Architects Marcus and Frederick Cummings – They Designed Troy

This father and son designed most of Troy's important buildings, not just downtown, but other Troy neighborhoods as well. Yet we know very little about them.

Marcus F. Cummings - original rendering of his 1879 Mount Ida Presbyterian Church, Troy, NY. Source: St. Croix art prints

Every city worth its salt has at least one architectural firm or architect whose late 19^th and early 20^th century body of work play a major part in defining the city. Their work, especially in commercial, civic and religious buildings help brand each city and are all prominent landmarks. Chicago has Louis Sullivan; Philadelphia has Frank Furness and New York City has McKim, Mead & White. Of course, these architects are all joined by other extremely talented contemporaries, but these three stand out as representatives of an impressive time period for urban civic architecture.

Closer to home, Albany’s Marcus T. Reynolds is considered that city’s finest architect, his masterpiece being a building one sees whenever entering downtown Albany from I787 – the beautiful Gothic D&H Railroad Building, now home to the administrative offices of SUNY.

Here in Troy, you can’t throw a stick downtown without hitting a building by Troy’s two most prolific architects – father and son Marcus and Frederick Cummings. Between 1862 and 1935, Marcus and then Frederick designed the majority of Troy’s most important buildings, as well as buildings in every neighborhood in the city.

How did this duo become the go-to architects in Troy? The story begins with a massive, downtown-destroying fire.

Today, we use roads as our connectors to the nation, but throughout the mid-to-late 1800s, the railroads were king. Here in New York, various train lines crisscrossed the state connecting New York to locations far beyond the state borders in every direction. While passenger fare was crucial to a railroad line’s success, the ability of trains to transport large amounts of freight was the engine that made the railroads so important. Huge fortunes were made by owning, operating and merging rail lines.

Troy was an important stop for railroads. Its position on the eastern side of the Hudson River and its powerful industrial might spurred the creation of several local lines whose service stops were all east of the Hudson. The cities of Watervliet and Albany, where connections could be made to points in other directions, are on the western side of the Hudson. To get the trains across the river in Troy, a wooden truss covered bridge was built in 1832.

Around noon on May 11, 1862, a train left Troy’s Union Depot, located downtown not far from the river and crossed the wooden covered bridge. It was very dry and windy that day and sparks from the engine set the shingles on the bridge’s roof on fire. The wind carried the sparks into the city, where most of the buildings were wood-framed or had wooden roofs and steeples.

The fires spread rapidly, jumping from building to building as the wind carried burning cinders and refuse further inland. Soon brick buildings didn’t have a chance either. In the space of only six hours, the resulting firestorm swept through the city destroying 75 acres of downtown Troy, and 670 buildings. It was a miracle that only eight people died in this hellish event.

The fire destroyed homes, businesses, houses of worship, factories and schools. The newly built Union Depot was in the path of destruction, as was the Troy City Bank, the Orphan and Children’s Asylums, the W. & L.E. Gurley Company, the Sheldon & Green stove works, several hotels and at least four churches and hundreds of homes. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) was still downtown at that time and was also destroyed.

In addition to the loss of property and life, in 1862 the Civil War was very much in the mind of Trojans; Troy’s Burden Ironworks, which was not touched, was the major supplier of horseshoes for the Union Army. The Gurley company made important precision engineering instruments valuable to the Union war effort and many of Troy’s other manufacturing and mercantile businesses all over the city were also valuable assets.

Everyone in the devastated area was eager to rebuild and get the city functioning and making money again. Within six months hundreds of buildings were rebuilt or in the process of being replaced, with architects and builders and their crews from across the state rushing to Troy for the multitude of jobs that were suddenly available. And here is where our story begins.

Troy after the fire, 1862. Source: Hoxie.com

One of the churches that was destroyed was the 5^th Street Baptist Church, whose pastor was the Rev. Clesson P. Sheldon. The fire had not only destroyed his church, his home also burned to the ground, and a lifetime of private papers and sermons, which survived the fire, were stolen. His congregation also suffered; forty families lost their homes. The trustees of the church charged Sheldon with finding someone quickly who could design and build a new church. The first person he looked to was Marcus Cummings, who was his nephew; his sister’s son.

