Skyscrapers and Elevators in the Gilded Age

In the late 19th and early 20th century America saw a rise in the creation of skyscrapers in big cities.  People began to build them because they were the best use of urban real estate which was at a premium during the time.  Skyscrapers were also safer and more structurally sound that the previous buildings which had been made of wood and masonry.  Skyscrapers would not have been as effective or possible without the invention of the elevator which made accessing the higher floors much easier and more desirable.  All-in-all skyscrapers and elevators changed the urban skyline and real estate forever.

The first skyscraper ever constructed was built in Chicago in the late 19th century.  The whole skyscraper movement was "sparked" by the Chicago fire which destroyed the majority of the buildings in downtown because of their wood construction.  Iron was fireproof which therefor made skyscrapers a logical answer to fireproofing.  The ability to make skyscrapers was a new thing because of advancements in steel making and fireproofing made the creating of skyscrapers structural and safe.  William Le Baron Jenney is considered the "Father of Skyscrapers" for being the architect of the first skyscraper in Chicago.  He created a steel-framed building that made the building lighter, cheaper, and stronger than the original masonry construction techniques.  One feature of the skyscraper was the "curtain walls".  Usually made of terracotta or marble, these walls were not load bearing or essential to the building.  These walls were only in place for the aesthetics of the building.  Another feature of the non Load bearing walls was that they could be thinner, allowing the inside to be less claustrophobic, and also allowed for the addition of windows which before had only been able to be very small windows that didn't allow for much light or views. This set the precedent for later construction of skyscrapers and the techniques that were involved in the process.

New York City followed closely behind Chicago in the creation of their first skyscraper.  The skyscraper was the Flatiron Building which was constructed in 1902 and still stands today.  The building was model after the style used to create the building in Chicago.  This style was called Chicago School and was the first real style in which to fashion a skyscraper and the intricate details that covered the aesthetic curtain wall.  The Flatiron Building in New York was arguably more advanced than the building in Chicago because of the size of the Flatiron Building compared to the Chicago skyscraper.  Jenney's building stood 10 stories tall at about 120 feet whereas the Flatiron Building in New York is 22 stories tall and an overall height of 285 feet.  Trumping Jenney's smaller building the Flatiron Building became the leader in construction and size of skyscrapers of the age.  Both of the buildings were used as office spaces that were non-residential but as the buildings get taller and the elevator comes into play companies will begin to only occupy the lower levels of the building and rent out the higher floors.

The Equitable Life Insurance Building in New York City was the first non commercial building to have a passenger elevator installed into the building.  The Equitable Life Insurance Company held a contest for architects to design their office building.  The only requirement in the contest was that the design of the building contain an elevator in the plans.  When the winner was chosen and the building was constructed the company realized that they could make better use and profit off of the top floors if they were to rent them to people to live in.  Now that the elevator was in place it wasn't a hassle to venture to the higher stories of the building and was actually more desirable.  The top floors were more desirable because the higher you got in a building the farther away you got from the noise and the dirt of the street below.  Making the top floor units more comfortable and peaceful.  Though the building was only 7 1/2 stories tall the elevator was the major improvement that made things easier.

The original elevator was one that was steam-powered and was mostly used in commercial and industrial settings.  The elevator was invented by Mr. Otis whose company still makes a majority of the elevators in today's society.  It was initially used in order to make carrying heavy things from one floor to the next less of a struggle, especially as factories and industrial plants began to grow upwards when the cost of urban plots was high.  The elevator was not used in the original skyscrapers because of its inefficiency.  The fact that the elevator was steam-powered required that there always be a person feeding a fire under the boiler that produced the steam.  And it was not until the creation of the first electric elevator that was practical and safe to put an elevator in a skyscraper.

The electric elevator was the only feasible way that an elevator could be installed in a commercial or residential skyscraper safely and effectively.  The first electric elevator was built and tested in Germany in 1880.  The creator of the electric elevator was Mr. Von Siemens whose company now makes elevators and medical equipment.  The elevator was not put in any American buildings at first because they had not come up with a practical way to control the start and stop points of the elevator.  They would not find a solution until the early 1890's when it would begin to be installed in some of the taller buildings that people began constructing.

The skyscraper and elevator were both two important creations that made the urban scene change dramatically.  The increase in urban real estate costs was solved by making the buildings go up instead of out.  And this was made practical by the invention of the elevator and the appeal it brought to being able to live on the higher levels of some of the new buildings.  Overall the skyscraper and elevator are arguably the two most important inventions of the Gilded Age in the way that they still effect modern life in urban areas.

