William Burges
William Burges (1827-1881) was an English architect best known for designing Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch, both in Wales. Burges, along with Francis H. Kimball, helped design Trinity College's “new campus” in 1875 that included the Long Walk and its buildings, designed in the form of quadrangles. While today Burges is considered one of England’s most distinguished architects and a practitioner of the High Victorian Gothic style, he was relatively unknown in the early 1870s, when the Trinity administration was seeking the services of an architect.
Though Burges began his studies in engineering–the family business–he quickly turned to architecture, working with prominent architects Edward Blore, surveyor to Westminster Abbey, and then Matthew Digby Wyatt, a leader of The Great Exhibition of 1851. Independently wealthy, Burges traveled extensively throughout Europe, believing that he could learn the most through studying the styles of those who came before him. He sketched and drew what he saw, forming a knowledge and skill base that would inform the rest of his career. In 1856, Burges established his own architectural firm in London, where he also designed ceramics, furniture, jewelry, metalwork, and stained glass. Many of Burges' architectural works were commissioned by the 3rd Marquess of Bute, John Patrick Crichton Stuart.
In 1872, Trinity trustees agreed to sell the desirable original campus to the City of Hartford for its new Capitol building. The trustees had yet to find a new location, but President Abner Jackson wanted to be prepared with a plan. That summer, Jackson traveled to England seeking an architect to design buildings for Trinity's new campus that would be distinctively collegiate and in keeping with his vision for Trinity. Jackson was introduced to the little-known architect William Burges, who seemed to be a good fit for the envisioned campus.
Jackson and Burges toured Oxford together “to examine the Colleges” and Jackson took notes on Brasenose, Pembroke, All Souls, Jesus and Keble Colleges, the Bodleian Library, and the Sheldonian Theatre. He then set off for Scotland while Burges began drawing initial plans for a college to include residence quarters, a dining hall, chapel, library, and theatre. Jackson was especially inspired by 'Trinity College, Glenalmond,' a Scottish Episcopal secondary school for boys. Trinity College, Glenalmond had a closed quadrangle campus with a “Long Walk” façade of Victorian Gothic buildings. As was customary in many British colleges of the time, Trinity was designed as a series of quadrangles inspired by varied other institutions Jackson had noted. Following his first meeting with Burges, Jackson offered him the opportunity to design Trinity’s new buildings. The College thus became the only commission Burges undertook in the United States. With Jackson's inspiration and general ideas, Burges designed an elaborate, four-quadrangle plan for the new campus in September 1872, and Jackson returned home. A few short months later, the trustees purchased the land on which the Summit campus sits for $225,000.
After commencement 1873, Jackson returned to England to meet with Burges and finalize the plans. He brought back to Hartford in September 1873 “the most elaborate plan which had ever been designed for an American College campus.” The architectural style has been described in several ways: Victorian Gothic, Early English, French Gothic, and English Secular Gothic. The original plans included four quadrangles, a chapel, library, museum, art building, dining hall, theatre, towers and spires, an astronomical observatory, professors' apartments, student quarters, and was to be “the most imposing edifice in the United States” besides the Capitol building in Washington, D.C, according to one newspaper writer.
The trustees were enthusiastic about Burges' plan, and planned to begin construction in April 1874. They enlisted Hartford architect Francis H. Kimball to superintend the construction. Kimball left for London in December 1873 to meet with Burges, and it was decided the ambitious four-quadrangle plan should be reduced to three quadrangles in order to cut costs.
On Sunday, April 19, 1874, however, President Jackson suddenly died, just as plans for the groundbreaking were being made. Jackson had planned to meet Kimball and Burges in England. Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Class of 1841, was elected Trinity's new president, and plans for construction moved forward. On July 1, 1875, following commencement on the old campus, students, faculty and staff proceeded to the new campus for a groundbreaking ceremony. Immediately afterward, excavation and construction officially began on the Long Walk buildings.
William Burges lived a short, but illustrious life. He was known by his many friends as an unpredictable eccentric, but also as a good conversationalist who possessed quite a sense of humor. After a short illness, Burges died in London in 1881 at the home he had designed and built for himself, The Tower House. Though Burges wished to be buried in Saint Finn Barre's Cathedral in Cork, Ireland–the first structure he was commissioned to build at age 35–legal complications prevented it, and he is buried in London's West Norwood cemetery.
Sources
Public Art CT: William Burges’ Plans for Trinity College
William Burges: And the High Victorian Dream (2013) by Joe Mordaunt Crook.
Trinity College in the Twentieth Century (2000) by Peter and Anne Knapp, pp. 4-5, 30-32, 506-507.
The History of Trinity College (1967) by Glenn Weaver, pp. 178-185.