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Richardson Brognard Okie (1875-1945) was much more than a significant early 20th century regional architect. His Philadelphia based practice was substantially residential, and was closely tied to the national development of "shelter magazines" that originated in Philadelphia with House and Garden, Ladies Home Journal and others. Okie went on to inspire thousands of homes throughout the nation. True Okie houses (many survive) are highly prized by their owners and greatly appreciated by the public. Okie's genius was the application of a disciplined, personal style to historical sources from Colonial high style and vernacular architecture. In partnership with H. L. Duhring and Carl Ziegler between 1902 and 1918, his personal style slowly emerged from the Colonial Revival milieu of the firm. For the next thirty years he produced a body of work that ranged from small houses that became suburban prototypes to larger estates with full complements of agricultural outbuildings. He differed from his contemporaries in drawing his inspiration from both high style Colonial homes such as Stenton and Mount Pleasant, as well as the local vernacular in the coastal Middle Atlantic region. This synthesis made his architecture uniquely adaptable to local markets by incorporating a few specific references to that locality. Twenty-five years after the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, architect R. Brognard Okie changed the way people would see the surviving Colonial relics. Okie's architecture became a very personal reinterpretation of both high style and folk architectural traditions. -James
B. Garrison, AIA |