George E. Harney
George E. Harney, circa 1899
Born(1839-09-01)September 1, 1839
Lynn, Massachusetts
DiedNovember 12, 1924(1924-11-12) (aged 85)
New York City
NationalityAmerican
OccupationArchitect
Signature

George E. Harney FAIA (September 1, 1839 – November 12, 1924) was a late 19th-century American architect based in New York City.[1]

Biography

George Edward Harney was born September 1, 1839, in Lynn, Massachusetts, to George Ballard Harney and Mary Johnson Harney.[2][3] He was educated privately and at the Lynn High School. After leaving the high school he studied architecture in the office of Alonzo Lewis, an architect and engineer of Lynn. During this time in Lynn he published several designs for improvements to country estates in periodicals such as the New England Farmer and The Horticulturist, which as an anonymous biographer wrote in 1898, "proved to be the foundation of his business career."

In 1863 he came to Cold Spring, New York, on the Hudson River to assist Horticulturist editors Peter B. Mead and George E. Woodward with designing the Cold Spring Cemetery. After completing the gatehouse, Harney remained to establish his practice there. Though he was never solely an architect of country houses, his prior experience led them to become a staple of his practice for the rest of his career.[2] Due to the success of the West Point Foundry in developing the village, Harney attained several house commissions in Cold Spring from prominent community figures. One was the Foundry's head, Robert Parker Parrott, for whom Harney designed a farm, known as Plumbush, and its outbuildings in 1865.

After settling in Cold Spring, he established a second office upriver in Newburgh. From this office, he designed and remodeled several country houses in Orange County.

In 1870 he authored Stables, Outbuildings and Fences, a book of designs for outbuildings on country estates, and in 1873 was editor of the fifth edition of Andrew Jackson Downing's Cottage Residences, originally published in 1842. For this work he provided designs for eight cottages and a church and solicited others from architects including Frederick Clarke Withers, Downing's former assistant, and Arthur Gilman.[4][5][6]

In 1873 he moved his home and practice to New York City and was soon after commissioned by Adele L. S. Stevens to design a store for Brooks Brothers at Broadway and Bond Street.[2] He briefly formed the partnership of Harney & Paulding with architect William I. Paulding of Cold Spring, but this only lasted a year.[4] In New York Harney developed a successful practice, designing office buildings and city and country houses. Circa 1891 Harney formed the partnership of Harney & Purdy with his associate, William S. Purdy, with whom he would practice for the rest of his career.[7]

Harney retired from practice in 1910.[8] His partner, Purdy, continued the practice under his own name until his death in 1920.[9]

Personal life

Harney was married in 1872 to Maria Renshaw Jaques of Boston. She died in 1887.[2][4] Harney was a member of the Century Association, the American Federation of Arts and the American Institute of Architects (AIA), into which he was admitted as a fellow in 1871. Harney died November 12, 1924, in New York City at the age of 85.[8] He was buried in the Cold Spring Cemetery at his former home of Cold Spring.

Legacy

The anonymous author of his AIA obituary wrote that he was "an architect of the older school [and a] scholar and practitioner of the highest ideals."[8] Several of his works have been listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places.

Selected architectural works

Published works

References

  1. ↑ Louie, Elaine (November 17, 1994). "In a Newark Manor, Remains of the Day". New York Times. p. C4. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Harney, George Edward" in The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography 1 (New York: James T. White & Company, 1898): 371.
  3. ↑ Gravesite, Cold Spring Cemetery, Cold Spring, New York
  4. 1 2 3 "Harney, George Edward" in Who's Who in America 12 (Chicago: A. N. Marquis & Company, 1922): 1410.
  5. ↑ Andrew Jackson Downing, Cottage Residences, 5th edition, ed. George E. Harney (New York: John Wiley & Son, 1873), xv. This is the version of Cottage Residences reprinted by Dover Publications as Victorian Cottage Residences in 1981.
  6. ↑ Francis R. Kowsky, The Architecture of Frederick Clarke Withers and the Progress of the Gothic Revival in America after 1850 (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1980), 60–61. Kowsky attributes the design of Eustatia primarily to Withers.
  7. ↑ Tolles, Bryant F., Jr. Resort Hotels of the Adirondacks. Lebanon: University Press of New England, 2003.
  8. 1 2 3 "Obituary" in Journal of the American Institute of Architects 13, no. 8 (August, 1925): 315.
  9. ↑ "Obituary" in Journal of the American Institute of Architects 8, no. 4 (April, 1920): 168.
  10. ↑ "National Register of Historic Places nomination form, Plumbush". Farm of Robert Parker Parrott, the inventor of the Parrott gun, located at 1656 Route 9D. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
  11. ↑ May N. Stone, "Building Structure Inventory Form: 8 Chestnut Street, Cold Spring, Putnam Co., New York" (NYS Division for Historic Preservation, 1975)
  12. 1 2 Elbert Floyd-Jones, St. Mary’s Church in the Highlands, Cold Spring-on-the-Hudson, New York: A History (Poughkeepsie, NY: Frank B. Howard, 1920)
  13. ↑ Historic Resources of East Providence, Rhode Island: Partial Inventory, Historic and Architectural Properties. Washington: United States Department of the Interior, 1979.
  14. ↑ White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot (2000). AIA Guide to New York City (4th ed.). New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0-8129-3107-5., p.160
  15. ↑ American Architect and Building News March 24, 1877: x.
  16. ↑ Manufacturer and Builder June 1879: 128.
  17. ↑ "Southwood" mhc-macris.net. Massachusetts Historical Commission, n. d. Web.
  18. ↑ Sanitary Engineer May 10, 1883: 539.
  19. ↑ Manufacturer and Building May 1884: 104.
  20. ↑ Emblen, Mary L. (1994-12-04). "Reopening". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
  21. ↑ "The Bruce Library". Library Journal January 1888: 18.
  22. ↑ Engineering and Building Record December 24, 1887: 64.
  23. ↑ Tolles, Bryant F., Jr. Resort Hotels of the Adirondacks. Lebanon: University Press of New England, 2003.
  24. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 30, 2014. Retrieved December 30, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  25. ↑ Engineering and Building Record October 18, 1890: 321.
  26. ↑ White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot (2000). AIA Guide to New York City (4th ed.). New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0-8129-3107-5.
  27. ↑ Engineering Record 21 Oct. 1893: 339.
  28. ↑ "A Summer House at Southampton, Long Island". Scientific American: Architects and Builders Edition May 1894: 66.
  29. ↑ Scientific American August 7, 1897: 92. 85 Larchmont Avenue, Larchmont, NY.
  30. ↑ Engineering Record January 6, 1894: 99.
  31. ↑ Souvenir of the XXViiith Annual Convention of the American Institute of Architects, October, 1895. 1894.
  32. ↑ American Architect and Building News September 24, 1898: xiii.
  33. ↑ Engineering News November 18, 1898: 189.
  34. ↑ American Architect and Building News July 21, 1900: xii.
  35. ↑ Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide February 14, 1903: 304.
  36. ↑ Engineering News February 20, 1908: 55.
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