“‘Grand, Domestic and Truly Comfy’: The Langdon Mansion in Elmira, New York”

by Walter G. Ritchie Jr.

Jervis Langdon residence, Elmira, New York. Photograph, 1927.

Courtesy of New York State Archives, New York State Education Department, Albany, New York.

An Introduction to Jervis and Olivia Langdon

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the city of Elmira boasted a number of grand residences built by successful businessmen who made their fortunes in manufacturing, commerce, and banking. Sadly, many of these houses fell victim to demolition in the twentieth century, including the imposing mansion built by Jervis and Olivia Lewis Langdon, father-in-law and mother-in-law of the famous novelist and humorist Samuel L.Clemens (1835-1910), popularly known by his pen name Mark Twain. While the house no longer stands, it is well documented by stereographs dating from ca. 1875 and photographs taken around 1900. In addition, furnishings and works of art original to the mansion are preserved in several public and private collections. The period views and extant furnishings show that Jervis and Olivia Langdon were familiar with the latest styles in architecture, furniture, and interior decoration when they created their fashionable home at the corner of West Church and North Main Streets in the 1860s.

Olivia Lewis Langdon (1810-1890).

Courtesy of Chemung County Historical Society, Elmira, New York.

Jervis Langdon (1809-1870) attained substantial wealth in the wholesale anthracite coal trade, with mines in Pennsylvania and Nova Scotia and a rail and shipping network that extended from western New York through Chicago to the Far West. He and his wife Olivia Lewis Langdon (1810-1890) were among the leading members of Elmira society, renowned for their many philanthropic activities as well as their varied social causes. The couple were staunch abolitionists who played an active role on the Underground Railroad. They were also founding members of Park Church, an antislavery church established in 1846. For many years, the Langdons were esteemed by the congregation for their dedication, commitment, and unwavering financial support. As a civic leader, Jervis Langdon was involved in the planning and design of Elmira College, founded in 1855 as the first college for women in the United States to offer degrees equal to those earned by men.

Over the course of five decades, two generations of Langdons entertained in their stately mansion a host of distinguished guests that included President Ulysses S. Grant, Secretary of State James G. Blaine, Governor Alonzo B. Cornell of New York, Governor Henry M. Hoyt of Pennsylvania, abolitionists Frederick Douglass and Gerrit Smith, soprano Emma Thursby, and pianist and conductor Ossip S. Gabrilowitsch. The most famous visitor was Mark Twain, who married Jervis and OliviaLangdon’s daughter, Olivia Louise Langdon (1845-1904), in the drawing room of the mansion on February 2, 1870.

North side of Jervis Langdon residence. Photograph, ca. 1880-1890.

Courtesy of Mark Twain Archive, Elmira College, Elmira, New York.

By the early 1860s, Jervis Langdon was ready to create a home that announced his financial success and reflected his stature as one of Elmira’s most influential citizens. In 1862, he purchased from the widow of Anson C. Ely, a prosperous Elmira businessman, a parcel of land located on West Church Street, near the intersection with North Main Street. The following year, he acquired the adjoining corner lot, which included a modest but elegant two-and-one-half-story Greek Revival frame house erected by Ely about 1850. In 1866, Langdon substantially enlarged and remodeled the house in the currently fashionable Italianate style. The result was a grand three-story brownstone palazzo-like residence distinguished by a pedimented pavilion projecting from the center of the main façade, corresponding projecting bays at the sides of the house, a formal piazza with columns on pedestals and a surmounting balustrade, and a large cupola rising from the roof. Extending from the back of the main part of the house was an almost telescopic arrangement of wings that graduated in height. In addition to remodeling and expanding the earlier house, Jervis Langdon also introduced improvements such as running water, a coal-burning hot-air furnace, a water closet, and a conservatory with a cast-iron fountain and aquarium that opened from the dining room.

Drawing room of Jervis Langdon residence. Stereograph, ca. 1875.

Courtesy of The Mark Twain House & Museum, Hartford, Connecticut.

View of the Langdon property from the tower of Park Church, ca. 1880.

Courtesy of Chemung County Historical Society, Elmira, New York.

The Langdon mansion was renowned for its elegant gardens. Between 1870 and 1890, Olivia Langdon personally oversaw the beautification of the grounds. She supervised the planting of hundreds of trees and shrubs, some of which were rare and exotic, including two India rubber trees that grew in front of the house.

 Views of the Langdon property show that in the 1870s, the grounds were laid out according to landscaping principles associated with picturesque gardens. Featuring serpentine gravel paths, asymmetrical beds of plants and vines, irregular groups of trees, cast-iron urns on pedestals, and water features such as a fountain in the center of a stone-bordered pool surrounded by a berm, the quaint gardens were once described in an Elmira newspaper as “the best kept in the Southern Tier.”

