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Biography Distantly related to L. Frank Baum who wrote the Wizard
of Oz, Dwight James Baum was born near Newville, New York, just southeast of Utica. He
moved to Syracuse as a young man and later entered Syracuse University to study
architecture. Baum graduated from S.U. in 1909, winning the school's Architectural
Fellowship and obtaining an honorary membership in the just formed Tau Sigma Delta honor
society for architecture. |
From 1914 to 1939, Baum designed 140 houses in the Riverdale area, primarily Tudor and
Greek Revival styles. His design for Dr. Francis Collins won the Better Homes in American
Gold Medal in 1931 for the best two-story house constructed between 1926 and 1930.
President Herbert Hoover was honorary chairman of the competition and personally presented
the award to Baum. That year Baum also won honorable mention for another two-story house
in a classical style making Baum the first architect to win two awards in this competition
who had not studied at the Beaux Arts School in Paris or Rome.
In addition to these residential works, Baum also designed the Riverdale Country Club
(1917) and the Arrowhead Inn, a restaurant in Riverdale (1924).
Baum first visited Florida in 1922 at the start of the Land Boom. In 1924 he received the
most important residential commission of his career from John and Mabel Ringling. John
Ringling was best known as one of the Ringling Brothers of Ringling, Barnum and Bailey
Circus, but had made his fortune more in real-estate and railroads. The home, to be built
on land in Sarasota, was to combine architectural elements of two of Mrs. Ringling's
favorite buildings: the fa ade of the Doge's Palace in Venice, and the tower of the old
Madison Square Garden in New York City, designed by Stanford White, where the Ringling
circus regularly appeared. Called C d'Zan (which means "House of John" in
Venetian dialect), the finished house was 200 feet long and featured a vast two-and-a-half
story roofed court which served as the main living room. Some 30 rooms and 14 baths spread
out from the main court with kitchens, pantries and servants' quarters in a wing to the
south. An 8,000-square-foot terrace of variegated marble, enclosed with terra cotta
balustrades, looked out over the bay. Thirteen steps of English veined marble led down to
a dock where Mrs. Ringling moored her Venetian gondola. This building is now part of the
Ringling Museum of Art and houses much of the Ringlings' art treasures.
Baum opened a second office in Sarasota and did considerable business in the area,
including design of the Sarasota County Courthouse, the Sarasota Times Building and the
First Presbyterian Church. He was credited by American Architect magazine (October, 1926)
with developing a new Mediterranean Revival style through his work in the area. Several
cities in Florida, including Clewiston and Ft. Pierce, contracted with Baum for city
planning services.
During the depression, many architects had to leave the profession to support themselves.
Baum was one of the few architects in the New York area who was able to keep his office
open. This was partially due to his wife's inheritance but also because of his close
association with the Architectural League of New York. From the early 1920's Baum had been
active in preservation activities. He photographed historic structures and wrote articles
on preservation. Because of this interest, the Architectural League chose Baum's office
for work projects to support unemployed draftsmen and designers. Among the projects
undertaken at this time by Baum's office was the research and documentation of historic
buildings in Barrytown, New York and Charleston, South Carolina.
In 1929-1930, Baum was chosen to be consulting architect for Good Housekeeping Magazine.
In this role he contributed articles on everything from regional architecture to concealed
lighting, and served on juries for various contests conducted by the magazine. He is also
remembered for his design for the Good Housekeeping exhibit at the 1939 World's Fair in
Chicago.
Two of Baum's most noteworthy designs during the Depression were the West Side YMCA in New
York City (at 5 West 63rd Street), and the Federal Building in Flushing, New York.
Baum's designs can be found the entire length of the eastern seaboard including New
England, New York, New Jersey, the Carolinas and Florida.
Syracuse
It was during the Depression that Baum made his major contributions to the architecture of
his alma mater, Syracuse University. The buildings he designed at S.U. include:
The Maxwell School of Citizenship
Hendricks Memorial Chapel, (Then - Today), and
The College of Medicine. President Franklin D. Roosevelt laid the cornerstone for this
building on September 29, 1936.
The design of Syracuse Memorial Hospital was a collaborative effort between Baum and John
Russell Pope (Syracuse Memorial Hospital later merged with Crouse Irving Hospital to
become Crouse Memorial Hospital).
In 1934, Florentine sculptor V. Renzo Baldi was commissioned to complete a bronze statue
of Christopher Columbus; Dwight Baum was commissioned to design the monument that would
host the sculpture. This Columbus Monument now sits at the center of Columbus Circle in
downtown Syracuse. Funds for the project were raised by Syracuse's Italian-American
community. When the depression hit, the community could no longer afford to ship the
statue they had commissioned from Italy to Syracuse. Benito Mussolini then stepped in to
pay the shipping charge. It was he who specified the inscription: "Christoforo
Columbo, Discoverer of America." Baum had said he wanted the area around the monument
to have a "Roman" feel. The statue of Columbus is set above a fountain within a
pool shaped like a mariner's compass.
Baum also designed several residences in the Syracuse area, including:
The W. L. Sporborg residence at 105 Sedgewick Dr
The Bert E. Salisbury residence at 315 Berkeley Drive
The John Wendell Brooks residence
The Mrs. Benjamin E. Chase residence at 1111 James Street
Sources:
National Register of Historic Places, Registration Form for Dr. Walter Kennedy house in
Sarasota, Florida. Filed March 14, 1994.
Syracuse University Archives, Dwight James Baum collection, 6th floor Bird Library,
Syracuse New York.
Syracuse Landmarks: An AIA Guide to Downtown and Historic Neighborhoods, by Evamarie
Hardin, Jon Crispin (Photographer), forward by Dick Case. Syracuse University Press.
April, 1993.