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Brown & von Beren was an American architectural firm based in New Haven, Connecticut. Senior partner David R. Brown (May 30, 1831 – February 21, 1910) had established his independent practice c. 1869 and in 1895 formed a partnership with Ferdinand von Beren (December 7, 1870 – June 11, 1953), a young employee. Under the leadership of von Beren and his son the firm survived nearly fifty years after Brown's death.

The New Haven City Hall, designed by Brown for Austin in the High Victorian Gothic style and completed in 1862
The former Church of the Redeemer, now Trinity Lutheran Church, designed by Brown in the High Victorian Gothic style and completed in 1870
The home of Alexander Catlin Twining in New Haven, designed by Brown & Stilson in the Stick Style and completed in 1880
The former Portland Town Hall, designed by Brown in the Richardsonian Romanesque style and completed in 1895
St. Michael's Catholic Church in New Haven, designed by Brown & von Beren in the Italian Renaissance Revival style and completed in 1904
The former Westport Town Hall, designed by Brown & von Beren in the Jacobethan style and completed in 1909
The Terryville Public Library, designed by Brown & von Beren in the Colonial Revival style and completed in 1922
The New Haven Jewish Home for the Aged, designed by Brown & von Beren in the Colonial Revival style and completed in 1923

History and biography

David R. Brown

David Russell Brown (1831 – 1910) was born in New Haven to Charles Brown, a soap maker, and Lucretia Brown, née Russell. At the age of sixteen he joined the office of Henry Austin, then the leading local architect. He began work as an office boy before being promoted to draftsman. His rapid promotion may have been in part due to his talents and in part due to the departure of Austin's English-born assistants, Gervase Wheeler and Henry Flockton, c. 1849 and c. 1851, respectively.[1]: 196–201 [2]

In the 1850s, c. 1855-56, they formed the partnership of Austin & Brown. The only known work of the partnership is the interior remodeling of St. John's Episcopal Church (1856, NRHP-listed) in East Windsor.[1]: 112  Brown moved to Chicago in 1856 but returned to Austin in New Haven in 1860. Shortly thereafter Austin was chosen architect of the new New Haven City Hall (1862, NRHP-listed). Brown was responsible for the design, which he based off of a published English precedent, probably Ernest George's project for a "metropolitan hotel," awarded a Gold Medal in architecture by the Royal Academy in 1859 and published in the Illustrated London News for January 7, 1860. The completed building is among the earliest examples of High Victorian Gothic architecture in the United States.[1]: 150–168 [3]: 74–75  In 1862 Brown enlisted in the 20th Connecticut Infantry Regiment and fought for the Union in the American Civil War. He was dishonorably discharged in 1864 and returned to Austin.[4] He was also likely responsible for Rich Hall (1868) of Wesleyan University, now the Patricelli '92 Theater, and the Davies House (1868), then the largest private home in New Haven.[1]: 150–168 

Brown was practicing independently by 1869, when he was commissioned to design the Psi Upsilon tomb (1870, demolished).[5] About this same time he completed the former Church of the Redeemer (1870), which has been Trinity Lutheran Church since 1916. Historian Elizabeth Mills Brown identifies the church as "New Haven's most important church of the later 19th century" as as Brown's most distinctive independent work.[6]: 115  From 1876 to 1883 Brown worked in partnership with Clarence H. Stilson under the name Brown & Stilson.[7] In the 1870s Brown and Rufus G. Russell, later joined by Leoni W. Robinson, were the principal architects in New Haven, which was in a period of economic stagnation after the Civil War.[6]: 7–8  New Haven historian George Dudley Seymour described Brown's work in this period as "graceful and generally in good taste," though "he did not understand the use of ornament. His aptitude, it might be said, was far superior to his equipment."[2]

Brown & von Beren

In 1886 Brown was joined by teenaged apprentice Ferdinand von Beren (1870 – 1953). Von Beren had been born in Hanover to German parents. In 1876 his mother brought him and his sister to New Haven, where his father had immigrated in 1875.[8] In 1895, by which time the local economy had rebounded, they formed the partnership of Brown & von Beren. Brown was about 64, von Beren about 25. Brown lived in West Haven for much of his life and was a communicant of Christ Church, since 2006 the Church of the Holy Spirit. According to Seymour, it was through his influence that the noted Gothic Revival architects Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson were selected to design the church's present building (1907).[2] In 1909 the firm participated in the controversial competition to design the New Haven County Courthouse, the successor to Brown's earlier courthouse. The project was awarded to Allen & Williams,[9] the senior partner of which had worked for Brown in the 1880s.[10]

Though Brown withdrew from full-time practice at the end of his life, the two architects worked in partnership until Brown's death in early 1910.[2][8] Though Robinson was now the acknowledged leader of the architectural profession in New Haven, Brown & von Beren and Allen & Williams were the most prolific architects in the area. Elizabeth Mills Brown described von Beren, who was locally dominant into the 1920s, as a "jack of all styles..from Roman mansions...to a beer baroness's extravaganza...to tenements."[6]: 7-8 and 149  In 1924 von Beren was joined in practice by his son, Russell David von Beren, who may have named after his late partner. Ferdinand von Beren practiced until his death in 1953 and the firm was continued by his son.[11] Among the firm's last works were the eight toll plazas (1958, demolished) on the Connecticut Turnpike.[12]

Architectural works

David R. Brown, before 1876 and 1883—1895

Brown & Stilson, 1876—1883

Brown & von Beren, after 1895

References

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