Editor’s note: Dana Robbat is a founding member and current president of the Friends of Modern Architecture in Lincoln. She provided this summary of her June 12, 2012 talk titled “As the Twig is Bent, So Goes the Tree… A Shared Philosophy: New England Transcendentalism and European Modernism,” which highlighted the age-old social ideals of New England’s Puritan and Transcendental philosophical heritage that provided fertile ground for the philosophically aligned European Modernists, who arrived at Harvard and MIT in the late 1930s and subsequently had a profound effect on Lincoln’s built and natural environments. Click here to watch a video of the talk.
By Dana Robbat
Lincoln is distinguished as one of America’s most prominent small communities for Modern architecture. Its inventory has a breadth, depth, and character unique in the country. The collection includes the iconic residences of Bauhaus masters Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer, as well as those of Harvard and MIT professors and their associates, students, and acolytes who saw Modernism as a force for bringing scientific and economic progress and social justice to the world. But why the town of Lincoln? The answer lies in New England’s social ideals, including a philosophy shared with New England Transcendentalism.
New England’s defining Transcendental heritage was imbued with individual conscience and belief in the importance of a broadly defined community, but leery of overbearing authority. As described by the Transcendentalist Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (1804-1894), “Transcendentalism belongs to no sect of religion, and no social party. It is the common ground to which all sects may rise and be purified of their narrowness, for it consists of seeking spiritual ground of all manifestations.” Bent on reform, the Transcendentalists helped instigate a change in American thought at a time when the sovereignty of the individual began to eclipse concerns for community.
A similar philosophy gave birth to the Bauhaus, the heartwood of the Modern movement, where a community of artists led by classically educated intellectuals, artists, and architects sought to establish a universal system of values — independent of political, geographical, or social boundaries — to reclaim man’s humanity in an increasingly mechanized, detached, and impersonal world.
Emerson and Gropius epitomized their respective movements. Both leaders were broad-minded, deeply and widely read, and progressive thinkers — qualities woven into the very fabric of each movement. They were inspired by the writings of the German philosopher Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832), an important philosophical muse to both movements, who emphasized that nothing was trifling, that the disadvantages of any epoch exist only for the faint-hearted. Goethe charged artists to take courage because it was they who would inspire and redirect society to enlightened moral and truthful ends. His dying words, “Light, more light,” metaphorically represents the Transcendentalist’s divine light within and the Modernist’s belief that the “light” shining within each soul directs one through the darkness and mysteries of human life.
Modernist houses in Lincoln include (top to bottom) the Bogner House designed by Walter Bogner (1939), the Ford house designed by Walter Gropius (1939), and the Gaskell house designed by Quincy Adams (1940).
Light-producing glass became the poetic and symbolic material of the Modern building. Affordable light and space — “immaterial” material — in gravity-defying buildings of uplifting volumes, filled with light and air, proclaiming a new form of architecture, were meant to elevate and inspire people to better action. Transparency was seen as a symbol of truth, and Modern architecture a symbol that would unite people to come together to build a new humane world from the ruins of the old.
European Modernism infused a spirit of renewal and purpose into architectural education in New England in the 1930s. During the Depression, after a soul-searching period, academia opened its doors to international leaders of the Modern movement, to instill scientific and technological knowledge and a sense of purpose and social awareness in the fields of architecture and architectural education.
Over a 30-year period, Lincoln residents participated in a renaissance as architecture professors in Cambridge, Massachusetts, embraced Modernism under the spiritual leadership of Gropius at Harvard and the inspiring leadership of Lincoln resident Lawrence B. Anderson at MIT. Local, regional, and international architects would design over 300 Modern houses in Lincoln, most of which are extant and represent a significant portion of Lincoln’s housing stock.
The Depression was a period of significant social change and constrained resources, and affordable, efficiently designed houses became a hallmark in Lincoln. In this residential, farming, and academic community, Modernism reinvigorated the older Transcendentalism, reflecting renewed vitality and civic commitment in a long list of new structures: Modern houses; unique model neighborhoods; town buildings, including schools and civic and cultural buildings; a commercial center; a low- to moderately priced housing complex; a nationally recognized land conservation program; and a community-centered contemporary art museum.
Alive to New England values, the Lincoln community welcomed the Movement’s idealistic visions reflected in its architecture and town planning policies. Architects from Germany, Hungary, Austria, Russia, and various regions of America designed houses in Lincoln. They were uncommon spirits who believed that Modern design could best address the changed and pressing needs of their times.
“Lincoln’s History” is an occasional column from the Lincoln Historical Society.
Excellent article!