Moorish Revival architecture

Revival architectural style

Moorish Revival or Neo Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid 19th century, part of a widening vocabulary of articulated decorative ornament drawn from historical sources beyond familiar classical and Gothic modes. Neo Moorish architecture drew on elements from classic Moorish architecture and, as a result, from the wider Islamic architecture.

The "Moorish" garden structures built at Sheringham Hall, Norfolk, ca. 1812, were an unusual touch at the time, a parallel to chinoiserie, as a dream vision of fanciful whimsy, not meant to be taken seriously; however, as early as 1826, Edward Blore used Islamic arches, domes of various size and shapes and other details of Near Eastern Islamic architecture to great effect in his design for Alupka Palace in Crimea, a cultural setting that had already been penetrated by authentic Ottoman styles. By the mid 19th century, the style was adopted by the Jews of Central Europe, who associated Moorish and Mudéjar architectural forms with the golden age of Jewry in medieval Muslim Spain. It has also been argued that Jewish communities adopted this architecture (which in Western eyes was seen as stereotypical of "Islamic" or "Oriental" culture more broadly) for more complex reasons; mainly, as an affirmation or reclamation of the Middle Eastern or Semitic roots of their history and thus as a way of setting themselves apart from the surrounding Western or Christian society. This came at time when Jews were gaining more freedoms in some European societies and the construction of ostentatious synagogues was possible for the first time, thus provoking a search for a new distinct style of architecture. Historian John M. Efron of the University of California at Berkeley regards the popularity of Moorish revival architecture among builders of synagogues as a counterpoint to Edward Said's Orientalism, which criticizes European orientalism as inherently imperialist and racist, since the builders chose the style as an expression of admiration for the culture of the Muslim world. As a consequence, Moorish Revival spread around the globe as a preferred style of synagogue architecture for a long period until the early 20th century. This included application of ornamentations and other Moorish design strategies neither of which had much to do with prior architectural direction of indigenous Bosnian architecture. The central post office in Sarajevo, for example, follows distinct formal characteristics of design like clarity of form, symmetry, and proportion while the interior followed the same doctrine. The National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo is an example of Pseudo Moorish architectural language using decorations and pointed arches while still integrating other formal elements into the design. Other notable example in the region is the building of the Regional historical museum in Kardzhali, Bulgaria build in the 1920s, combining also Central Asian styles.

In the United States, Washington Irving's fanciful travel sketch, Tales of the Alhambra (1832), first brought Moorish Andalusia into readers' imaginations; one of the first neo Moorish structures was Iranistan, a mansion of P. T. Barnum in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Constructed in 1848 and destroyed by fire ten years later, this architectural extravaganza "sprouted bulbous domes and horseshoe arches". In the 1860s, the style spread across America, with Olana, the painter Frederic Edwin Church's house overlooking the Hudson River, Castle Garden in Jacksonville and Longwood in Natchez, Mississippi usually cited among the more prominent examples. After the American Civil War, Moorish or Turkish smoking rooms achieved some popularity. There were Moorish details in the interiors created for the Henry Osborne Havemeyer residence on Fifth Avenue by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The most thorough example of Moorish Revival architecture was Villa Zorayda in St. Augustine, Florida, built in 1883 by Franklin W. Smith as a winter home and showplace for the Boston businessman and architectural enthusiast. Today it is a museum, open for tourists. In 1893, The Great Saltair was built on the southern shores of The Great Salt Lake, adjacent to Salt Lake City. Under dozens of Moorish domes and lambrequin, polylobed, and keyhole arches, Saltair housed popular clubs, restaurants, bowling alleys, a hippodrome, rollercoaster, observation deck for the surrounding desert, and what was marketed as the largest dance hall in the world. Like Iranistan before it, Saltair was destroyed by fire in 1925 and again in 1970; the first of which, less than 30 years after opening. The trend continued into the early 1900s, for example in the 1909 Murat Shrine Temple in Indianapolis, Indiana. The 1914 Pittock Mansion in Portland, Oregon incorporates Turkish design features, as well as French, English, and Italian ones; the smoking room in particular has notable Moorish revival elements. In 1937, the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota added unusual minarets and Moorish domes, unusual because the polychrome decorations are made out of corn cobs of various colors assembled like mosaic tiles to create patterns. The 1891 Tampa Bay Hotel, whose minarets and Moorish domes are now the pride of the University of Tampa, was a particularly extravagant example of the style. Other schools with Moorish Revival buildings include David H. Zysman Hall at Yeshiva University in New York City. George Washington Smith used the style in his design for the 1920s Isham Beach Estate in Santa Barbara, California.