Sites:

Univeristy of Houston: Elevator

History Study Center: Skyscraper

NYC: First Skyscraper

history of the skyscraper

Columbia Elevator

Faces of America

          Over the past few days in class we have been watching the series "Faces of America".  This show, hosted by Henry Louis Gates, helps prominent figures of American culture to find where their ancestors are from and when their family first came to America.  One of the major persons in the film is Kristi Yamaguchi.  She is the descendant of a Japanese family that came to America during the WWII era.  Her family faced the discrimination of the concentration camps in the West despite the fact that her father served in the American army as one of the few Japanese soldiers not in a purely Japanese company.  Her mother and father were both born in the concentration camps.  Though most of her Japanese culture, such as language, was lost over the years. Despite what was lost "Faces of America" was able to track her family lineage all the way back to a town in Japan.  Their they found her grandfather's cousin and they were able to learn a lot from him through pictures and information that had been passed down through him.  Overall, the show really depicted how America's major "faces", or people, aren't actually as American as many believe due to their history of immigration no more than 200 years ago.

          In my opinion, America being a nation of immigrants make it very unique in its background.  Due to the fact of having so many people coming in from all over the world makes America a nation of people who strive for better lives.  This attitude makes America even more of a nation of hard workers and people who are willing to make sacrifices in order to make their living conditions better and also to be to achieve their dreams.  Also people of other countries also come to the US as a place of refuge from the troubles and hardships of their maiden land.  This is a major sign of accomplishment for the Us.  This shows that people see the Us as a place of safety and a strong point in the world.  And the fact that the Us is a nation of immigrants means that these people who escape strife are trying to make the US a strong point in order to help deliver people that were in their situation to safety.  All these people of different cultural backgrounds makes America very unique in a sense of its culture.  This is due to all of these cultures mixing and blending with the others to create a culture that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.  I do not feel a very strong connection with my ancestry because of the time since my ancestors first arrived in America.  My family from both sides have been inn America for hundreds of years and over time the traditional culture has been lost.

 

W.H. Vanderbilt

                 W. H. Vanderbilt is the son of Cornelius Vanderbilt.  W. H. was born into wealth but when he was growing up his father had no confidence or hope for him in the economic world. Cornelius made his wealth through shipping in the steam freighter era.  But when W. H. was older Cornelius put him in charge of the family farm in New York that was going through some rough times.  W. H. was there for a little under a year and by the time that he left the farm had been turned around and was actually making a profit.  After this Cornelius began to have some confidence in his sons economic ability.  About this time the railroad system was the up and rising industrialist phenomenon.  Cornelius bought the New York State railroad and put W.H. in charge of the operation.  Not long after W. H. had been put in charge Cornelius past away.  After the passing of his father W.H. made the New York line very profitable and began to buy most of the railroad lines in the Northeast region of the United States.  W. H. Vanderbilt made huge profits through his ability to turn corporations into profitable economic empires.  With the wealth he made W. H. made very large contributions to up and coming universities.  He made a very large donation to Central Nashville University which has now been renamed as Vanderbilt University.  He is also responsible for a large portion of the Vanderbilt estate which is now a days worth about $52 billion.  By the time W. H. Vanderbilt passed away in his sixties he had accumulated so much wealth through his economic prowess and his inheritance that he was able to earn the title of 4th wealthiest man in history and surpass his fathers previous wealth.  His father is number 10 on the list of wealthiest men.
                   In my opinion W.H. Vanderbilt is one of the greatest economic success stories of his time period.  He overcame the negativity and distrust from his own father as a child to become even more wealthy than his father had been.  Another point of admiration about W.H. was in his urge to do better and achieve even more.  Even though he did inherit a large amount of wealth from his father, he turned around and made even more.  And he did not accomplish this by merely continuing in running the family business.  He made his wealth in a whole new field than the one his father did.  Cornelius was in the shipping business whereas W. H. made the majority of his wealth in the railroad business.   And another point is that he was born with natural talent for business and economics.  His father put him in charge of the family farm in his teenage years and W. H. was still able to pull the farm of an economic slump and actually turn it into a profitable small business.  W. H. was also a very charitable person.  As mentioned early W. H. made a very large donation and contribution to the Central Nashville University, which is now Vanderbilt University and is one of the leading medical and academic colleges in the nation.  He also contributed to A surgical hospital in the Northeast which is now one of the most prestigious medical schools in the country.   The Vanderbilt estate is now a museum that is open to the public and a true example of the amount wealth that was accumulated by the economic geniuses of the late 19th century.