Sometimes one is just in the right place at the right time, often with people in their lives who prove to be the catalyst to greatness and success. This was one of those times. Marcus Fayette Cummings was born in Utica in 1836. Like many of the architects of his day, his early academic studies gave him a foundation that was joined to work experience. He was already well versed in construction, having been trained by his father, a carpenter and joiner.

His interest in architecture led him to study the many important buildings being built in Utica at the time, some by important American architects such as Richard Upjohn and Alexander Jackson Davis. While still in his early 20s, Marcus travelled to Baltimore, Buffalo and St. Louis to train with professionals there. He was back in Utica by 1861 to set up his practice. He was a young 26-year-old architect practicing in his home town when Troy caught fire.

It's hard for us to imagine today, thanks to the many necessary municipal boards, departments and permits needed for building today, but within two weeks, before the embers were completely cooled, 5^th St. Baptist, along with everyone else in the affected area, had shovels in the ground. Without the aid of today’s CAD programs, or a large staff, Marcus was still able to rapidly design a new church, which he and the church’s Building Committee promised would be one of the finest in the city.

The new church was constructed with fireproof brick and stone in the Romanesque Revival style and was holding services in the space that same December. Its formal dedication was in May 1863, just a year after the fire. The church, on the corner of 5^th Avenue and Fulton Street is still standing and is now the Victorious Life Christian Church.

The success of his first Troy project, the support of important Trojan businessmen, and the need for rebuilding and expanding the city was inducement enough for Cummings to settle down in Troy. He opened his new office downtown on River Street, soon becoming the most important architectural firm in Troy. In addition to rebuilding that which was destroyed in the fire, Troy was still growing, well on its way to becoming the 4^th wealthiest city in the nation. The opportunities here were great.

The 2^nd Presbyterian Church, only a block away on Fifth, was next, along with a new firehouse replacing one that was destroyed in the fire. The Winslow Laboratory, at 105 8th Street was a new building for RPI, followed by the William H. Young Bookstore at 8-9 First Street in 1864.

5th Street Baptist Church, now Victorious Life Christian Church. Photo: Google Street maps

Cummings’ collaboration with Young led to the creation of an important architectural plan book called Architecture: Designs for Street Fronts, Suburban Houses and Cottages, co-written with fellow architect Charles Crosby Miller, a colleague from his St. Louis days.

The book was a huge success. It was designed to provide plans for builders who did not have an architect available. The book was oversized and the plans could easily be enlarged and used as blueprints. There were other architectural plan books in print, some by very prominent architects, but this book was the first American book to be published with large-scale drawings. Cummings and Miller included detailed drawings of woodwork, cornices and other interior and exterior features, leaving it up to the builder to choose the details he wanted.

Most growing cities of this period had urban rowhouse streetscapes and if they didn’t, suburban houses and cottages were the norm. The book had them all. Architecture was a huge success across the country, with eight editions published between 1865 and 1872. It was followed by two other volumes, all of which were highly successful. Many of Troy’s rowhouses were built from his plan books, although a great many have been destroyed in the last century and a half. Cummings could have rested on his laurels, but he had much more to do in Troy.

Five years into his Troy career, Cummings was commissioned to design a new hospital for the Sisters of Charity. The Troy City Hospital, completed in 1868, is high on a hill overlooking the city. It remained a hospital until replaced by the larger St. Mary’s hospital on another nearby hill. Over the 20^th century, the building was used as an Army barracks during World War I, was the Catholic Central High School, and then in 1953, was purchased by RPI and renamed West Hall. This Cummings building is still one of the city’s most prominent buildings.

Originally the Troy City Hospital, now RPI’s West Hall. Photo: Google Street View

By 1870, Cummings was partners with Thomas Birt, listed as Cummings & Birt. Together they designed another important Troy building, which still stands. It is the synagogue for Congregation Berith Sholom. The congregation incorporated in 1866, and by the High Holy Days of 1870, was home in their new building. Located at 167 3^rd Street is the oldest continuously operating synagogue in the entirety of New York State, and the second oldest house of worship in the state, outside of NYC.

In 1870-71 Cummings & Birt designed two more commercial buildings for downtown Troy. The J.M. Warren & Co building on River Street and the Troy Times Building at 3^rd and Broadway. Both had cast iron facades, an inventive way for architects to mimic expensive columns and ornamentation in pressed metal bolted to brick. The buildings in Soho, NYC are the most well-known examples of this style. Unfortunately, neither of these buildings survived. From the evidence available, their partnership was not a long one.

