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notes
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In 1857, James
Boorman Johnston commissioned the young Richard Morris Hunt, America's
first French-trained architect, to design studios for artists to create,
exhibit, and sell their work. The highly successful Tenth Street Studios,
in which interconnected rooms radiated off a central domed gallery, became
the center of New York's art world for the remainder of the nineteenth
century. From his own studio, Hunt established the country's first
architectural school, and an impressive array of academicians, including
most of the Hudson River School, worked there.
In 1879, J. B. Johnston deeded the building
to his son John Taylor Johnston, who subsequently became the first
president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The same year, French-trained
Impressionist painter William Merritt Chase took over the domed gallery,
breathing new life into the establishment. With Chase's 1895 departure,
the 10th Street Studios lost its place of prominence in New York art
circles. In 1920, members purchased the building to fend off a commercial
takeover. That arrangement lasted until 1956, when the building was razed
to make way for the Peter Warren Apartments, an 11-story building named
after an eighteenth-century Village landowner.
Special
thanks to the Museum of New York, www.mcny.org |