Mellor, Meigs & Howe

Mellor, Meigs & Howe (1916–28) was a Philadelphia architectural firm best remembered for its Neo-Norman residential designs.

Mellor, Meigs & Howe architectural office (altered in 1912 from a stable), Philadelphia.

Mellor & Meigs (1906–17 & 1928–40)
Walter Mellor, 1920.
Arthur I. Meigs, 1920.

Mellor & Meigs, its predecessor and successor firm, was founded in 1906 by Walter Mellor and Arthur Ingersoll Meigs, who had worked together in the office of Theophilus P. Chandler Jr. The young architects designed clubs and suburban residences in a variety of revivalist styles.

The pair converted a former stable on Juniper Street into their architectural office, with drafting rooms on two floors and a high-ceilinged private office for entertaining clients. For the firm's early commissions, they relied on family and personal connections. Meigs was a graduate of Princeton University. He designed the Colonial Revival Princeton Charter Club (1912–14), one of the university's eating clubs.[1] Mellor had joined the Phi Gamma Delta ("Fiji") fraternity while attending the University of Pennsylvania School of Architecture. He designed a Collegiate Gothic "Fiji" house at his alma mater (1913–14) and "Fiji" houses at Penn State University (1914–15) and at the University of Washington (1929).[1]

Meigs designed an elaborate Tudor Revival fantasy for "Glen Brook" (1914–17), the Caspar W. Morris residence in Haverford, Pennsylvania. Mellor secured the commission for and designed the Renaissance Revival Bird House (1914–15) at the Philadelphia Zoo.[2] Samuel Yellin fashioned custom metalwork for many of the firm's projects, and Mellor & Meigs designed a Spanish Revival workshop (1915) for him in West Philadelphia.

Mellor, Meigs & Howe (1917–28)

George Howe, who had graduated from the Ecole de Beaux Arts and worked in the office of Furness, Evans & Company, joined Mellor & Meigs in February 1917.[3] Meigs was more restrained in designing "Ropsley" (1916–18), the Francis I. McIlhenny residence in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, whose innovative plan is credited to Howe.[4] "Ropsley" was more Norman than English, and Meigs designed gardens that were an integral part of the whole.[5]

Howe and Meigs both served in the Armed Forces during World War I, and were absent from the firm, 1917–19.[6] Following their return, they developed an "American domestic architecture based on vernacular forms."[7]

Their buildings were erected on an intelligent organic plan and executed in local materials with unusual structural honesty. The result was a kind of international provincial style, individual and consistent, which had a tiny influence on American domestic architecture.[8]

The firm received awards and national attention—winning the 1922 Gold Medal from the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (for the Robert T. McCracken residence), and the 1925 Gold Medal for Excellence in Design from the Architectural League of New York (for Laverock Farm).[9] Their mature Neo-Norman style, an "amalgram of Howe's formalism and sensitivity to materials with some of the more theatrically picturesque elements of Arthur Meig's work,"[10] was repeated at Oxmoor (1926) and Pheasant Run Farm (1927–29).[11]

Meigs is credited as the primary designer of Marjorie Walter Goodhart Hall (1926–28), the auditorium and concert hall of Bryn Mawr College.[12] The $410,000 commission was the firm's largest, and the French Gothic building featured soaring arches and extensive ironwork by Yellin.[12] Meigs was celebrated at its December 4, 1928 formal opening, a concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra under conductor Leopold Stokowski.[12]

Various conflicts within the firm – including a dispute over design credit for Goodhart Hall – led to Howe's departure in 1928. He said that he was leaving, "to become a priest of the Modern Faith."[7] Howe partnered with William Lescaze on the PSFS Building (1930–32) in Philadelphia, the first International Style skyscraper constructed in the United States.[13] He continued his career as a Modernist architect.

The firm's name reverted to Mellor & Meigs, and it continued with mostly residential work until Mellor's death in 1940.[7] Meigs associated with younger architects on projects, before going into semi-retirement.[1]

Selected works

Mellor & Meigs
  • Private office of Mellor & Meigs (1912).
    Private office of Mellor & Meigs (1912).
  • Princeton Charter Club (1912–14), Princeton University.
    Princeton Charter Club (1912–14), Princeton University.
  • Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity House (1913–14), University of Pennsylvania.
    Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity House (1913–14), University of Pennsylvania.
  • Bird House (1914–15), Philadelphia Zoo.
    Bird House (1914–15), Philadelphia Zoo.
  • Caspar W. Morris residence (1914–17), Haverford, Pennsylvania.
    Caspar W. Morris residence (1914–17), Haverford, Pennsylvania.
  • Yellin Shop (1915), Philadelphia.
    Yellin Shop (1915), Philadelphia.

