Architectural Missionary: D. Fred Charlton in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, 1887-1918 by Steven C. Brisson

Abstract

Reviewed by: Architectural Missionary: D. Fred Charlton in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, 1887-1918 by Steven C. Brisson Jonathan Rinck Steven C. Brisson. Architectural Missionary: D. Fred Charlton in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, 1887-1918. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2021. Pp. 278. Appendices. Bibliography. Illustrations. Index. Notes. Paper: $46.95. In 1887, Demetrius Frederick Charlton arrived in Michigan's Upper Peninsula to establish a Marquette branch of the Detroit-based Scott & Company architectural firm. His endeavors were met with rapid success, and Charlton became the first professional architect to permanently reside in the Upper Peninsula, devoting his professional career to beautifying its towns and cities with buildings whose vocabulary showed the country that the Upper Peninsula possessed architectural sophistication. In Architectural Missionary, Steven Brisson provides a panorama of Charlton's career, during which Charlton designed a broad array of architectural public, ecclesial, commercial, and domestic buildings while effortlessly shifting his style in accordance with whatever was in vogue. Readers will be left with an appreciation for the extraordinary output of this immigrant architect who never received formal academic training in the field. Born in England, Charlton studied civil engineering at King's College, London, before coming to Detroit at age 21 to work for several regionally significant architectural firms, including Scott & Company. In 1887, when Scott & Company was commissioned to design and build the Marquette prison, Charlton arrived in the Upper Peninsula to oversee its construction and to establish a branch headquarters in Marquette. By 1889, Scott's firm was renamed Scott & Charlton; the following year, Charlton, sufficiently established, dissolved the partnership. [End Page 144] Brisson briskly moves through Charlton's early years and guides readers directly into Charlton's architectural career, leading with an in-depth exploration of three buildings representative of the stylistic range of Charleton's output. The Longyear House (1892) was a Richardsonian Romanesque-style Marquette mansion designed for lumber, steel, and coal tycoon John Longyear, and celebrated upon its completion for its elegance, comparable to any mansion in Boston (where, with the help of 190 boxcars and much effort, the house was eventually relocated). The Georgian Revival-style Newberry State Mental Hospital was his largest work; completed in 1916, the campus comprised nearly two dozen buildings surrounding an open courtyard. Finally, Brisson explores the Marquette County Courthouse (1904), a stately Neoclassical Revival building. The iconic structure featured prominently both in the novel Anatomy of a Murder and its film adaptation; much of the movie, which starred James Stewart, was staged in the courthouse, and national press descended on Marquette to document its filming. Brisson then catalogs Charlton's many other notable projects, which varied both in function and form. They included projects for the state of Michigan (including schools, municipal buildings, courthouses, and the Marquette Branch Prison), churches, commercial structures, whole commercial blocks, and many homes, all of which demonstrate Charlton's ability to effortlessly traverse styles. The 400 buildings he designed ranged from Richardsonian Romanesque, Gothic, Tudor Revival, Queen Anne, Renaissance Classical, Georgian, Arts & Crafts, and even Prairie-style. Brisson even teases readers with a rumored ephemeral "Mammoth Ice Palace" Charlton allegedly built in Marquette during the winter of 1899, but, alas, conclusive documentation is lacking. The focus of this book is on Charlton's architecture rather than his life, so readers should not expect a biography. But Brisson delivers an authoritative panorama of Charlton's architectural output replete with an index of all known extant works. Supplementing Brisson's descriptive writing are ample photographs and architectural renderings of nearly every structure mentioned. Reproductions of Charlton's own watercolor renderings underscore his precocious talent; by contrast, even the great Frank Lloyd Wright outsourced perspective drawings and watercolors to the specialists who worked under him. Brisson amply makes the point that much of the look of the Upper Peninsula owes itself to the fertile and cosmopolitan mind of D. Frederick Charlton, and the author delivers an affectionate tribute to his enduring legacy. [End Page 145] Jonathan Rinck Traverse City, MI Copyright © 2022 Historical Society of Michigan