A Slide Presentation
by
Mandy Nicoli-Drumming
Slide 1 (Intro Slide)
ABOVE: Slide 1. Click to view full size.
Slide 2 (Quote)
For the sake of context, I’d like to start with a quote, stated by Barry Finder, an architectural historian, during his lecture titled, “Arts and Crafts Architecture in Colorado Springs.” The quote states, “…I don’t think my subjects would ever have referred to themselves necessarily as Arts and Crafts architects, but they certainly were, there is no doubt about it.”
Slides 3 – 5
Slide 3 (Parsonage) From 1919-1920, in the American Southeast, health resort area of Aiken, South Carolina, the historically Black, Friendship Baptist Church built a parsonage adjacent to its main church building Slide 4 (Parkway Grid) and facing one of Aiken’s numerous parkways. Slide 5 (Graham and students) The parsonage was designed and built by Edinburg Graham, a FBC member, minister, and carpentry instructor at Schofield Normal and Industrial School, with the assistance of several Schofield boy students.
ABOVE: Slides 3, 4 and 5. Click images to view full size.
Slides 6 – 8
Slide 6 (Schofield School images) Schofield, located only a few blocks from Friendship Baptist Church, was founded in 1868 by Martha Schofield, a Pennsylvanian Quaker, for the education of African Americans. For decades, Schofield held a close relationship with Friendship Baptist Church Slide 7 (Whitney and Iselin) as well as garnered significant support from Aiken Colony institutions and dedicated participants, such as William C. Whitney and Hope Goddard Iselin, particularly after 1880, when Schofield, Slide 8 (Booker T. Washington on Horse) like the Tuskegee Institute founded by Booker T. Washington, began offering an education in the manual arts.
ABOVE:: Slides 6, 7 and 8. Click images to view full size.
Slides 9 – 13
Slide 9 (Parsonage) Standing 1 and ½ stories tall, Graham and the Schofield boys built the parsonage using mostly natural, presumably locally sourced materials of wood and brick. In its asymmetrical massing, the parsonage presents a low-pitched roof; a large, covered porch; fairly deep eaves with exposed rafters, and a dormer. Slide 10 (Mantel and Porch) Throughout the interior and exterior of the parsonage, the design is cohesive. Slide 11 (Woodwork)Woodwork displays smooth surfaces and minimal ornamentation, except for classical design touches. Slide 12 (Classical)These classical elements include Doric columns; rounded and arched windows and motifs; an entranceway framed with two sidelights and a sunburst fanlight, Slide 13 (Segmental Arches) and numerous segmental-arches part of the porch construction and several fireplace mantels.
ABOVE: Slides 9-13. Click images to view full size.
Slides 14 – 18
Given its construction and design, Slide 14 (A and C Books) the parsonage is an architectural result of what is called the American Arts and Crafts movement, one of the most far-reaching movements in American art, but also one of the least understood. In the United States, during the years following the American Civil War, until the onset of WII, the American Arts and Crafts movement was a movement that Slide 15 (Industrial Issues) aimed to address the negative effects associated with the Second Industrial Revolution, in conjunction with Slide 16 (American Liberalism Books) rejuvenating the founding principles of America, given slavery was finally abolished. Slide 17 (Washington and Northeast) Recognizers of the movement included Booker T. Washington and others from heavily industrialized areas historically steeped in abolitionism, principally Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Slide 18 (New England A & C Book) American Arts and Crafts movement supporters called for a return to nature, good health, handicraft, the use of natural and locally sourced materials, simplicity, utility, primitivism, and the revival of the best of a region’s early colonial past.
ABOVE: Slides 14-18. Click images to view full size.
