High Street – A New Life at Salisbury

In the summer of 1923, Carl Weeks was venturing home after a day at the Armand Company factory and came upon workers tearing up High Street, located in downtown Des Moines. High Street had been approved for new paving in February of 1923 to improve grading and make safer intersections.

Carl was building a home historically inspired by an English manor known as the King’s House and had been sourcing materials from all over the world for the build. It has been said that once during construction, Carl announced, “If this house doesn’t look one hundred years old the day it is finished, we have failed.”

When High Street was being removed, Carl was still in the beginning stages of construction, finalizing plans and sourcing materials. Contractors would not break ground on Salisbury House until October of 1923. The High Street bricks, which had been in place for 20 – 25 years, had a distinctly worn quality that spoke to Carl’s intention of creating a new building the looked centuries old.

In Carl’s own words –

“One day in driving down town they were tearing up High Street. I looked at the brick and built about a ten foot wall two or three feet high. Then I went to the contractor and said, “What are you doing with the brick?” He said, “We are hauling them to the dump.” I said, “Why not let me haul it?” I did, and so all the handsome antique bricks in Salisbury House cost us the price of the hauling.”

Carl ended up taking almost two blocks of the old paving brick, a total of 90,000 bricks in all. On November 10th, 1923, workers laid the first bricks. Local men worked as bricklayers, masons, and plasterers and were paid anywhere from 70 cents to $1.35 per hour.

One house story passed down through the decades, states that when Carl saw how slowly the brick walls were going up, he told the workers that they would get an extra dollar for every brick they laid. Needless to say that after this, the walls flew up.

Today, the bricks from High Street can be seen primarily on the west side of the house – in the walls of the cottage, historic garage, and friendship hall.

Major Events During the Life of Carl Weeks (Part 1: 1870-1900)

Carl Weeks lived during an innovative and quickly evolving time, seeing major wars and technological inventions. The late1800s and early 1900s saw humanity change drastically, and so this post is split into several sections to look at the significant world moments in the life of Salisbury House creator, Carl Weeks. The first of these sections to be discussed are the early life years (1876-1900).

The 1870s-1890s – Born in 1876, Carl’s grew up in the years directly following the U.S. Civil War – known as the Reconstruction years. The deadliest war in U.S. history took five years after the Civil War’s end to recover and reunite the deceased with their loved ones. The whole country required a rebuild of economy and infrastructure. The Reconstruction also saw Black Codes introduced, later known as Jim Crow laws, laws put in place to restrict and segregate the recently freed African American community. An unfortunate reality from the Reconstruction phase is that the racial injustice and violence present during those years persists to this day.

Carl’s youth and young adult life saw the United States engaged in numerous battles and wars with the Native American peoples of the country in its quest for Westward expansion. These events, later to be known as the American Indian War, would include – the Apache Wars (1851-1900), Great Sioux War of 1876 (1876-1877), Buffalo Hunters’ War (1876-1877), Nez Perce War (1877), Bannock War (1878), Cheyenne War (1878-1879), Sheepeater Indian War (1879), Victorio’s War (1879-1881), Pine Ridge Campaign (1890-1891), and the Yqrui Wars (1896-1918).

In 1898, the U.S. went to war with Spain after the USS Maine explosion in the Havana Harbor in Cuba. Cuba was engaged in the Cuban War of Independence, fighting against the Spanish colonial rule. After just 10 weeks of fighting, Spain called for peace. After two months of negotiations, the war was over, and the U.S. had gained Spain’s colonies – the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Cuba.

Following the conclusion of the Spanish-American War, the United States engaged in the Philippine-American War (lasting from 1899 through 1902). Conflict arose in the Philippines after the First Philippine Republic (a government established by Filipino nationalists) objected to the Treaty of Paris. The treaty, which concluded the Spanish-American War and gave the Philippines to the U.S, had not taken the population’s wishes into account. They wanted their independence from yet another colonizing force. Fighting broke between the Philippine Republic and the U.S. on February 4th, 1899, at the Battle of Manila. After years of brutal fighting, General Miguel Malvar surrendered to the American government on April 16th, 1902. Guerrilla-style fighting would continue for several more years, but the U.S. would consider these soldiers as little more than bandits and not a threat to U.S. rule. America would hold control over the Philippines until after the conclusion of World War II.

While the first few decades of Carl’s life are rife with domestic and international conflict, we do not have accounts from him regarding an impression or impact on day-to-day life. Iowa has had only a limited amount of fighting done within its borders and of the battles fought in Kansas, only a handful were during Carl’s lifetime, and the loss of life was minimal. In fact, the only war that has a known link to Carl is the Philippine-American War as Carl’s sister, Della, served as a nurse during the conflict.

