Divine Stone

Among the immigrants to the United States between 1830 and 1920 were many skilled artists, stone carvers, and sculptors. Italian stone carvers are a case in point. In the latter half of the 19th century many of the Italian quarries started to go out of business due to foreign competition. Since there was less marble being quarried, there was less of a need for stone carvers and the carving sheds began to close. The social, political and economic upheaval in the Italian marble industry spurred immigration.

The economic opportunities in America and elsewhere would allow them to earn four times what they earned in Italy. Many of these men trained as sculptors at the Fine Arts Academies in Carrara, Florence and Rome. To support themselves and their families while they were establishing themselves in the United States, they carved for others. The following are some key events leading from immigration, through the City Beautiful Movement to the end of WWII.

In the 1880’s, first to the Vermont Marble Company in Rutland and then to Barre to work in granite, the quarry owners recruited the Italian stone workers. This occurred throughout the burgeoning stone quarry sites in the U.S. in places like Marble, Colorado and Sylacauga, Alabama.

The Piccirilli Brothers and the Ardolinos

Others settled in large urban areas and these carvers were associated with many wealthy families, sculptors, politicians and architects. Through varying circumstances, the Piccirilli brothers made their way to New York in 1888 followed by their parents and sister. They soon found enough work to pay the rent and sustain the family. In 1912 Attilio won the commission for the USS Maine monument at the entrance to Central Park at Columbus Circle. This provided them the prominence they sought.

At about the same time, the Ardolino brothers and cousins made their way separately to first Boston and then New York. They became associated with ecclesiastical carvings and the architect Bertram Goodhue and the sculptors John Angel and Lee Lawrie. The reredos at St. Thomas Church at 5th avenue and 53rd was by Rafael Ardolino. Various Ardolinos executed a great deal of the carvings at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine from 1910 into the 1940’s.

Other Stone Carving Immigrants

John Evans (1847 – 1923) was a stone carver and modeler. Born in Caernafon, Wales and trained in England, he settled in Boston in 1873. His company employed 100 workers and did architectural sculpture all over the country. He left an indelible mark on Boston’s buildings and monuments. The work was in granite, marble and sandstone. They did work for Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson and were a favorite of architect H.H. Richardson. They executed the work of sculptor Domingo Mora. The firm also did considerable work on the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.

John Donnelly, born in Ireland, the son of a stone carver, came to the United States in 1913. He formed the company John Donnelly & Son. They worked on many buildings in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The Donnelly company carved all of the decorative elements on theNew York City Public library with the exception of the lions (done by the Piccirillis).

Donnelly loved the sailboat races Saturday afternoons but was always worried about the carving job on the Vanderbilt Mansion, so he initiated the halfday Saturday for all of his stone carvers. The tradition carried on after the Vanderbilt job. He also mentioned that in 1890 there were only 320 stone carvers in the country, 140 of them were working for him on the Vanderbilt mansion at 5th Avenue and 55th Street, 80% were British and the rest Germans.

“Though Donnelly’s works were often sculptural, he preferred to be known as a stone mason rather than a sculptor or artist”

– John Donnelly, 80, Stone Carver Dies, New York Times obituary

Roger Morigi was born in Bisuschio, Lombardy in 1907. He apprenticed under his stone carver father beginning at age 11. Morigi also studied at the Academia di Belle Arts di Brera in Milan. He immigrated to the United States in 1927 and worked with his father. In 1932 the John Donnelly Company hired Morigi as a carver to work on the Supreme Court Building. He worked for the John Donnelly Company on the majority of the seven Federal Triangle buildings. Morigi began work as a carver at the National Cathedral in 1950, and was promoted to master carver at the National Cathedral in 1956. He held that position for 22 years.

Gino A. Ratti and his son Eddie were a smaller company but nevertheless stood out next to all the others for their artistry and carvings. Ratti was born in Carrara, Italy in 1882. He left Italy in 1907 for the United States. Edward Ratti later worked on the Washington National Cathedral.

The City Beautiful Movement

The City Beautiful Movement was America’s urban planning movement (1890’s-1920’s). The movement gained ground with the World’s Columbia Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. A temporary city was constructed primarily in the Beaux-Arts style. The concept focused on incorporating a civic center, parks and grand boulevards mimicking European cities. The movement happened at a time when the country’s urban population began to out number its rural population. Most cities were considered ugly, congested, dirty and unsafe.

