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for Ralph Adams Cram
American, 1863 - 1942
The son of a Unitarian clergyman, Cram was raised and received his basic education in the town of his birth. He was placed in the Boston architectural firm of Roth and Tilden immediately upon finishing high school in 1881. The proceeds of an architectural prize enabled him to travel abroad in about 1886, where in England his predeliction for the aesthetic philosophy of John Ruskin was reinforced. After another short period spent in Boston and an abortive attempt to launch a journal of criticism, he returned to Europe for a year as a private tutor. On this trip he had the opportunity to be impressed by the Gothic and Renaissance architectural style of Italian churches. Returning to Boston from this experience with the conviction to pursue his career in architecture, he found a partner and in 1888 opened the firm of Cram and Wentworth. The partners determined immediately upon a specialty from both aesthetic and moral conviction, and commercial wisdom: the design of churches in pure Gothic style, and it was to the creation of such buildings that Cram devoted his life.
Bertram Goodhue joined the firm in 1891 and four years later was made a full partner; not long after ill health forced Wentworth to retire to California. Frank Ferguson, engineer and construction expert joined the firm and following 1899 its name became Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson. Cram and Goodhue worked more in tandem than as cooperative designers, generally working on different aspects of a single project. Among the outstanding buildings executed by their partnership are St. Thomas's Church on Fifth Avenue, New York, and the Chapel and a number of other buildings for the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. Goodhue headed the office the firm opened in New York in the earlier years of the twentieth century, and with the increasing divergence of their aesthetic interests added to the geographic separation, the partnership was dissolved in 1913.
Cram went on to become the outstanding American architect devoted to the Gothic style. His devotion was as much a matter of personal moral conviction of its power to express the nature of religious and educational institution as aesthetic preference. His churches and academic buildings are numerous, but two projects may stand to exemplify his work and its lasting influence on the American scene. Cram was for twenty years the supervising architect for Princeton University, determining it general plan as well as designing a number of its buildings; and he revised the original design of the Cathedral of St. John the Devine, New York, to the structure it is today.
Always a scholar and writer as well as builder, Cram produced twenty-four books, numerous articles, taught the philosophy of architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and was founder and editor of the journals Commonweal, Speculum, and Christian Art.
Cram was initially elected to the Academy in 1914, and although he responded warmly, did not at that time fulfill his intention to present the qualifying portrait. Upon his second election the Cartwright portrait was promptly received.
Bertram Goodhue joined the firm in 1891 and four years later was made a full partner; not long after ill health forced Wentworth to retire to California. Frank Ferguson, engineer and construction expert joined the firm and following 1899 its name became Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson. Cram and Goodhue worked more in tandem than as cooperative designers, generally working on different aspects of a single project. Among the outstanding buildings executed by their partnership are St. Thomas's Church on Fifth Avenue, New York, and the Chapel and a number of other buildings for the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. Goodhue headed the office the firm opened in New York in the earlier years of the twentieth century, and with the increasing divergence of their aesthetic interests added to the geographic separation, the partnership was dissolved in 1913.
Cram went on to become the outstanding American architect devoted to the Gothic style. His devotion was as much a matter of personal moral conviction of its power to express the nature of religious and educational institution as aesthetic preference. His churches and academic buildings are numerous, but two projects may stand to exemplify his work and its lasting influence on the American scene. Cram was for twenty years the supervising architect for Princeton University, determining it general plan as well as designing a number of its buildings; and he revised the original design of the Cathedral of St. John the Devine, New York, to the structure it is today.
Always a scholar and writer as well as builder, Cram produced twenty-four books, numerous articles, taught the philosophy of architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and was founder and editor of the journals Commonweal, Speculum, and Christian Art.
Cram was initially elected to the Academy in 1914, and although he responded warmly, did not at that time fulfill his intention to present the qualifying portrait. Upon his second election the Cartwright portrait was promptly received.
