James Bogardus

James Bogardus (March 14, 1800 – April 13, 1874) was an American inventor and architect, the pioneer of American cast-iron architecture, for which he took out a patent in 1850. In the next two decades he demonstrated the use of cast-iron in the construction of building facades, especially in New York City, where he was based, but also in Washington, DC, where three cast-iron structures erected by Bogardus in 1851 were the first such constructions in the capital. The success of the cast-iron exteriors from 1850-1880 led to the adoption of steel-frame construction for entire buildings.

Born in Catskill (town), New York, Bogardus quit school at the age of fourteen to start an apprenticeship at a watchmaker.

Bogardus attached plaques to his cast-ironwork that read: "James Bogardus Originator & Patentee of Iron Buildings Pat' May 7, 1850." ^[1]

He married Margaret McClay.

A small park in TriBeCa, where Chambers Street, Hudson Street and West Broadway (Manhattan) intersect is named James Bogardus Triangle.

He was a descendant of the Rev. Everardus Bogardus (d.1647), the second clergyman in the New Netherlands. Bogardus died in New York City aged 74. Bogardus is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

Notable inventions

• A cotton-spinning machine called a ring flier (1828)
• A mechanized engraving machine (1831), employed for engraving dies for bank notes
• The eccentric mill (1832), still used in principle for fine finish of ball bearings, and, with variable eccentricity, for lens grinding.

Bogardus buildings

Buildings still standing

• 63 Nassau Street
• 254 Canal Street
• 75 Murray Street
• 85 Leonard Street
• Iron Clad Building, Cooperstown, New York (92 Main St, Cooperstown, NY)

Further reading

• Margot Gayle and Carol Gayle. Cast-Iron Architecture in America: The Significance of James Bogardus (New York: Norton) 1998.

References

• Green-Wood Cemetery Burial Search