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Verna Cook Salomonsky

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Verna Cook Salomonsky
Born
Verna Cook

(1888-10-19)October 19, 1888
Spokane, Washington
Died1978
NationalityAmerican
Alma materÉcole Spéciale d'Architecture
OccupationArchitect
Spouse(s)Edgar Salomonsky
Warren Butler Shipway

Verna Cook Salomonsky (1890–1978) was a pioneering early 20th-century American architect known for her work as a solo practitioner in residential communities outside of New York in the 1920s and 1930s and later as an author on architectural design and history.[1] Following the death of her first husband, Edgar Salomonsky, in 1929, she maintained her own practice and designed several hundred homes, including a model home for the New York World's Fair in 1939. In the 1960s, she and her second husband, Warren Butler Shipway, wrote several books on Mexican domestic architecture and design.[1][2]

Education

Verna Cook was born in Spokane, Washington on October 19, 1888 to Harlan J. Cook, a local businessman, and Mara S. Taylor Cook.[1][3] Cook attended Spokane High school, graduating in 1907, and then enrolled for a year at The Misses Gilman's School for Girls in Boston, Massachusetts.[4] She subsequently traveled to Paris and enrolled at the École Spéciale d'Architecture for two years, leaving in October 1911.[2] Upon her return to the United States, she began two and a half years of coursework at Columbia University's School of Architecture from 1912 to 1913.[4]

Career

In 1913, Cook began working as a junior drafter in the office of William Knighton in Salem, Oregon.[4] After leaving Knighton's offices in 1915, she returned to New York City in 1916 to begin a three-year long position as a general drafter and designer in the office of Dwight James Baum.[4] During this three-year period, she also worked for three months in 1917 for Howard Major and six months in 1918 for Electus D. Litchfield.[4]

By 1920, Cook had married fellow Columbia graduate Edgar Salomonsky and the couple established their own firm, focusing largely on residential architecture.[5][6] Their offices were located at 368 Lexington Avenue until 1921, when they moved to 331 Madison Avenue; in the late 1920s they were located at 40 East 49th Street and by 1936, they were located at 424 Madison Avenue.[7][8]

During the late 1920s, Cook also created the designs for several lines of "boudoir accessories" including hand mirrors, combs, and hairbrushes.[9][10]

After Edgar's death in 1929, Verna continued to practice alone, completing hundreds of residences in the New York metropolitan area and later in California.[11] Her work primarily relied on traditional vocabularies, including Georgian, Colonial and English style houses as well as eclectic combinations of various styles.[1] In 1936, House and Garden selected her firm to design the magazine's first "Ideal House," which was exhibited as a model home in the "Town of Tomorrow" at the 1939 World's Fair in New York.[12] By 1937, she was a registered architect in New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania and had served as a critic for one semester at the School of Design for Women in Philadelphia, PA and for three years at the New York School of Interior Decoration in New York City.[4] Cook was also among the first female members of the Architectural League of New York; the League opened its membership to women in 1934, and in 1936, Cook was the only female architect admitted.[13]

In 1939, Cook married her second husband, Warren Butler Shipway, a 1921 graduate of Princeton University with a degree in civil engineering.[14][15] The couple moved to California in 1947, and travel to Mexico in the 1950s inspired five books on historic and contemporary Mexican residential architecture, cowritten by Cook and her husband.[16]

Cook died in 1978 in La Jolla, California, and her archives today reside at the University of California at San Diego.[17]

Built works

  • House in Fieldston (1920), Riverdale, New York City, with Edgar Salomonsky[18]
  • House of M.F. Griffin (1928), Scarsdale, N.Y., with Edgar Salomonsky[19]
  • House of Raymond Faith (1928), Bryn Mawr Park, N.Y., with Edgar Salomonsky[20]
  • House of Edgar Salomonsky, Scarsdale, N.Y., with Edgar Salomonsky[21]
  • C.E. Wells House (1929), Woodland Park, Summit, New Jersey, with Edgar Salomonsky[6]
  • House of Clifford Walsh (1933), Scarsdale, N.Y.[22]
  • C. Ernest Greenwood House (1933), Scarsdale, N.Y.[23]
  • Tauton Road House (1934), Scarsdale, N.Y.[24]
  • Lockwood and Axtell Drive House (1934), Scarsdale, N.Y.[25]
  • House in Berkley, Scarsdale (1933)[26]
  • Marjorie Warren House (1933) North Castle, NY[27]
  • Dr. Herman Prange House (1934), Scarsdale, NY[28]
  • House of C.G. Novotny (1935), Scarsdale, NY[29]
  • Residence of A.W. Brown (1936), Scarsdale, NY[30]
  • Pugliese House (1938), Harrison, NY[31]
  • Dwight and Kate Wade House (1940), Sevierville, Tennessee. National Register of Historic Places (1997).

Awards

  • First Prize, "Brick House." Small House Competition, 1921.[32]
  • Second prize, Small House Competition sponsored by The House Beautiful, 1927.[16]
  • House and Garden magazine's first "Ideal House," 1936.[16]

Publications

  • Salomonsky, Verna Cook. "The Year-Round Service Porch, Half Indoors, Half Out, a Constant Delight." (Illustrations by the Author.)The Washington Post, Apr 07, 1924.
  • Salomonsky, Verna Cook and Edgar Salomonsky. An exemplar of antique furniture design : a collection of measured drawings of furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art accompanied with photographs and text. Grand Rapids: Periodical Publishing Company, 1923.[33]
  • Shipway, Verna Cook. Masterpieces of furniture, in photographs and measured drawings. New York: Dover Publications, 1953.
  • Shipway, Verna Cook and Warren Shipway, The Mexican House, Old & New. New York: Architectural Book Publishing Company, 1960.
  • Shipway, Verna Cook and Warren Shipway, Mexican interiors. New York: Architectural Book Publishing Company, 1962.
  • Shipway, Verna Cook and Warren Shipway, Mexican homes of today. New York: Architectural Book Publishing Company, 1964.
  • Shipway, Verna Cook and Warren Shipway, Decorative design in Mexican homes. New York: Architectural Book Publishing Company, 1966.
  • Shipway, Verna Cook and Warren Shipway, Houses of Mexico; origins and traditions. New York: Architectural Book Publishing Company, 1970.

