Leland Stanford Jr. Museum

The Leland Stanford Junior Museum was designed by architects Percy and Hamilton and built by Jane Stanford in memory of her son. The museum was modeled after the National Museum in Athens, Greece. It opened in 1894 and with expansions in both 1898 and 1905, it soon became the largest privately-owned museum buildings in the world.

Salviati decorated the exterior of the original building with mosaic panels between 1903 and 1905, at the time the firm made the mosaics for the Memorial Church. Both were to Paoletti's designs. The subject of the museum's thirteen panels are learning, the arts - like architecture and painting, and ancient civilizations - including Egypt and Rome. There are four, rectangular panels on the facade flanking the main entrance, two large gables at the ends, and three, smaller panels above the entry doors themselves. The museum's north rotunda also had niches decorated with Salviati mosaics.

The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 that also severely damaged the Stanford Memorial Church, destroyed two-thirds of the museum building and collections. Luckily for the mosaics, the original structure sustained the least amount of damage.

Budget cuts led to neglect and the museum fell into further disrepair, fully closing in 1945. Reopening in 1954, the galleries were gradually refurbished through fundraising and volunteers. Another earthquake in 1989 damaged the museum again, but it was subsequently rebuilt and opened as the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for the Visual Arts in 1999.

Sources:
Barr, Sheldon. Venetian Glass Mosaics: 1860-1917. London: Antique Collectors' Club, 2008. 98-99.
Cantor Arts Center
Wikigogo
Stanford University and the 1906 Earthquake
"Facelift for Stanford's Memorial Auditorium, new Roof for Cantor Arts Center." Stanford News. April 17, 2014.
Arcticpenguin's flickr Photostream
Steve Rhodes' flickr Photostream
E. Chen's flickr Photostream

Stanford Memorial Church

Jane Stanford built this church as a memorial to her husband Leland Stanford on the campus of the university that they had founded. The Romanesque building was designed by architect Charles A. Coolige in 1898 and dedicated in 1903.

The original church facade in 1903 before the earthquake.

The Stanfords traveled extensively in Europe and they brought their love of art and architecture back to California, where Mrs. Stanford incorporated a Byzantine style into the decorations of the church. Antonio Paoletti created original watercolor paintings upon which Salviati - under the direction of Maurizio Camerino - made the mosaic decorations for both the interior and exterior. Paoletti previously designed the scenes for the Stations of the Cross at the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola in New York, which Salviati also made into mosaics.

The mosaic work on the Stanford Memorial Church began in 1900, took five years to complete, and cost $97,000. Jane Stanford was heavily involved in approving the designs and Salviati mosaicist Lorenzo Zampato supervised the in-studio manufacture in Venice, as well as the installation in California.

Unfortunately, the church was subsequently damaged in two earthquakes - first in 1906 and then later in 1989.

Exterior damage caused by the 1906 earthquake.

Interior damage caused by the 1906 earthquake.

Camerino had the Salviati firm restore the mosaics between 1913 and 1917. Because the original designs were kept, some were reproduced in their original form, while others were modified.

The north facade today.

The mosaic of The Last Supper in the chancel is a reproduction Roselli's fresco in the Sistine Chapel.

Sources:
Barr, Sheldon. Venetian Glass Mosaics: 1860-1917. London: Antique Collectors' Club, 2008.
Sinai and Sons
Wikipedia
National Parks Service on Wikimedia Commons
Frank Davey on Wikimedia Commons
The Bankcroft Library
Eric Chan (Maveric2003) on Flickr
Ed Bierman on Flickr
Typeaux on Panoramio

American Antiquarian Society

Edward Livingston Davis procured this mosaic portrait of Christopher Columbus by Salviati in Italy in 1878. Upon his return to the US, he presented it to the American Antiquarian Society, an organization founded in 1812 to preserve the cultural heritage of the colonies that eventually became the United States of America. The portrait was originally housed on the north partition of the Annex in the second Antiquarian Hall, on Lincoln Square at the corner of Highland Street, beside the Worcester County Courthouse. While the Hall was built in 1853 by architect Thomas H. Tefft, the Annex was added in 1878 by Stephen C. Earle.

After a new building was constructed in 1910, the mosaic's original ebony frame was removed and the portrait was set in plaster over the door in the society's Council Room of the third Antiquarian Hall.

