Grace Hill for Edwin C. Litchfield, Brooklyn, New York (front elevation)

Grace Hill for Edwin C. Litchfield, Brooklyn, New York (front elevation)

Alexander Jackson Davis

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Davis' greatest Italianate villa, Grace Hill, is now the headquarters of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. The original stucco has been removed from the house, and many of the interior details, including the elaborately painted ceiling murals, have been lost. Davis also designed a coach house, greenhouse, and chicken house for the property, none of which are extant.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Grace Hill for Edwin C. Litchfield, Brooklyn, New York (front elevation)Grace Hill for Edwin C. Litchfield, Brooklyn, New York (front elevation)Grace Hill for Edwin C. Litchfield, Brooklyn, New York (front elevation)Grace Hill for Edwin C. Litchfield, Brooklyn, New York (front elevation)Grace Hill for Edwin C. Litchfield, Brooklyn, New York (front elevation)

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.