Hell on Color, Sweet on Song

Francis R. Kowsky is SUNY Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Fellow of the Society of Architectural Historians. He has written numerous articles on nineteenth-century American architects and is the author of Country Park and City: The Life and Architecture of Calvert Vaux and The Best Planned City in the World: Olmsted, Vaux, and the Buffalo Park System. Frank was a longtime member of the New York State Board for Historic Preservation and has prepared numerous nominations for the National Register of Historic Places. Lucille Gordon (1929-2021), a lifelong resident of New York, founded and ran Gordon Associates, which specialized in marketing books for technical publishers. She volunteered as a docent in Central Park, leading educational tours, and later devoted many years to researching and drafting a biography of Jacob Wrey Mould, the lesser-known third architect of Central Park who created the majority of its decorative elements such as Bethesda Terrace.

Preface: Discovering Jacob Wrey Mould ix Introduction 1 1. Family Territory: England, Africa, Ireland, America 17 2. Youthful Years in London: Architecture and Music 27 3. Fresh Prospects in New York 54 4. Embellishing Central Park 96 5. Building a Career 149 6. Greater Expectations 195 Acknowledgments 241 Notes 243 Illustration Credits 259 Index 263 Color images follow page 130

This gripping book commemorates an extraordinary figure and something of a genius.-- "Society of Architectual Historians of Great Britian" . . .The authors take in the full sweep of [Wrey Mould's] life, capturing it in clear prose. Architecture fans will delight in this in-depth entry.-- "Publishers Weekly" Spotlights the little-known figure whose influence can be seen in some of New York's most recognized landmarks.-- "Publishers Weekly" Hell on Color, Sweet on Song is an excellently researched book about a very influential yet oft-forgotten architect of the mid-nineteenth century, Jacob Wrey Mould. While introducing vibrant colors and polychrome to the United States, Mould also changed the nature and look of New York's architecture and impacted some of its most important designers. Mould rediscovered, hurrah!"---Richard Guy Wilson, Commonwealth Professor of Architectural History, University of Virginia Central Park is one of the country's most important works of American art, in part due to the contributions of the decorative genius of artist and architect, Jacob Wrey Mould. At long last, architectural historian Frank Kowsky, together with the brilliant research of Lucille Gordon, has brought this important and mysterious figure out into the light. In Hell on Color, Sweet on Song, we are seduced by fascinating--even shocking--aspects of Mould's private life while gaining insight into the ideas behind his professional masterpieces, particularly those in Central Park. This biography is a must-read and--who knows--maybe the basis for a major motion picture. It is that good!---Sara Cedar Miller, Historian emerita of the Central Park Conservancy, and author of Before Central Park