Today, the Venetian mosaic portrait of Christopher Columbus hangs in the building's main Reading Room, among the society's many painted portraits.

Sources:
"Mosaic of Columbus That Shows Discoverer's Haunting Look." The Spokesman. October 7, 1933. 25.
Weis, Frederick L. Checklist of the Portraits in the Library of the American Antiquarian Society. April 1946. 73.
Reynolds, Mary Robinson. Recollections of Sixty Years of Service in the American Antiquarian Society. April 1945. 
American Antiquarian Society 1812-2012
National Historic Landmarks Program
Information and photograph of the mosaic was provided by Lauren B. Hewes, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Graphic Arts at the American Antiquarian Society

Columbus Memorial Building, Chicago

W.W. Boyington designed this 14 story building that was built in 1893. This was the same year that the World's Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago. It was located at the southeast corner of State and Washington Streets.

The Venice and Murano Company made the two enamel mosaics that decorated the rear wall of each store on the State Street entrance. One showed the Landing of Columbus and the other the Columbus Before Ferdinand and Isabella. Each panel measured 8.5 feet by 16.5 feet and they were commissioned for the Expo by financiers of the building, law partners Van Higgins and Henry Furber.  They were moved to the building in 1894. The building was destroyed in 1959, however, the mosaics, as well as a 10 foot statue of Columbus and numerous bas reliefs were proposed to be donated to local art organizations. However, the Art Institute rejected the mosaics both because of their size and their dilapidated condition. They were consequently moved to a storage facility.

In 1976, the Landing of Columbus panel was installed on the south wall of the lobby of Columbus Hospital. However, tiles from the other panel had been used to repair it, and it had also been cut into three separate panels in order to fit. The firm used to repair the mosaics - Conrad Schmitt Studios in Wisconsin - was allowed to keep the remaining mosaics. The Landing of Columbus was on display in the hospital for about  decade, until the next round of renovations. It was consequently removed and stored, until it was also given to Schmitt Studios. As of 2012, the three restored panels were still owned by the Gruenke Foundation for the Arts, which is a non-profit organization set up by Schmitt Studios.

Sources:
Barr, Sheldon. Venetian Glass Mosaics: 1860-1917. London: Antique Collectors' Club, 2008. 126.
National Geographic Channel
Columbian Exposition Dedication Ceremonies Memorial. 1893. 296.
Old Chicago
University of Illinois - Chicago
Architecture Farm
Huebner, Jeff. "Kept in the Dark." Reader. July 8, 1999.

Church on the Heights, Brooklyn

Part of the Dutch Reformed Church, this building was located on the northwest corner of Pierrepont Street and Monroe Place. Salviati made a mosaic portrait of minister and hymn-writer George W. Bethune to be affixed to a Carrara marble memorial tablet to be installed in the church, which Bethune had been associated with.

The church was dedicated in 1851 and it was demolished sometime after 1922. Today, the location is home to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York and its adjacent parking lot.

Although Salviati's records from 1865 indicate the memorial was for a church in New York, Bethune's biography from 1867 lists the Third Reformed Dutch Church in Philadelphia as containing the mosaic tablet.

This church - located on the northeast corner of Tenth and Filbert Streets - was designed by Thomas Ustick Walter and built 1836-40.

In either case, the portrait now hangs in the New Brunswick Theological Seminary's Gardner A. Sage library.

 

Sources:
Salviati, Antonio. On Mosaics (generally). 1865. 50-51.
Mast, Gregg. In Remembrance and Hope: The Ministry and Vision of Howard G. Hageman. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1998. 4.
Van Nest, Rev. A.R. Memoir of Rev. Geo. W. Bethune. New York: Sheldon and Company, 1867. 421.
New York Historical Society Museum & Library
Google Maps
Philadelphia Architects and Buildings

Ophir Farm

The six story, 84 room mansion was built on over 1,000 acres in 1864 by Benjamin "Doc" Holladay, who had made his fortune from the Pony Express. Shipbuilder John Roach bough the estate after Holladay went bankrupt in 1873. After he himself lost his fortunes, his son sold the property in 1886 to Elisabeth and Whitelaw Reid.

