Leopold Eidlitz

Background

Leopold Eidlitz was born on March 29, 1823, in Prague, Bohemia (now Czech Republic), into a Jewish family. His parents were Abraham and Judith Eidlitz, and he had one brother Markus (later Marc) Eidlitz.

Education

After his school years in Prague, Eidlitz entered the Polytechnic at Vienna in order to train himself for the profession of land-steward, and it was, apparently, while studying the construction of buildings for estates, that he began to take interest in the wider field of architecture.

Career

Early in 1843 Eidlitz came to New York and almost immediately entered the office of Richard Upjohn, the leading exponent at the time of the "Gothic revival" in American architecture, who was then working on the present building of Trinity Church, New York.

Eidlitz left Upjohn before long, however, and with a young Bavarian formed the firm of Blesch & Eidlitz, to draw the plans of a new edifice for St. George’s Episcopal Church. Blesch seems to have fallen ill soon after the preparation of the drawings, and the work was executed entirely by Eidlitz, who had also drawn the plans for the interior. The partnership lasted only a short while, but it gave Eidlitz an association with a "Grand Prix" of Munich, who had the regular architectural training which he himself lacked.

The construction of St. George’s Church with its successful German Gothic design and two open spires of carved stone, later taken down as the result of a fire which compelled the reconstruction of the interior, started young Eidlitz upon a successful career as a Gothic practitioner, which at that time meant a church architect. Much of his best earlier work, therefore, was in church design.

During his earlier period he designed a number of houses, of which there are examples at Englewood, New Jersey, and Springfield, Massachusetts, and the Hamilton Ferry House in Brooklyn, an interesting example of carpentry, with bold timber hoods projecting over the slips. Among his churches, St. Peter’s, Westchester, New York, the Church of the Holy Trinity at Madison Avenue and Forty-second St. , New York City, completed in 1853, and the Congregational Church in Greenwich, Connecticut, show his skill; but his most successful church is considered to be Christ Church, St. Louis, afterward and for many years the Episcopal cathedral of that city.

Perhaps the most original ecclesiastical building which Eidlitz planned was the synagogue "Emanu-El" at Fifth Avenue and Forty-third St. , New York. Erected in 1868 and demolished to make way for a business skyscraper in 1928, it was an extraordinarily successful combination of Gothic structure with Saracenic decoration, including carved and molded as well as colored ornament. The critics of the time attacked the incongruity of a cruciform interior for a Jewish temple.

In secular construction, Eidlitz adorned New York with many notable buildings. Among them were the Continental Bank (1856) ; the American Exchange Bank (1857), the first fireproof commercial building in the city; the old Produce Exchange (1860); the Brooklyn Academy of Music, of the same year; and the Dry Dock Savings Bank (1875). In these, as in other work, he kept reverting to his favorite German Gothic style with marked success.

The most spectacular example of his work was the redesigning of the State Capitol at Albany. When in 1875 Tilden succeeded Dix as governor of New York, a commission was appointed to investigate the partly finished new Capitol. Its scope was extended to include the architecture itself, and as a result, an advisory board was formed with Eidlitz, H. H. Richardson, and F. L. Olmsted as members. The commission’s report was strongly against continuing with the commonplace Romanesque design of the previous architect. As a result the changing of the design and plans was entrusted to the three commissioners, who formed the firm of Eidlitz, Richardson & Company to complete the work. His work on this and on the New York Court House was Eidlitz’s last significant undertaking.

He wrote a number of professional articles and two volumes: Nature and Function of Art (1881) and Big Wages and How to Earn Them (1887), the latter a criticism of trades unions which was published anonymously. Leopold Eidlitz died on March 22, 1908, in New York City, New York.

Achievements

• Leopold Eidlitz was a prominent New York architect best known for his work on the New York State Capitol (Albany, New York, 1876 - 1881), as well as "Iranistan" (1848).

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Nature And Function Of Art: More Especially Of Architecture (1881)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

Views

Quotations: "American architecture is the art of covering one thing with another thing, to immitate a third thing which, if genuine, would not be desirable. "

Membership

Leopold Eidlitz was elected to the Century Club in 1859 and an honorary corresponding member of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1897.

In addition, Eidlitz was a founding member of the American Institute of Architects in 1857.

Personality

Leopold Eidlitz had a gift of witty expression.

Connections

In 1845, Leopold Eidlitz married Harriet Amanda Warner, daughter of Cyrus Lazelle Warner, an architect with whom he was professionally associated soon after coming to the United States. They had seven children, but the first died soon after birth.

Father:

Abraham Michel Eidlitz

Mother:

Julia Eidlitz (Löbisch)

Wife:

Harriet Amanda Eidlitz (Warner)

Daughter:

Elizabeth Eidlitz

Daughter:

Julia I. Eidlitz

Daughter:

Mary Imogene Eidlitz

colleague:

Richard Upjohn

Richard Upjohn was an American architect, who became most famous for his Gothic Revival churches.

Son:

Cyrus Lazelle Warner Eidlitz

Cyrus Lazelle Warner Eidlitz was an American architect best known for designing One Times Square, the former New York Times Building on Times Square.

Son:

Leopold Eidlitz, Jr.

Brother:

Marc Eidlitz

Marc Eidlitz was an American builder active in New York City, where he was prominent in the construction industry, in partnership with his son Otto Eidlitz.

References

• Leopold Eidlitz: Architecture and Idealism in the Gilded Age