Once artists, architects and other visitors returned to their cities after the exposition; they realized it was essential to the public welfare of the people to take heed of the urban landscape. Many American cities embarked on public buildings and art projects in order to beautify their cities. New York, Cleveland, San Francisco, Detroit and Washington, D.C. all began these efforts.

European trained sculptors and carvers were instantly prepared to execute these projects. The immigrant carving families and individuals mentioned above were poised to carry out the many projects.

It should be noted that over time the movement’s short comings came to the fore. It became apparent that improvement of the physical city without addressing social and economic issues would not substantially improve urban life.

The McMillan Plan -1902, Washington, D.C.

At the time, Washington, D.C. was no more beautiful than the average American city, with the exception of factories belching soot on the inhabitants. The McMillan Plan was deeply influenced by the City Beautiful Movement as well as the Louvre-Tuileries complex in Paris and the Whitehall area in London.

Additionally, the McMillan Plan sought to restore and amplify Pierre L’Enfant’s original plan for the city with its formal grandeur influenced by the designs of European cities and gardens.

Most of the recommendations of McMillan eventually materialized, mostly before WWII. Appropriations were authorized by the Public Building Act of 1926. $50 million was provided for the construction of the Federal Triangle and a new Supreme Court building and another $25 million to buy up the private land required.

The Federal Triangle

The decorative embellishment of the Federal Triangle was one of the last grand examples of the Beaux-arts principles that had swept the country at the turn of the century. The exterior architectural ornamentation for the seven buildings represented the largest concentrated program of its type ever undertaken by the government. Construction began in 1927 with the final sculptural element installed in 1941. The project’s exteriors consisted of 15 pediments with figurative groups, and at least 65 other designs of varying importance scattered throughout the complex of structures. All told, interior and exterior, there were 112 works by 44 sculptors and a vast industry of modelers, plaster casters, studio assistants and stone carvers. The Piccirilli’s, Ardolino’s, John Donnelly & Son and Gino Ratti all worked on the project. John Evans had passed away in 1923.

The National Archives Building

Of the seven buildings in the Federal Triangle, the jewel in the crown is the National Archives building. The architect chosen for the building was John Russell Pope. This was not a grand office building but the visual symbol of America’s heritage and its destiny.

Proportionately more was spent on architectural sculpture and decorative detail on this building than any other in the Federal Triangle.

The total cost of the decoration came to $360,000 (roughly $6,212,000 today) Of this sum, $190,200 was paid for the models of the three sculptors, $17,557 for the commercial models, and $152,940 for the stone carving

– George Gurney, Sculpture and the Federal Triangle

John Russel Pope selected 3 sculptors for the work on the building. He selected sculptors he knew and worked with and who he felt sure would carry out his vision. The sculptors also had their favorite stone carvers from past associations. There are two major facades to the building. The south facade and main entrance on Constitution Avenue and the equally important north facade on Pennsylvania Avenue. Each side had three major architectural sculpture features, a large pediment (18’6″ X 106′) and two ground level 10 foot statues.

South Facade – Constitution Avenue

North Facade – Pennsylvania Avenue

The fifty years between 1890 and 1940 saw the heyday of architectural sculpture in the U.S. After World War II architectural trends moved to the modern simplicity of glass and steel. These buildings were cheaper and quicker to erect, with little if any sculptural decorations. Young men and women returning from the war, or emerging from civilian war work, were presented with a myriad of opportunities for their professional lives. The supply of stone carvers dwindled as the demand for architectural sculpture wained.

John Connelly died in July, 1947; Edward Ardolino died in April, 1945; Attilio Piccirilli died in October, 1945; Gino Ratti died in 1937. In the most part, their companies did not survive them. When a skill is not taught or practiced it is known to die out within 3 generations. Consider how Dean Morton went to England in the late 1970’s to secure the help of Master Builder Jim Bambridge at the conclusion of the Liverpool Cathedral building. Consider how Bambridge enlisted Chris Hanaway, Alan Bird, Stephen Boyle and Nicholas Fairplay from England to train a new group of New York apprentices in stone cutting and carving.

In this century, several men and women found their way to work and learn in places like Kincannon Studios and Fairplay Stone Carvers. Today young men and women can train at the American College of the Building Arts with Joseph Kincannon.

