National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Analysis of Historical Significance and Integrity by Resource Type
In 1893 America fell into a depression that greatly affected all architectural commissions:
At the height of [McKim, Mead & White's] office activity in 1892, when drawings were being
done for the private work as well as the Columbian Exposition buildings, the firm employed
perhaps as many as 120 people, but by 1895 this number had dropped to less than 80, and it
dwindled still further with outbreak of the Spanish-American War. 1307
Roth barely mentions the country houses or seaside cottages from this period, providing
less than a page of text discussing an incomplete list of commissions of this type, and instead
concentrates on the predominantly Georgian/Federal Revival urban residences and
university structures and the Italian Renaissance and Neoclassical/Beaux-Arts commercial
and public buildings.
The Georgian/Federal Revival townhouses or urban residences of this period, some with
Italianate influences, included New York's H.A.C. Taylor double and single houses (both 1892-
96), the Butler-Guthrie house (1895-97), the Goodwin house (1896-98), the Fish house (1897-
1900), the Hollins house (1899-1901), and the Rollins house (1899-1902). Other cities were
represented by Buffalo's Root house (1894-96), Charles H. Williams house (1895-96) and
George R. Williams house (1895-99); Boston's Nickerson house (1895-97); and Washington,
D.C.'s Page house (1896-97). 1308 "The true capstone of McKim's adherence to Georgian-
Federal classicism, however was his timely restoration of the White House in 1902." 1309
The university projects all had designs based on classical precedents. These projects
included White's plans and buildings for New York University (1892-1901) and the University
of Virginia (1896-99) 1310 ; McKim's plans and buildings for Columbia University (1894-98) and
Radcliffe College (1897-99); and McKim's gate enclosures for Harvard Yard (1890-1901). 1311
McKim also designed New York City's Harvard Club (1893-4, 1900-05, 1913-16) and later the
Harvard Union (1899-1901). 1312 The designs for NYU and Columbia were more Neoclassical,
while the more conservative Georgian and Federal Revivals were employed at the University of
Virginia, Radcliffe, and Harvard. And McKim conceived the University Club (1896-1900),
literally built like an Italian palace, based on the Palazzo Strozzi and the Temple of Mars Ultor,
and designed in the Italian Renaissance Revival style with Beaux-Arts attributes and lavish
interiors. 1313
White also designed generator and transformer stations (1892-94) for the Niagara Falls
Power Company, in a combination of Greek Revival and Richardson Romanesque styles, as well
as associated small worker housing using a combination of Colonial Revival and Shingle Style
designs. 1314
1307
Roth, 182.
1308
Roth, 209-16.
1309
Roth, 267.
1310
Roth, 186-90, 195-99.
1311
Roth, 190-94, 200-04.
1312
Roth, 218-19.
1313
Roth, 219-23.
1314
Roth, 204-09.
233