John Hendricks Young was born in Grand Rapids, Mich. in 1858, and began his artists career in fresco painting. His experience with scenic art and design began in 1880 and continued until his death in 1944. Moving to New York in 1895, he designed over 70 shows for Broadway, including some impressive original productions including “Babes in Toyland” (1903), “Forty-five minutes from Broadway” (1906), “Little Nemo” (1908), “Higgledy-Piggledy” (1905), “Ziegfield Follies” (1907,1908, and 1913) “Broadway to Paris” (1912), “Robinson Crusoe, Jr.” (1907, 1908, 1916), and “Sinbad” (1919). His information can be found in the Internet Broadway database
Reviews comment on Young’s “originality of conception and boldness, vigor, and expression of action in execution.” I have been unsuccessful in locating any examples of Young’s art. It seems that all he left behind was his studio, a four-story office building in New York City designed by Arthur G. C. Fletcher in 1904. The building still remains at No. 536 West 29th Street, now home to the fashion company Lopez Knudsen, Inc. The building is clad in beige brick, with a double door at street level to allow the large frames of painted canvas to be moved out. The 2nd & 3rd floors have large studio windows on the right side, with a smaller rectangular window on the left side of the 3rd floor, and a terra-cotta plaque reading “JOHN H. YOUNG STUDIOS 1904” on the 2nd floor, above the doorway. The top floors has a similar window on the left side as the 3rd floor, and a large, round-arched studio window on the right, providing plenty of northern light to the interior spaces.
Thomas Moses recalls first meeting Young in Grand Rapids, Michigan as they secured his services to be one of three painter’s to decorate a large church in Jackson, Michigan. Moses, Young and an Englishman named Tom Brown were mistakenly referred to as the “Three young Roman Artists.” This was when Moses was working for Mr. Wardus in 1876 and an early lesson in life as Wardus took the earnings, leaving Young and Moses penniless.
Moses and Young worked together again at Sosman and Landis beginning in 1882. Their many sketching trips often included two other artists Hardesty Maratta (mentioned yesterday) and Ed Morange (of Gates & Morange Studio). All travelled across the country from West Virginia to the Rocky Mountains, including Pike’s Peak, Denver, and Breckenridge.
Young eventually moved to New York where he became quite busy and successful. Meeting up with Moses again in 1900 when as they both designed and painted scenes for “Quo Vadis.” While in New York, Moses and Young continued their sketching trips, now adding Harry A. Vincent to their group.
In 1905, Moses and Young had their last project together. They worked on old mill scenery at Luna Park for Ed Thompson; Young did all the properties and
papier-mâché work. Young isn’t mentioned again until 1922 in Moses’ reminiscing.
There is very little insight into what Young was like or his personality, other than it had to have been favorable to account for the numerous sketching trips over the years with Moses. The only small tidbit of Young’s life outside of the theater was his garden. Moses fondly commented on Young’s flower garden as “a hodgepodge mixture of growing things.” He remembers that as a joke, Young had bought a lot of seeds that had been accidentally mixed.
Attached are images of Young’s 1904 Studio as that is all that seems to remain in an online search until I start tracking down black and white production photos from his career in New York! The photographs were taken and posted by Tom Miller to his blog “Daytonian in Manhattan.”
UPDATE: Tom Miller contacted me this spring about having posted some of his pictures from a 2011 blog without crediting him five years later. He originally posted the exterior images of John H. Young’s home in 2011 with minimal information about the artist. My bad. I contacted him to apologize and immediately rectified the error. Part of the problem was my inability to navigate this webpage at the time, hence why all of the photos are just tossed at the end of text. As I gained my footing over the years, I figured out how to add titles, captions, etc. to my pictures. They are certainly not perfect, but typically I try to credit my source and provide a direct link. This is not an excuse, but a reason why some of my early blog posts look “rough.
My post, “John H. Young, Scenic Artist” was first created when I was still navigating this system and months before I started my series “Tales of a Scenic Artist and Scholar.”
The silver lining at the end of this tunnel is that Miller and I have been in continued correspondence and he has rewritten his 2011 blog post, sharing the revised link with me today. Here is his new post with images: https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-1904-john-h-young-studio-536-west.html
It is wonderful about his rewrite, is that there is more information about John H. Young! Great job, Tom!
For the record, here was the link to Miller’s old post with minimal text, yet stellar images: http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2011/02/1904-john-h-young-studio-building-no.html
Hello,
I live in the house that John H Young built in Pelham NY. It is an Arts and Crafts home with an inglenook that features the sculpted face of a woman. I think this feature is original to the house and I wonder if Mr. Young created it.
Best,
Haley
He was our grandfather!!! We never met him as he apparently died 5 years before our parents married but our dad drove us by that house one summer when we made a trip up to New England. (Our dad moved to Atlanta once he met our mom, who was from there, but we have an old photo of your home somewhere, I know…)You have no idea how exciting this is to us!! Would love to connect. My sister and I have some watercolors and sketches but nothing from this segment of his life. Is your house sort of a stucco up on a hill? Our mom died two years ago and would have loved hearing this.
Hi Helen,
I hope this message finds you well. Are you the granddaughter of John Hendricks Young via his son John Hendricks Young Jr. and his wife, Mary Redfern Culley? If so, I’m currently working on a genealogy project focused on the Culley family and am tracing the descendants of William and Isabella Culley, who lived in England in the late 1800s. Mary was one of their great-granddaughters. (William Culley – John Preston Culley – Frank Redfern Culley – Mary Redfern Culley)
If this sounds familiar, I would love to connect with you to ask a few questions and share the research I’ve gathered so far. I’d also be happy to share my findings with any other relatives who may be interested.
That is amazing! Can you post a picture?
I’m looking into some history, and would love to get more information on Joh H. Young. Can you tell me where you found your information, or where I might be able to get more?
My work is a combination of historic newspaper articles, public records, unpublished manuscripts, and over three decades of research. I am happy to chat with you about your project and will email you today.