Sundials, Styles & Skyscrapers

The Art of Francis Howse Cruess and Helen R. Cruess

Father-Daughter Artists and Their Works from the Gilded Age to the Fabulous Fifties


        British-born architect and watercolorist Francis Cruess designed award-winning skyscrapers,
   sundials, department stores, hotels, homes and clubs in New York City, Brooklyn, Philadelphia,
   Atlantic City and many more places, and a seminary in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In his travels
   he sketched castles and churches in England and captured the wilderness landscapes of the late
   1800's on the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers. Think Hudson River School...but with
   steamboats on the river and a locomotive chugging 'round the bend.

        His only child, Helen Rutter Cruess, grew up in Brooklyn, New York and Rutherford, New
   Jersey. She produced stylish fashion sketches and whimsical, Art Nouveau book illustrations.

        Please enjoy this small sample of their many wonderful works.

Special thanks to Tom Fletcher of www.nyc-architecture.com for featuring the Cruess works on his amazing site.

Thanks also to Christopher Raab and Mike Lear of Franklin & Marshall College's Archives and Special Collections Department of the Shadek-Fackenthal Library for including the Lark Building and its architect on their website's list of notable historic buildings and landmarks.