Father Pitt

Tag: Hodgkins (H. G.)

  • Entrance to Hampton Hall, Oakland

    Hampton Hall shield

    Hampton Hall is a grand Tudor apartment palace in Oakland designed by the Chicago architect H. G. Hodgkins.

    Hampton Hall, front elevation

    A while ago one of the residents mentioned to old Pa Pitt that the long canopy that usually leads from the courtyard entrance to the street had come down for work, which—our correspondent pointed out—would make some of the previously hidden details accessible to a camera. Here, from about two and a half years ago, is how the canopy usually looks:

    Hampton Hall in 2023

    And here is the courtyard without the canopy:

    Courtyard
    Hampton Hall courtyard
    The main entrance

    Father Pitt ended up spending an hour or more taking pictures all over the building, and since he has so many pictures, he will split them into multiple articles to avoid wearying his visitors. Today we see the courtyard and the main entrance.

    Main entrance
    Front door
    Crest above the door
    Left bear
    Right bear
    Right bear from above
    Entrance from above
    Lantern
    Lantern and ornaments
    Shield with “Hampton Hall” in the center
    Sony Alpha 3000; Canon PowerShot SX20 IS; Fujifilm FinePix HS20EXR.
    Comments

  • Hampton Hall, Oakland

    Hampton Hall

    We have seen this Tudor palace before, but there is no reason we should not see it again, with some different details this time.

    Entrance and light well
    Lobby

    The entrance lobby. The interior is filled with richly colored tiles, some with decorative figures like this griffin.

    Griffin tile
    Stairway

  • Hampton Hall, Oakland

    Hampton Hall from the front

    According to a city architectural inventory (PDF), Hampton Hall was built in 1928, and the architect was H. G. Hodgkins, who seems to have been based in Chicago, to judge by listings in Chicago trade magazines that show up in a Google Books search.

    The interior includes quite a bit of Nemadji tile, and old Pa Pitt had never heard of Nemadji tile until he found this page on Hampton Hall from a site of Historic U. S. Tile Installations. The exterior is fairy-tale Tudor, designed to make apartment dwellers feel as though they were great lords of Queen Elizabeth’s time.

    A bear

    The entrance is flanked by bears holding shields, as bears are wont to do.

    An equal and opposite bear
    Inscription
    Ornament
    Ornament
    Ornament
    Ornament and tile
    Oblique view

  • Old King Edward and His Jesters

    Jester face

    There are two apartment buildings called King Edward in Oakland (plus a small “annex” on Melwood Avenue). The more visible one, the King Edward Apartments on Craig Street at Bayard, was built in 1929. The original King Edward, built in 1914, is behind on Melwood Avenue at Bayard Street. It seems much more staid than its larger neighbor, until we look closer and discover that it is festooned with these grotesque faces.

    Grotesque face
    Bayard Street side
    Another face
    Row of faces
    Yet another
    No faces
    Melwood Avenue front

    Addendum: The architect was H. G. Hodgkins, who also designed Hampton Hall, another Merrie England fantasy.