George Franklin Barber

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George Franklin Barber : biography

31 July 1854 – 17 February 1915

In 1890, Barber published The Cottage Souvenir No. 2, which contained 59 house plans, as well as plans for 2 barns, a chapel, a church, 2 storefronts, and several pavilions. This catalog and its subsequent revisions led to an explosion in orders for Barber’s firm. Barber houses built during this period include the Jeremiah Nunan House in Jacksonville, Oregon,Marion Ross and Christopher Owens, , 1971. Retrieved: 1 May 2011. the Donnelly House in Mount Dora, Florida, and the J. Hawkins Hart House in Henderson, Kentucky,Rachel Alexander, , 1 October 2010. Retrieved: 1 May 2011. all of which still stand and are listed on the National Register. He also remained active on a local level in Knoxville, with the Romanesque-inspired Isaac Ziegler House on 4th Avenue,Joseph Herndon, , 1974. Retrieved: 1 May 2011. and a house built for his printer, S.B. Newman, which still stands in Old North Knoxville.

Around 1895, Barber parted ways with White and formed a new firm with a new partner, Thomas Kluttz. That year, Barber began publishing a magazine, American Homes, which advertised the firm’s latest house plans, offered tips on landscaping and interior design, and published a multi-part history of architecture by Louisville architect Charles Hite-Smith. In 1896, the growing firm moved into the Barber-designed French and Roberts Building on Gay Street, with the firm’s thirty draftsmen and twenty secretaries occupying an entire floor.

Later career

In the late 1890s and early 1900s, Barber designed a number of elaborate mansions for affluent businessmen, including the home of Carroll Lathrop Post (brother of C. W. Post) in Battle Creek, Michigan, the home of tobacco magnate R. J. Reynolds in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the home of People’s Bank president N.E. Graham in East Brady, Pennsylvania, and one of his grandest designs, the $40,000 "Mount Athos" for Barboursville, Virginia, tycoon Walter G. Newman.Jeff O’Dell, John Salmon, and Randolph Turner, , December 1989, Section 7, pp. 33-34. Retrieved: 3 May 2011.

In the early 1900s, Barber began to phase out his mail-order business and with the help of his brother, Manley, focused on Knoxville-area building projects. He later worked with architects R. F. Graf and John Ryno.Ann Bennett, National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form for Stratford, 23 March 2009. The publication of American Homes was moved to New York in 1902, though Barber remained a regular contributor for several years afterward. The catalog business was suspended in 1908. Barber died on February 17, 1915, and is interred with his family in Knoxville’s Greenwood Cemetery.. Retrieved: 3 May 2011.

Works

The bulk of Barber’s business followed the "catalog architecture" model popularized by earlier architects such as Palliser. Barber’s great innovation was his willingness to personalize his designs for individual clients at moderate cost. As he wrote in his Cottage Souvenir No. 2, "Write to us concerning any changes wanted in plans, and keep writing till you get what you want. Don’t be afraid of writing too often. We are not easily offended." Though his firms’ records no longer survive, it is believed that he sold as many as 20,000 plans in his career. Since he frequently modified his designs to fit his clients’ needs and specifications, his houses are sometimes difficult to attribute with any certainty.Ann Bennett, , May 1994, Sec. 7, p. 51. Retrieved: 2 May 2011.

In discussing his architectural philosophy, Barber argued that Nature has "faithfully and accurately adhered to the Divine law of harmony,"George F. Barber, Victorian Cottage Architecture: An American Catalog of Designs (Dover Publications, 2004), pp. 3-7. and that no place should adhere more closely to the fundamental principles of nature than one’s house. Barber considered proportion the most important element in architecture, likening it to harmony in music, "without which all else is a failure." He described ornamentation as the next most important element, as it gives proportion expression. Lastly was "harmony of form," or the relationship of curved and straight lines to one another.