Iron in the Sky: Utah's Sheet Metal Cornices

Top Left: Woodmansee Block, Ogden, (1890). Top Right: Gates-Snow Furniture Co., Provo. Middle Left: Tower, Knight Block, Provo (1900). Middle Right: 25th Street, Ogden. Bottom: Pediment, Avenue Block, Provo (1902).

Photographer: Arthur A. Hart

Galvanized Iron Details

by Arthur A. Hart Director, Idaho State Historical Society

When we look up at the second and third stories of old commercial buildings in Utah cities and towns we see a wealth of ornament that is both picturesque and intricate. The cornices of store buildings are often in the style of the Italian Renaissance or some other classical age. Reflecting as they do the changing tastes of late nineteenth-century America, they are usually more imaginative than historically accurate.

The casual observer takes these pediments, brackets, dentils, moldings, and other ornaments to be carving in stone or possibly in wood. Actually, nearly all of them are made of thin sheets of galvanized iron, bent and hammered into three-dimensional architectural forms.

The use of iron in American buildings became widespread after about 1850, although both wrought and cast iron had been used for balconies, railings, and other ornamentation earlier. A logical extension of the industrial revolution, iron architecture soon swept the country. Foundries could mass produce columns, capitals, and other classical elements much more cheaply than stone carvers could and in a fraction of the time. By using molds made from hand-carved wooden patterns, identical parts could be cast repeatedly and simply bolted together to make buildings. Sheet metal workers could reproduce these same forms in galvanized iron, with the advantage of greatly reduced weight for cornices and window caps. The thin metal was nailed to a supporting wooden frame.

Most commercial buildings after 1850 imitated Italian Renaissance palaces, with two or three stories topped by a bracketed horizontal cornice. Windows were often pedimented, and the spaces between decorated with pilasters. The ground floor, supported by hollow iron columns with great comprehensive strength, could have wide openings for plate glass windows. This made more space available for display and gave store interiors better light.

Utah's most famous iron front was begun in 1875 for the ZCMI store building in Salt Lake City. William H. Folsom's facade design was made up of a grid of cast iron columns and horizontal elements topped by a galvanized sheet-iron cornice. The popular Corinthian order was used, requiring the casting of many individual iron acanthus leaves, which were then bolted to the column top to form each ornate capital.

The Deseret Evening News reported on January 4,1876, that the new iron front had received "a couple of coats of paint which greatly enhance its appearance, showing out the beautiful design. It is surmounted by a splendid zinc cornice, second to none in Utah, manufactured at the establishment of Messrs. Mitchell & James. Altogether the front is the handsomest of the kind in the city."

Mitchell & James were listed in the 1874 Salt Lake City directory as "tinsmiths, gas and steam fitters," with works on West Temple between South Temple and First South. Like most tinsmiths in the nineteenth century, they could form almost any shapes required by cutting, bending, and stamping sheet iron. The individual parts needed to form complex volumes were soldered together along their seams. Smaller decorative elements were hammered from the back into iron molds in a technique called repousse\ Pure zinc was sometimes used for this work because of its malleability. Lead and copper were also popular.

Galvanized iron was the cheapest and ultimately the most common material used for architectural work, however. The galvanizing process, patented by Crawford in England in 1837, applies a thin coat of zinc to sheet iron by a hot dip, This prevents corrosion of the iron. In subsequent additions to the original ZCMI front, the Mitchell & James cornice was destroyed, but in 1902, when a large northern addition was made to the store, galvanized sheet iron imitating the cast iron on the earlier portions was used. Most observers could not teE the difference.