References and sources

  1. ^ a b c d Allaback, Sarah (2008). The First American Women Architects. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. p. 214.
  2. ^ a b Chaise, Anne (March 8, 2012). "Les pionnières de l'architecture : premières femmes à l'ESA". Société des Architectes Diplômés de l'École Speciale d'Architecture.
  3. ^ Year: 1900; Census Place: Spokane Ward 3, Spokane, Washington; Roll: 1751; Page: 14A; Enumeration District: 0067; FHL microfilm: 1241751Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Salomonsky, Verna Cook, Membership Files, The American Institute of Architects Archives, The AIA Historical Directory of American Architects, s.v. “Salomonsky, Verna Cook,” (ahd1038963), http://public.aia.org/sites/hdoaa/wiki/Wiki%20Pages/ahd1038963.aspx (accessed October 1, 2015)
  5. ^ Year: 1920; Census Place: Manhattan Assembly District 13, New York, New York; Roll: T625_1208; Page:16A; Enumeration District: 944; Image: 723Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
  6. ^ a b "BUYS IN WOODLAND PARK.: C.E. Wells Acquires Cotswold Farmhouse Type of Home". New York Times: N22. May 19, 1929.
  7. ^ "Architects Lease on East Side". New York Times: 46. 5 April 1927.
  8. ^ "PERSONALS". The American Architect and the Architectural Review. 120 (2380): 376. 9 November 1921.
  9. ^ "Display Ad 55". Chicago Daily Tribune: E2. Dec 15, 1929.
  10. ^ "Advertisement: Lucite (Lucite Hanger Co.)". Vogue. 7 (72): 112b. 29 September 1928.
  11. ^ "Obituary 6". New York Times: 21. December 27, 1929.
  12. ^ "A Preview of Houses in Town of Tomorrow; One the Architect Had 'Never Seen Before'". New York Herald Tribune: C5. 23 April 1939.
  13. ^ "WOMEN IN ARCHITECTURAL ARTS". The New York Times: X10. 23 February 1936.
  14. ^ Ancestry.com. Virginia, Marriage Records, 1936-2014 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: Virginia, Marriages, 1936-2014. Virginia Department of Health, Richmond, Virginia.
  15. ^ Catalogue of Princeton University. Princeton, NJ: University of Princeton. 1922. p. 309.
  16. ^ a b c Morton, Patricia. "Shipway, Verna Cook Salomonsky." Manuscript, Profile for the Beverly Willis Dynamic National Archive. Accessible via http://www.bwaf.org/dna/
  17. ^ "Verna Cook Shipway Papers, 1894 - 1979 MSS 105". UC San Diego Libraries.
  18. ^ "A House at Fieldston, N. Y., Designed for an Artist". Building Age (42, no. 8: 36). 1 August 1920.
  19. ^ "House of M.F. Griffin, Scarsdale, N.Y.". American Architect (133): 55. January 1928.
  20. ^ "House of Raymond Faith, Bryn Mawr Park, N.Y.". Architecture. 58 (1): 49. July 1928.
  21. ^ "House of Edgar Salomonsky, Scarsdale, N.Y.". Architecture. 58 (1): 51. July 1928.
  22. ^ "House of Clifford Walsh at Scarsdale, New York - Verna Cook Salomonsky, Architect, Lucile Schlimme, Interior Decorator". Architectural Record. 74 (2): 121–136. August 1933.
  23. ^ "WESTCHESTER ITEMS". The New York Times: 37. 19 October 1933.
  24. ^ "News of Realty in City's Suburbs". New York Herald Tribune: 28. 24 March 1934.
  25. ^ "WESTCHESTER ITEMS". New York Times: 38. 22 June 1934.
  26. ^ "Westchester and Connecticut Leaders Express Optimistic Views on Realty". New York Herald Tribune: C1. 7 May 1933.
  27. ^ Register of Verna Cook Shipway Papers, 1894 - 1979. University of San Diego, Mandeville Special Collections Library. MSS 105. Request Box: 7 Folder: 12 Oversize: MC02508.
  28. ^ Register of Verna Cook Shipway Papers, 1894 - 1979. University of San Diego, Mandeville Special Collections Library. MSS 105. Request Box: 7 Folder: 19 Oversize: MC04206
  29. ^ "House of C.G. Novotny, Scarsdale, N.Y.". Architecture. 71 (3): 145. March 1935.
  30. ^ "RESIDENCE OF A. W. BROWN, SCARSDALE, NEW YORK. Verna Cook Salomonsky, Architect". Architectural Record. 79 (3). Photograph by Harold Haliday Costain.: Frontispiece March 1936.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  31. ^ Register of Verna Cook Shipway Papers, 1894 - 1979. University of San Diego, Mandeville Special Collections Library. MSS 105. Request Box: 7 Folder: 39 Oversize: MC04305
  32. ^ "Small Houses at Moderate Cost". Building Age. 4 (43): 20. 1 April 1921.
  33. ^ Salomonsky, Verna Cook (1923). "An exemplar of antique furniture design : a collection of measured drawings of furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art accompanied with photographs and text". Thomas J. Watson Library Digital Collections. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
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