Slides 19 – 23
Slide 19 (House & Garden Ad) Demonstrating American Arts and Crafts movement thought in material form is a page of advertisements printed in 1923, in House and Garden magazine, considered a prestigious organ of Arts and Crafts taste. Slide 20 (Colonial Chair) The advertisement page includes ads for Colonial Revival Windsor Chairs crafted by Artcraft Furniture Co.; Slide 21 (Metal Basket) a metal flower wall basket produced by Florentine Craftsmen Masters of the Metal Arts; Slide 22 (House & Garden Book) and the book Arts & Decoration; Practical Home Study Course in Interior Decoration, written in part by the author of The Practical Book of Early American Arts and Crafts. Slide 23 (Scroggs & Ewing) In reference to Aiken, the page includes an ad for Homes of Distinction, an architectural promotional book created by Augusta-based architectural firm Scroggs & Ewing. Work by Scroggs & Ewing appears throughout historic, downtown Aiken.
ABOVE: Slides 19-23. Click images to view full size.
Slides 24 – 31
Slide 24 (A & C Books) To live the tenets of the American Arts and Crafts movement, advocates often traveled to health resort hubs in the United States, bringing with them their American Arts and Crafts ideals. Current articles abound discussing the influence of the American Arts and Crafts movement on health resort areas including California, Slide 25, 26, 27, 28 (California) Colorado Springs, Colorado, Slide 29 (Colorado)and the Pacific Northwest Slide 30 (Pacific Northwest). These articles discuss American Arts and Crafts practitioners’ celebration of early colonial, indigenous populations, including Mexicans and Native Americans. Similarly, it is said, at Tuskegee, Slide 31 (Tuskegee Pastoral) Booker T. Washinton “conjured up a black Oz in the red, pine-dotted hills of the Black Belt in Alabama. As opposed to W. E. B. DuBois’s urban-minded ideals of integration, Washington believed that the isolated world of black towns provided the key elements to the eventual gain of greater political, economic, and cultural power for African Americans. Washinton temporarily averted his gaze from the brutal realities of Jim Crow and conceived an Arts and Crafts-inspired campus, softened in the hand-colored tones of a simpler time. Like John Ruskin (an English A & C leader), he became a prophet for the working class by turning to the past for the blueprints of a utopian community. As it had been for Ruskin, Nature was Washinton’s muse. The aesthetic of the Tuskegee campus and its representations were carefully constructed by Washinton to deliver varying messages. For northern white philanthropist friends, steeped in Victorian taste and laced with the Ruskin aesthetic of morality, nature, labor, and art, Tuskegee proclaimed itself a pastoral retreat and hothouse for the nurturing of black, self-reliant Christians.”
ABOVE: Slides 24-31. Click images to view full size.
Slide 32
Slide 32 (Parsonage) Today, historians document the influence of the American Arts and Crafts movement on health resort areas located in the NE, NW, and SW. However, there is no real discussion of the movement’s influence on health resorts in the SE. Additionally, little scholarship exists discussing the contributions made by African Americans to the American Arts and Crafts movement, except for two articles: Ruskin in the Black Belt: Booker T. Washinton, Arts and Crafts, and the New Negro, by Micheal Bieze, and ‘The Dignity of Labor’: African American Connections to the Arts and Crafts Movement, 1868-1915, by Elaine Fussell Pinson. Given this, my talk will shed light on how the parsonage is critical evidence that Friendship Baptist Church, Schofield Normal and Industrial School, and dedicated Aiken Colony participants advocated and practiced the ideals of the American Arts and Crafts movement, uniquely within the context of a health resort located in the Southeast.
ABOVE: Slide 32. Click to view full size.
Slides 33 – 35
Slide 33 (FBC Church) Before Friendship Baptist Church looked to the Schofield School to build its parsonage, the church was arguably cognizant of American Arts and Crafts ideals, such as using locally sourced, quality building materials, demonstrating restraint in ornamentation, and interacting with Aiken Colony affiliates. Slide 34 (Fire Article) In 1893, a fire destroyed the original FBC church building. In 1894, to rebuild the church, the church used locally manufactured bricks made at Aiken Fire and Ornamental Brick Works. Slide 35 (Bricks)Rev. John Phillips, as noted in a historic Aiken Standard and Review article, stressed that the new building be built using such brick, believing, in the long run, using the quality material would be cheapest. Additionally, Rev. John Phillips emphasized there was “to be nothing gaudy about the (new church) building.” The contract to build the church was given to Mr. Jason V. George, responsible for building the original Willcox Hotel, Rye Patch, and the new clubhouse at the Palmetto Golf Course, all Aiken Colony institutions.