 Throughout the year, Olivia Langdon grew tropical plants and grapes in two different greenhouses, each steam-heated during the winter months.

 Initially, the grounds of the Langdon mansion were surrounded by a painted wood fence, which replaced the fence that stood on Anson C. Ely’s property. The cast-iron fence commonly associated with the Langdon mansion, a section of which is displayed in the Mark Twain Exhibit at Elmira College, was perhaps introduced in the 1880s. At the entrance to the carriage drive was a pair of cast-iron gates that opened automatically when the wheels of a coach or carriage passed over a raised iron bar. Once the horse-drawn vehicle was inside the gates, they closed just as magically as they opened.

Carriage house and greenhouses on the west side of the Jervis Langdon residence. Stereograph, ca. 1880.

Courtesy of The Mark Twain House & Museum, Hartford, Connecticut.

Dining room of Jervis Langdon residence. Photograph, ca. 1900.

Courtesy of The Mark Twain House & Museum, Hartford, Connecticut.

Library of Jervis Langdon residence. Photograph, ca. 1900.

Courtesy of The Mark Twain House & Museum, Hartford, Connecticut.

Entrance Hall, Jervis Langdon residence, Elmira, New York. Photograph by Elisha M. Van Aken (American, 1828-1904), ca. 1875.

Courtesy of Chemung County Historical Society, Elmira, New York.

The reception room of the Langdon mansion was a small parlor used for receiving callers. Although it was not as grand as the drawing room across the hall, its decorations and furniture were suitably elegant and sophisticated for a room that served as the setting for the complex Victorian social practice of calling and receiving. When the Langdons entertained an extremely large number of guests, the reception room was used in conjunction with the drawing room.

 In 1874, Olivia Langdon commissioned from Pottier & Stymus a suite of furniture for this room, which included a fall-front desk, pier mirror with matching window cornices, center table, and a set of side chairs and armchairs. One of the surviving pieces is the desk. Made of walnut and rosewood, it is strikingly reminiscent of an Empire secrétaire à abattant of the early nineteenth century with its two frieze drawers, fall front, cupboard section with two doors, plinth base, and bun feet, but the gilt-incised Neo-Grec classical ornament of a palmette on the fall front and leaves on the frieze drawers announce that the desk was produced in the second half of the nineteenth century.

View of Reception Room from Library, Jervis Langdon residence, Elmira, New York. Photograph by Elisha M. Van Aken (American, 1828-1904), ca. 1875.

Courtesy of The Mark Twain House & Museum, Hartford, Connecticut.

Like the fall-front desk, the pier mirror – another original furnishing from the reception room – is made of walnut with rosewood veneers and decorated throughout with gilt incising. A Neo-Grec note is struck by the crest of a segmental pediment centering a palmette over a shaped tablet ornamented with stylized leaves and the brackets with fluting and incised Greek fretwork under the marble-top console that projects from the lower part of the mirror.

 Like the other rooms in the Langdon residence, the reception room had a wall-to-wall carpet, either Brussels or Wilton. The carpet pattern consisted of stylized flowers and leaves. The windows were treated simply, each hung with drapery of swags and cascades trimmed with bullion fringe, cords, and tassels.

Pier Mirror, ca. 1875. Pottier and Stymus Manufacturing Company (active 1859-1919). New York, New York. Walnut, rosewood; ebonizing, gilding; marble, mirror glass

H: 130 ½ ins.; W: 56 ins.; 20 ins.

 Chemung County Historical Society, Elmira, New York. Photo by Chris Walters.

Drawing Room (South Side), Jervis Langdon residence, Elmira, New York. Photograph by Elisha M. Van Aken (American, 1828-1904), ca. 1875.

Courtesy of Chemung County Historical Society, Elmira, New York.

The drawing room, as the largest and most opulent interior in the Langdon residence, was perfectly suited to its purpose, which was to entertain guests. Featuring two fireplaces with Neo-Grec style mantelpieces separated by a large alcove formed by a three-sided bay window, this long room, which extended the full depth of the main part of the residence, was most likely created by combining into a single space the original front and back parlors of the house built by Anson C. Ely.

