Wilson Eyre

Wilson Eyre, Jr.
Born	October 30, 1858 Florence, Italy
Died	October 23, 1944 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Nationality	American
Occupation	Architect
Buildings	Charles Lang Freer House University of Pennsylvania Museum (with Frank Miles Day and Cope & Stewardson) Swann Memorial Fountain (Eyre & McIlvaine, architects; Alexander Stirling Calder, sculptor)

Wilson Eyre House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	1003-05 Spruce Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Built	1832, altered by Eyre 1909-10
Architect	Wilson Eyre, Jr.
Architectural style	Greek Revival Arts & Crafts Movement
NRHP reference No.	77001183
Added to NRHP	April 13, 1977

Wilson Eyre, Jr. (October 30, 1858 - Oct. 23, 1944) was an American architect, teacher and writer who practiced in the Philadelphia area. He is known for his deliberately informal and welcoming country houses, and for being an innovator in the Shingle Style.

Architect and author

The son of Americans living abroad, he was born in Florence, Italy, and educated in Europe, Newport, Rhode Island, and Canada. He studied architecture briefly at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, joined the Philadelphia offices of James Peacock Sims in 1877, and took over the firm on Sims’s death in 1882. In 1911, he entered into partnership with John Gilbert McIlvaine, and opened a second office in New York City. The firm of Eyre & McIlvaine continued until 1939.

For his most important early houses, "Anglecot" (1883) and "Farwood" (1884–85), he used a simple plan: a line of asymmetrical public rooms stretching along a single axis, extending even outside to a piazza. Like many Shingle Style architects, he employed the open "living hall" as an organizing element: all of the main first floor rooms connecting to the hall, often through large openings. In addition, he used staircases to extend the space of the hall to the second floor. According to architectural-historian Vincent Scully: "This sense of extended horizontal plane and intensified "positive" scale evident in Eyre's work becomes later a basic component in the work of [Frank Lloyd] Wright..." Eyre collaborated with artists such as Alexander Stirling Calder and Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Following his early success, Eyre became a leader in the international country life movement, lecturing in England, and corresponding with British and German architects. He was one of the first U.S. architects to be featured in the Arts & Crafts magazine International Studio, and he was published by Hermann Muthesius, the chronicler of the so-called "English" house of the turn of the century. Prior to Frank Lloyd Wright's rise to prominence, Eyre was arguably the best-known domestic architect in the U.S. among foreign designers. His post-1890 country houses, such as "Allgates" (1910, expanded by Eyre & McIlvaine 1917) are among the most accomplished American essays in the restrained stucco cottage idiom popularized by C.F.A. Voysey and Ernest Newton in England.

He was one of the founders and editors of House & Garden magazine. He designed many distinctive gardens with his residences, and wrote extensively of the need for interaction between rooms and outdoor spaces.

He was also renowned for his distinctive artistic drawings, often in watercolor. His extant drawings are now housed in the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. He was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1893. In August 1914 Eyre was stranded in Europe along with thousands of Americans attempting to escape the fighting that erupted in World War I. Eyre returned to the United States in late September and shared a cabin with Augustus P. Gardner, a member of the House of Representatives from Massachusetts.

In 1917, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He taught at the University of Pennsylvania, and was one of the founders of the T Square Club of Philadelphia in 1883.

Selected works

Philadelphia area

Residences

• "Anglecot" (Charles Adams Potter house), 401 E. Evergreen Avenue, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1883). Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
• "Farwood" (Richard L. Ashurst house), Overbrook, Pennsylvania (1884–85, demolished).
• "Wisteria" (Charles A. Newhall house), 444 W. Chestnut Hill Avenue, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1884–85).
• Dr. Henry Genet Taylor House and Office, 305 Cooper Street, Camden, New Jersey (1884–86).
• Harriet D. Schaeffer house, 433 W. Stafford Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1888)
• Clarence Bloomfield Moore house, 1321 Locust Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1890).
• Henry Cochran house, 3511 Baring Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1891).
• Neil and Mauran houses, 22nd & Delancey Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1891).
• Dr. Joseph Leidy House and office, 1319 Locust Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1894).
• Mrs. Evan Randolph house, 218 W. Chestnut Hill Avenue, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1906).
• Alterations to Wilson Eyre house, 1003-05 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1909–1910). Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
• "Allgates" (Horatio Gates Lloyd mansion), Coopertown Road, Haverford, Pennsylvania (1910, expanded by Eyre & McIlvaine 1917). Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
• Additions to "Bel Orme" (Thomas Mott house), Matson Ford & County Line Roads, Radnor, Pennsylvania (Eyre & McIlvaine) (1917).
• Clover Hill Farm, 910 Penn Valley Rd Media, Pennsylvania (1907).

