Manly N. Cutter Explained

Manly N. Cutter (1851 - 1931) was an architect and interior designer^{[1] [2]} associated with work in New Jersey, Boston, New York City, the state of New York, and Alberta, Canada. He is credited with the design of the National Register of Historic Places listed Saint John's Episcopal Church (Ocean Springs, Mississippi) and Church of the Transfiguration (Blue Mountain Lake, New York). He also designed the picturesque Gothic architecture St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church on Broadway in New York City^[3] and a church in Medicine Hat (1913–14) in Alberta, Canada (interiors were later completed in 1932).^{[4] [5] [6]}

Career

Cutter was a staff architect for the New York Building Plan Company from 1886 to 1892, designing plans for Colonial architecture and Shingle architecture homes.^[7] He authored their pattern book entitled The New York Building Plan Co. Illustrated Catalogue of Examples of Buildings in 1887.^[8] His residential designs in the Shingle Style were published in the Inland Architect (Chicago) in 1893 and 1894. By 1909 Cutter had left New York and opened an office in New Jersey.^{[3] [9]}

With Alex R. Esty, he produced an unexecuted Victorian Gothic architecture design for the Library of Congress.^[10] His work appears in The Architectural Sketch Book during the 1870s as a delineator for Esty and others and as an architect.^[10] He moved to New York to work for Leopold Eidlitz and others.^[10] He designed a Japanese style room in the house of K. G. Marquand on Madison Avenue and 60th Street in New York city.^[11] also credited as an Anglo Japanese style room for Henry G. Marquand.^[12] His office seems to have been at 160 Broadway in New York City.^[12] He authored a plan for fireproofing structures at low cost that came in for criticism.^[13]

He died in Hawthorne, New York on April 4, 1931.^[14]

The Church of the Transfiguration is made of spruce logs and was the area's first church. It is a small, one-story, gable-roofed building with a cross like plan on a high fieldstone foundation with a central belfry at the west end. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

Work

• Saint John's Episcopal Church (Ocean Springs, Mississippi) (1892) on the NW corner of Rayburn and Porter Avenue^[15] "based on the design of the Church of the Ascension in Rockville Center, Long Island, New York, by Manly N. Cutter, a New York architect, which was published in The Churchman (July 11, 1891) The plans were prepared by the Rev. Nelson Ayers"
• Church of the Transfiguration (Blue Mountain Lake, New York), a late 19th-century log church^[16] described by the New York Times as "a rustic-looking log building at Blue Mountain Lake, designed by New York architect Manly N. Cutter and built by Thomas Wallace in 1885". It was photographed by Barry Lobdell.^[17]
• St. John's Church Oneida, New York^[18]
• Mott Haven engine company and firehouse (proposed), a three-story $24,000 firehouse at 898 (later re-numbered 618) East 138th Street near Cypress Avenue in 1899 by architect Manly N. Cutter, Deputy Building Superintendent of the Fire Department, but it was not built.^[19]
• Fireplace in House of H. L. Einstein, Esq. at 44 West 53rd St. New York City ^[20]
• Residence for W. Wilson in New York City (plan)^[21]
• Designs for Chancel Furniture, St. John's in the Wilderness, Pennsylvania ^[22]
• Ernest Werner Residence plans (Including floor plans) Pompton, New Jersey^[23]
• C.N. Montayne residence plans Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey^[23] (Published in the Inland Architect and News Record)
• Catholic Institution Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada^[24]

Bibliography

• Two Years Work in an Architect's Office: Suburban A.L. Chatterton & Company, 1894 - Architecture, Domestic - 204 pages

Further reading

• The New York Building Plan Co.'s Illustrated Catalogue of Examples of Buildings: Their Exterior and Interior, Prepared Under the Supervision of Manly N. Cutter New York Building Plan Company, Manly N. Cutter Rand Avery Company, 1887 80 pages
• Turn-of-the-Century House Designs: With Floor Plans, Elevations and Interior Details of 24 Residences (Dover Architecture)

Notes and References

1. https://books.google.com/books?id=qOExAQAAIAAJ&dq=manly+cutter+architect&pg=PA68-IA9 American Architect and Architecture, Volume 45
2. https://books.google.com/books?id=sywxAQAAMAAJ&dq=manly+cutter+architect&pg=PP11 Architecture and Building: A Journal of Investment and Construction, Volume 8
3. http://dictionaryofarchitectsincanada.org/architects/view/1012 Manly N. Cutter
4. (C.R., xxvii, 23 July 1913, 72; Medicine Hat News, 21 June 1913; 19 March 1914
5. M.B.V. Byrne, From Buffalo to the Cross - History of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary, 1973, 285-6, illus.
6. Barry Magrill, "Pouring Ecclesiastical Tradition into A Modern Mould: Reinforced Concrete Churches in Canada" in Journal of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, xxxvii, Spring 2012, 3-15, illus
7. https://books.google.com/books?id=qo9OyaPdQ8MC&dq=manly+cutter+architect&pg=PA312 Building an American Identity: Pattern Book Homes and Communities, 1870-1900 By Linda E. Smeins
8. H.R. Hitchcock, American Architectural Books, 1962, Item 308
9. D.S. Francis, Architects in Practise New York City 1840-1900, 24
10. Book: On the Boards: Drawings by Nineteenth-century Boston Architects. 89. James F. O'Gorman. 978-0812281705. University of Pennsylvania Press. 1989.
11. American Architect and Building News: 1887, Volume 21
12. https://books.google.com/books?id=P5k4AAAAMAAJ&dq=%22manly+n.+cutter%22+architect&pg=PA26 Year Book of the Architectural League of New York, and ..., Volumes 3-7 By Architectural League of New York
13. https://books.google.com/books?id=dAdaAAAAYAAJ&dq=manly+cutter+architect&pg=PA14 American Architect and Building News
14. https://books.google.com/books?id=oplHAQAAIAAJ Progressive Architecture - Volume 12
15. Web site: Saint John's Episcopal Church . 30.411474;-88.831360 . LandmarkHunter.com . 1987-04-20 . 2013-11-14.
16. http://www.aarch.org/resources/map/county/hamilton/window/trans.html Church of the Transfiguration
17. ART REVIEW; Seeking the Sacred In the Adirondacks
18. https://books.google.com/books?id=mG8XAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22manly+n.+cutter%22+architect&pg=PA157 Architectural Record, Volume 40
19. 2012 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
20. American Architect and Building News August 18, 1894
21. American Architect and Building News June 4, 1892
22. American Architect and Builder September 11, 1880
23. http://digital-libraries.saic.edu/cdm/search/collection/mqc/searchterm/Cutter,%20Manly%20N./mode/exact Ryerson & Burnham Archives Archival Image Collection
24. http://ww2.glenbow.org/search/archivesPhotosResults.aspx?XC=/search/archivesPhotosResults.aspx&TN=IMAGEBAN&AC=QBE_QUERY&RF=WebResults&DL=0&RL=0&NP=255&MF=WPEngMsg.ini&MR=10&QB0=AND&QF0=File+number&QI0=PA-3689-1032&CISOPTR=DF=WebResultsDetails Image No: PA-3689-1032