Mount Moriah Cemetery

Samuel Sloan (1815-1884)


Samuel Sloan




Biography

Samuel Sloan (7 March 1815 – 19 July 1884) was a Philadelphia-based architect and best-selling author of architecture books in the mid-19th century. He specialized in Italianate villas and country houses, churches, and institutional buildings. His most famous building—the octagonal mansion Longwood in Natchez, Mississippi - is unfinished; construction was abandoned during the American Civil War.

Born on March 7, 1815, in Honeybrook Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, the son of William Sloan and Mary Kirkwood, Sloan trained as a carpenter and came to Philadelphia in the mid-1830s. He is said to have worked with John Haviland on Eastern State Penitentiary and with Isaac Holden on the former Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane.

Samuel Sloan married Mary Pennell in 1843. Their children were Ellwood Pennell, Howard L., Laura W., and Ada. He had three grandchildren by his eldest son, Ellwood. They were Maurice, Helen and Samuel A. Sloan.[1]

By 1851, Sloan had won a commission for the Delaware County, Pennsylvania, courthouse and jail, and designed Andrew Eastwick's villa near the site of Bartram's Garden in Philadelphia. These successes prompted him to begin to list his vocation as "architect".

Sloan became a prolific author on architecture most notably for The Model Architect as well as City and Suburban Architecture and Sloan's Constructive Architecture (1859). In 1861, he wrote Sloan's Homestead Architecture and American Houses, and A Variety of Designs for Rural Buildings. Sloan also reached thousands of potential customers through the pages of Godey's Lady's Book, which began publishing his designs in 1852.

"The man who has a home," wrote Sloan in 1871, "feels a love for it a thankfulness for its possession and a proportionate determination to uphold and defend it against all invading influences. Such a man is, of necessity . . . a good citizen; for he has a stake in society."[2]

Economic downturns in the late 1850s as well as the American Civil War put a halt to his professional success and Sloan briefly left Philadelphia for New York in 1867. Important examples of his later work are found outside Pennsylvania, notably in Morganton, North Carolina's Western State Asylum for the Insane. Sloan ended up building about 20 hospitals for the insane based on the "Kirkbride Plan System".[3]

Sloan enjoyed some later success in North Carolina, opening an office in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he died on July 19, 1884. His body was buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery, Philadelphia, Lot 11 Sec 20.[4]

Architects associated with Sloan include: Charles M. Autenrieth (1828-1906), Edward Collins (1821-1902), Willis G. Hale (1848-1907), Addison Hutton (1834–1916), John S. Stewart and Thomas Webb Richards (1836–1911).

Sloan designed three buildings that have since been designated U.S. National Historic Landmarks:

  • Asa Packer Mansion, Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania (1859-61)
  • Longwood, Haller Nutt Mansion, Natchez, MS (designed in 1859, it was never finished due to the Civil War)
  • Additions to Mills Building, South Carolina State Hospital, Columbia, South Carolina

Architectural work (partial listing)

Philadelphia buildings

  • "Bartram Hall", residence of Andrew M. Eastwick, 54th St. & Lindburgh Blvd., Philadelphia PA – 1850 (demolished)[5]
  • Workman’s Housing Rows (2), in association with Joseph Harrison, Jr., Philadelphia, PA - 1853
  • John Piper house, 129 Bethlehem Pike, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, PA - 1854
  • Joseph Harrison Jr. residence, 221 S. 18th St. (East Rittenhouse Square), Philadelphia, PA - 1855 (demolished)
  • Masonic Hall, 700 block Chestnut St., Philadelphia - 1855, burned 1886
  • Episcopal Church of the Savior, 38th & Chestnut Sts., Philadelphia, PA - 1856 (destroyed by fire 1902, rebuilt within surviving stone walls)[6]
  • Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital, Department for Males (Kirkbride's Insane Asylum), 49th & Market Sts., Philadelphia - 1856-59
  • Polite Temple Baptist Church (Germantown), Philadelphia – date not known
  • "Woodland Terrace", 501-519, 500-520 Woodland Terrace, Philadelphia, PA; suburban development built for Charles M. S. Leslie - 1861[7]

Other Pennsylvania buildings

  • Delaware County Courthouse, Media, PA (considered his first commission) - 1849
  • Chester County municipal buildings – 1849
  • Lancaster County Court House, Lancaster, PA - 1852[8]
  • Fulton Opera House, (Originally named Fulton Hall), Lancaster, PA - 1852[9]
  • Residence, NE corner of Church & Miner Sts., West Chester, PA – 1854
  • The High Street School, Gettysburg, PA - 1857
  • Asa Packer Mansion, Jim Thorpe, PA - 1859-61
  • "Faunbrook", residence of William Baldwin, 699 Rosedale Ave., West Chester, PA – 1860
  • (Old) Lycoming County Courthouse (destroyed), Williamsport, PA - 1861
  • Eli Slifer house, 1 River Rd., Lewisburg, PA – 1861[10]
  • Venango County Courthouse, Franklin, PA (with Addison Hutton) - 1868
  • Clinton County Courthouse, Lock Haven, PA (with Addison Hutton) - 1869
  • East Hall (The Academy Building), Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA – 1872[11]
  • Forks of the Brandywine Presbyterian Church, Glenmoore, PA - 1875
  • Westmoreland County Courthouse, Greensburg, PA - 1883

