50 Facts About Bradford Gilbert

Bradford Lee Gilbert was a nationally active American architect based in New York City.

Bradford Gilbert designed Atlanta's Cotton States and International Exposition of 1895, the Flatiron Building in Atlanta, and many railroad stations.

Bradford Gilbert's uncle was Jasper W Gilbert, a justice with the New York Supreme Court.

Bradford Gilbert attended Siglar's School in Newburg and the Sedgwick Institute in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

However, Gilbert decided to forgo college as he was very anxious to learn architecture.

Bradford Gilbert became a student with the architectural firm J Cleveland Cady in New York City for five years, beginning in 1872.

In 1876, Bradford Gilbert was hired as an architect for the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad, under engineer Octave Chanute.

Bradford Gilbert did not just design buildings, he managed the projects and visited the construction sites; this was documented in newspapers articles announcing his arrival in town to check on the progress of the projects.

Bradford Gilbert designed stations, offices and terminals for the National Railroad of Mexico.

The location and use of the building created certain challenges given the brief that all fair buildings have impact and beauty; Bradford Gilbert's solution was to increase the size of the station and give it strong Romanesque details, as "the first impression gained of the building by the general public would be regarding its general contour and 'massing' as well as the outline skylines".

Bradford Gilbert's design included a ten-story office building, with lobby and offices connected via a pneumatic tube service.

Bradford Gilbert achieved this in part by using the building's adjacent tower as a series of fire-proof vaults.

Whether designing a large railroad station for New York City or a small station for a Mexican village, Bradford Gilbert believed the structure should be comfortable, functional, and aesthetically pleasing to be an asset to its community.

In 1893, Bradford Gilbert designed an exhibition building for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago for his clients the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad along with The Wagner Palace Car Co.

Bradford Gilbert noted that railroad buildings had been overlooked in the past, but were an excellent place "to illustrate the modern architecture".

Two of the entrances featured step-gables, a characteristic of Dutch Renaissance Revival style that Bradford Gilbert used with other public buildings in New York City as a nod to the city's origins as New Netherland.

Bradford Gilbert designed a Queen Anne style building for the YMCA in the Bowery.

In June 1886, Bradford Gilbert was hired to design a building for the Harlem Branch of the YMCA.

John Noble Sterns, a supporter of the Cremorne Mission where Bradford Gilbert was a trustee, hired Bradford Gilbert in 1888 to design an eleven-story office building in New York City.

Bradford Gilbert scaled the building in the middle of an 1889 hurricane to prove that the building was not vibrating with a plumb line.

In 1888, Bradford Gilbert designed the Virginia Beach Hotel, with its attached Terminal Station, for the Norfolk and Virginia Beach Railroad in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

In 1895, Gilbert designed the Mary F Ballentine Home for the Aged at 927 Park Ave.

In 1895, Bradford Gilbert was the supervising architect for the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta.

At his suggestion, Bradford Gilbert's designs were in the Romanesque style as this resulted in cost-effective temporary structures with a simple outline.

Bradford Gilbert began with a small hotel called Manor Inn, five cottages and the Lodge where the Raoul family lived at first.

Bradford Gilbert was the supervising architect for the South Carolina Inter-State and West Indian Exposition in 1901.

However, Bradford Gilbert gave the exposition a more romantic look than the Atlanta exposition, while modernizing it with the Mediterranean-style that was, during the 1890s and early 20th-century, in fashion for commercial and residential buildings Rather than Southern plantation architecture, it seems that Bradford Gilbert was influenced by the fair's goal of reminding commercial interests of the once lucrative trade route between the West Indies and the port of Charleston.

Bradford Gilbert's layout divided the fair into sections, suggesting that he studied that of the widely successful Columbian Exposition.

Bradford Gilbert's idea was to split the grounds into areas for the natural and artificial, connected by a "narrow neck" that included the Administration Building.

Bradford Gilbert sited this section over the former Washington Race Course, a flat area that was already treeless, allowing him to create "complex geometrical design" for the Court of Palaces which was surrounded with a sunken garden and connected by a colonnade.

In May 1902, Bradford Gilbert appeared in court for his lawsuit against the exposition for $16,422.80, the balance due on his $34,422.30 invoice.

In 1902, Bradford Gilbert was paid $1,000 by Atlanta to draw plans for a new railroad station.

In 1872, Bradford Gilbert married Cora Rathbone, daughter of the late Captain John Rathbone, in Brooklyn, New York.

Bradford Gilbert was 19 and she was seventeen or eighteen years older.

Bradford Gilbert was an elder with the University Presbyterian Church in New York City, and later an elder with the Westminster Presbyterian Church.

Bradford Gilbert was a supporter and trustee of the McAuley Water Street Mission which was founded in 1887 by missionaries Jerry McAuley and his wife Maria, to give shelter and food to the poor.

In 1885, Bradford Gilbert was secretary of a committee that raised funds for a public drinking fountain in memory of McAuley.

On October 13,1887, Cora Bradford Gilbert served her husband with divorce papers during the intermission of a prayer meeting at Cremorne Mission.

Bradford Gilbert's claim was on the basis of infidelity, to be heard in the superior court at White Plains.

Later, Bradford Gilbert said his wife was influenced by would-be blackmailers.

Bradford Gilbert resigned from her position at Cremorne Mission and moved to Cranford, New Jersey.

Bradford Gilbert discontinued his association with the Mission when McAuley left.

Around 1887, Bradford Gilbert acquired nearly 1,000 acres in Roscoe, New York.

Bradford Gilbert named the surrounding hamlet Craig-e-Clair which translates as "beautiful mountainside".

Bradford Gilbert incorporated a clock he acquired from the New York Central Railroad.

Bradford Gilbert, who was notoriously against ornamentation, added Celtic designs to several buildings around the time of his marriage to Maria, including the Mason Stables and the Tower Building.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that Bradford Gilbert was recovering from a "severe illness" on August 14,1904.

Bradford Gilbert began designing the yacht Jerry McAuley as a gift to The Salvation Army in June 1908.

On September 1,1911, at age 58, Bradford Gilbert died of dropsy at his summer house in Accord, New York.

Many of the surviving buildings by Bradford Gilbert are on the National Register of Historic Places.