Rogers, Isaiah

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Rogers, Isaiah (1800–69). American architect, best known for his hotels, the first of which, Tremont House, Boston, MA (1828–9—destroyed 1895), was very advanced for its time and established the USA's pre-eminence in this building-type. He formed his own practice in 1826, specializing in the Greek Revival style, of which his Ionic Merchants' Exchange, Wall Street, NYC (1836–42), was his masterpiece, inspired by Schinkel's Altes Museum, Berlin. The great Pantheon-like dome over the rotunda was destroyed when McKim, Mead, & White drastically altered the building in 1907, adding four more storeys. He used the Egyptian Revival style for the gates of the Old Granary Burial Ground, Boston (1839–40), and the almost identical gates at Touro Cemetery, Newport, RI (1841–2). Thereafter, he began to favour the Italianate style, although St John's Episcopal Church, Cincinnati, OH (1849–52— destroyed 1937), was Neo-Romanesque, and the Tyler Davidson Store, also in Cincinnati (1849–50—destroyed), had a Gothic cast-iron front. Posterity has not been kind to Rogers: many of his most distinguished buildings have been demolished or altered beyond recognition, many works by him have been misattributed, and some have been attributed to him that were not by his hand.

Bibliography

Carrott (1978);
Hamlin (1964);
R. Kennedy (1989);
Placzek (ed.) (1982);
Jane Turner (1996);

A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture

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Rogers, Isaiah

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