Kenneth Murchison as George Washington

[wanswheel]

Kenneth McKenzie Murchison, Jr. (1872-1938) was the architect of PRR Baltimore and Johnstown stations, LIRR Jamaica and Long Beach stations, DL&W Hoboken, Scranton and Buffalo stations, LV Buffalo station, Jacksonville Terminal and Havana Central Station in Cuba. A graduate of Columbia University and the Beaux Arts school in Paris, he had some other talents: musician, composer, radio personality, amateur tennis player (and architect of Forest Hills tennis stadium) writer and architectural critic, and, on April 30, 1932, George Washington impersonator.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 1, 1932

Inaugural Pageant Stirs Hearts of City

Washington’s Goodby Brings Real Tears to Eyes of Colonial Generals at Fraunces Tavern—Crowds at Federal Hall Fete

By O.R. Pilat

New York City joined yesterday in staging an all-star, all-talking, all-living moving picture of the inauguration of George Washington seven score and three years ago.

Every step of the arrival of His Excellency in the harbor to the dramatic taking of the oath was retraced with a fidelity which faltered at times but which on at least two occasions deepened into genuine emotion.

The chief role was played by Kenneth Murchison, an architect, who would have been an asset to the stage. He made an excellent George Washington, a flush-faced, almost portly country gentleman within whose solid exterior burnt the flame of leadership.

Motors Drive Barges

The scene he did best was at Fraunces Tavern, at Pearl and Broad Sts. in downtown Manhattan—the farewell to his officers.

Up to that scene the celebration had been tinged with the farcical. The start from Jersey City at 10 a.m. of the two presidential barges—obviously gasoline launches from the Brooklyn Navy Yard with a curious scarlet panoply astern—had been delayed and the Revolutionary heroes in their lace and silk, their slippers and cocked hats, had sat around in public view, smoking modern cigarettes.

Escorted by some of Uncle Sam’s largest rum-chasing boats and miscellaneous craft, the small barges, with 12 white-clad oarsmen in each, sped along with modern motors sputtering.

Oarsmen Have Hard Job

Photographers and news reel men demanded that the oarsmen stop poising their sweeps and produce some action. Since the sides of the barges were high and there were no oarlocks, efforts to even wet the oars were barely successful and the result was to make the barges swing around in the wrong direction.

The barges finally paraded by the Battery, where a grandstand and excursion boats had so blocked the view that only a few hundred persons waited for the sight.

The water parade ended at a maroon float at the foot of Wall St. and the East River.

“Turn around, George,” shouted a photographer as Murchison got out of his barge, and the crowd began to enjoy itself.

Setting Too Modern

New York City 143 years was a place of narrow, ill-paved streets, through some of which pigs roamed. Its population was around 30,000. Skyscrapers, ticker-tape and big limousines—even though General Washington himself rode down Wall St. in a coach which was used in the original inauguration ceremonies—provided too modern a setting.

Mayor Walker himself was a charming, but dissonant note. Dressed in modern formal clothes, he received more attention in Wall St. than George Washington. With him was Grover Whalen, urbane, top-hatted; Gov. Wilbur Cross of Connecticut, and other celebrities, including Gene Tunney, former heavyweight boxing champion.

Goodbye Re-enacted

At Fraunces Tavern the rickety door on General Washington’s coach stuck and there was much pulling before it could be opened.

Upstairs, in the Long Room of the tavern where General Washington actually had said goodbye to his officers—the scene was re-enacted.

Only those dressed as Colonials surrounded Washington as he leaned against an old fireplace.

“With a heart full of love and gratitude,” he said, “I now take my leave of you, devotedly wishing that your later days may be as prosperous and happy as your former days were glorious and admirable.”

The general concluded with a wish that he might shake the hand of each of his generals. One by one they filed by, Generals Knox and Webb, Mad Anthony Wayne, Von Steuben, Green and Stevens. Each hid a face a moment on the commander’s blue-coated shoulder.

Generals Shed Real Tears

The spirit of this imagined departure from military to civil life was contagious. There were real tears in the eyes of at least two generals. One covered his face with his hands.

The second big scene of the day came in the late afternoon in Bryant Park, where there was a stucco imitation of Federal Hall. Thousands filled the park, including lines of pseudo Colonials recruited from the Seventh Regiment, looking very ornamental in their periweigs, their buff and blue costumes, their black leggings and muskets.

March Up 5^th Ave.

Previously there had been ceremonies at Washington’s Arch, followed by a laborious march up 5^th Ave. by a 20-minute line of military units in modern uniform and National Guardsmen in Colonial trappings.