Marcus Cummings’ personal life took a tragic turn during the 1870s. He lost a couple of important competitions to other architects, including George Post, who won the commission for the Troy Savings Bank. Then his wife Caroline and infant daughter died in 1872. The Panic of 1873, one of that era’s financial depressions, stopped clients from building. Cummings handed the practice to another architect and traveled to Europe to get new ideas and just get away. He came back in time to design some of his best works, including Troy’s new City Hall, built in 1876. It was destroyed in a fire in 1938, the site is now Barker Park.

Other buildings from the 1870s include Kennedy Hall, 13 3^rd St; the Keenan building, corner of 3^rd and Broadway, as well as another now demolished – the First Unitarian Church, corner of 4^th and State. He also designed the Mt. Ida Presbyterian Church on Pawling Avenue in 1879.

His practice didn’t end with Troy. Cummings also designed important buildings for surrounding municipalities. These include an insurance building for Glens Falls, a town hall for Saratoga Springs, courthouses in Plattsburgh and Salem, NY, a church in Stillwater, and several mansions.

In 1890, Marcus’ son came home to Troy after working for a couple of years in Denver, Colorado. Frederick Cummings didn’t fall far from his father’s tree. He was born in 1868 and graduated RPI with a degree in Engineering in 1886. He worked with his father for a short time before going to Denver and returned to that position when he came home.

His father was ready to retire, and made 23-year-old Frederick a full partner in M.F. Cummings & Sons. His parents retired to Martha’s Vineyard, with Marcus keeping only a financial interest in the firm and checking in once in a while. Frederick would soon surpass his father in talent and in his body of work.

 The Romanesque Revival style of architecture was a signature style for Frederick Cummings. Many of his buildings are in this bold, masculine style which was all the rage for civic buildings, especially in the last two decades of the 19^th century. The style was brought to America by Henry Hobson Richardson, a graduate of the prestigious L’Ecole Des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He introduced the style in the design of the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane, in 1868. He continued to design in the same manner throughout his career, ushering what is now called the “Richardsonian Romanesque Revival” style of architecture.

The Roman arches, themselves interpreted from medieval French and Italian styles, appear most prominently in entryways and windows and give the architecture its name. The style as Richardson interpreted it is a mixture of Roman, Medieval and Gothic elements and a lot of Victorian-era imagination. You can’t have Romanesque without impressive masonry, the buildings can be completely faced in different sizes of rough-cut stone, often brownstone or granite. The style depends on a sturdy massing of shaped elements with gables and hipped roofs, often with turrets and conical roofs, as well as the use of ornamentation such as wrought iron, wood trim, terra cotta and stained glass.

Troy doesn’t have as much of this architecture as other cities. Brooklyn, for example, has a ton of it, but what it does have is mainly by Frederick Cummings, and they are some of the city’s most prominent structures, many of which are along 2^nd Street.

The first is the Young Woman’s Association building at 33 2^nd Street, across from the Troy Savings Bank concert hall. It’s the building with Bacchus Wood Fired restaurant in the basement. Cummings designed it in 1891 for the use of the many women working in Troy. The facility offered classes in various studies and a sanctuary for young ladies where they could safely improve their education, congregate and socialize in safety. It’s a robust example of Romanesque Revival, with the signature elements of a rough-cut stone face, arched windows, dormers and a hipped roof.

Russell Sage Hall, built for the Emma Willard School, now Russell Sage College. Photo: Suzanne Spellen

This was followed by Gurley Hall, Anna Plum Hall and Russell Sage Hall for the Troy Female Seminary, renamed the Emma Willard School, now Russell Sage College. They were built between 1891 and 1895. Sage Hall was built as a dormitory, the other two as classrooms. All are fine examples of the Richardsonian Romanesque style, all different in the use of stone and brick, but all working together as a unified whole.

Architecture is not static. The Romanesque style, championed by Frederick was preceded by the Italianate, Gothic Revival and Second Empire styles his father employed 30 years before. Styles were changing again, inspired in part by the 1893 Chicago World’s Exhibition, which ushered in the Renaissance Revival and Beaux-Arts styles of architecture in America. This world’s fair featured buildings in gleaming white sandstone and marble that drew on the classical styles of Greece and Rome, with more than a little of the Renaissance and Baroque periods in Italy mixed in. As the 1890s moved into the 20^th century, more and more civic and commercial buildings in cities around the country were built in limestone and marble, with classical columns and capitals, pilasters and pediments.