Other buildings

• Mask & Wig Clubhouse, 310 Quince Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1894, altered by Eyre 1901). Murals by Maxfield Parrish. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
• University of Pennsylvania Museum, 3260 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (with Frank Miles Day and Cope & Stewardson) (1895–99).
• Corn Exchange Bank, Northeast corner 2nd & Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1896).
• Carnegie Library, McPherson Square, 601 E. Indiana Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Eyre & McIlvaine) (1915–17)
• Swann Memorial Fountain, Logan Circle, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Eyre & McIlvaine, architects; Alexander Stirling Calder, sculptor) (1921–24).

Buildings elsewhere

• Charles Lang Freer House, 71 E. Ferry Street, Detroit, Michigan (1890). Eyre altered the carriage house in 1906, to install The Peacock Room by James McNeill Whistler (now in the Freer Gallery, Washington, DC). Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
• Detroit Club, 712 Cass Avenue, Detroit, Michigan (1891). Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
• "Northcote" (Stephen Parrish house), Lang Road, Cornish, New Hampshire (1893). Located near the Cornish Art Colony, this became the home/studio of the client's son, the painter Maxfield Parrish.
• Newcomb College Memorial Chapel, 6th & Chestnut Streets, New Orleans, Louisiana (1894–95, demolished 1954). Stained glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany.
• "Meadowcroft" (Theodore E. Conklin mansion), Southampton, Long Island, New York (1904). Lighting by Louis Comfort Tiffany.
• E.S. Sands mansion, Southport, Connecticut (1905)
• Nathan Franklin Barrett residence, Rochelle Park in New Rochelle, New York. Barrett was the landscape architect and planner of the Rochelle Park community.
• Ernest Albert residence, "Grayeyres", Rochelle Park in New Rochelle, New York.

Gallery

• Ernest Albert residence, "Grayeyres", New Rochelle, NY (demolished)
  Ernest Albert residence, "Grayeyres", New Rochelle, NY (demolished)
• Nathan Franklin Barrett residence, New Rochelle, NY
  Nathan Franklin Barrett residence, New Rochelle, NY
• 
  "Anglecot" (Charles Adams Potter house), 401 E. Evergreen Ave., Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, PA (1883).
• 
  "Farwood" (Richard L. Ashhurst house), Overbrook, PA (1884-85, demolished).
• 
  Dr. Henry Genet Taylor House and Office, 305 Cooper St., Camden, NJ (1884-86).
• 
  Interior of Taylor house (1884-86).
• 
  Harriet D. Schaeffer house, 433 W. Stafford St., Philadelphia, PA (1888).
• 
  Charles Lang Freer House, 71 E. Ferry St., Detroit, MI (1890).
• 
  Detroit Club, 712 Cass Ave., Detroit. MI (1891).
• 
  Doorways to Neill & Mauran Houses, 22nd & Delancey Sts., Philadelphia, PA (1891).
• 
  Clarence Bloomfield Moore House, 1321 Locust St., Philadelphia, PA (1890). Eyre's Leidy House is next door (right).
• 
  Dr. Joseph Leidy, Jr. House & Office, 1319 Locust St., Philadelphia, PA (1894).
• 
  Mask & Wig Clubhouse, 310 S. Quince St., Philadelphia, PA (1894, altered by Eyre 1901).
• 
  University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 3260 South St., Philadelphia, PA (1895-99), Wilson Eyre, Frank Miles Day, and Cope & Stewardson, architects.
• 
  Allgates (Horatio Gates Lloyd mansion), Haverford, PA (1910, altered by Eyre & McIlvaine 1917).
• 
  "Bel Orme" (Thomas Mott house), Radnor, PA (altered by Eyre & McIlvaine 1917).
• 
  Swann Memorial Fountain, Logan Circle, Philadelphia, PA (1924), Eyre & McIlvaine, architects; Alexander Stirling Calder, sculptor.

External links

• Wilson Eyre at Find a Grave