ABOVE: Slides 33, 34 and 35. Click images to view full size.
Slides 36 – 37
Slide 36 (Richard Carroll) Friendship Baptist Church and Schofield revered the work of Richard Carroll, called the Booker T. Washington of South Carolina. Carroll served as pastor at Friendship Baptist Church from 1899-1902. Also, in 1899, The State newspaper included an article summarizing Schofield School’s graduation. In the article, it states the commencement speaker was Richard Carroll. The article goes on, stating “…that while Alabama has its Booker T. Washington, South Carolina has its Richard Carroll.” Slide 37 (AS 1917, 1919) Almost twenty years later, in 1917, a few years before the construction of the parsonage, an article appeared in the Aiken Standard announcing Carroll to give a speech at Friendship Baptist Church. In the article, again, Carroll is compared to Washington. The article states Carroll is “following close in the footsteps of Booker T. Washington…” and “like Washington teaches his people that the best friend the colored race has is the good, broad minded, liberal hearted white man. According to another Aiken Standard article, in 1919, dedicated Aiken Colony participant William C. Whitney gave Carroll several thousand dollars in support of his work.
ABOVE: Slides 36-37. Click images to view full size.
Slides 38 – 40
Slide 38 (Graham and Schofield) To build the parsonage, Friendship Baptist Church selected craftsman Edinburg Graham, a former student and carpentry instructor at Schofield Normal and Industrial School. Given the American Arts and Crafts design of the parsonage, Graham was exposed to and taught American Arts and Crafts design principles at Schofield. Schofield offered manual arts training in carpentry, farming, harness-making, blacksmithing, printing, wheelwrighting, shoemaking, sewing, cooking millinery, housekeeping, and laundry work. Slide 39 (Friends’ Intelligencer) As a craft based, manual industrial model of education, Quaker “Friends’ Intelligencer” journal often proclaimed the Schofield School “recognized the coordinate importance of the education of the head, the heart, and the hand.” Slide 40 (Head, Heart, Hand) At the same time, the slogan was the motto of the Arts and Crafts movement, embraced by Arts and Crafts leaders Elbert Hubbard, Charles Voysey, and Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee.
ABOVE: Slides 38-40. Click images to view full size.
Slides 41 – 43
Slide 41 (Industries of Schofield) Like Tuskegee, an educational institution advancing the idea that education should include work with the head and heart as well as the hand, Schofield broadcasted the notion of dignity of labor. In 1899, Schofield printed a promotional brochure titled Industries of Schofield School, Aiken, S. C., Printed by Students, showing Schofield students working in the Carpenter School, Harness Shop, and Shoe Shop. Slide 42 (Industries of Schofield) Tuskegee did the same. Here is a promotional photo of Tuskegee boys working in the school workshop and several furniture works by Tuskegee students. Slide 43 (Aiken Booster) Likewise, an Aiken booster printed and circulated in 1867 declared “…it has been reported that manual labor was not honorable in the South. If the ever was a truth, hard work and steady employ have now become fashionable; and whoever cultivates his fields best, and is personally most industrious, is the most successful and the greatest gentleman.”
ABOVE: Slides 41- 43. Click images to view full size.
