AN AMERICAN ARCHITECT 
Being an Appreciation ok Louis H. Sullivan by Claude Bragdon 
T HE history of any art usually resolves it¬ 
self into the record of the achievement of 
a few eminent individuals. When the history 
of architecture in America shall come to 
be written there are two men, at least, the 
omission of whose names from such a his¬ 
tory would render it incomplete and incom¬ 
prehensible. 1 'he late Henry Hobson 
Richardson is one ol these men, and Louis 
H. Sullivan is the other. Each, by the 
power of his personality and the vitality of 
his genius, has exercised a distinct influence 
upon the national architecture. In the case 
of Mr. Richardson this influence, though 
widespread, has proved to be ephemeral. 
Mr. Sullivan’s influence, on the other hand, 
though restricted (thus far, at least), to the 
Middle West, promises to be more far- 
reaching and abiding, for reasons presently 
to be explained. 
Mr. Richardson’s 
buildings, though 
richly picturesque 
and possessing splen¬ 
didly architectural 
qualities, were some¬ 
times not entirely 
practical, and the so- 
called Richardsonian 
Romanesque style, 
with its thick, rough 
stone walls, deeply 
set windows, squat 
columns and round 
arches with enormous 
voussoirs, was both 
extravagant and ill 
adapted to American 
needs and conditions. 
Being first of all a 
practical people, and 
architecture being first 
of all a practical art, 
not long after death 
had put an end to 
Mr. Richard son’s 
activities and soi 
diminished the force 
of his example, we abandoned the use of a 
style which offered so many impediments to 
our comfort and convenience, and we re¬ 
turned to the interrupted task of adopting, 
adapting and distorting classical architecture 
to serve our purposes. The hope of a dis¬ 
tinctly national style which Mr. Richardson’s 
advent had aroused, remained unfulfilled. 
1'here was need of a new prophet in our 
architectural Israel, and to the eyes of a little 
circle of devotees in Chicago he presently 
appeared in the person of Mr. Sullivan. 
H is “first manner,” as the phrase is, was not 
very different from the manner of his pre¬ 
cursor, but he soon developed a style of his 
own, which straightway became that of a 
number of others (with a difference, of 
course)—young and eager spirits, not fet¬ 
tered by too much knowledge — not fet¬ 
tered, indeed, by 
enough ! Outside 
this little circle Mr. 
Sullivan was either 
unknown, ignored or 
discredited by those 
persons on whose 
opinions reputations 
in matters of this sort 
are supposed to rest. 
Engaged for the most 
part upon intensely 
utilitarian problems 
in an intensely utili¬ 
tarian city, he had no 
opportunity to capti¬ 
vate the popular 
imagination as Rich¬ 
ardson captivated it 
in his Trinity Church, 
Boston. 
It was not until the 
time of the Colum¬ 
bian Exposition,when 
the firm of Adler & 
Sullivan had already 
gained for itself a po¬ 
sition of prominence 
in the business world 
THE PRUDENTIAL BUILDING, BUFFALO 
47 