 The firm of Pottier & Stymus produced for the drawing room a stylish suite of Louis XVI Revival seating furniture. In the 1860s, parlor suites that borrowed forms and decorative motifs from aristocratic French furniture of the late eighteenth century were de rigueur for the drawing rooms of the most fashionable homes in the United States. Equally fashionable was the dark black finish imitating ebony combined with applied decoration of gilt-bronze mounts. The Langdons, under the guidance of Pottier & Stymus, demonstrated their good taste and familiarity with current furnishing trends by selecting for their drawing room a set of furniture in the modish Louis XVI style. Several surviving pieces from the suite are seen in the room setting, including two side chairs, a low-seat armchair, and a sofa.

Drawing Room (North Side), Jervis Langdon residence, Elmira, New York. Photograph by Elisha M. Van Aken (American, 1828-1904), ca. 1875.

Courtesy of The Mark Twain House & Museum, Hartford, Connecticut.

In addition to the seating furniture, Pottier & Stymus also supplied a center table, pier mirror, console with mirror incorporating a pair of pedestals, and window cornices. The pier mirror, included in the room setting, is surmounted by a crest consisting of a broken scrolled pediment centering a swag-draped cartouche with a marquetry design of a spray of flowers. For both the pier mirror and matching console mirror, the latter visible in the interior views, Pottier & Stymus again employed a vocabulary of ornament derived primarily from late eighteenth-century French neoclassical furniture.

Complementing the French-style furniture is an ornate gilt-bronze and black marble mantel clock with a pair of urns. This three-piece garniture once adorned the mantelpiece in the east part of the drawing room. In this room setting, it stands on a mantelpiece that was made for one of the bedrooms of the mansion. The mantel garniture was retailed by Ball, Black & Company, a prominent purveyor of silver, jewelry, and luxury goods in New York City in the mid-nineteenth century. The same firm supplied the two gasoliers hung with cut-glass pendants and chains, visible in the interior views of the drawing room.

Mantelpiece, ca. 1880-1890/ Henry Lupton (1841-1923). Elmira, New York. Mahogany. (H: 47 ½ ins.; W: 67 ins.; D: 16 ins.) Chemung County Historical Society, Elmira, New York

Painting, George W. Waters (American, Coventry, New York 1832-1912 Elmira, New York) Haying. Oil on canvas. (H: 28 ½ ins.; W: 40 ¼ ins. – frame). Center for Mark Twain Studies, Quarry Farm Collection, Elmira, New York

Mantel Garniture, ca.1865. Retailed by Ball, Black & Company (active 1851-1874). New York, New York. Manufactured by Servant Fils & J. Devay (active 1862-1867). Paris, France. Figure on clock from a model by Etienne-Henri Dumaige (French, 1830-1888) Marble, gilt bronze. (Clock  H: 24 ins.; W: 20 ½ ins.; D: 9 ¼ ins. Center for Mark Twain Studies, Quarry Farm Collection, Elmira, New York

Photo by Chris Walters.

Pair of Side Chairs, ca. 1866 Pottier and Stymus Manufacturing Company (active 1859-1919). New York, New York. Ebonized cherry, satinwood; gilt-bronze mounts, gilding; modern upholstery

H: 36 ½ ins.; W: 20 ins.; D: 19 ¼ ins.

 Center for Mark Twain Studies, Quarry Farm Collection, Elmira, New York. Photo by Chris Walters.

Sitting Room of Olivia Langdon, Jervis Langdon residence, Elmira, New York. Photograph by Elisha M. Van Aken (American, 1828-1904), ca.1875.  

Courtesy of Chemung County Historical Society, Elmira, New York.

Easy Chair, ca. 1870-1875. United States. Walnut; gilding; modern upholstery. (H: 35 ins.; W: 34 ins; D: 24 ins.)

 Center for Mark Twain Studies, Quarry Farm Collection, Elmira, New York. Photo by Chris Walters

Sitting Room of Susan and Theodore Crane, Jervis Langdon residence, Elmira, New York. Photograph by Elisha M. Van Aken (American, 1828-1904), ca.1875.

Courtesy of Chemung County Historical Society, Elmira, New York.

George W. Waters (American, Coventry, New York 1832-1912 Elmira, New York) The Bridge. Oil on canvas. (H: 14 ¾ ins.; W: 12 ¾ ins. – frame)

Center for Mark Twain Studies, Quarry Farm Collection, Elmira, New York. Photo by Chris Walters.

Library (North Side), Jervis Langdon residence, Elmira, New York. Photograph by Elisha M. Van Aken (American, 1828-1904), ca. 1875.

Courtesy of Chemung County Historical Society, Elmira, New York.

The library was an informal space that served as the family room. Its casual atmosphere was conducive to activities such as reading, writing, studying, sewing, playing, and relaxing.

