/ AMERICAN INSTITUTE. ' 603 



sucli. Prior to 1847, there was not in existence an iron house — -beside 

 the two instances alluded to, there had been constructed in England some 

 Boldier's barracks, made of sheet iron, nailed upon wooden standards. In 

 our own city the use of cast-iron for building purposes was limited to the 

 occasional substitution of a water-pipe, or a rude, solid pillar, for the ordi* 

 nary stone posts of the first story. 



"It was then that, on the corner of Center and Duane Streets, in this 

 city, the first cast-iron edifice ever built, was erected. Mr. Bogardus' 

 mind had been dwelling on the subject for years, and had finally so elabo- 

 rated it, that in May, 1848, he commenced the iron-building which, amid 

 prejudice, sneers and prophecies, he finally finished in the following year. 

 Men came in flocks to laugh at what they facetiously christened "Bogardus' 

 Folly;" and their prophecies were of a character which we are sorry to 

 hear repeated in part, even after absolute success has rendered them absurd. 

 One would not live in it, for the gift of the whole concern, for it would 

 crush itself by its own weight; another, because it off"ered such an excel" 

 lent mark for a thunderbolt ; a third, it was not perpendicular, and would 

 roll over some fine day: and a fourth, because, in case of fire, there'd be a 

 grand chance for some melted iron. In their mind's eye, some men, saw the 

 walls shrinking and shivering in the cold, and on a warm summer's day 

 Btretching themselves indefinitely, with an epicurean appetite to enjoy all 

 the sunshine they could steal. But somehow the building was finished, 

 and there it stood, while frost and fire were busily crackling and splinter- 

 ing the marble and free-stone, bidding defiance to fire and storm, until, to 

 the lasting disgrace of the city of New York, it was removed during last 

 year, at the bidding of the corporate authorities. To-day the iron building 

 lies upon the ground, as perfect in preservation as upon the day it first 

 stood a complete edifice upon the site it occupied. 



"But let it not be supposed that safety and utility alone were the objects 

 Mr. Bogardus had in view. Convinced himself that iron was capable of 

 reproducing in at least equal amount and facility, all the triumphs of an old 

 world art, he has succeeded in convincing others by occular demonstration, 

 of the same truths, There never was a decoration, a deep undercutting, or 

 ornament of any kind, chiseled or molded, which cannot here-produced in 

 iron, and the cast shall surpass the work of the chisel. To convince him- 

 self of this, and that many eff'ects may be produced in iron which are 

 impossible in stone, the stone-worker need only take some fine work of 

 Sir Francis Chantry, for instance, and attempt to imitate. The cheap- 

 ness with which architectural ornaments can be produced in iron, is self" 

 evident. On the same building a number of similar ornaments are needed. 

 Before the stone cutter is fiiirly at his work, the Corinthian columns are 

 ready in iron, and before he has quarried the stone, the whole building is 

 erected. Surely this facility need not alarm a generation who have, with 

 singular equanimity and self-satisfaction, gazed all their lives long upon 

 the blank walls that, until lately, and too much now, graced, or disgraced, 

 -all our avenues. Nothing should be tedious but uniformity, and that uni- 



