John B. Snook

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American architect

title: "John B. Snook" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["19th-century-american-architects", "cast-iron-architecture", "1815-births", "1901-deaths", "british-emigrants-to-the-united-states", "architects-from-new-york-city", "burials-at-green-wood-cemetery"] description: "American architect" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Snook" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American architect ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox architect"]

FieldValue
birth_date1815
death_date
imageWLA nyhistorical John Butler Snook ca 1837.jpg
captionSnook c.1837
birth_placeEngland, United Kingdom
death_placeBrooklyn, New York
resting_placeGreen-Wood Cemetery
spouse
practice{{Plainlist
significant_buildings{{Plainlist
significant_designCast-iron buildings
::

|birth_date= 1815 |death_date= |image=WLA nyhistorical John Butler Snook ca 1837.jpg |caption= Snook c.1837 |birth_place=England, United Kingdom |death_place=Brooklyn, New York |resting_place= Green-Wood Cemetery |spouse= |practice={{Plainlist|

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/1880_Grand_Central.jpg" caption="Murray Hill Tunnel]] toward the station in 1880. Note the labels for the ''New York and Harlem'' and ''New York and New Haven'' Railroads; the ''New York Central and Hudson River'' was off to the left. The two larger portals on the right allowed some horse-drawn trains to continue further downtown."] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/503-511_Broadway_from_north.jpg" caption="cast-iron buildings]], the Loubat Stores, at 503-511 Broadway (1878-79), with cast-iron by Cornell Iron Works{{cite AIA4}} They replaced the southern wing of the St. Nicholas Hotel."] ::

John Butler Snook (1815–1901) was an American architect who practiced in New York City. He was responsible for the design of a number of notable cast-iron buildings, most of which are now in and around SoHo, Manhattan, as well as the original Grand Central Depot, which preceded the current Grand Central Terminal.

Life and career

Born in England, Snook emigrated to the United States with his family as a child. He was trained as a carpenter in his father's carpentry business, and worked as a bookkeeper and draftsman there as well. He was largely self-taught as an architect. His first work in the field was in partnership with William Beer from 1837 to 1840, then in 1842 he joined the firm of Joseph Trench. Within five years he was the junior partner in the firm, which became Trench and Snook, in which capacity he was the designer of the A. T. Stewart department store (1846) at 280 Broadway between Duane and Rector Streets, the first department store in America. The store was the first Anglo-Italianate style building in New York, set a style for New York commercial hotels that lasted until mid-century.

In Snook's partnership with Trench he was also the architect of the brownstone-sheathed Metropolitan Hotel (1851–52) – erected in the same "palazzo" style – on Broadway at Prince Street; the Boreel Building (1849–50), a full block building bounded by Broadway, Cedar, Thames, and Temple Streets, the site of the former City Hotel, which Trench and Snook's palace hotels had rendered out-of-date; and the marble-clad St. Nicholas Hotel (1854) on Broadway between Broome and Spring Streets; although the design of the last has also been attributed to Griffith Thomas.

Solo practitioner

After Trench moved west to San Francisco in 1857, Snook continued to work in New York City on his own, and his practice became one of the largest in the city. Most of his buildings were in New York City, but he also designed and constructed buildings in Brooklyn – then a separate city – in Westchester County, and in New Jersey. Stephen Decatur Hatch, who later became a notable architect on his own, worked as a draftsman in Snook's office from 1860 to 1864.

Cast-iron for Snook's commercial building facades was provided by Cornell Iron Works and by Daniel D. Badger's Architectural Iron Works. Snook's 620 Broadway (1858) – called the "Little Cary Building" for its resemblance to the Cary Building by Gamaliel King and John Kellum (1856) – was fronted with cast iron from Badger's Architectural Iron Works. Most of Snook's work was in commercial buildings, warehouses and tenements; for example the tenement building at 64 Oliver Street (1889), near the Manhattan Bridge, was built as a speculation for Roderick Green, completed in five months' time for about $6000. Snook also designed churches, hotels, institutions – the Odd Fellows Hall (1847–48), Grand Street, survives (with some additions) and is a New York City Landmark – and hospitals. His other designs include residences such as the villa in Sleepy Hollow, New York, commissioned by Anson G. Phelps (1851), and those of the Vanderbilt and Lorillard families.

Personal life and death

In 1836 Snook married Maria A. Weekes, with whom he had nine surviving children. Three sons, James Henry, Samuel Booth, and Thomas Edward, joined his practice in 1887, and the firm's name was changed to John B. Snook & Sons on its 50th anniversary. One of his sons-in-law, John W. Boylston, also worked in the firm. Snook died at his home in Brooklyn in 1901. His papers, including an archive of architectural drawings, are conserved in the New-York Historical Society. After his death, the firm's name was changed to John B. Snook Sons. Snook is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

References

Notes

References

  1. {{cite AIA4
  2. Smith, Mary Ann Clegg, ''The Commercial Architecture of John Butler Snook'', (Pennsylvania State University Press) 1974.
  3. [http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/reports/NoHo_HD.pdf "NYCLPC NoHo Historic District Designation Report"] {{Webarchive. link. (2013-03-26 (June 29, 1999), p.219)
  4. [http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/reports/sohoextdesignation.pdf "NYCLPC SoHo - Cast-Iron Historic District Extension Designation Report"] {{Webarchive. link. (2017-02-04 (May 11, 2010), p.180)
  5. Smith, Mary Ann. "John Snook and the design for A. T. Stewart's Store", ''The New-York Historical Society Quarterly'' '''58'''1974.
  6. Roman palazzos]]" according to Ramirez, Jan Seidler; Bogart, Michele Helene and Taylor, William R., ''Painting the Town: Cityscapes of New York: Paintings from the Museum of the City of New York'' (2000:116), describing a painting of the Metropolitan Hotel, c.1852.
  7. Noted by Landau and Condit 1999:43
  8. New-York Historical Society [http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/nyhs/snook.html "Guide to the John B. Snook architectural record collection"]
  9. [http://www.edochess.ca/batgirl/StNicholasHotel.html "St. Nicholas Hotel", ''The Gentleman's Magazine'', 1856]: n.b. "1844" is a misprint.
  10. [http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/reports/sohoextdesignation.pdf "NYCLPC SoHo - Cast-Iron Historic District Extension Designation Report"] {{Webarchive. link. (2017-02-04 , (August 14, 1973). pp.40, 182-183)
  11. Davis, Howard. ''The Culture of Building'' 2006:62f
  12. Diamonstein, Barbaralee, ''The Landmarks of New York: 3'', 1998:100; building designated 24 August 1982
  13. Zukowsky, John and Stimson, Robbe Pierce, ''Hudson River Villas'', 1985:105

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19th-century-american-architectscast-iron-architecture1815-births1901-deathsbritish-emigrants-to-the-united-statesarchitects-from-new-york-cityburials-at-green-wood-cemetery