New Jersey and Delaware buildings

  • Town Plan, Riverton, NJ - 1851
  • St Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church, Odessa, DE - 1852
  • Camden County Court House, Camden, NJ – 1852
  • Sheriff's House and Jail, 2nd St., New Castle, Delaware - 1857
  • Dr. Peter Campbell house, Shrewsbury, NJ - c.1860
  • George Allen house, 720 Washington St. Cape May, NJ – 1863 (based on a published Sloan design)
  • West Presbyterian Church, NE corner W. Commerce & Giles Sts., Bridgeton, NJ - 1868-1877
  • Town Hall, Middletown, DE – 1869
  • Additions to New Jersey State Capitol (new wings), Trenton, NJ - 1871
  • Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, (a Kirkbride Plan building), Morristown, NJ – 1871[12]

Buildings elsewhere

  • The Southern Ohio Lunatic Asylum; Dayton, Ohio - 1852[13]
  • “Winter Place”, residence of Col. Joseph Samuel Winter, Montgomery, AL - 1855
  • "Dunleith", residence of Robert P. Dick, 677 Chestnut St., Greensboro, NC - 1856
  • First Baptist Church, 101 W. McBee Ave., Greenville, SC - 1858
  • “Longwood”, Haller Nutt mansion, Natchez, MS – 1859-1862 (unfinished)[14]
  • First Baptist Church, 5th & Market Streets, Wilmington, NC – 1859-1870
  • Bank of New Hanover (demolished), NW corner Front & Princess Sts., Wilmington NC – circa 1860
  • First Presbyterian Church, 125 S. 3rd St., Wilmington, NC – 1861 (destroyed by fire in 1925, the present building is by architect Hobart Upjohn)[15]
  • ”McNeal Place”, Bolivar, TN – 1862[16]
  • Bryce Hospital, (a Kirkbride Plan building), Tuscaloosa, AL - 1861 (endangered)
  • Sylvan Building (Central National Bank), 1500 Main St., Columbia, SC – circa 1868
  • Broughton State Hospital, (aka Western North Carolina Insane Asylum; a Kirkbride Plan building), Morganton, NC – 1883
  • North Carolina Executive Mansion, 201 N. Blount St , Raleigh, North Carolina; (completed by his associate Adolphus Bauer) - 1883[17]
  • Bell Building (New Bern Graded School), 517 Hancock St., New Bern, NC - c. 1884-85
  • (Old) Memorial Hall (demolished), University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC – completed 1885[18]
  • Walker Hall, South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind, Spartanburg County, SC - 1884-1885
  • New South Carolina State Asylum; Babcock Building at the South Carolina State Hospital, Richland County, Bull St., Columbia, SC - 1885

Books

  • Samuel Sloan, The Model Architect, Volume One: A Series of Original Designs for Cottages, Villas, Suburban Residences, Etc. ISBN 0-923891-85-4
  • Samuel Sloan, The Model Architect, Vol. 2 ISBN 0-923891-86-2
  • Harold N. Cooledge, Samuel Sloan: Architect of Philadelphia, 1815-1884 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986) ISBN 0-923891-64-1

Obituary

Obituary not available.

Notes

Some burial information obtained from Mount Moriah Cemetery Records 1856-1978, Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

  1. ↑ U. S. Census, 1880
  2. ↑ "Home Values are Down and Not Just at the Bank", an article by Alexander B. Hoffman, The Washington Post, July 2008.
  3. ↑ Carla Yanni, The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States, Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, 2007, 117
  4. ↑ http://familysearch.org/
  5. ↑ http://www.bartramsgarden.org
  6. ↑ Church of the Savior
  7. ↑ Woodland Terrace at Historic American Buildings Survey
  8. ↑ http://www.fandm.edu/x7220.xml
  9. ↑ http://www.thefulton.org/pages/index.php?pID=24
  10. ↑ http://www.albrightcare.org/slifer-house/
  11. ↑ http://www.fandm.edu/x6949.xml
  12. ↑ http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/buildings/greystonepark/
  13. ↑ http://www.members.aol.com/_ht_a/garyleitzell/lunaticasylum.html
  14. ↑ http://www.natchezpilgrimage.com/dailytour.htm
  15. ↑ http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/uptodate/ill9.html
  16. ↑ http://www.thepillars.info/2008%20Home%20Tour.htm
  17. ↑ http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/raleigh/exe.htm
  18. ↑ http://docsouth.unc.edu/unc/display_images/memorialhall.html

{{#set:Surname={{{Surname}}} |Section=20 |Birth Date=7 March 1815 |Death Date=19 July 1884 |Interment Date={{{BurialDate}}} |Row = {{{Row}}} |Plot=11 }} [[category:{{{Surname}}}]]

Retrieved from "https://mountmoriah.info/index.php?title=Samuel_Sloan_(1815-1884)&oldid=9427"