Mr. Selfridge Had An Interest In Architecture

Actor Jeremy Piven as Harry Gordon Selfridge.
From the PBS television series "Masterpiece Classics".
Image:  list.co.uk

Fans of British period dramas are currently enjoying the PBS series Mr. Selfridge starring Jeremy Piven as the American-born retail pioneer.  Harry Gordon Selfridge, 1864 to 1947, worked his way up from stock boy to head the department store that became Marshall Field in Chicago.  When Field refused to make him a partner, he struck out on his own.


Harry Gordon Selfridge
as he appeared about 1910.
Image:  Wikipedia.

117 (now 1430) Lake Shore Drive, Chicago.
Photo via Glessner House blog.

The Selfridges had shared a house on Rush Street with her sister and brother-in-law until purchasing a city house on Lake Shore Drive for $100,000 in 1898.  It had been built in 1890 by architect Francis Whitehouse for his widowed mother-in-law.


Harrose Hall, Lake Geneva.
Completed 1899.  Now demolished.
Photo via Glessner House blog.

A summer home at Lake Geneva was completed in 1899.  Named Harrose Hall, combining the names of Harry and Rose, it was a substantial Arts & Crafts house of stone and half-timbered stucco.  More about the Selfridges' Chicago years may be found here.


Architect Louis H. Sullivan's store for Schlesinger & Meyer
was H.G. Selfridge & Co. before becoming
Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co.  It is now a Target store.
Image via intralld.com

With business partners, Selfridge bought the Chicago department store Schlesinger & Meyer and changed the name to H.G. Selfridge & Co.  The landmark building designed by Louis H. Sullivan was included in the deal.  However, within a year, it was all sold at a great profit to Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co.


Selfridge's Department Store
designed by architect Daniel Burnham.
Photo via RIBA.

The lure of London retail beckoned after a 1906 visit and a magnificent new Classical Revival store was opened in 1909 designed by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham.  The influence of the Beaux Arts ideals of the 1893 Chicago World's Exposition, largely designed by Burnham, is apparent in the store, and the matching expansion completed in 1929.  Several designs for a 450 ft tower were submitted by Burnham as well as British architects Sir John Burnet and Philip Tilden, but it was never built.


Highcliffe Castle, Dorset.
South Court as published in 1942.
Photo:  Country Life Library

London gentlemen of social standing had a country house for weekend entertaining, and Harry Gordon Selfridge leased Highcliffe Castle in Dorset from 1916 to 1922.  During World War I, Rose had a therapeutic charitable tent retreat on the grounds called the Mrs. Gordon Selfridge Convalescent Camp for American Soldiers.


Highcliffe Castle entrance.
Photo:  Country Life Library.

Constructed in the romantic Gothic Revival style mainly from 1831 to 1836 by architect William Donthorne, it was home to the diplomat Lord Stuart de Rothesay.


Highcliffe Castle Great Hall staircase.
Photo:  Country Life Library. 

Salvaged stone work and colored glass windows from across the channel in France were incorporated into the house, making it appear older than it actually was.


Highcliffe Castle Great Hall.
Photo:  Country Life Library.

In contrast with the exterior, the interiors past the Great Hall were largely finished in the French taste of the 18th and early 19th centuries.  Although the house was only leased by Mr. Selfridge, he installed central steam heat and a modern kitchen and bathrooms.


Highcliffe Castle, Salon.
As it appeared in 1942.
Photo:  Country Life Library.



Highcliffe Castle, Octagon Room.
As it appeared in 1942.
Photo:  Country Life Library.



Highcliffe Castle, Dining Room.
As it appeared in 1942.
Photo:  Country Life Library.

Highcliffe Castle, Library.
As it appeared in 1942.
Photo:  Country Life Library.

Although Highcliffe Castle holds Grade 1 status, the interiors were lost in two fires in the 1960s.  In 1977, it was purchased by Christchurch Borough Council and is used today as community space, tourist attraction and popular wedding venue.  A 1990s restoration was partly funded by a grant from the Heritage Lottery fund.



A proposal for the Selfridge Castle
at Hengistbury Head by Philip Tilden.
Image:  RIBA.