The room contained at least four rocking chairs, which allowed for sitting in a relaxed and comfortable posture. Another comfortable form of seating, known as a “lounge,” stood near the breakfront bookcase. With its long seat and angled armrest, the lounge was perfect for reclining. In this room setting, the Langdons’ lounge is represented by a similar form typically referred to as a chaise longue.

 In the 1870s, folding chairs were regarded as a novelty. Visible in one of the interior views is a bentwood folding chair with cane seat and back. The more elaborate folding chair in this room setting, which features Renaissance Revival decoration of a broken segmental pediment centering the bust of a classical maiden, is not seen in any of the views, but purportedly came from the Langdon mansion. It possibly stood in a part of the library either deliberately or unintentionally ignored by the photographer.

 In 1875, Pottier & Stymus supplied for the library a suite of walnut seating furniture that included a sofa, a sewing chair, and a Neo-Grec style low-seat armchair with x-shaped legs that imitated an ancient Roman curule or folding stool. Chairs and footstools with “Grecian cross” or curule-form legs were highly fashionable in the 1860s and 1870s. The identical chair in this room setting may be the one that was made for the Langdons’ library.

 Most of the rooms in the Langdon mansion had wall-to-wall Brussels or Wilton carpeting. In the library, however, an enormous Turkish hand-knotted carpet covered the floor. By the mid-1870s, American tastemakers were extolling the virtues of Oriental rugs and encouraging homeowners to abandon wall-to-wall carpets. Most likely Pottier & Stymus suggested laying an Oriental carpet in the library. The firm may have even commissioned the carpet considering how well it fits the space.

 The large slant-front desk – seen in both the interior views and this room setting – was for the personal use of Jervis Langdon. The desk was designed in the Renaissance Revival style, which imparted an air of gravitas that was considered appropriate for a piece of writing furniture associated with a gentleman. The library table that stood in the center of the room served as a desk for the other members of the family.

Folding Chair, ca. 1870. Designed and patented by Julius Nicolai. Manufacture attributed to Boston Furniture Company (active ca. 1867-ca. 1880). Boston, Massachusetts. Walnut; brass; stamped wool plush upholstery. (H: 38 ins.; W: 24 ins.; D: 33 ins)

Chemung County Historical Society, Elmira, New York. Photo by Chris Walters.

Sitting room of Ida Clark Langdon (Olivia Langdon’s former sitting room) in the Jervis Langdon residence, c.1900.

Courtesy of Chemung County Historical Society, Elmira, New York.

Although the Langdons ordered a number of suites of furniture from Pottier & Stymus, not all the furniture in the house was custom-made by this New York City firm. Much of the furniture was obtained locally in Elmira. One example is this walnut side chair with turned legs and stretchers, a splat back, and a seat that was originally caned. The chair, which is visible in a ca. 1900 photograph of Olivia Langdon’s former sitting room, was purchased from Elmira furniture dealer John M. Robinson. When Robinson settled in the village of Elmira in 1836, he opened a small chair manufactory. Three years later, he introduced cabinetmaking to his business, and over the next few decades, expanded into the large furniture retail establishment that was once located at 43 Lake Street.

 A close analysis of the interior views as well as a careful study of the surviving furniture reveals the identity of several other manufacturers who produced pieces of furniture in the Langdon residence. For instance, the Renaissance Revival walnut folding chair that probably stood in the library was most likely made by the Boston Furniture Company in Boston, Massachusetts. Seen standing in the center of the library in one of the interior views are two bentwood rocking chairs, each with interwoven cloth-tape seat and back, that are strikingly similar to chairs made by a Shaker community, but which were produced by the Henry I. Seymour Chair Manufactory in Troy, New York. Views of the reception and drawing rooms show several delicate turned chairs with open oval or cartouche-shaped backs, each embellished with painted floral decoration and gilt scrollwork. This type of chair was made by numerous chair manufacturers in New York City during the mid-nineteenth century.

 In the second half of the nineteenth century, large furniture manufacturing companies sold their wares on the wholesale market, through catalogs, and frequently in their own retail outlets established in major American cities. The furniture in the Langdon mansion that was produced by various manufacturers across the United States was most likely both ordered from catalogs and purchased from dealers in Elmira, which was made possible by a transportation network of railroads that shipped goods to the city from different parts of the country.

Side Chair, ca. 1870-1875. Retailed by the firm of John M. Robinson (1814-1885). Elmira, New York. Probably manufactured in New York, New York. Walnut; modern upholstery (H: 36 ins.; W: 18 ins.; D: 18 ins.)

Center for Mark Twain Studies, Quarry Farm Collection, Elmira, New York. Photo by Chris Walters.