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BRONX TIMES REPORTER, J BTR ULY 12-18, 2019 47
BRONX SCENE
Fieldston architect, Dwight James Baum
DWIGHT JAMES BAUM
Fieldston’s leading architect,
Dwight James Baum, was
born in 1886 near Newville,
New York which is just south of
Utica. He graduated from Syracuse
University in 1909. He
won their Architectural Fellowship
and then gravitated
to New York City were all the
biggest fi rms were located. He
worked for a number of major
architects in the city including
Sanford White and later, Frank
M. Andrews.
He met Edward Delafi eld
who was breaking up his family
holdings by selling selected
lots in Riverdale with his
brothers. Baum bought one in
1914 and built a home on it at
5001 Goodridge Avenue. His
work was so well accepted that
he became the architect for 140
homes in Riverdale over the
next 25 years. Many of these
homes were in what would become
the very exclusive community
of Fieldston.
His Fieldston houses were
always designed from the outside
fi rst to make sure they fi t in
with the pastoral background
setting. Only when he was satisfi
ed with the exterior did he
tackle the interior. Residential
buildings, however, were only
a small part of his work. Manhattan
residents are most familiar
with his work at 5 West
63rd Street which is home to
the West Side YMCA. He also
designed the United States Post
Offi ce in Flushing during the
Great Depression. Earlier, in
1917, he fi nished the Riverdale
Country Club and in 1924, the
Arrowhead Inn.
Baum’s work was not confi
ned to New York City. He returned
to Syracuse, his college
town, where he designed
Syracuse Memorial Hospital
with John Russell Pope and
he also did the monument
that holds the bronze statue
of Christopher Columbus that
still stands in Columbus Circle
in that town. As an interesting
aside, those commissioning
the statue could not afford
to ship it from Italy when the
Great Depression hit so Benito
Mussolini stepped in to pay the
freight. Baum also designed
Hendricks Memorial Chapel at
Syracuse University. In addition
to this commercial work,
he also served as the architect
for a number of private homes
in Syracuse.
Baum visited Florida in 1922
and it led to numerous commissions.
Among the most important
was the 30-room home
of John Nicholas Ringling of
Ringling Brothers Circus fame
which he designed in 1927. The
spacious home, called Ca d’Zan,
on the 66-acre estate is now
known as the John and Mable
Ringling Museum of Art.
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Other important works in
Florida include the Sarasota
Times Building and the Sarasota
County Courthouse. He
was also the architect for the
El Vernona Apartments-Broadway
Apartments in 1926 along
with some private homes that
same year. Numerous other
buildings that he designed may
be found throughout the country.
During the Great Depression
he performed quite a bit
of preservation work for Good
Housekeeping Magazine and
he even designed their building
at the 1933 Chicago World’s
Fair. Through it all, we must
be reminded that his road to
fame began right here in the
Bronx with his work in greater
Riverdale and the Fieldston
Community.