In Bryant Park every inch of space was taken when Grover Whalen at 4 o’clock made a formal presentation of the Federal Hall building, and Mayor Walker briefly, and without a wisecrack, accepted it.

Dr. John H. Finlay delivered an historical address. He pointed out that history is more a pageant than a philosophy. He discussed old New York and its customs; he described Washington at the original inauguration as being agitated, awkward and embarrassed.

Murchison did not reproduce the hesitancies of the man he was representing.

Standing solidly on the high balcony, with loudspeakers making every word audible, he said firmly:

Soldiers Shout Hurrah

“I solemnly swear I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve and protect and defend the Constitution of the Unites States, so help me God!”

James Duane Livingston, who had played the role of his ancestor, Robert Livingston, Chancellor of the State of New York, who administered the oath to Washington, raised his voice, keen-edged with emotion.

“It is done.” He said. “Long live George Washington, President of the United States.”

“Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah,” chanted the soldiers. Shakoes and cocked hats were raised high in the air on bayonet tips. Ticket tape sifted downward from buildings all around.

Solemnity Halts Actors

The tableau on the balcony froze into stillness at the solemnity of the thing, and Gladys Swarthout, opera singer, had to push by J. Otis Post, holding the inauguration Bible on a crimson pillow, in order to get near enough to the microphone to sing the national anthem.

That, to all intents and purposes, was the climax of the day. In the evening there was a big dinner with formal speeches, at the Hotel Commodore. There were fireworks displayed on the towers of the George Washington Memorial Bridge.

Repeats Washington’s Speech

The main speech of the evening was an address delivered by Mr. Murchison as General Washington, made up entirely of excerpts from real addresses made by the First President, considered appropriate today.

The speech concluded with these words:

“There are four things which, I humbly conceive, are essential to the well-being, I may even venture to say, to the existence of the United States, as an independent power:

“First, an indissoluble union of the States under one Federal head; secondly, a sacred regard to public justice; thirdly, the adoption of a proper peace establishment; and fourthly, the prevalence of that pacific and friendly disposition among the people of the United States which will induce them to forget their local prejudices and policies, to make those mutual concessions which are requisite to the general prosperity, and, in some instances, to sacrifice their individual advantages to the interest of the community.”

http://stream.efootage.com/clips/1932/55710.mp4

[Firelock76]

Mr. Murchison certainly had an uncanny resemblance to the General, but for those like me who remember the 80's miniseries, Barry Bostwick IS George Washington!

Thanks for that intersting post Wanswheel!

[wanswheel]

Thanks Firelock, as you know, the Garden State has a great example of Murchison’s design.

http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101075131183

[54light15]

Hoboken terminal is a spiffy place. I took a train out of there to Basking Ridge in October of 1991 and a GG1 was in the yards nearby.

[Firelock76]

I rode one of Ross Rowland's C&O 614 / Jersey Transit steam excursions out of Hoboken Terminal, and spiffy place is just putting it mildly.

I almost swooned considering all the history that place has seen.

NJT used to hold yearly rail festivals there as well, the last one being in (I think) 2003.  They don't do them anymore citing expense, which is too bad.  I've got a video of one of them and it looks like they threw one hell of a party!

[wanswheel]

Favorite Amtrak stations thread somehow caused me to learn that the architect of the Baltimore station eventually played the First President. President Obama’s inaugural train stopped at Baltimore a while, in order for him to make a speech at Memorial Plaza, and next month he has a chance to see another great Murchison station. Doubt he will, but it’s there.

[wanswheel]

[Deggesty]

wanswheel

 

Mike, thank you  for finding and sending the above on. It may take a little thought for the matters to be fully comprehended, but it does explain two things: the difference between Julius Caesar's calendar, which most of Europe abandoned several years before the end of 1751, and Pope Gregory's (I do not remember which number he was) calendar, which was adopted earlier by most of Europe--and the reason why, until the change, early dates in each year were indicated by the use of the numbers of two years. I have the impression that some people have thought that writing the year with a slash showed that there was uncertainty as to just what year it was.

A note: you may have noticed near the bottom of the piece is "ye year...." The first word began with a letter that we do not use anymore; it looked somewhat like a "y"--but it was a different letter (I have forgotten its name--"thorn," perhaps? which was pronounced as "th." So, "Ye Olde Chemist's Shoppe" is pronounced "The Olde Chemist's Shoppe."

Incidentally, if King George V sent a letter to his cousin Nicholas, Czar of all the Russias, and the mail service was swift enough, Nicky received the letter before it was written, for the Russians, the same as certain other people in the East (who more or less ignored the Pope), still used the Julian Calendar.

