Lord & Burnham was a noted American boiler and greenhouse manufacturer, and builders of major public conservatories in the United States.
History The company began in 1849 when Frederick A. Lord, a carpenter, started building wood and glass greenhouses for neighbors in Buffalo, New York. It became Lord's full-time profession in 1856 as production moved to Syracuse, New York and then to Irvington, New York to be closer to his customers in the large Hudson River estates. In 1872 Lord's son-in-law William Addison Burnham joined the firm. Their first major commission came in the 1876 when California philanthropist James Lick hired the firm to create a conservatory similar to that in Kew Gardens. Its parts were fabricated in New York and shipped to California by boat around Cape Horn. Lick died before the greenhouse could be constructed, but the materials were used to build the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.Barmann, Jay (January 14, 2022) "In Its History, SF's Conservatory of Flowers Has Burned Down Twice, and Was Nearly Destroyed By a Windstorm In 1995" SFist
In 1881 the firm constructed the first steel-framed curvilinear greenhouse in the United States for railroad magnate Jay Gould, on a property now open as Lyndhurst. In 1883 the partnership incorporated as Lord's Horticultural Manufacturing Company, and in 1890 the name was changed to today's Lord & Burnham Company.
Beginning in 1894, the company purchased underwater property beyond the tracks in Irvington and began filling in to create new land for an expansion. The expansion complex was completed by 1912, at which time the company employed 250 men.
The company used the property as additional factory space in the production process of their greenhouses.Lord & Burnham By 1988, only about a dozen employees remained at the Irvington factory, and Lord and Burnham ceased to exist when the factory closed in that year.
2018 acquisition The engineering and manufacturing assets of Lord & Burnham's line of residential greenhouses were acquired in 2018 by Arcadia GlassHouse LLC from Under Glass Manufacturing Company. Arcadia GlassHouse continues to manufacture replacement parts and residential greenhouse kits with the original Lord & Burnham design."Lord & Burnham" Arcadia website
Rough Brothers also derives products from the Lord & Burnham name and product line.
William Addison Burnham continued to make boilers and the company he founded, Burnham Commercial, continues to do so today.
Conservatories The company's early greenhouses were made of cypress before switching to iron or steel. Although experimentation with aluminum began in 1932 with the United States Botanic Garden, commercial production was not economical until 1955.
Major Lord & Burnham conservatories include:
Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California, 1878-1879, a wood-and-glass greenhouse Lyndhurst Estate, Tarrytown, New York, 1881 Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens, Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, 1892–1893 Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens, Buffalo, New York, 1895–1899 New York Botanical Garden, 1899–1902 Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion State Historic Park, Canandaigua, New York, 1903–1915 Reynolda Gardens, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 1912 United States Botanic Garden, Washington, DC, 1933 Volunteer Park Conservatory, Volunteer Park, Seattle, Washington, 1912 Krohn Conservatory, Eden Park, Cincinnati, built 1933, restored by Lord & Burnham in 1966
Company archives and historic plans The title to the company's archives was given to the Archives of the New York Botanical Garden in 1990, along with their historic architectural plans. The collection includes over 140,000 architectural plans for more than 7,000 glass structures.
Gallery
See also Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion State Historic Park
References
External links Buffalo Gardens.com: "Crystal Palaces" — article on Lord & Burnham. Guide to the Lord & Burnham Collection at the New York Botanical Garden - resource that contains general historic information about the company, as well as a searchable database of historic glasshouse plans