These papers pertain to Lord's work at Trinity Church and include his correspondence and the correspondence of those with whom he worked.  The correspondents include the New York architectural firm of Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson, who furnished the design and are the architects of record; Mary Elizabeth Tillinghast (see note below), a New York-based stained glass artist who produced the windows , who died in Dec. 1912 while the job was still underway ; Russell and Erwin Manufacturing Co. of New York; Gabriel C. Chenes of Grantwood, NJ, who was employed by Tillinghast; The Decorative Stained Glass Co. of New York; S. F. Chapman of the Trinity congregation; and the Trinity Church Vestry. The letters number approximately 180 and include three drawings. The dates of the correspondence range from February 28, 1911 to February 13, 1914.

A second series in this collection consists of supplemental reference material associated with the principles. These include a brief biographical sketch of William H. Lord and copies of articles on Bertram G. Goodhue from the Dictionary of American Biography and The National Cyclopaedia. There is also a copy of an article identified [by hand] as being from the Asheville Citizen Times by George W. McCoy, dated January 17, 1954 and titled, Pack Library to Mark 75th Anniversary. Among the highlighted passages are references to the building that was first constructed specifically to house the library, an 1894 building designed by architects Cram, Wentworth, and Goodhue. Lastly, there is a copy of a typed student paper titled, The Life and Work of Mary Elizabeth Tillinghast, 1845-1912  (First Draft). The paper is by Sarah K. Oser and is dated February 4, 1988. It is identified as having been written for Professor Barbara Weinberg’s Late 19th Century American Painting class. Although no information has been found on Sarah K. Oser, Professor Weinberg, currently (in 2006) the Alice Pratt Brown Curator of American Painting and Sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, did teach art history at Queens College and The Graduate School of the City University of New York from 1972 to 1990.

Mary Elizabeth Tillinghast born December 31, 1855, studied painting in Paris, from 1872 to 1878, at the workshop of Emile-Auguste Carolus-Duran. In 1878, she began a seven-year association with artist John La Farge, painter, muralist, critic and inventor of a new process for making decorative glass windows. Tillinghast served first as a textile designer and then as manager of La Farge’s Decorative Art Co. and learned the art of designing and making windows from him. Working from her own studio, her first major window, Jacob’s Dream, was installed in 1887 in Grace Episcopal Church in Greenwich Village. In addition to church windows, she designed windows for residences, and for institutions, most notably Urania at Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Observatory and The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes at the New York Historical Society. Her glass was exhibited and won gold medals at several World’s Fairs. She was also a painter and some paintings have survived. As noted above, she died in December 1912 and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, New York City.

William Henry Lord moved to Asheville from upstate New York in the late 1890's, and lived in a a house at the corner of Flint and West Chestnut Streets until the house he designed and built at 267 Flint Street was completed in 1900. He could trace his family's ancestry to the Isle of Man. He was married to Helen Anthony Lord and they had one son, Anthony (1900-1993), who also became a prominent architect in Western North Carolina.

His architectural offices were located at 17 1/2 Church Street, on the top floor (this was later the first office space for Six Associates, of which Anthony Lord was a principal.) During the Depression, when there were few architectural contracts to be had, W.H. and Anthony produced ornamental ironwork at a forge they built at 267 Flint Street, and supplied hardware to many clients in the northeast, including Yale University.

SERIES & FOLDERS:

Box

Folder

Description

Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson to Wm. Lord: 1/1/1911 to 6/30/1911

2

Supplemental Reference Material