New York Public Library, Tottenville Branch [Part 4]

From the NY City Landmarks Preservation Commission Study that Designated the Tottenville Branch a NY City Landmark, 1995) [Section 4 of 8] 

Carrere & Hastings

John Merven Carrere (1858-1911) was educated in Switzerland before entering the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1877. Thomas Hastings (1860-1929), born in New York, spent a short time at Columbia University before entering the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. The future partners met in Paris, both earned their diplomas–Carrere in 1882, and Hastings in 1884–and entered the office of McKim, Mead & White, where they became reacquainted. In 1885, the two established a partnership in New York City. Encouraged by Henry Flagler, a partner in Standard Oil and a promoter interested in the development of Florida railroads and real estate, they designed and supervised the construction of chruches and hotels in Florida which reflected the Spanish Renaissance style and were innovative in their use of concrete. Their later hotels include the Laurel in the Pines Hotel (1889-90) at Lakewood, New Jersey, and the Hotel Jefferson (1893-94) in Richmond, Virginia. The firm’s later buildings were designed in the French Renaissance and Beaux-Arts styles, the latter exemplified in their winning competition design (1897) for the New York Public Library. The library (1898-1911, a designated Landmark) established Carrere & Hastings as one of the country’s leading architectural firms and a leading exponent of the Beaux-Arts style. The firm was also responsible for the design of at least thirteen Carnegie-funded libraries in New York, commissions awarded to the firm after the success of the main library building.

The highly prolific firm produced many other memorable designs which survive as designated New York City Landmarks. The First Church of Christ, Scientist (1899-1903) at the northwest corner of Central Park West and West 96th Street is in the finest tradition of Beaux-Arts classicism. The approaches and arch of the Manhattan Bridge (1905) and Grand Army Plaza (1913, a designated Scenic Landmark) show the firm’s interest in city planning. Richmond Borough Hall (1903-07), Staten Island, exhibits the firm’s predilection for the brick-and-stone architecture associated with early seventeenth-century France. In addition to monumental public architecture, Carrere & Hastings was very active in residential design; among the most highly regarded urban examples are the John Henry and Emily Vanderbilt Sloane Hammond Residence (1902-03) at 9 East 91st Street, which was inspired by Roman sixteenth-century palazzo design, and the Henry Clay and Adelaide Childs Frick Mansion (begun 1913-14) at 1 East 70th Street, modelled on eighteenth-century French sources. The firm is responsible for many large estates in the Northeast, as well as Woolsey and Memorial Halls (1906) at Yale University and the House and Senate Office buildings (1906) in Washington, D.C.

Carrere was a resident of Staten Island, and his firm’s work is well represented there, including the Kunhardt Mausoleum (1896) at Moravian Cemetery, dwellings at 110-144 Vanderbilt Avenue (1900), the Port Richmond Branch Library (1905), the St. George Library Center and Stapleton Branch Library (both 1907), the County Courthouse (1919), and the Hughes Memorial Branch Library (1928) in New Dorp, in addition to the  already mentioned Borough Hall and Tottenville Library.

Carrere was a member of the Architectural League of New York, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, a member of the Beaux-Arts Society of New York, and director of the American Academy at Rome. He was killed in an accident in 1911. Hastings continued to work under the firm’s name, producing designs for large office buildings such as the Standard Oil Building (1920-26, with Shreve, Lamb & Blake) at 26 Broadway and the Cunard Building (1917-21, with Benjamin Wistar Morris) at 25 Broadway. Hastings was an early exponent of the curtain wall system of construction and experimented with it in the Blair Building (1902, demolished) at 24 Broad Street and Exchange Place. He was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a founder and a president of the Architectural League.

PDF of report available at: www.neighborhoodpreservationcenter.org