This month there will be a new display of archival documents in the American Ingenuity exhibition about Robert Winthrop Chanler and Everett Shinn—two American artists who left their indelible mark on Planting Fields. Of special interest is a photograph of painted windows—likely done by Chanler. The windows were in the Byrne House, so-called because it was commissioned by the Byrne family but occupied by the Coe’s after they purchased it in 1913. After it burned down in 1918 it was replaced with the Tudor Revival Main House.
Painted birds, fish, and other creatures on two windows of the Byrne House, Planting Fields Foundation Archives.
There are several different accounts of what caused the fire that destroyed the Byrne House, however, according to the New York Times “Robert Chanler had been completing the decorations in a new sun parlor in the west wing. The sun parlor is equipped with imported stained glass, which had to be protected against possible moisture. Mechanics were at work on the wing in an effort to make it more waterproof when a blow torch used by one of them ignited some combustible materials.”
The sun porch at the Byrne House, which may have been enclosed with glass windows. Published in The Brickbuilder, 1908, Planting Fields Foundation Archives.
Between 1917-1918, the Coe’s purchased lead glass for the porch and they paid Chanler $6,500 ($145,000 in 2024) for his work. Although this mural was lost, Chanler went on to create the Breakfast Room buffalo mural and Mai’s bedroom mural in their new home. Check out the new display of archival items in American Ingenuity—located on the second floor of the house and available for viewing after your guided tour!
News clipping headline about the fire, 1918.
From Marie Penny, Michael D. Coe Archivist.