In the 1880s scores of galvanized cornices appeared on brick and stone buildings in all parts of Utah. Although most were produced by local manufacturers, a feature of the period was the importation of mail-order store fronts and cornices from the Midwest. The Mesker Brothers of St. Louis, according to company records, mailed 17,798 catalogs to Utah between 1888 and 1909. By 1896 they had sold eight complete fronts and twenty-two contracts for cornices, window pediments, and other architectural decoration. Although the figures on fronts sold thereafter are missing, the gross sales figures for the years 1896-1909 indicate that total work in Utah for Mesker Brothers was more than twice that of the earlier period. The popularity of the complete galvanized fronts can be partly explained by the fact that the average price of the first eight fronts in Utah was $260.00.

Good examples of complete Mesker Brothers' fronts in Utah towns can be seen in Ogden, Mt. Pleasant, and Fairview, while Panguitch has two. Sheet iron fronts, nailed to wooden supporting elements, could be applied to Utah buildings of stone and brick as well as of wood. Originally painted and sprinkled with sand to imitate carved stone, these fronts are today treated in a variety of ways. Some are sprayed with aluminum paint, presumably to retard rust. Others have been laboriously polychromed to bring out the individual forms. Although this could be effective if the colors were sensitively chosen and applied accurately, the result is often garish and serves to camouflage rather than enhance the architecture.

The George L. Mesker Company of Evansville, Indiana, also did an impressive amount of mail order architecture in the same period. When brothers Ben and Frank opened their own business in St. Louis in 1879, George Mesker continued the family operation in Evansville. Like his brothers, he made a fortune selling "house fronts." His 1906 catalog claims that twenty-two fronts had been sold in Utah to that time, but it is likely that this number included cornices as well as whole building fronts. Today only one example of George L. Mesker's work has been found in Utah, one at Park City. It has been so camouflaged in gaudy colors as to be almost unrecognizable. Although a comparison with catalog pictures is the surest way to identify these mail-order buildings, both Mesker firms had distinctive ornaments which serve as hallmarks. The St. Louis brothers used a fleur de lis, appropriately enough, and George Mesker a morning glory. They can be seen in the upper corners of the cornices. When we are lucky enough to find a building whose ground floor is unaltered the names of the makers may be seen in cast iron panels attached to column bases.

Brigham City, Ogden, and Provo have a number of good galvanized iron cornices dating from the late eighties to the turn of the century, almost all by Utah makers although their exact origins are difficult to trace. H.I. Paulding's First Annual Volume of the Architects, Contractors, Builders and Supply Men's Directory of Utah, Idaho & Wyoming, published in 1891-92, lists these Utah cornice makers: Ogden Cornice Works, Junction City Cornice Works, and Utah Cornice Works of Ogden; Provo Cornice and Furnace Works, Provo; Schmidt Brothers, Spencer-Bywater Company, and Western Cornice Works of Salt Lake City. At the turn of the century Henry G. Blumenthal is listed in the Provo directory as "manufacturer of architectural sheet metal work," with a shop in the rear of the Knight Block.

Since the Knight Block is one of a group of Victorian buildings with fine galvanized iron trim near Provo's business center, Blumenthal was probably the fabricator of most of them. The range of style is wide, including Queen Anne, Romanesque Revival, Renaissance and other classical forms, and work of the eighties which can only be described as eclectic. This veritable museum of Victorian architecture surely needs to be preserved and restored as a vital part of Utah's heritage.

Ogden has a National Register Historic District of commercial fronts of the 1880s along Twenty-Fifth Street near the Union Pacific station. In addition to good local work, the Mesker Brothers of St. Louis are represented in the Porter Block at number 260. The nearby Woodmansee Building is another impressive front with elaborate galvanized iron, and Washington Boulevard has other good examples of the golden age of architectural sheet metal work in Utah.

Properly painted and maintained, there is no reason why our remaining galvanized iron fronts and cornices should not last for generations more. The critical period is now, when we are only beginning to develop an awareness and appreciation of this important technology which contributed richly to the visual identity of so many Utah main streets.

The ZCMI Department Store of early years. The South (right-hand) section was added in 1880. The north side was expanded in 1902.

USHS

Car 19 Restaurant, Park City.