League of New York’s 8th annual exhibition in January 1893, which included designs from the World’s Columbian Exposition. In describing the show, The Architectural and Building Monthly singled out Norrman’s design from 15 other state entries, writing somewhat inaccurately:

. “…the Georgian design by G.L. Norrman, of Atlanta, is the only one which can be considered an exponent of a type. The design is characteristic of the Sunny South, where the public buildings have always been more ornate and graceful than in the more material North. It is of the Grecian temple style, but there is enough originality and boldness in the treatment to defend the architect from any suggestion of a too slavish conservatism. There is a beautiful proportion carried out in the details, and the whole is a harmonious picture.”¹⁵

Given its positive reception in New York, it’s fitting that Norrman adapted his world’s fair design for a New York newspaper, no matter how short-lived its use: Following the close of the Cotton States Exposition, the New York Herald Building was demolished in January 1896.^{16 17}

References

1. “Herald’s Booth At Atlanta”. New York Herald, October 20, 1895, p. 10. ↩︎
2. ibid. ↩︎
3. ibid. ↩︎
4. ibid. ↩︎
5. American Architect and Building News, Vol. 38, No. 864 (July 16, 1892). ↩︎
6. “The Georgia Building.” The Atlanta Constitution, July 25, 1892, p. 6. ↩︎
7. “Georgia At The Fair.” The Atlanta Constitution, March 10, 1892, p. 8. ↩︎
8. “The Georgia Building”. The Atlanta Constitution, July 24, 1892, p. 15. ↩︎
9. “Georgia At The Fair.” The Atlanta Constitution, March 10, 1892, p. 8. ↩︎
10. “Georgia’s Exhibit”. The Atlanta Constitution, March 22, 1892, p. 7. ↩︎
11. “The Governor Talks”. The Atlanta Constitution, March 30, 1892, p. 5. ↩︎
12. ibid. ↩︎
13. “The Georgia Building”. The Atlanta Constitution, July 24, 1892, p. 15. ↩︎
14. “Georgia At The Fair.” The Atlanta Constitution, March 10, 1892, p. 8. ↩︎
15. “Architectural League Exhibition.” The California Architect and Building News, Vol. 14, No. 3 (March 1893), p. 32. ↩︎
16. “To Tear It Down”. The Atlanta Constitution, January 14, 1896, p. 7. ↩︎
17. “Left In Ruins Now”. The Atlanta Constitution, January 19, 1896, p. 7. ↩︎
18. Photo credit: Roth, Darlene R. and Jeff Kemph, editors. Piedmont Park: Atlanta’s Common Ground. Athens, Georgia: Hill Street Press (2004), p. 28. ↩︎