MEN I HAVE PAINTED
practice had little hope of gratification in America, where no religious community had at that time the taste or the means to build that costliest of all structures—a Gothic cathedral.
His performances having, perforce, fallen far short of his ideals, he became obsessed with the idea that his achievements were so unworthy of comparison with the masterpieces of the great Gothic period in Europe that he made no effort to make them known. Nevertheless, in the history of American church-building, Charles M. Burns stands out as the designer of the best example of Gothic architecture in the country prior to the end of the nineteenth century.
This chaste specimen of his work is the South Memorial Church that stands in Diamond Street, west of Broad Street, Philadelphia. The interior is remarkable for the purity and simplicity of its lines, and for the extraordinary impression of grandeur produced by the architect's innate sense of proportion. The church is a model of elegance and of fidelity to the spirit of French Gothic.
Mr. Frank Darley, the well-known organist, invited our architect to remodel his house in Broad Street, which was so well done that at the death of the owner it was purchased by the great jurist, Mr. John G. Johnson, for his remarkable collection of Old Masters. It was Mr. Johnson's intention to make this house a permanent gallery of paintings for the city of Philadelphia; but the genius of the advocate overreached itself in the making of his own will, which was so involved in legal phraseology of an indeterminate character, that it admitted a construction that was far removed from the intention of the donor. Through a lack of foresight on the part of Mr. Johnson, a charming old garden adjoining the house, which, had it been secured
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