The Architecture of Thomas Wisedell

In 1872, Abner Jackson, the president of Trinity College, had contacted John Henry Parker, an old friend at Oxford, for advise on finding a suitable architect. Jackson sailed to Britain in July for an extended study of educational institutions in England, Scotland and Wales. Later that month, he met with Parker at Oxford and to two men discussed the needs of Trinity College as well as the current state of British architecture. Parker apparently spoke of various architects but saved his highest praise for William Burges, calling him “the most genius of any architect in England.” And with that, Parker wrote a card of introduction….

Jackson presented himself at Burges’ Buckingham Street office in London on August 1, 1872.  During that initial meeting, Burges agreed to spend a day touring the various colleges at Oxford and advised Jackson to visit Cambridge as well.  Burges also agreed to make a rough sketch of a campus at no charge which Jackson could take with him.  After the two men returned from Oxford, Burges requested that Jackson return to London on September 2 when the they could spend two days going over the proposed college buildings. Over the next month, Jackson traveled around England and Scotland visiting various institutions. When Jackson returned to London to discuss some of the places he had visited, the two men came up with a general idea for the new campus.

When this initial L-shaped, 3-quad plan had been designed, Trinity College had not yet decided on a new site for their future campus.  This scheme was not intended to be constructed but was probably meant to give the college trustees a sense of direction and possibility. Jackson returned to Hartford and presented Burges’ ideas to the trustees who had also been working with Frederick Law Olmsted in choosing an appropriate site for the new campus. In February 1873, Trinity purchased a large tract of land on the southwest part of the city known as “Rocky Ridge.” Due to the long, flat ridge and sloping landscape, it was clear to Olmsted that the L-shaped plan could not easily be constructed on the new site. With this in mind, Jackson returned to London in July 1873 to again work in Burges in creating a more suitable plan.

Now that Burges had an actually building site, his next scheme was to reorganize the L-shaped plan in to a linear one with the processors’ quad at on end and the students’ quad at the other with the chapel, auditorium and classrooms at the center. This new plan was then sent back to Hartford in August 1873 though Jackson stayed in London for another month, continuing to revise and expand the plans with Burges.

The benefit to the L-plan was that it allowed the campus to easily expand while still allowing easy access by the students and faculty. With the new linear plan, expansion would not have been as convenient. Burges and president Jackson then expanded the plan by inserting a fourth quad which added classrooms and more student housing.

President Jackson returned to Hartford in September with the final 4-quad plan which he presented to the trustees on October 31st. It was at that meeting when Francis Kimball was formally hired as Trinity’s supervising architect and began making preparations to travel to London to work with William Burges in creating the necessary construction renderings.

When Francis Kimball and his wife Jane left for London in December 1873, they were accompanied by Rev. Francis Goodwin, the son of Maj. James Goodwin who was in the process of constructing his large estate on Woodland Ave.  Maj. Goodwin was perhaps Hartford’s most important architectural patron and was responsible for Kimball’s appointment to Trinity College.

Since 1871, the Goodwins had been working with Frederick Clarke Withers in designing what would become known as “Goodwin Castle,”  and since Francis Goodwin was already an amateur architect he was credited with many of the ideas that went into his father’s home.  The two couples arrived in London shortly before Christmas 1873 and Kimball was soon at work with William Burges while the Goodwins met with Edwin Godwin, one of the England’s most noted architects and designers from whom they commissioned an octagonal table, and a fireplace surround and mantle.  Period photos of the house show bamboo wallpaper also designed by Godwin, though that was already available in the United States and would not have been commissioned.

While the Goodwins stayed in London for about two weeks, Francis and Jane Kimball stayed for almost nine months. During that period, he would meet notable figures of British architecture such as George Gilbert Scott, Jr., Albert Waterhouse and John Loughborough Pearson. Also among those he encountered was Robert Jewell Withers for whom Thomas Wisedell had apprenticed in the 1860’s.

By late September 1874, Burges and Kimball had completed about 170 drawings, and the following month, the Kimballs returned to Hartford. While Kimball was away in London, President Jackson had died and Thomas Pynchon had been appointed the new president of Trinity College. Pynchon had great enthusiasm for the building of Trinity’s new campus but he was also keenly aware of the financial obstacles of such a massive undertaking.

As the college was gaining a greater understanding of how to implement Burges’ scheme, Pynchon and Kimball began to rearrange the 4-quad plan the combining the two middle quads into one large, rectangular quadrangle. Though Burges was kept abreast of these changes, his correspondences have unfortunately been lost. What does survive, however is a set of drawings by Francis Kimball which represent designs either rejected by Burges or with alternate schemes. The new three-quad plan was made public on July 1, 1875 during commencement ceremonies.

To be continued…

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Further Reading:

• Armstrong, Christopher Andrew, “Qui Transtulit Sustinet: William Burges, Francis Kimball and the Architecture of Hartford’s Trinity College,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians vol. 59, no. 2 (June 2000): pp. 194-215.
• Brocklesby, John, “Trinity College, Hartford,” Scribner’s Monthly vol. XL, no. 5 (Mar. 1876).
• Crook, J. Mordaunt, William Burges and the High Victorian Dream (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1981).
• Pullan, William Popplewell, The Architectural Designs of William Burges, A.R.A. (London, 1883).
• Pullan, William Popplewell, The Architectural Designs of William Burges, A.R.A: Details of Stonework (London: B.T. Batsford, 1887).
• Weaver, Glenn, The History of Trinity College vol. 1 (Hartford: Trinity College Press, 1967).