George Keller (December 15, 1842 – July 7, 1935) was an American architect and engineer. He enjoyed a diverse and successful career, and was sought for his designs of bridges, houses, monuments, and various commercial and public buildings. Keller's most famous projects, however, are the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch in Hartford, Connecticut, and the James A. Garfield Memorial in Cleveland, Ohio.[1]
He was born on December 15, 1842, in Cork in Ireland to Thomas Keller and Susan Pratt. Keller emigrated with his family to New York City as a child. Irish immigrants were at the time considered inferior, and during his early years Keller endured a considerable measure of hardship and discrimination. Lacking connections and unable to obtain schooling in Europe like many of his professional peers, an ambitious nature and a school of hard knocks education gave Keller an adequate base of knowledge. As a young man, he accepted employment with an Irish architect in Washington, D.C., but returned to New York to join the firm of architect Peter B. Wight. This was the beginning of a lifelong friendship between the two. Keller's association with Wight introduced him to the aesthetic philosophy of John Ruskin and to serious architectural study, which was cut short by the outbreak of the Civil War. Though Keller planned to join the Union Army, a dry inkwell prevented him from signing the enlistment papers. Choosing to see this as an ill omen, he gladly accepted an engineering position with the Brooklyn Navy Yard instead. Moving to Hartford at the war's end, he took a job designing monuments.[2]
In 1903 Keller became the 3rd architect to work on the Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford. He based his contribution to the design on the York Cathedral, from which Ithiel Town, the original architect, had drawn inspiration.[3]
The postwar building boom brought Keller to national prominence. Though he won design competitions for Civil War monuments in several cities, his Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch at the entrance to Bushnell Park in Hartford, Connecticut, boldly broke the conventional form that had become the accepted configuration. Monuments of this type typically consisted of a cylindrical column, or shaft, surmounted by an allegorical female figure, usually Victory, with four sculpted figures surrounding the base. In contrast, Keller's Hartford monument, an eclectic Romanesque construction dedicated in 1886, was "perhaps the first permanent triumphal arch in the United States." One of the arch's most striking elements is a bas-relief frieze featuring life-size figures carved by Bohemian-born sculptor Caspar Buberl.[4] The north side of the frieze was carved by English-born sculptor Samuel James Kitson.
The Memorial Arch was built as a gateway to the pre-existing Park River Bridge, which was renamed the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Bridge.[5] The bridge remains although the river has since been relocated and capped. The upper portion of the bridge arches can still be seen even though the river bank has since been raised and turned into parkland.
Keller's involvement with the James A. Garfield Memorial in Cleveland began after he submitted an architectural design to the trustees of the Garfield National Memorial Committee. The committee, headed by ex-President Rutherford B. Hayes along with Jeptha H. Wade, president of Cleveland's Lake View Cemetery, had been formed for the purpose of securing a plan for a memorial to President James A. Garfield following his assassination in 1881. To this end during the autumn of 1883 the committee sponsored a design competition in which Keller took part. The competition promised a prize of $1,000 to the winning design, thus attracting not only American but also European entries. To judge the submissions, the committee obtained the assistance of Boston architect Henry van Brunt and English-born architect Calvert Vaux of New York City.[6] Both van Brunt and Vaux ultimately chose Keller's design, and he was awarded the commission on June 24, 1884. Excavation for the monument at Lake View Cemetery began on October 6, 1885; it was dedicated on Memorial Day, May 30, 1890.[7] Once again, Keller chose Caspar Buberl to execute figural friezes for his design.
| Monument | Image | Location/GPS coordinates | Construction begun | Cornerstone laid | Dedicated | Sculptor | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Civil War Monument[8] | Granby Green, 3 East Granby Road, Granby, Connecticut | 1868 | Carl Conrads | New England Granite Works, contractor | ||||
| Soldiers' National Monument | Gettysburg National Cemetery, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania | July 3, 1865 | July 1, 1869 | Randolph Rogers | ||||
| Soldiers Monument | Taunton, Massachusetts | Never executed[9] | ||||||
| Civil War Monument | Veterans Memorial Park, Manchester, New Hampshire | May 30, 1878 | September 11, 1879 | Caspar Buberland others | ||||
| U.S. Soldier Monument a.k.a. Private Soldier Monument[10] | Antietam National Cemetery, Sharpsburg, Maryland | September 17, 1867 | September 17, 1880 | Carl Conrads, sculptor James W. Pollette, carver | Height: 44 ft 7 in. Weight: 250 tons. Statue exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition. | |||
| Soldiers and Sailors Monument | Lafayette Square, Buffalo, New York | July 4, 1882 | July 4, 1884 | Caspar Buberl | ||||
| Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch | Bushnell Park (Ford Street entrance), Hartford, Connecticut | May 1884 | November 7, 1886 | Caspar Buberl, south frieze Samuel James Kitson, north frieze Albert Entress (1846–1926), 6 statues | ||||
| James A. Garfield Memorial | Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio | October 6, 1885 | May 30, 1890 | Caspar Buberl | ||||
| Soldiers and Sailors Monument | Oneida Square, Utica, New York | October 13, 1891 | Karl Gerhardt | |||||
| Major General John Sedgwick Memorial | opposite Cornwall Hollow Cemetery, Cornwall Hollow & Hautboy Hill Roads, Cornwall, Connecticut | May 3, 1900 | James J. Hawley (1871–1899) | Hawley's first (and only) major commission.[11] | ||||
| Base of Lafayette Equestrian Statue | Lafayette Circle, Capitol Avenue & Washington Street, Hartford, Connecticut | 1932 | Paul Wayland Bartlett | 1932 cast of Bartlett's 1908 equestrian statue at Cours la Reine, Paris |
Biographer David F. Ransom calls Keller's three small libraries "the crowning achievement of his career."[28]
Around 1885 he married Mary Monteith Smith (1860–1946) and they had three children: Hilda Montieth Keller (1888–1978), George Monteith Keller Sr. (1895–1986), and Walter Smith Keller Sr. (1898–1981).[1]
George Keller died in Hartford, Connecticut, on July 7, 1935. His ashes and those of his wife are interred within the Memorial Arch.