Spanish Mosque, built by Viqar ul Umra at Hyderabad.

Theater City and State Architect Date Alhambra Theatre El Paso, Texas Henry C. Trost 1914 Alhambra Theatre Evansville, Indiana Frank J. Schlotter 1913 Alhambra Theatre Birmingham, Alabama Graven & Maygar 1927 Alhambra Theatre Hopkinsville, Kentucky John Walker 1928 Alhambra Theatre San Francisco, California Miller and Pflueger 1925 Altria Theater Richmond, Virginia Marcellus E. Wright Sr., Charles M. Robinson 1927 Bagdad Theatre Portland, Oregon Thomas & Mercier 1927 The Carpenter Center Richmond, Virginia John Eberson 1928 Civic Theatre Akron, Ohio John Eberson 1929 Corn Palace Mitchell, South Dakota Rapp and Rapp 1921 Emporia Granada Theatre Emporia, Kansas Boller Brothers 1929 Fox Theatre Atlanta, Georgia Mayre, Alger & Vinour 1929 Fox Theatre North Platte, Nebraska Elmer F. Behrens 1929 Granada Theater The Dalles, Oregon William Cutts 1929Irem TempleWilkes Barre, PAOlds, Fred & Puckey, Willard F.1907 Keith's Flushing Theater Queens, New York Thomas Lamb 1928 Olympia Theater Miami, Florida John Eberson 1926 Liberty Theatre North Bend, Oregon Tourtellotte & Hummel 1924 Lincoln Theater Los Angeles, California John Paxton Perrine 1927 Loew's 72nd Street Theatre New York City Thomas W. Lamb 1932 (dem.) The Majestic Theatre San Antonio, Texas John Eberson 1929 Mount Baker Theatre Bellingham, Washington Robert Reamer 1927Murat Theatre at Old National CentreIndianapolis, IndianaOscar D. Bohlen1910 Music Box Theatre Chicago, Illinois Louis J. Simon 1929New York City CenterManhattan, New York CityHarry P. Knowles and Clinton & Russell1922 Palace Theatre Canton, Ohio John Eberson 1926Paramount TheaterAbilene, TexasDavid S. Castle & Co.1930 Plaza Theatre El Paso, Texas W. Scott Donne 1930 Saenger Theater Hattiesburg, Mississippi Emile Weil 1929 Shrine Auditorium Los Angeles, California Lansburgh, Austin and Edelman 1926 Sooner Theatre Norman, Oklahoma Harold Gimeno 1929 Temple Theatre Meridian, Mississippi Emile Weil 1927 Tennessee Theatre Knoxville, Tennessee Graven & Mayger 1928 Tower Theatre Los Angeles, California S. Charles Lee 1927 Village East Cinema Manhattan, New York City Harrison Wiseman; Willy Pogany (interior) 1926

Theater Photo City and State Country Architect Date Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre Tbilisi Georgia Victor schröter 1851, rebuilt 1896 Bains Dunkerquois Dunkerque France Louis Gilquin 1896 Odesa Philharmonic Theater Odesa Ukraine Alexander Bernardazzi 1898 State/Forum Theatre Melbourne, Victoria Australia Bohringer, Taylor & Johnson 1929Civic TheatreAucklandNew ZealandCharles Bohringer and William T. Leighton1929

The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Gibraltar (1825–1832) an early example of Moorish revival architecture is located in Gibraltar, which formed part of Moorish Al Andalus between 711 and 1462 AD. Immaculate Conception Church (New Orleans), (a. k. a. Jesuit Church) is a striking example of Moorish Revival Architecture. Across the street was the College of the Immaculate Conception, housing a chapel with two stained glass domes. The chapel was disassembled and about half of it (one of the stained glass domes, eleven of the windows) was installed in the present Jesuit High School.