architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
of churches and houses in the United States in the early nineteenth century.
Life and career
Lafever began life as a carpenter around 1820. At this period in the United States there were no professional schools of architecture and few who claimed the title architect. Most structures were designed and put up by builders, and architects and builders were trained by working under master builders.
In 1829 Lafever published ''The Young Builders' General Instructor,'' followed by ''Modern Builders' Guide'' in 1833, ''The Beauties of Modern Architecture'' in 1835 and ''The Architectural Instructor'' in 1850. His
pattern book
A pattern book, or architectural pattern book, is a book of architectural designs, usually providing enough for non-architects to build structures that are copies or significant derivatives of major architect-designed works.
A number of pattern bo ...
s were influential in spreading his
Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...
style.
Four of his buildings which were subsequently designated
National Historic Landmarks
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...
First Presbyterian Church (Sag Harbor)
First Presbyterian Church in Sag Harbor, New York, also known as Old Whaler's Church, is a historic and architecturally notable Presbyterian church built in 1844 in the Egyptian Revival style. The church is Sag Harbor's "most distinguished landma ...
(tall steeple destroyed in a hurricane)
*
St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church
St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church is a historic Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Episcopal church at the northwest corner of Montague and Clinton Streets in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. It is th ...
*
Sailors' Snug Harbor
Sailors' Snug Harbor, also known as Sailors Snug Harbor and informally as Snug Harbor, is a collection of architecturally significant 19th-century buildings on Staten Island, New York City. The buildings are set in an park along the Kill Van ...
Other notable buildings include:
* Benjamin Huntting House, now the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
Cobble Hill is a neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. A small neighborhood comprising 40 blocks,Kenneth T. Jackson, Jackson, Kenneth T., and Kasinitz, Philip. "Cobble Hil ...
Brooklyn Heights Historic District
__NOTOC__
The Brooklyn Heights Historic District is a Historic districts in the United States, historic district that comprises much of the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City, United States. It was named a National Historic ...
1844
* Rutgers Presbyterian Church (Rutgers Street, Lower East Side, New York, New York) 1843
One of his most successful acolytes was
John F. Rague
John Francis Rague (1799–1877; pronounced ''ra-gu'') was a mid-19th century architect who designed and built numerous public buildings including the 1837 Illinois State Capitol#Former capitols, Old Capitol of Illinois and the 1840 Iowa Old ...
pattern book
A pattern book, or architectural pattern book, is a book of architectural designs, usually providing enough for non-architects to build structures that are copies or significant derivatives of major architect-designed works.
A number of pattern bo ...
s that were influential in spreading his
Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...
style, most notably "The Modern Builder's Guide" (1833) and "The Beauties of Modern Architecture" (1835). The Greek Revival
Government Street Presbyterian Church
Government Street Presbyterian Church in Mobile, Alabama is one of the oldest and least-altered Greek Revival church buildings in the United States. The architectural design is by James Gallier Sr., James H. Dakin, and Charles Dakin. The tri ...
in
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. After a successful vote to annex areas west of the city limits in July 2023, Mobil ...
is a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...
that was designed using many of the latter book's detailed guidelines. and That church's tall steeple, like the steeple of Lafever's First Presbyterian Church in Sag Harbor, was destroyed in a hurricane.
Other historic structures built using Lafever's designs include Rose Hill Mansion, a National Historic Landmark in western New York, which was built in the style of a two-story Greek temple with
Ionic columns
The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite ...
1838 Peter Augustus Jay House
The Jay Estate is a 23-acre park and historic site in Rye, New York, with the 1838 Peter Augustus Jay House at its center. It is the keystone of the Boston Post Road Historic District (New York), Boston Post Road Historic District, a National His ...
and Lounsberry— were built using Lafever's designs, and greatly resemble illustrated plates found within Lafever's books. Rose Glen, an antebellum plantation house near
Sevierville, Tennessee
Sevierville ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Sevier County, Tennessee, United States, located in East Tennessee. The population was 17,889 at the 2020 United States Census.
History
Native Americans of the Woodland period were among th ...
, was modeled after Lafever's "Design for a Country Villa," which appeared as the frontispiece in both ''The Modern Builder's Guide'' and ''The Beauties of Modern Architecture''.Robbie Jones, ''The Historic Architecture of Sevier County, Tennessee'' (Sevierville, Tenn.: Smoky Mountain Historical Society, 1997), pp. 232-237.
Lafever did not confine himself to a single style. His St. James' Church, New York on James Street near Madison Street in Manhattan (1837) is
Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...
as is his building for Sailors' Snug Harbor, his
First Presbyterian Church (Sag Harbor)
First Presbyterian Church in Sag Harbor, New York, also known as Old Whaler's Church, is a historic and architecturally notable Presbyterian church built in 1844 in the Egyptian Revival style. The church is Sag Harbor's "most distinguished landma ...
(1844) is
Egyptian Revival
Egyptian Revival is an architectural style that uses the motifs and imagery of ancient Egypt. It is attributed generally to the public awareness of ancient Egyptian monuments generated by Napoleon's French campaign in Egypt and Syria, invasion of ...
, his brownstone
St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church
St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church is a historic Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Episcopal church at the northwest corner of Montague and Clinton Streets in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. It is th ...
at Montague and Clinton Streets in Brooklyn Heights (1847) is
Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...
and his Church of the Holy Apostles at Ninth Avenue and 28th Street in Manhattan (1848–1854) is Romanesque/Italianate.
His last commission was the
Packer Collegiate Institute
The Packer Collegiate Institute is an independent college preparatory school for students from pre-kindergarten through grade 12. Formerly the Brooklyn Female Academy, Packer has been located at 170 Joralemon Street in the historic district of ...
in Brooklyn, which opened in 1854. The Packer building is in Tudor Gothic style, with 30 schoolrooms, and a two-story-high chapel on the third floor. It has two towers of different size, and the “off-center arrangement of two large peaked gables, give the school the exterior appearance of picturesque irregularity common to the Gothic revival.” However, the interior is compact and symmetrical, with long crossed hallways dividing the building into quadrants. Architectural historian
Andrew Dolkart
Andrew Scott Dolkart is a professor of historic preservation at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) and served as the director of the school's Historic Preservation Program from 2008 to 2016 ...
calls Lafever’s design of Packer "one of the earliest and most sophisticated evocations of English-inspired Collegiate Gothic, creating the educational atmosphere of Oxford and Cambridge."
A list of his churches, extant and not, and a well-researched biography is included in a 2006 nomination for
First Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Kingston
The Old Dutch Church, officially known as the First Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Kingston, is located on Wall Street in Kingston, New York, Kingston, New York, United States. Formally organized in 1659, it is one of the oldest continuousl ...
.
Books by Minard Lafever
* ''The Young Builder's General Instructor'',1829
* ''The Modern Builder's Guide'',1833
* ''The Beauties of Modern Architecture'', 1835
* ''The Modern Practice of Staircase and Handrail Construction'',1838
* ''The Architectural Instructor'',1856
Sources
* ''The Architecture of Minard Lafever'', Jacob Landy, 1970.