James Betelle, Where Are You?

The Search for a Lost Architect

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Entries Tagged as 'Miscellaneous'

Betelle Takes a Stand

February 19th, 2007 · No Comments · Articles, Miscellaneous

Happy accidents are rare in the musty world of research, so I do all I can to make them happen. To that end, if I’ve gotten hold of a paper or journal with a specific article I need, I don’t leave it at that. I will comb the entire volume, and even flanking issues, in [...]

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Separated at Birth?

December 14th, 2006 · No Comments · Architecture, Miscellaneous

I was zipping through Saturday Night Live the other day on my DVR (it’s the only sane way to watch the show), when a sketch involving a classroom made me jam on the pause button. The establishing shot was a video still of the entrance of a school building. It was a traditional Collegiate Gothic [...]

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Old Schools = Bad Schools?

November 12th, 2006 · 1 Comment · Architecture, Miscellaneous

I live near the Julia Richman Educational Complex (JREC), a half-block school building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Built in 1923 as a vocational girls school, Julia Richman is a boxy pile of red brick with minimal but tasteful classical adornment. A simple pediment entrance is inscribed, “Knowledge is Power.” It eventually became a regular [...]

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All I Got is a Photograph

October 24th, 2006 · 2 Comments · Architecture, Diary, Miscellaneous

I found this wonderful photograph of the Chamber of Commerce Building in the Newark Library’s photo archive. It works on a both large and small scale, from the full breadth of the building down to fine details at street level. After visiting the building recently I was hoping to find a good period photo, and this [...]

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The Franklin Murphy House, Newark NJ

October 14th, 2006 · 2 Comments · Architecture, Miscellaneous

The only private residence Guilbert & Betelle designed (that I know of) was the Franklin Murphy House in Newark, New Jersey. Franklin Murphy had quite a life; born in 1846, he fought in the Civil War as a teenager, seeing action at Gettysburg. He went on to found the Murphy Varnish Company in Newark, and [...]

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