User:Andy02124/sandbox/grundmann

Ralph Adams Cram, architect and member of BASA, was charged with remodeling the interior. The first floor included club rooms—library, parlor, smoking room and life class room — and two large halls, each lit with "an immense skylight or glass roof". The larger, Copley Hall, could seat up to 800 people and was used for lectures, concerts, dancing parties and art exhibitions. The smaller Allston Hall was designed for use as a picture gallery or supper room, connected by dumbwaiter to the basement kitchen. The second floor contained thirty-four suites of one, two, or three rooms, described as "so delightfully picturesque, with little, overhanging galleries, which are reached by the tiniest flight of stairs, it seems like climbing into a doll's house.".

Excerpt from a longer news article about Otto Grundmann, The Boston Art Students Association, the studio building and its first residents, printed in The Boston Globe, February 2, 1894.

About a year ago the building committee negotiated for and secured for a term of 15 years the large two-story brick structure known as the Winslow skating rink.

It is understood the estate cannot be purchased, as it is owned by the trustees of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. If desired, however, the [Boston Art Students Association] may be able to renew the lease or extend it beyond this time.

Under the supervision of Mr. Ralph D. [sic] Cram, the architect, who is a member of the association, also appointed to serve on the building committee, such a wonderful transformation has been worked that you would never recognize the old pile.

Indeed, it seems a paradise to the artists after their very cramped and inconveniently situated quarters at 59A Branch st.

To be sure, there is nothing very ornamental or picturesque about the exterior, the committee having chosen very sensibly to expend their limited means upon the interior.

The building covers an area of 100x150 feet.

It is arranged in three sections; each, having separate entrances, can be shut off if necessary, one from another. Between each section a fireproof wall or partition is built.

The basement contains several immense chambers, which will probably be let for storage purposes. It is close by the railroad and therefore especially well adapted to this use.

In the basement are also large steam-heating and lighting plants, and a nicely appointed kitchen, the latter having a dumb waiter connection with the banquet hall on the first floor.

There are three entrances to the building from Clarendon st.

Entering the middle door one passes through the spacious corridor, and leading from it to the left are Copley and Allston halls.

The former is extremely well lighted by means of an immense skylight or glass roof. It is said to be the best picture gallery in the city. It measures 45x90 feet, and has a beautiful stage, 45x25, and a suitable floor for dancing, so that it may be used as a ball room as well as for an art gallery, theatrical entertainments, lecture hall or musicale.

Allston hall may or may not be used in with Copley hall for a supper room.

This latter measures 25 feet by 60 feet, also has a suitable floor for dancing, affording excellent opportunities for private dancing classes. This hall also has a large top light, and will probably be used by the association for their regular art exhibitions, lectures, etc.

The janitor's apartments are on the first floor, together with the club rooms, comprising library, parlor, smoking room, life class room, etc. The mechanics are still at work adding the finishing touches to these, and early in the spring they will be ready for occupancy.

The upper story is divided into small suites of one, two or three rooms.

These are rented for studios, but a few of the artists will also live in their apartments. There are 34 studios in all, very conveniently arranged, while a few also have bathrooms, with hot and cold water. And they are so delightfully picturesque, with little, overhanging galleries, which are reached by the tiniest flight of stairs, it seems like climbing into a doll's house. The entire building is heated by steam, but a few studios also have quaint brick fireplaces. And then there are the cunningest little windows, divided up into very tiny panes, that remind one so much of a Dutch cottage.

Without exception, the studios are well lighted and ventilated. The ceilings are extremely high, and the unfinished rafters add to the picturesque effect.

As may well be supposed, the house committee have had no difficulty in disposing of or renting the studios. They are all taken excepting one or two, perhaps, and what with tinting walls, measuring curtains and hanging draperies, the artists, many of them, are in a bewildering state of confusion.

A few are already charmingly settled in their new homes.

• Max Bachmann, sculptor

• Ross Turner

• Mr and Mrs (Alice Hinds) Wm Stone

• John C. Abbott

• Miss Zelpha M. Plaisted

• Miss Annie C. Nowell

• Miss M. N. Richardson '91

• O.W. Cushing, instructor at MIT

• Mr. Clouse

• Mr. Gallison

• Miss Emma Kaan

• Miss Mann

• Miss Doar Williams

• Mr Ernest Ipsen '93

• Arthur W. Dow

• Miss Mary Greenleaf

• Miss McLaughlin

• Miss Baker

• Mr Decombs

• Miss Evelyn Nutte

• Harold B. Warren

• Edw. W. Emerson

• Miss Jane M. Scudder

• D. H. Brudder

• J. P. Foster

• Miss Jewett

• William Paxton

• Miss Parker

• Mme S. Bendelari de Peralta

• Jacob[Joseph?] H. Hatfield

• W. A. J. Claus

• Dwight Blaney