Location: Hwy 9 near SW side of I-40 interchange, Black Mountain
County: Buncombe
Original Date Cast: 2021
Rafael Guastavino, Sr. (Rafael Guastavino y Moreno) was born in Valencia, Spain in 1842 and graduated with the title of “master of the works” or “master builder” from the Escola Especial Des Mestres d’Obres (Special School for Masters of Works) in Barcelona in 1872. Drawing on a traditional Mediterranean technique of building with thin mortared tile, Guastavino became an innovator in the construction of lightweight, fireproof vaults and domes. His R. Guastavino Company served the construction trade throughout the United States from the 1890s through the 1920s, with tile products and construction methods essential to the form and appearance of major American Beaux Arts buildings and structures.
Thin tile construction (called “cohesive construction” by Guastavino and also known as “timbrel” or “Catalan” construction), was a technique well known to traditional builders in Guastavino’s native Spain. The method is thought to date to Roman times or may display a Persian influence. In cohesive construction, thin ceramic tile is mortared together in layers to create lightweight vaults that support floors and ceilings, and to create large and complex stair and dome structures. Guastavino developed and refined the cohesive construction technique for application in the burgeoning nineteenth and early twentieth century building trade, in which fireproof and lightweight structural materials were prized for large-scale building projects. Guastavino married traditional tile construction techniques with modern materials such as steel and Portland cement, lectured and published on the technique, experimented with tile and glaze production, and patented twenty-four designs and processes, contributing to the construction of more than one thousand buildings in the United States and abroad.
Guastavino’s earliest commissions in Spain included a diverse array of residential, industrial, and theater buildings. Appearing as a representative of the Spanish architectural trade at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Guastavino received “Honorable Mention” for design work promoting public health in industrial towns. This success and public exposure, as well as separation from his first wife and associated domestic turmoil, appears to have led to his immigration to the United States with his youngest son, Raphael Guastavino, Jr. (Rafael Guastavino Exposito). By 1881, the elder Guastavino was in architectural practice in New York City; his son would eventually join him in the construction trade, forming the R. Guastavino Company. Though the elder Guastavino was principal architect for numerous commissions early in his career, he found success in the United States primarily as a building contractor working in coordination with various architects, specializing in tile vault and dome construction and interior functional and decorative tile finishes.
As an essential collaborator to major architects and firms such as Richard Morris Hunt, McKim, Mead and White, and Carrère and Hastings, Guastavino designed and supervised the construction of vaults and domes that were strong, lightweight, fast to build, fireproof, and complementary to monumental Beaux Arts homes, churches, institutional buildings, and even public works projects such as the New York City subway and the Queensboro Bridge. Guastavino’s cooperation with McKim, Mead and White on the Boston Public Library, completed in 1895, cemented his reputation as an essential collaborator for both private and public commissions in the popular Beaux Arts style. Association with high-profile projects in the northeast likely led architect Richard Morris Hunt to involve Guastavino in finish work at George Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1894. There Guastavino designed and supervised vaulted ceiling finishes in the Biltmore House porte cochere, entry vestibule, winter garden, loggia, basement rooms and corridors, and Gate House.
Perhaps in emulation of George Vanderbilt’s project, Guastavino purchased land in eastern Buncombe County near Black Mountain in 1895, amassing more than 600 acres. With his second wife, Francisca Ramirez Guastavino, the master builder constructed a wood frame villa with terraced grounds, ponds, flower gardens, and holly tree allee, and called the estate “Rhododendron.” Despite establishing this primary residence in western North Carolina, far from commissions in major U. S cities, Guastavino retained a leadership role in the R. Guastavino Company, traveling to project sites and conducting project correspondence from “Rhododendron.” Prior to the establishment of a company tile manufactory in Woburn Massachusetts around 1900, Guastavino appears to have experimented with tile production at “Rhododendron,” sourcing clay from nearby McDowell County and constructing at least two brick beehive kilns and sixty-foot brick chimney stack on the estate grounds. (The intact brick chimney and kiln ruins remain at the Rhododendron site today.)
Development of the “Rhododendron” estate was concurrent to Guastavino’s involvement with the Church of Saint Lawrence in Asheville, his culminating architectural work. Returning to role of architect (as well as functioning as contractor, primary funder, and supplier), Guastavino designed Saint Lawrence in the Spanish Baroque Revival style, utilizing cohesive tile construction from floor to elliptical dome. Guastavino died at “Rhododendron” in 1908 and was entombed at Saint Lawrence Church. Francisca Guastavino continued to occupy the Black Mountain estate, then known by locals as the “Spanish Castle,” until her death in 1946. The house, neglected and fire damaged, was destroyed by the 1950s. The portion of land encompassing the house and kiln site is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and is in the ownership of the Christmount Retreat, Camp, and Conference Center, which maintains the remnants of the “Rhododendron” estate and plans to develop a museum facility to interpret Raphael Guastavino’s life and achievements.
References:
John Ochsendorf, Guastavino Vaulting: The Art of Structural Tile, 2010.
George R. Collins, “The Transfer of Thin Masonry Vaulting from Spain to America,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 27 no. 3, 1968.
Peter Austin, “The Work of Rafael Guastavino in Western North Carolina,” May We All Remember Well,Vol. 1, 1997.
Michael T. Southern and Peter Austin, National Register Nomination for Rhododendron, 1989. https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/BN0196.pdf
Rafael Guastavino IV, An Architect and His Son: the Immigrant Journey of Rafael Guastavino II and Rafael Guastavino III, 2006.
R. Guastavino, Essay on the Theory and History of Cohesive Construction Applied Especially to the Timbrel Vault, 1892.