Samuel Sloan (March 7, 1815 – July 19, 1884)[1] 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.
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.[3]
Careeredit
By 1851, Sloan had won a commission for the Delaware County, Pennsylvania, courthouse and jail, and designed Andrew Eastwick's villa "Bartram Hall" near the site of Bartram's Garden in Philadelphia. These successes prompted him to begin to list his vocation as "architect".
Authorshipedit
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."[4]
Economic downturns and work outside Philadelphia areaedit
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.[1] Sloan ended up building about 20 hospitals for the insane based on the "Kirkbride Plan System".[5]
Sloan enjoyed some later success in North Carolina, opening an office in Raleigh, where he died on July 19, 1884.[1] His body was buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery, Philadelphia, Lot 11 Sec 20.[2]
Associated architectsedit
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), Isaac Pursell (1853–1910), and Charles Balderston (1852–1924). his half-brother, Fletcher Sloan, was also an architect.[6]
Third Westmoreland County Courthouse, Greensburg, PA - 1883, demolished (not to be confused with current courthouse)
Old Main: first building of Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania Campus (then called Cumberland Valley State Normal School), Shippensburg, PA - 1870–1873.
Sheriff's House and Jail, 2nd St., New Castle, DE - 1857
Dr. Peter Campbell house, Shrewsbury, NJ - c.1860
"The Southern Mansion," 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[19] Greystone Photo Album, circa 1899, Morris Plains, N.J. - history and photography (Morristown and Morris Township Public Library, N.J.)
Mistletoe Villa in Henderson, NC is said to have been designed by Sloan but that fact has never been officially documented[29][30] although historians believe that the style and details are consistent with his other designs[31] - c. 1883–1885
Bell Building (New Bern Graded School), 517 Hancock St., New Bern, NC - c. 1884–1885
(Old) Memorial Hall (demolished), University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC – completed 1885[1][32]
^"Home Values are Down and Not Just at the Bank", an article by Alexander B. Hoffman, The Washington Post, July 2008.
^Carla Yanni, The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States, Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, 2007, 117
^Lane, Mills; Martin, Van Jones (1989). "fletcher+sloan"+architect Architecture of the Old South: Mississippi & Alabama. ISBN 9781558590083.
^Elizabeth Cheek (July 1971). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Leigh Street Baptist Church" (PDF). Virginia Department of Historic Resources. and Accompanying photo
^"Protestant Episcopal Church of the Saviour". www.uchs.net.
^The Library Company of Philadelphia, Digital Collections
^Woodland Terrace at Historic American Buildings Survey
^"National Historic Landmarks & National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania" (Searchable database). CRGIS: Cultural Resources Geographic Information System. Note: This includes George E. Thomas (June 1978). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Hamilton Family Estate" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-07-03.
^"A few Philadelphia walking tours || Walnut Street Tour".
^Beisert, Oscar (April 29, 2019). "Philadelphia Register of Historic Places Nomination: Trinity (German) Reformed Church, 1533-39 N. 7th Street" (PDF). Philadelphia Historical Commission. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
^"The Lancaster County Court House 1852-1855". Archived from the original on 2006-09-03. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
^"History". Archived from the original on 2007-10-10. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
^"Slifer House". Archived from the original on 2008-11-20. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
^"The Buildings". Archived from the original on 2006-09-03. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
^"Greystone Park State Hospital - Kirkbride Buildings".
^Scharf, John Thomas (1888). "History of Delaware : 1609–1888: Local history".
^"The Southern Ohio Lunatic Asylum". Archived from the original on 2006-02-19. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
^"10 endangered Alabama plantation homes, plus 15 mansions lost to history". 2014-06-05.
^"Antebellum Mansions Open Year-Round". Archived from the original on 2008-09-18. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
^"Wilmington Chamber of Commerce (N.C.). Wilmington Up-to-Date: The Metropolis of North Carolina Graphically Portrayed. Compiled under the Auspices of the Chamber of Commerce. Also a series of Comprehensive Sketches of Representative Business Enterprises".
^"Press Release March, 2008". Archived from the original on 2008-08-07. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
^Connecticut Valley Hospital, National Register of Historic Places application, August 29, 1985, http://www.middletownplanning.com/documents/CVH_NRHP_1985.pdf
^Esperdy, Gabrielle; Kingsley, Karen, eds. (2012). "Temple of Israel [Wilmington, North Carolina]". SAH Archipedia. Charlottesville: Society of Architectural Historians. Retrieved December 26, 2023.
^"North Carolina Executive Mansion-- Raleigh: A Capital City: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary".
^Seifert, Laura (October 1985). "Historic home filled with special touches". MidAtlantic Antiques Magazine. II (10).
^Works of the North Carolina Preservation Fund Inc. (June 1979). "This Private Agency Stays Busy Rescuing Valuable Old Structures". We the People of North Carolina. XXXVII (6).