The house was undergoing renovations when it burned down in 1888. It was rebuilt by architects McKim, Mead & White and reopened in 1892, the same year President Benjamin Harrison asked Reid to be his running mate in the upcoming elections.

The "castle" in 1892

A "deep" Salviati mosaic frieze three feet high decorated the top of the entry hallway's pink marble walls. It was definitely in place between 1892 and 1907, however, it is unknown what later happened to it.

Above is the entrance hallway around 1892. The mosaics are visible to the left, starting above the fireplace.They mimicked tapestry foliage. After his parents' deaths, son Ogden Reid auctioned off all of the art in the house in 1935.

The building is now owned by Manhattanville College and is called Reid Castle or Reid Hall. The mosaic frieze is no longer located in the foyer.

Sources:
"Ophir Farm." The Illustrated American. September 17, 1892. 196.
Knox, Thomas Wallace. The Republican Party and Its Leaders. New York: P.F. Collier, 1892. 575.
House Beautiful. Vol. 11, December 1901. 380.
Ophir Farm and Manhattanville College
Manhattanville College. The History of Reid Castle. October 2011.
Wikipedia
Foreman, John. "Big Old Houses: But Would I Live Here?"
"Personal and Otherwise." New York Times. April 21, 1907.
"Art: Gutted Ophir." Time. May 27, 1935.

St. Joan of Arc Parish, Harrowgate

This Roman Catholic parish was founded in 1919, but the present church building dates to 1946.

The mosaic roundels of the twelve apostles located between the nave's arches were made by Salviati sometime before 1889 and they were listed on the firm's inventory for the 1893 World Columbian Exposition (or the Chicago World's Fair).

The roundels were initially installed in Philadelphia's St. James Episcopal Church, which was built in 1871 after designs by architects Frasier, Furness and Hewitt. However, this church - on the corner of Walnut and 22nd Streets - was sold in 1945 and subsequently demolished.

In May 1947, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the mosaics were being re-installed in St. Joan's. As of September 2013, there was the possibility that St. Joan's would be merged with another local parish and the building would be deconsecrated and sold.

Sources:
Barr, Sheldon. Venetian Glass Mosaics: 1860-1971. London: Antique Collectors' Club, 2008.
St. Joan of Arc Parish
Shinn, George Wolfe. King's handbook of notable Episcopal churches in the United States. Boston: Moses King Corporation, 1889. 138.
Skaler, Robert Morris and Thomas H. Keels. Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square. Chicago: Arcadia Publishing, 2008. 56.
Clark, Joe. "'Arc' Stands Tall after 75 Years." The Inquirer.  September 30, 1994.
Harrowgate Picasa Webalbum
Lou Gold on This Cultural Christian
Philly and Stuff blog

Grace Church, New York

The church was founded in 1818, but James Renwick, Jr. designed the current, early Gothic Revival building that was began in 1843 and consecrated in 1846.

The carved marble reredos contains a central Venetian mosaic panel of the Savior's Ascension with Christ surrounded by his eight disciples, while two apostles in individual arcades flank either side.

Renwick also designed the reredos, which was carved by English sculptors Ellin and Kitson in 1878. Clayton and Bell, as well as Henry Holiday also made stained glass for the church.

The chancel floor is marble mosaic also by Salviati, Burke and Company showing three angels with emblems of the Crucifixion.

Sources:
The Churchman. Vol. 40. Nov. 22, 1879. 580.
Wikipedia
Grace Church 
MuseumPlanet on Panoramio
Panoramio
Mattron's flickr Photostream

Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola, New York

The parish was established in 1851, but construction on the present building designed by architect J. William Schickel was started only in 1895. It was dedicated in late 1898.

The Baptistry contains three mosaic panels depicting the life of St. John the Baptist. The cartoons were designed by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, while Salviati made and cut the tesserae. They were installed on site by Gorham Manufacturing.

Antonio Paoletti designed the mosaic Stations of the Cross that decorate most of the church and which were also made by Salviati and Company.

Three mosaic murals decorate the apse. They were also by Salviati after Paoletti's designs and these depict important moments from the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

Sources:
Barr, Sheldon. Venetian Glass Mosaics: 1860-1917. London: Antique Collectors' Club, 2008.
Wikipedia
St. Ignatius of Loyola Church History
Car Los's flickr Photostream
New York Society of Jesus
Andy Hoxie's flickr Photostream