Selfridge thought big, of course, and Highcliffe Castle was only a temporary residence.  He bought a mile-long stretch of cliffs nearby and commissioned architect Philip Tilden, who had been involved in the competition of sorts for the tower above the store in London, to design 'the largest castle in the world.'  Despite Selfridge's preference for classicism, he wanted the castle to have a mix with the concept of a medieval fortress being the primary goal.  

A proposed terrace for the Selfridge Castle
at Hengistbury Head by Philip Tilden.
Image:  RIBA

Within four miles of ramparts with towers, there was to be a Gothic hall, a 300 ft tower, a theatre, a Hall of Mirrors copied from Versailles, a winter garden, a covered lake, long galleries for pictures & tapestries and at least 250 suites for guests.  The intent was to have a 'small castle' completed first, and then the 'large castle'.  Plans for construction were impeded by - Spoiler Alert - his wife's death from the influenza pandemic in 1918, and finally the impact of the Wall Street Crash in 1929.  In 1930, 300 acres were sold to the local council and no part of the design was ever realized.


Landsdowne House, London,
as seen in an 1811 engraving.
ACKERMANN'S REPOSITORY OF ARTS,
LITERATURE, COMMERCE, FASHIONS,
AND POLITICS.

Selfridge leased one of London's finest houses, Landsdowne House, for his city residence from 1921 to 1929.  Begun for the third earl of Bute, Prime Minister John Stuart, it was sold unfinished about 1765 to William Petty-Fitzmaurice, the earl of Shelburne, later first marquess of Landsdowne, and finished to plans by Robert Adam in 1768.


A detail from Greenwood's Map of London, 1830,
showing Landsdowne House facing its own front garden
between Berkeley Square and the rear garden of
Devonshire House.

A great asset of the house was that it faced a front garden, unique for London.  (This allowed Devonshire House a view all the way to Berkeley Square.  To read the story of the now-demolished mansion that was the center of life for the Cavendish family from the October 18, 2011, post of The Devoted Classicist, click here).


The plan of the principal story of Shelbourne House
as Landsdowne House was first known,
as published by Robert Adam, 1765.

A widening of the road in 1930 required a removal of the flanking pavilions and the front rooms of the main block.  A somewhat similar façade provided a replacement and two of the grand rooms were purchased by museums in the United States.  The building is now Landsdowne Club.


The exterior of Landsdowne House
as photographed for Arthur Bolton's
THE ARCHITECTURE OF ROBERT AND JAMES ADAM,
published 1922.  Country Life Picture Library.

The Organ Drawing Room has been restored and can now be seen in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.


The Drawing Room of Landsdowne House
showing the niche originally intended for
Lord Bute's vastly expensive mechanical organ.
Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The Eating-room, as it is labeled on the Adam floor plan, has also been restored and is on view in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  In addition to the plaster work, the millwork, and the marble chimneypiece, even the original flooring is installed in the New York City location.  Plaster copies of the statues now occupy the niches, as the antique sculpture was dispersed in the 1930 Landsdowne sale.  The original furniture designed by Robert Adam and executed by John Linnell no longer survives.


The Dining Room of Landsdowne House
showing the niches that originally held
nine ancient marble statues.
Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Landsdowne House, known as a center for political entertaining in earlier times, was a noted Jazz Age party mansion for Selfridge.  It was leased furnished and came with twenty servants.


Mr. Selfridge's Room at Landsdowne House
as it appeared in 1921.
Photo:  English Heritage.

Numerous liaisons included both of the dancing Hungarian twins known as the Dolly Sisters.


The Dolly Sisters.
Photo:  Wikipedia.

And there was reportedly an affair with the divorcee, Syrie Barnardo Wellcome, later to be known as the famous Lady Decorator, Syrie Maugham.


Syrie Maugham.
Photo:  Tumblr.

Forced into retirement from Selfridge's in 1939, he was essentially penniless in his later years after spending his fortune on extravagant living and an addiction to gambling, not to mention the succession of mistresses who were essentially refused nothing.  But H.G. Selfridge's showmanship and admiration of architecture has left a legacy in retail history.