The Rensselaer County Courthouse on 2^nd, across from the Emma Willard campus is a prime example. Built in 1892 and finished in 1898, it is a granite, limestone and marble confection both inside and out. Frederick outdid himself, creating a courthouse that any city would be proud to have.

The Renaissance Revival style, as designed for civic and commercial buildings is an elegant and refined style. Most are built of limestone paired with light colored brick and still feature the arched windows and entryways made popular in the Romanesque style. The massing is no longer eclectic with turrets and towers, but staid and solid rectangles, with details drawn from Italian Renaissance palazzos. The ornamentation features bracketed cornices, and classically inspired floral designs paired with cartouches, cornucopia, grotesques and garlands.

Rensselaer County Courthouse. Photo: Kenneth Zirkel for Wikipedia

M.F. Cummings & Son designed the Lucy A. Wood Rowe Memorial/Mohawk and Hudson  River Humane Society building at 79 4^th Street (1895) and the Ilium Building on the corner of 4^th and Fulton (1899) in the Renessaince Revival Style. Public School 10 on Adams Street in South Troy, as well as the Troy High School, 5^th between Broadway and State (1899-1900) now the site of a multi-story parking garage, are examples as well. The National State Bank, on the corner of Fulton and River streets was built in 1903-1904. The bank was also a five-story office building, with the offices of M.F. Cummings & Son on one of the floors.

A further list of the firm’s buildings during this time includes St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 3^rd Street (1898), St. Augustine Catholic School, Lansingburgh (1899) and the beautiful McCarthy Building, River Street across from Monument Square (1904).

Marcus Cummings enjoyed his years of retirement on Martha’s Vineyard with his second wife Clara, the youngest daughter of the same Rev. C.P. Sheldon of the 5^th Street Baptist who gave him his first Troy job. She was his cousin. Clara grew up in Troy and attended the Troy Female Academy. She and her husband enjoyed living in the Vineyard and were active in church activities there. 69 year old Marcus fell ill in 1905 and a week later died on September 1^st. He and Clara, who died in 1924, are both buried in Martha’s Vineyard.

After his father’s death, Frederick is credited with the Troy Waste Manufacturing Company building, 444 River Street (1908), now apartments, the Emma Willard School (1908) a beautiful Collegiate Gothic campus on Pawling Avenue, The Troy Record Building (1908), 5^th and Broadway, also now apartments, Public School 1 (1909), 2920 5^th Ave, in North Central, now apartments, St. Francis Catholic Academy (117), 311 Congress Street, PS 14 (1921), on 15^th St, now part of RPI, the Central Police and Fire Station (1925), 6^th and State,  and the Union National Bank (1935), 50 4^th St, probably his last Troy building. He also designed churches and schools in Cohoes, Waterford and Hudson.

Emma Willard School. Photo: UpstateNYer for Wikipedia

Frederick and his wife, Jessie Davis Starkweather, lived at 11 Whitman Court, one of the city’s upscale suburban enclaves near the Emma Willard School campus. He died at home on May 17, 1939. He was 72. Both he and his wife are buried in Oakwood Cemetery. Their headstones are very modest and small. (They are in L-1, if you are looking) His only has his initials and dates, hers only reads “Starkweather Cummings.”

It is disappointing that his obituary in the Knickerbocker News, an Albany paper, is only one small paragraph. There is no mention of any of the dozens of buildings he and his father designed. Frederick doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page of his own, although Marcus and the firm both do. We have no photographs of either father or son, and the details of their lives are pretty much unknown. But thanks to their talents, buildings that help define Troy as one of the most beautiful and architecturally significant cities in New York are still here to enjoy.  

I used several sources for this article – Wikipedia, archINFORM, historic newspaper accounts, National Register reports, and most importantly, a wonderful book, “The Architecture of Downtown Troy,” by Diana Waite. The book is a treasure trove of information and illustrations. We wouldn’t have such a distinctive historic downtown or many of the Cummings’s buildings were it not for Diana and her husband Jack Waite. They were invaluable to preservation efforts and advocacy in Troy and I am happy to have met them, and I greatly admire their work. Thank you!!