Mellor, Meigs & Howe
Spider screen by Samuel Yellin, Mrs. Arthur V. Meigs residence (1921), Radnor, Pennsylvania.
  • Ropsley (1916–18).
    Ropsley (1916–18).
  • Robert T. McCracken residence (1919–21).
    Robert T. McCracken residence (1919–21).
  • Plan for Robert T. McCracken residence (1919–21).
    Plan for Robert T. McCracken residence (1919–21).
  • Laverock Farm (1919–25, demolished 1956).
    Laverock Farm (1919–25, demolished 1956).

References
  1. Sandra L. Tatman, Arthur Ingersoll Meigs data from the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings (PAB) project of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia
  2. "Philadelphia – Alumni Notes," The Phi Gamma Delta Magazine, vol. 36, no. 7 (August 1914), p. 794.
  3. The American Architect, vol. 61, no. 2149 (February 28, 1917), New York, p. 151.
  4. James B. Garrison, "Ropsley," Houses of Philadelphia, Chestnut Hill and the Wissahickon Valley, 1890-1930, Acanthus Press, New York, 2008, pp. 152-59.
  5. Arthur I. Meigs, "The Design of a House at Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia," The Architectural Forum, vol. 32, no. 3 (October 1919), pp. 119-22, plates 49-58.
  6. Mellor, Meigs & Howe data from PAB
  7. Wenzel, Paul and Maurice Krakow, A Monograph of the Works of Mellor Meigs & Howe, New York: The Architectural Book Publishing Co., 1923; reprinted Boulder, CO: Graybooks, 1991, Introduction to the new edition
  8. West, Helen Howe, George Howe: Architect 1886-1955, Philadelphia, PA: The William Nunn Company, Inc., 1973.
  9. James B. Garrison, "Laverock Farm," Houses of Philadelphia, Chestnut Hill and the Wissahickon Valley, 1890-1930, Acanthus Press, New York, 2008, pp. 202-07.
  10. James B. Garrison, "Oxmoor," Houses of Philadelphia, Chestnut Hill and the Wissahickon Valley, 1890-1930, Acanthus Press, New York, 2008, pp. 195-201.
  11. James B. Garrison, "Pheasant Run Farm," Houses of Philadelphia, Chestnut Hill and the Wissahickon Valley, 1890-1930, Acanthus Press, New York, 2008, pp. 246-51.
  12. O'Loughlin, Kathy (February 2, 2010). "ML History: Historic Goodhart Hall makes a new debut". Main Line Media News. Retrieved August 30, 2022.
  13. Pitts, Carolyn (July 27, 1976). "National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form: Philadelphia Saving Fund Society Building" (PDF). United States Department of the Interior.
  14. Pickering Hunt Club data from PAB
  15. Mellor & Meigs Architectural Office data from PAB
  16. Beale Residence data from PAB
  17. Princeton Charter Club data from PAB
  18. Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity House data from PAB
  19. Philadelphia Zoological Gardens Bird House data from PAB
  20. Morris Residence data from PAB
  21. Yellin Ornamental Iron Workshop Mellor, Meigs & Howe data from PAB
  22. Devereaux Residence data from PAB
  23. Meigs Residence data from PAB
  24. Dulles Residence data from PAB
  25. Sarah Pick (October 1995). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Friendfield Plantation". National Park Service. Retrieved July 4, 2016. with 54 photos
  26. Frances Cheston Train, A Carolina Plantation Remembered, The Social Register Association, Summer 2013.
  27. McIlhenny Residence data from PAB
  28. McCracken Residence data from PAB
  29. Newbold Residence data from PAB
  30. Mrs. Arthur Meigs Residence data from PAB
  31. Bullitt Residence data from PAB
  32. Marjorie Walter Goodhart Hall data from PAB
  33. McLean Residence & Farm data from PAB
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