An intellectual lineage from New England Transcendentalism to the architectural “street poetry” of Philadelphia and Chicago

This groundbreaking study explores how the architectural ethos of Louis Sullivan originated in American Transcendentalism, a legacy brought about, in large measure, by the father-and-son duo of William Henry and Frank Furness. Jamie Devol shows how the intellectual and aesthetic ideals articulated by the Reverend William Henry Furness and his lifelong friend Ralph Waldo Emerson helped shape the thinking of Furness’s architect son, Frank Furness. This influence extended directly to Frank’s protégé, Louis Sullivan, who had already begun cultivating a Transcendentalist sensibility during his New England youth.

Through an in-depth look at the Reverend Furness’s writings, oratory, and abolitionism, a fresh examination of Frank Furness’s buildings, and a sympathetic reassessment of Sullivan’s writings and architecture, this book argues that Transcendentalism was the wellspring of nearly all they created, uniting works, both written and built, that spanned half a continent and a century of progress. This narrative, which brings William Henry Furness to the fore as a significant Transcendentalist, offers new defining insights into the history of modern American architecture, definitively separating Sullivan’s legacy from the later International Style.