| Popis: |
THE facts relating to the commission given in early 1884 to Henry Hobson Richardson to design and supervise the construction of houses on adjoining lots on Lafayette Square in Washington for Henry Adams and his wife and John Hay and his wife, to the two years building operation, and to the suicide of Marian Hooper Adams just at the moment their house was completed are already established. However, there is a substantial body of letters, not hitherto used in any of the published accounts, that bear directly upon the building of the houses, that reflect the personalities of the principals, and that provide insight into architect-client relationships in America in the mid-i 88os.1 There are twentyfive letters from Richardson (1883-1886) and eighty-six letters from Hay (I88I-I886) to the Adamses among the Massachusetts Historical Society's Dwight Papers, a collection formed by Theodore Frelinghuysen Dwight (I8461917), who from 1885 to 1892 was "research assistant and factotum" first to Henry Adams and then to Charles Francis Adams 2d at Washington and in the family archives at Quincy.2 These letters, together with a smaller number of letters from Richardson to Hay in the John Hay Library at Brown University and letters relevant to the project in the |
