Monthly Archives: September 2006

“Modern American Schoolhouses – Some Recent Examples of Specialized Buildings”

The following excerpts are from Modern American Schoolhouses – Some Recent Examples of Specialized Buildings Guilbert & Betelle, Architects by Rawson W. Haddon in The Architectural Record, September 1914. This lengthy article is a survey of the firm’s work of that period, before the death of Guilbert. The author ruminates on the not-strictly Gothic eclecticism of these buildings, as I explored in my recent drive through Newark.

Many things have combined to make the school house one of the most complicated of modern architectural problems. Not only are the usual appointments changed extensively from year to year, but the growing tendency to devote the school to the broader educational uses and to various sorts of social betterment and neighborhood work has also brought special problems: and each new use, whether educational or sociological, puts before the architect intricate questions of design to solve.
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Betelle Retires

In a hand-written letter to the American Institute of Architects, Betelle announced his (very deserved, in my opinion) retirement. It’s not specified what the bill he requests is for (probably his dues), nor, unfortunately, did my photocopy show his new office address. The letter was dated received by the AIA December 21st, 1939. Courtesy of the American Institute of Architects Archives.

Dear Mr. Kemper:-

Holiday Greeting to you! You have probably heard that I have closed up Shop – in other words, Retired after 30 years successful practice. I decided I owed myself some years of leisure and as I could afford to take it, here I am “out of a job” & no place to go–but so far I rather like it.

Please send me my bill to my temporary office address given below–will give permanent address soon as I am definitely settled.

Best wishes to you + the Inst.

Sincerely yours

Columbia High School: Birth of a Building

I’m used to seeing old photographs of schools when they were new and pristine, set against the barren terrain that is indicative of fresh construction. And as my recent tour of Newark showed, it makes for an interesting contrast with contemporary images, where the landscape is overgrown and the school itself may be in various stages of decay. But what about the first stages of life?

A great find I made was a series of construction photographs taken of Columbia High School over a roughly three-year period, from 1925 until 1927 when it was completed. Except for the vintage cars, machinery and external scaffolding, it looks like any typical construction site; mud, wood, concrete and workers standing around. The photos were probably intended for utilitarian insurance record-keeping purposes, but today offer a rare look at the creation of a school building.
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Marie Betelle Sleeps with the Fishes

This morning I went down to the Surrogate Court Building in New York to find information on Marie Betelle. According to her obituary, she died living in NYC, so I was hoping to both find a copy of her will and perhaps see what her building looked like (my first walk around that area revealed no structure where I thought it should be).

The Surrogate Court is a big, imposing cube of Beaux-Arts goodness plunked right down on Chambers Street. I crossed the main entrance, and was dazzled by a beautiful, mosaic-lined barrel-vaulted lobby. It was empty, save for a security desk and a metal detector manned by two guards; one big, one little.

After receiving a visitors pass sticker, I went through the detector. I collected my bag on the other side and headed towards the elevator, when the big guard said loudly, “Sir- come here please.”

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“New School Buildings, State of Delaware”

The following excerpts are from a lengthy article by Betelle that appeared in The American Architect, Vol. CXVII, Number 2321, June 16, 1920. In it, he outlines the roots of Pierre S. duPont’s epic rural school-building plan for the State of Delaware and the civic, educational and personal benefits it would bring to the citizens of that State. Written before any of the structures were completed, the article was accompanied by beautiful pen & ink drawings and floor plans of many of the school designs.

New School Buildings, State of Delaware
By James O. Betelle, A.I.A.

Illustrated by the work of Guilbert & Betelle, Architects for the Delaware School Auxiliary Association, a corporation organized for the purpose of expanding the duPont Fund for new School Buildings to be built in the State of Delaware.

The school building program now in progress throughout the State of Delaware is at once the most interesting and probably the most important that has ever been undertaken by any state.