Townsend and Fleming. George W. Babcock residence architectural drawings, 1911, 1986

Held by The Filson Historical Society

Creator:  Townsend and Fleming

Title:  Townsend and Fleming. George W. Babcock residence architectural drawings, 1911, 1986

Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Collections Department.

Size of Collection:  0.6 cu. ft. (1 ovsz. box)

Location Number:  Mss. AR T747

Historical Note

Townsend & Fleming were landscape and consulting architects from Buffalo, New York.  The two partners in the firm were Frederic dePeyster Townsend (1871-1951) and Bryant Fleming (1877-1946).  In the 1910s, the firm completed work on several major country estates in Louisville, Kentucky. Townsend & Fleming was extant from circa 1904-1915; the partnership dissolved in 1915 when Bryant Fleming established an independent practice in Wyoming, New York.

Bryant Fleming (1877-1946) was born in Buffalo, New York, and studied horticulture, architecture, architectural history, and art at Cornell, graduating in 1901. Fleming taught as a visiting professor at Cornell and helped develop the Department of Landscape Architecture.  He became the first lecturer and instructor in landscape art in the Department of Landscape Art at Cornell, where he served as head of the department from 1906 to 1915. In private practice he helped guide the development of parks in New York State and worked with a team to create a comprehensive campus plan for Cornell. For 30 years, Fleming and his associates maintained an extensive residential design practice with projects throughout the country, including estates in Louisville, Kentucky, Belle Meade (a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee) and Cheekwood, a 100-acre estate where Fleming guided the design of the landscape, architecture, and interiors. In 1925 he was appointed as University Landscape Advisor to Cornell. Active in the profession as a teacher and mentor, he died on September 19, 1946.

Sources:

“Bryant Fleming.” The Cultural Landscape Foundation. https://www.tclf.org/pioneer/bryant-fleming

Proposed Improvements for the Grounds of the Buffalo Country Club, Buffalo, N.Y:  Report of F. De Peyster Townsend and Bryant Fleming, Landscape Architects, 1904.

The Courier-Journal. 3 May 1961 article re: Tom Young, superintendent of Churchill Downs, mentions his work for the firm Townsend & Fleming on estates in Louisville in 1910.

“Rockledge: The Estate of Mr. and Mrs. George W. Babcock.” In: Blackburn, Winfrey P., Jr. and R. Scott Gill, Country Houses of Louisville. Butler Books, 2011.

 

Scope and Content Note

Architectural drawings for “Rockledge/Nanjemoy,” 4810 Upper River Road, Glenview, Louisville, Kentucky.  George Wheeler Babcock (1879-1950) and Anne Mason Bonnycastle Robinson (d. 1923), the initial homeowners, purchased the estate along River Road in 1909.  Babcock was president of Puritan Cordage Mills and nationally known in the cotton-cordage industry.  His River Road estate was called a “fine gardening tract” by the Courier-Journal in 1909.  Rather than build the house on flat land, the designers set it atop a narrow ridge between a sinkhole and the stone cliff of the bluff – literally, on the rock’s ledge. Following the death of George Babcock in 1950, the estate was sold out of the family. Ownership of the property later passed to the Dent family.

The collection includes 8 pencil drawings mounted on board and titled “Sketch Studies of Residence for Mr. George Babcock, River Road, Louisville, Ky.”  Drawings include basement, first and second floor plans, as well as elevations of the house.  In addition, there is a section and side elevation of the service wing, and a roof plan.  All drawings date from 1911; they are signed Townsend & Fleming, Landscape Architects, and Meyer and Brenner, Associate Architects.  There are photostat copies of some of the drawings.

In addition, the collection includes a photograph and two negatives depicting the house and grounds, and a 1986 “Boundary survey and location map” for Mrs. Paul L. Dent.

Related Collections:

Townsend and Fleming. Architectural drawings for Mrs. Morris Belknap and The Midlands estate on River Road, 1912. (Mss. AR T)

 

Container List

Box 1

Folder 1: Floor plans, 1911

Folder 2: Elevations, 1911

Folder 3: Section and roof plan, 1911

Folder 4: Photostat copies

Folder 5: Images and survey map, 1986

 

Subject Headings

Architecture – Designs and plans.

Architecture – Kentucky – Louisville.

Architecture, Domestic – Kentucky – Louisville.

Babcock family.

Dent family.

Louisville (Ky.) – Buildings, structures, etc.