Rediscovering Architect-Trailblazer E. G. W. Dietrich

Independent scholar Christopher Jend will give a lavishly illustrated talk on the legacy of New York-based innovative architect Ernest George Washington Dietrich, AIA (1857-1924), who helped redefine residential architecture and who is now emerging from obscurity.

Ernest George Washington Dietrich, AIA (1857-1924) is one of the most prolific yet least studied architects of his generation. A native of Pittsburgh, PA, Dietrich first attracted attention in the 1880s for his eye-catching designs of Shingle Style country residences. Finding success on the East Coast, he relocated to New York, NY, where he practiced for nearly forty years. He was an early proponent of the Colonial Revival and Arts and Crafts styles. Through his collaboration with tastemaker Gustav Stickley, Dietrich is recognized as designing the first “Craftsman” house published in Stickley’s magazine The Craftsman in May 1903.
On Wednesday, October 16 from 6:30 to 8:00pm, Christopher Jend will share an overview of Dietrich’s career with a focus on projects in and around New York City. Jend discovered Dietrich while researching and writing the successful National Register nomination of the c. 1893 John Mollenhauer House in Bay Shore, NY. For the last twelve years, Jend’s rigorous and enthusiastic research of the architect has resulted in the documentation of more than 450 of Dietrich’s designs and visits to his built projects in six states. Jend has presented his research on Dietrich to communities in New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.As Dietrich summarized his goals in an essay, “The Cottage Quality,” in The Craftsman magazine in February 1903: "The true beauty of art lies in its usefulness. If we accept this fact, then architecture must be the most beautiful and the noblest branch of art; since it protects man from the elements. …My design is intended to meet the wants of those who wish to secure the cottage quality… I have sought simplicity and straightforwardness, trusting that they might tell their own story with little need of words."

Host or Publisher Victorian Society of New York