The next installment will look at the early years of the 1900s, focusing on the impacts of tech advances, the sinking of the Titanic, and World War I.

Precisionism in the Collection of Carl and Edith Weeks: A Look at the Works of Joseph Stella

Carl and Edith Weeks were fans of the Italian/American artist, Joseph Stella, and during their tenure as owners of Salisbury House, collected four of Stella’s paintings – King of the Beggars, Tree of My Life, The Birth of Venus, and Apotheosis of the Rose. Today, the Salisbury House Foundation retains in its collection three beautiful Joseph Stella paintings. Each painting dates to a different year and illustrates the evolution of his artistic style.

On June 13th, 1877, Joseph Stella was born to a middle-class family in Muro Lucano, Italy. Full name Giuseppe Michele Stella, he Americanized it when he took up residence in New York. Coming from an educated family consisting of attorneys and doctors, Stella originally planned to follow in their footsteps and moved to New York to pursue a medical degree in 1896. However, this plan was abandoned when he left medical school to pursue art. During his professional career, Stella’s artistic style would evolve several times.

In the 1920s, Stella was introduced to Carl and Edith Weeks through the art dealer, F. Dudensing. This initial introduction led to the development of a friendship between artist and patrons. Stella frequently corresponded with the Weeks and stayed at Salisbury House upon its completion as a residence.

As mentioned above, the Weeks’ collected several of Stella’s works, the earliest being King of the Beggars. The painting was completed in 1900 and represented Stella’s Academic Realism phase, his earliest style. Academic Realism was taught to young artists in art school but was criticized by Impressionist and Avant-garde artists due to its highly idealized, smooth, and polished feel. This type of painting style often contains allegorical nudes and theatrical figures.

Following his shift from Academic Realism, Stella became an illustrator for a magazine. It was during this time that he began an industrial series featuring Pittsburgh. Disenchanted with America and longing for his native Italy, Stella returned to his homeland in 1909. While back in Italy, Stella became acquainted with Modernism and Futurism, inspired, his later work took on a whole new air.

When he returned to New York in 1913, Stella joined the cultural circles of Alfred Stieglitz, Marcel Duchamp, and Walter Arensberg. His paintings took on a geometric quality, full of sweeping lines, bold colors, and linear movement. While known for his futuristic designs, Stella was also inspired by botanical and nature scenes – this artistic movement, while similar to Futurism, lacks the mechanical and industrial elements, is only found in America, and was categorized as Precisionism.

Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy during the early 1900s. Stella’s Futuristic works focus on speed, technology, lines of force, and movement. Looking at the last three paintings that the Weeks’ collected from the artist, they are all categorized as Precisionism.

Influenced by Futurism and Cubism, Precisionism utilizes shafts of light as rigid lines, striking coloration, and geometric renderings. The angularity of the animals, linear vegetation, and bold coloring harken back to Stella’s cityscapes. Unlike other artistic movements of this period, Precisionism has no presence outside of the United States and was only active for about 20 years before falling out of favor after World War II.

By the 1930s, Stella’s style had fallen from favor, and his antagonistic personality had alienated him to would be collectors and contemporaries. The Weeks family would also fall out with the artist. The conflict was rumored to be caused by Stella’s quarrelsome nature and unfaithfulness to Mary French. In the years following World War II, Stella’s health began to decline. In 1946, he passed away from heart failure. Today, the Salisbury House Foundation retains three beautiful Joseph Stella paintings in its collection.

The Dumaresq Family: The Coats of Arms Around Salisbury House

In our last post about heraldry and the coats of arms found around Salisbury House, we did some looking into the hatchment hanging in the Great Hall where there is an “escutcheon”. Today, we will be looking at the escutcheon a bit further.

escutcheon: in heraldry, a shield, typically referring to a smaller shield or crest placed over a larger one

As mentioned previously, this is the crest of someone from the Dumaresq family – which we know by looking at the top left quarter. Today we will be walking through how to trace genealogy through a crest, using this as an example. Reading left to right, top to bottom, we see the order that families married in.

In this case:

Dumaresq marries Dumaresq, whose son marries Bagot, whose son marries Payn, whose son marries Larbelestier.

What is interesting (and could be debated) is the last quarter. What could have happened is either

1: another Dumaresq married in

or

2: Larbelestier was the last notable family to marry in, leaving an odd number of quarters and an empty space.

When the second situation happens the first quarter (in this case, Dumaresq) is repeated in the last quarter. Currently, we are unsure which is the case here. Where these marriages occur in this order in the Dumaresq family tree is quite a few generations before Frances Dumaresq, who we believe this belonged to. However, our research is ongoing and we are excited to bring more information.

Stay tuned for the next update on the coats of arms around Salisbury House.