Slides 44 – 47
Slide 44 (Aiken Colony) The Schofield School manual arts programs garnered major support from dedicated Aiken colonists living American Arts and Crafts ideals in Aiken and elsewhere. Many winter colonists in Aiken demonstrated a love for nature, revived and preserved the best of Aiken’s regional heritage, praised utility and simplicity, held primitivism with esteem, supported local handicraft, and, distinctive to the American Arts and Crafts movement, embraced American liberal thought, grounded in classicism. Slide 45 (Schofield Chairs)William C. Whitney, Thomas Hitchcock, Miss Celestine Eustis, and other Aiken Winter Colony participants donated money and/or bought handcrafted objects made by the school. Slide 46 (Highland Park, Schofield Printing) The Schofield Printing Shop printed the daily Bill of Fare for the Highland Park Hotel, one of the most popular hotels for Aiken winter colonists. Slide 47 (Schofield Campus) An Aiken booster brochure geared toward luring Northerners to Aiken advertised the School of Schofield, presented a photo of Schofield Normal and Industrial School Grounds and Buildings. In the book, Martha Schofield and the Reeducation of the South, 1839-1916, the author states the only reason Martha Schofield was invited to be a part of the Aiken Society was because the Schofield School had become a major reason Northerners came to Aiken.
ABOVE: Slides 44-47. Click images to view full size.
Slides 48 – 53
Slide 48 (Segmental Arches) Edinburgh Graham and the Schofield Boys built the parsonage, based on an oral history given by longtime Aiken resident and centurion Cecelia McGhee in addition to architectural evidence presented by the parsonage. Slide 49 (Mantel) The interior of the parsonage presents richly colored, solid wood mantels, presenting an inlay design of a segmental arch, appearing to be upheld by two smooth, Doric columns. Slide 50 (Porch) The same design scheme of segmental arches seemingly supported by smooth Doric columns make up part of the exterior porch construction. Slide 51 (AS article) A few years later, in 1923, the Aiken Standard printed a celebratory article, stating “The members and friends of Friendship Baptist church…are rejoicing over the beautiful arch constructed by Edinburgh Graham in elevating the choir.” Slide 52 (Segmental Arch in FBC) Attributed to Edinburg, the arch inside of the Friendship Baptist Church is a large, classical segmental arch composed of wedge-shaped blocks, appearing to be upheld by rectangular, Doric columns with concave, rounded-arch window motifs. Slide 53 (Segmental Arches) As the segmental-arch designs found inside and outside of the parsonage mimic the segmental-arch design located inside of the Friendship Baptist Church and attributed to Graham, indeed, Graham, as a product of Schofield, built the parsonage.
ABOVE: Slides 48-53. Click images to view full size.
Slide 54 – 55
Slide 54 (Parsonage details) Schofield seems to have taken pride in the creation of the Friendship Baptist Church Parsonage. The beautiful Arts and Crafts mantels, windows, and frames of the parsonage reflect the content Slide 55 (Schofield Ads) of a unique, Schofield newspaper advertisement, printed during the same year the parsonage was completed, 1919-1920. Early in 1920, the Aiken Standard printed a never-before-seen Schofield School advertisement on March 3 and 10 and April 14 and 28. The advertisement reads, “SCHOFIELD SCHOOL is prepared to make screens, mantels, windows and frames. Facilities for moving houses and general advice on building.” Given the timing of the ad, printed the same year as the completion of the personage, it’s likely Schofield contributed to the parsonage project, feeling confident to further their services of crafting mantels, windows, and frames for new clients.
ABOVE: Slides 54-55. Click images to view full size.
Slide 57
I hope this talk sheds light on how the parsonage is an important architectural work, evidencing Friendship Baptist Church, Schofield Normal and Industrial School, and dedicated Aiken Colony participants advocated and practiced the ideals of the American Arts and Crafts movement, uniquely within the context of a health resort located in the Southeast. Moving forward, I hope this talk probs others to ask questions and help spotlight, on a local, regional, and national level, the major contributions made by African Americans to the American Arts and Crafts movement, particularly in the Southeast health resort area of Aiken, South Carolina. Slide 57 (Tuskegee Furniture) The Tuskegee Institute is trying, as evidenced by furniture works crafted by students, on exhibit at the Tuskegee Museum, and scholarly articles concerning Tuskegee Institute architecture. Let’s begin to do the same.
ABOVE: Slide 57. Click image to view full size.
Slide 58 (Closing Slide)
Thank you.
