15 Feb richard nickel “ornament salvage” workbook for holabird and roche’s cable building
for several months now, richard nickel’s letters, notes, and images led me to believe that he only made one exhaustive “ornament salvage” workbook – with images – for adler and sullivan’s 1893 garrick theater. he actually went a step further and created less comprehensive “catalogs” for institutions to flip through when it came time to distribute the salvaged ornament stored at navy pier under joe benson between 1962-65.
in the past week i was delighted to discover two additional “work books” that share similar characteristics and/or format with the garrick workbook. the one posted here was made for holabird and roche’s cable building (1899). the other, which i need to digitize when time permits, was made for holabird and roche’s 1905 republic building (the latter is much more exhaustive since there was a great deal more ornament and the interior/exterior were virtually intact since the time of construction). nickel really grew to appreciate the republic, based on his papers describing its merits, senseless demolition, and so on. in fact, he would send out several customized postcards to friends and family with a picture of the republic and on the back, proclaimed, “remember the republic” with great enthusiasm.
what i can’t figure out for the life of me is what the hell happened to all the cable and republic ornament he went to great lengths to save – salvaging most of it himself. letters indicate it was stored at navy pier for a short period of time, but like the ornament, the dialogue drops off, with no mention of it being distributed, tossed, or stored elsewhere. will it ever surface?
