Cast Iron Architecture in America: Significance of James Bogardus

Nineteenth-century American inventor and entrepreneur James Bogardus was known for his unique grinding mill and other patented devices, but his enduring claim to fame is his cast-iron structures, forerunners of the modern American skyscraper. A passionate advocate for iron’s strength, economy, suitability for ornamentation and fire resitence, he invented several new methods of construction; his buildings rose from New York to San Francisco. This work describes how iron architecture remade the face of American cities in the mid-19th century, following the appearance of cast iron on the industrial scene in 18th-century Britain. It documents the role played by Bogardus, who patented his method for cast-iron construction in 1850 and championed its use. Supplanted by steel framed buildings, cast-iron architecture went out of favour, languished, decayed and fell on the bulldozers of urban renewal of the 1950s and 1960s. Only in recent years has 19th-century urban architecture come to be rescued, restored and reused. Four such buildings by Bogardus are recognized as landmarks.