I just saw Ilene's suggestion about doing papers on John Earley for the
     Recent Past conference.  I meant to post this call for papers (see below)
     for a local symposium here in Washington, the fourth in a series of
     symposia our local chapter of the SAH sponsors but have a nasty feeling
     that I didn't.  Since Earley was a local boy who made good and I thought a
     good bit of work was going on about him, we thought it would be a good
     topic.  If any of you don't have time to get a proposal together for the
     Recent Past and would be interested in doing something for us, we would be
     delighted.

     On a related topic, I am thinking of putting together a list of as many of
     the projects Earley worked on as I could identify.  I don't know whether
     that would turn into a paper or not, but I thought it would be useful to
     bring together all the info that was available so people working at the
     local level could put their project into some sort of broader context (to
     use NR-speak).  So if anybody knows of places that Earley was involved in,
     would they please send that info to me, with a contact name and phone
     number/e-mail address, if possible?  I already know about the Bahai Temple,
     the Edison Monument, the Fountain of Time, the LSU campus, the Parthenon,
     and a bunch of things in Washington.

     Please feel free to crosspost the call.  We sent it out to all the
     listservs we could think of, but probably missed some.

     Marilyn



     Call for Papers

     "JOHN EARLEY IN CONTEXT:
     CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION  AND DECORATION  IN THE U.S. 1910-1945"

     For its Fourth Biennial Symposium on the Historic Development of
     Metropolitan Washington, D.C., which will be held in Washington, D.C. in
     March  2001, the Latrobe Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians
     is seeking papers on the work of D.C. concrete fabricator and
     "architectural sculptor" John J. Earley and on the innovative tectonic and
     decorative use of concrete in the United States between 1910 and 1945.

     When he died in 1945, John Earley took the secret of his polychrome
     concrete process with him. No one, since then, has been able to duplicate
     his exquisite and durable colors. Perhaps best remembered for his 1935
     Polychrome Houses in Silver Spring, MD (prefabricated from structural
     slabs), the "man who made concrete beautiful" collaborated with
     distinguished architects on a vast array of decorations for civic,
     religious and commercial and residential structures. Among his best known
     works in the nation's capital are the walls and balustrades at Meridian
     Hill Park, and the mosaic aggregates at the Justice Department Building and
     at the Church of the Sacred Heart on Sixteenth Street, N.W., which won him
     the A.I.A. medal for craftsmanship in 1936. Earley also worked on Laredo
     Taft's Fountain of Time in Chicago, the Louisiana State University campus,
     the national House of Worship of the American Baha'is in Wilmette, IL and
     the Edison Memorial Tower in Menlo Park, NJ.

     The purpose of this symposium is two-fold. First, it
     provides an opportunity to assimilate what is already known of Earley's
     output in Washington, D.C. and beyond, as well as to encourage those who
     have been intending to do additional research on his work. Second, we are
     looking for papers on parallel trends in American concrete construction and
     decoration, which will place Earley's contribution in a broader economic,
     cultural and stylistic context. Papers on innovative concrete engineering
     and construction, low-cost housing, commercial and institutional
     applications of concrete construction, and decorative use of concrete are
     welcomed. They  must be analytical rather than descriptive in nature and
     will be grouped to provide substantive comparative discussion among the
     presenters, moderators and the audience.

     Please mail a 400-word abstract and your curriculum vitae, postmarked by
     November 30, 1999 to:
     Dr. Isabelle Gournay, President, Latrobe Chapter, SAH
     School of Architecture University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742

     All applicants will be notified of the selection by January 15, 2000.
     December 15, 2000 is the firm deadline for the final draft to be sent to
     moderators, who will consult the presenters to develop themes for
     discussion. For further information contact I. Gournay (301) 699 9418 (Fax
     and Phone) - [log in to unmask] (email)











     Marilyn Harper
     National Register of Historic Places
     (which is in no way responsible for the content of this message)