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• The Socioeconomic study exploring the Immigration of Artisan Stone Carvers from Italy to the United States of America Circa 1830-1920, Russ Joseph Morris, The College of Staten Island
• John Evans (1847-1923) and Architectural Sculpture in Boston, Ann Clifford, 1992, Tufts University.
• The Architectural Record, July 1896
• The John Evans Company Divine Stone link
• The Irish imprint in American sculpture in the Capitol in the 19th and early 20th Century, The Capitol Dome, Volume 55, no 230, January 1, 2018
• New York Times, Obituary Section, July 2, 1947
• New York Preservation Archive Project
• Sculpture and the Federal Triangle, George Gurney, Smithsonian Institution, 1985.
• The Ardolinos Divine Stone Link
• American College of the Building Arts
• The Heritage Film Project – the Piccirillis

The Cathedral cutting and carving sheds were always filled with the sounds of chisels and mallets chipping away at limestone blocks. And with the chipping, limestone dust filled the air and settled on every surface, especially one’s hands and head. The fashion trends in the stone yard demonstrate some solutions.

Many cutters and carvers resorted to conventional headgear to keep away the dust but some brought style and fashion flair with their hats and scarves. Two trend setters that stood out from the rest were Timothy Smith and Arlene “Poni” Baptiste.

One of the five original apprentice stone cutters, Timothy sported an array of berets, straw hats and baseball caps. Timothy recently said, “I love hats. I see a good hat and I buy it. I just collect them.” He added, “We were always outside and a hat was important.”

Timothy’s berets often included pins with military insignias that he would buy from Army Navy stores and add to his hats.

While many women stone cutters and carvers simply wrapped a kerchief around their heads to protect them from the stone dust,

Arlene “Poni” Baptiste was without doubt the stone yard fashionista. She brought an Afro-Caribbean splash of colors and patterns to the long headscarves she always wore. She looked like a Nubian Queen with her elaborately tied scarves that fell onto her shoulders.

Poni explains that the head coverings “often began as just an interesting piece of printed fabric. Some were colorful scarves I bought or was given to me by family and friends because of my well known preference for wearing them.”

“The key is choosing a symmetrical central pattern. A starburst, for instance folded just right yields a radiant crown. Then there is the tying. A knot in the back ain’t quite enough, but twisting the two ends then wrapping and lacing them around my head results in a neat finish.”

And because of the dusty environment she worked in, Poni adds “there is also simply the practical side of it.

My dreads stayed dust free in a stone yard.”

Timothy comments that Poni’s fashion style was “fantastic, so individual and unique. She was also a great stone cutter.”

The stone cutting shed could be frigid in winter so the crew employed an assortment of headgear — from tweed caps to hoodies fastened over hats to thick wool knit hats — to keep the body warm. The fashion trends in the stone yard turned practical.

When work began on the south tower, construction supervisor Stephen Boyle would frequently be seen wearing a hard hat. Others wore them on and off depending upon how hot the temperature got while they were setting stones.

On one occasion hard hats were not meant to keep heads safe from falling objects. The helmets were ceremonial and celebratory on Sept. 29, 1982 when clergy and dignitaries wore blue hard hats to mark the resumption of construction of the tower after a 41-year hiatus. Bishop Paul Moore, usually wearing his imposing miter, swapped it for a hard hat, which he raised in celebration to all assembled.

One particular hat had a long life at the stone yard, passing from one stone carver to another. Cynie Linton remembers buying a painter’s style brimless hat at a vintage clothing store in Greenwich Village. 

“It was the hat I wore the majority of my eight years as a stone cutter and carver,” Cynie said, the hat “kept stone bits and dust out of my hair.”  

When Cynie left the Cathedral for architectural school she passed the hat on to new apprentice Treese Robb. “I don’t actually remember giving it to her…I must have been in a generous and expansive mood,” Cynie said facetiously.

Treese remembers, “I admired Cynie’s hat and she had beautiful wavy hair,” adding that Cynie looked “so darling in that hat.” 

All these years later, Treese still has the hat.

Note to Treese: Cynie misses that hat and wishes she had it back.

More Fashion Trends in the Stone Yard

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• All the images in this article were taken by Robert F. Rodriguez during his decade plus time documenting the activities in the stone yard of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City.