W. H. Vanderbilt

Jim Thorpe

              Jim Thorpe has been given the title of the greatest athlete of the 20th century.While being such a well known and prosperous athlete he faced many controversies throughout his career and even past his lifetime.  

              He was born to Hiram Thorpe and Mary James.  His mother, Mary, was a Pottawatomie Indian and his father was a white farmer.  His mother, and Jim by default, are descendants of the great Sauk and Fox chief Black Hawk.  He lived on a reservation in Oklahoma until he went to the Carlisle Indian Industrial Indian school in Pennsylvania.  And this is where Thorpe's athletic career began.

              Jim Thorpe was a prolific track runner and football player.  His athletic career really started when he was recruited to go to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.  When he first arrived Thorpe was persuaded to run track by Coach Warner.  Jim ran track and was phenomenal at it.  He played on the football team and in his first year was nominated to third team All-American and in the two following years he was nominated to first team All-American.  These years at Carlisle set Thorpe up to achieve greatness and it was around this time when Thorpe represented America in the Olympics.

              When Thorpe was 24 he qualified to compete on behalf of America at the Olympics.  He was a participant in the 1920 Stockholm games in Sweden.  Thorpe dominated his events while he was there winning 4 medals overall.  King Gustav V of Sweden was known to tell Thorpe that he was the greatest athlete in the world.  After these Olympic Games is where the controversies truly began.  

             Olympic controversies immediately overwhelmed Thorpe.  They said that Thorpe didn't meet the requirements of amateurism that were required during that time period.  This is due to the fact that Thorpe had spent some of his summers at Carlisle playing semi-professional baseball in North Carolina and getting payed to play.  Thorpe remarks that it was merely food money.  But the IOC (International Olympic Committee) didn't care.  Money was money.  So they came to the conclusion that Thorpe would have all of his medals confiscated and his world record times would be removed from the record books.  Many people say that this was majorly fueled due to racism.  People say that he was a symbol injustice towards the Native Americans.  This is very much a possibility because of the relationship between the US and the Indian Nations at this point in time.  But in my opinion I do not believe that there is enough evidence in order to make this accusation.  

              After the incident with the IOC Thorpe continued on to play professional sports.  He played professional football and was a founder of the AFPL (American Football Professional League) which was the precursor to the modern day NFL.  Thorpe also spent a large portion of his professional football career coaching, organizing, and playing for the Oorang Indians.  This was a reservation team comprised of all American Indians.  This team was extremely talented and were known to whoop-up on the professional teams.  He also played for the Cleveland Indians for a while.  The irony of this is that Thorpe was the only American Indian on the team.

              After Thorpe's professional career came to a close he settled down in California.  He began to become involved in Native American politics and give lectures on the American Indian style of life.  He also played roles in many movies as an Indian.  It was in California that Thorpe passed away.  He was a husband to 3 women, at separate times, and a father to 14 children.  His youngest son would later become the chief of the Sauk and Fox tribe that Thorpe was born into.  But the most controversial thing about his death was the placement of his remains. When Thorpe died his current wife bought his remains from the state of California.  She then proceed to sell them to a small town in Pennsylvania.  After the purchase the town would become known as Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.  The controversy is in the Sauk and Fox tribe want the remains to have their final resting place in Oklahoma on the reservation.  This is due to the fact that it is tribal tradition that Thorpe have a traditional Native American burial so that his soul can truly rest.  Thorpe's children sued the town of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania and the case went to the supreme court.  The ruling was in direct referral to the Respect for Indian Graves Act.  It was said that the rightful ownership of the remains went to the state.  And that when Thorpe's wife bought his remains from the state of California it was then her property and her business.  When she sold them to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania it was then there property and they had rights to the remains so it is there decision on what to do with the remains.  In response to this ruling there has been a website made to support the movement to get his remains sent back to the reservation in Oklahoma.  

             After Thorpe's death his medals and records were all reinstated by the IOC as the future generations saw it as a very racial prejudice and overruled the early ruling.  Thorpe's family were all given honorary medals in commemoration of the injustices that Thorpe was subjected to.  

             In the end Thorpe's life was full of controversies.  And even after death some still stand and continue to cause topics for discussion.

Resources:
Yahoo.com
Jim Thorpe Biography
Tribute to Jim Thorpe

Pictures:
Jim Thorpe Portrait
Jim Thorpe Stamp
Jim Thorpe Grave

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