This also explains why the October Revolution is/was celebrated in November rather than in October, for the Bolsheviks adopted the Gregorian calendar, yet kept the same day.

[wanswheel]

Thanks, Johnny. I guess ye olde thorne resembles

[Deggesty]

Ah--my memory was not faulty as to the name of the letter "Thorn."

Now, another (off-topic) oddity: in writings earlier than about the middle of the 18th century, the letter "s" when within a word resembled the letter "f"--one not really familiar with the styling has to look closely to see that it has no crossbar; the bar is on one side only of the verticle stroke. When we were readng a portion of Treasure Island in 9th or 10th grade English, at least one of my classmates, when looking at the map of where the treasure was located pronounced "treassure" (sic) as "treaffure."

[Firelock76]

That "s" that looked like an "f" in 18th Century manuscripts was called the "long s" and was used only at the beginning of a word or the middle, but never as the last letter.  Use of the same slowly began to end by the end of the 18th Century and was gone by the end of the War of 1812, except by some older folks who couldn't break the habit.

Why'd they use it?  That's fomething I've never been able to afcertain.  Just the ftyle of the times I fuppofe.

 

[Wizlish]

It's the same thing as the mathematical symbol for the integral sign, a long s (think of summation, sigma, with an infinite number of steps...) except that the descender is truncated to make the thing fit in a normal font cabinet. 

The ligature for double 's' survives in German as the ess-tset (not sure how it's actually spelled) which when you look at it carefully is the long 's' and trailing normal 's' together.

[Deggesty]

Wizlish

It's the same thing as the mathematical symbol for the integral sign, a long s (think of summation, sigma, with an infinite number of steps...) except that the descender is truncated to make the thing fit in a normal font cabinet. 

The ligature for double 's' survives in German as the ess-tset (not sure how it's actually spelled) which when you look at it carefully is the long 's' and trailing normal 's' together.

 

Are you referring to the German schluss ess? That's what it called back when I studied German.

[Wizlish]

Deggesty

Are you referring to the German schluss ess? That's what it called back when I studied German.

I almost spelled it right; not quite:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9F

As it turns out, what the letterform actually represents (as preserved in the name) is a long-S-to-z ligature, not a double S which is what it now usually represents.

See the discussion of Heyse near the bottom for what the schluss-s use is.

(Personally I'd love to hear schlimm's and Juniatha's opinions on the finer use of this.)

[wanswheel]

Johnstown PRR

https://ia700700.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/33/items/characterofsteel00wall/characterofsteel00wall_jp2.zip&file=characterofsteel00wall_jp2/characterofsteel00wall_0219.jp2&scale=4&rotate=0

[wanswheel]

Buffalo DL&W 

[wanswheel]

Buffalo LV

[wanswheel]

Scranton DL&W

 

[wanswheel]

Jacksonville

[wanswheel]

Murchison’s tomb probably should be at his busiest station: LIRR Jamaica

 

 NY Times, Dec. 16, 1938

[Firelock76]

Poor guy probably dropped dead when he got his first glimpse of "Bauhaus" architecture.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Firelock76

Poor guy probably dropped dead when he got his first glimpse of "Bauhaus" architecture.

The clean straightforward lines of Miesian architecture have much to be said for them.

[schlimm]

Wizlish

 

 

Deggesty

Are you referring to the German schluss ess? That's what it called back when I studied German.

 

 

I almost spelled it right; not quite:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9F

As it turns out, what the letterform actually represents (as preserved in the name) is a long-S-to-z ligature, not a double S which is what it now usually represents.

 

Just saw this, although the poster seems to have departed.  I believe the ß and ss are both used in modern texts depending on typeface, pretty much interchangeably, so Strasse or Straße.

Of course, there's nothing for style like the older Fraktur typefaces. 

[schlimm]

CSSHEGEWISCH

 

 

Firelock76

Poor guy probably dropped dead when he got his first glimpse of "Bauhaus" architecture.

 

 

 

The clean straightforward lines of Miesian architecture have much to be said for them.

 

I agree.  Murchison's designs are mostly pretty clumsy derivative designs, some looking like mix and [not]match.

[wanswheel]

Well, Jacksonville Terminal does resemble Penn Station some.

 

Tallest building in Wilmington, designed by Kenneth McKenzie Murchison, Jr., who of course was named for his father:

[Firelock76]

OK, my curiosity was piqued, so I looked up Miesian architecture.

Well, so THAT'S where Motel 6 got it's look from!

Assuming my little joke was true and Bauhaus killed Mr. Murchison, Miesian would have had him spinning in his grave at 1500 RPM.

Different tastes, and they DO change.

[NorthWest]

Thank you wanswheel! Very interesting architecture.