Images courtesy Wikipedia Commons (1) and (2)

Historians began using the term Romanesque ("in the manner of the Romans") in the 1800s to describe the art and architecture of the early Middle Ages before Gothic became the dominant architectural expression across Europe. The church of San Martin in Segovia, Spain—with its heavy masonry, rounded arches, squat columns, and minimal ornamentation—provides a good example of the type of medieval architecture Henry Hobson Richardson emulated in his own designs.

Thomas Crane Public Library in Quincy, Massachusetts (1882) by Henry Hobson Richardson

Borrowing elements from early medieval buildings—pre-Gothic structures known as "Romanesque"—Richardson developed a flexible architectural language to design a range of building types, including churches, residences, courthouses, libraries, and office buildings. His Crane Public Library (pictured) features Romanesque design elements: rusticated masonry (rough-cut stone), rounded arches, squat columns, and minimal ornamentation.

Left: James W. McLaughlin, PLCHC Digital Library
Center: Hubert Von Herkomer (German British, 1849–1914), H. H. Richardson, 1886, oil on canvas, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, R&R CC0
Right: Samuel Hannaford, PLCHC Digital Library

From the 1870s through the 1890s, architects across the United States—including James W. McLaughlin (left) and his Cincinnati rival, Samuel Hannaford (right)—embraced variations of Richardsonian Romanesque in their own designs. Richardson (center) died in 1886 at the relatively young age of 47, less than one month before the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Robert S. Duncanson (American, 1821–1872), Sunset on the New England Coast,1871, oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. Gilbert Bettman, Sr., 1943.1331
On view in Gallery 108 at the Cincinnati Art Museum

Why Romanesque? Many American artists and architects in the 1800s looked to the American landscape for inspiration. Richardson's contemporary interpretation of Romanesque—particularly his use of rusticated stone and elemental forms—suggested the ruggedness of the continent's natural wonders. 

“Richardson was fascinated by massive geological specimens like the smooth glacial boulders he encountered in New England and incorporated into his mature designs when he had a large enough budget," writes Martin Filler in an essay for The New York Review. "He used rough quarried stone to much the same effect elsewhere and made buildings in rural locales look like organic outgrowths of the landscape."

James W. McLaughlin (American, 1834–1923), View of Original Front and West Façade of Cincinnati Art Museum, circa 1885, pen and brown ink, Gift of Theodore A. Langstroth, 1979.106

This presentation rendering by architect James W. McLaughlin depicts the Cincinnati Art Museum as it originally appeared when completed in 1886, standing on a hilltop in Cincinnati's Eden Park. The rough-cut stone structure, designed by McLaughlin in a Romanesque revival style, appears to grow out of the hilltop itself.

Architect James W. McLaughlin also designed the original Art Academy of Cincinnati building (now the Longworth Wing) adjacent to the museum in Eden Park. The design includes the hallmarks of Romanesque revival (rusticated stone, rounded arches, stubby columns, etc.) and the exterior elements suggest the building's interior functions:

• large, rounded arch (flanked by stubby columns) marks the entryway,
• turret encloses the main staircase,
• curved wall and half dome define the lecture hall.

Architectural details of McLaughlin's Art Academy of Cincinnati building (1887) now known as the Longworth Wing. left: massive, rounded arch over main entry supported by squat columns, center: column capital with restrained architectural ornament, right: limestone walls with bands of red granite. According to sources in the museum's Archives, the red granite is the same type used by Richardson in his New England buildings.

image courtesy Wikipedia Commons

James McLaughlin's rival in Cincinnati was architect Samuel Hannaford. The two often vied for the city's most noteworthy commissions. Although McLaughlin won the Cincinnati Art Museum project, Hannaford beat out McLaughlin for the prestigious Cincinnati City Hall commission. Designed in a Richardsonian Romanesque style, City Hall's cornerstone was laid in 1888, one year after the Cincinnati Art Academy building opened.

Three views of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce building from various sources.

As crews completed McLaughlin's Art Academy building in 1887, construction began on Richardson's only Cincinnati commission: the monumental Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce building (1888) once located on the southwest corner of 4th and Vine Streets in downtown Cincinnati. Richardson was not able to see the building completed. He died in 1886 at the age of 47 of kidney disease.

The massive pink granite structure—hailed as "fireproof" when it opened to fanfare in 1889—succumbed to a devastating fire in 1910. After hauling away the building's massive stone blocks, the Fourth & Vine Tower (better known today as the PNC tower) was erected on the site and completed in 1913.

Richardson Memorial and Chamber of Commerce Monument in Burnet Woods Park

Soon after the fire, the Cincinnati Astronomical Society salvaged the stones from Richardson's Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce building and hauled them first to Oakley and then to Cleves, Ohio, with the intention of building an observatory. The plan was dropped, but some of the stones were rediscovered in 1967 by UC architecture student Ted Hammer. A fellow student, Steve Carter, won a design competition in 1972 to create a memorial to Richardson in Burnet Woods Park. You can still see Richardson's carved pink-granite stones there today.

Stone eagle sculpture from the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce building in Eden Park.

Also salvaged from Richardson's Chamber of Commerce are four stone eagle sculptures once perched above the building's dormers. Today, the eagles grace the entryway to Eden Park along Eden Park Drive near the Krohn Conservatory.

"More Daylight Assured Now for Art Academy" read the headline in a Cincinnati Times-Star article dated July 12, 1940. "Elaborate improvements are being made in the Cincinnati Art Academy in Eden Park that will give this historic institution more studio rooms, more daylight and entirely new heating, electric lighting and plumbing systems," stated the article. "The roof is being lowered nine and a half feet and additional skylights are being installed in such a manner that there will hereafter be daylight on both the second and third floors."

In mid-century modern fashion, the Art Academy's 1940 renovation emphasized the building's horizontal lines. The architects, Henry Hake & Henry Hake, Jr., removed the entire third floor—including dormers, the half-dome above the lecture hall, and the top of the stair tower—and replaced these elements with a smaller roof-top structure punctuated with large windows.

The old Art Academy building gutted again.

Today, some of architect James W. McLaughlin's original Art Academy building survives as the Cincinnati Art Museum's Longworth Wing and houses the museum's curators and staff. The Mary R. Schiff Library sits atop the roof inside a 2013 deconstructivist structure designed by Cincinnati's emersion Design.