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| Dirigible Santos=Dumont # 9 parked in front of the famous address Paris Champs Elysées, 114 ou rue Washington, 5 |
Santos=Dumont lived in Paris for 22 years. There is an extensive tour of the points Santos=Dumont visited, including the apartment where the inventor lived at 114 Champs-Élysées.
It was very difficult for me to reconstruct the colors and atmosphere of this apartment, for which I used the description of several biographers and the description given by reporters in the newspapers of the time.
Many describe details of elaborate decoration, Michel Benichou says that the predominant colors were red and pink and Paul Hoffman, who until 1996 had never heard of Dumont's flair (a very common fact in the USA) did an exhaustive research, says that the Aspects of decoration and setting are extravagant.
It can be said that basically there are four distinct environments that always appear in the photos: 1- the roundabout room, with the pyramid in the background; 2-the office, with wallpaper with an owl motif; 3- engineering, where he tests models and has spare parts, and 4- dinner in the sky room, where he has the giant table.
According to Antonio Sodré, in his biography about Santos=Dumont “Santos Dumont, Um Heroi Brasileiro” the rumor that Santos=Dumont was homosexual, and had a feminine decoration, was the result of a commercial competition as explained by Paul Hoffman in his book Wings of Madness:
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| 2 - Santos=Dumont's office, photo overlooking the shelf, detail for the large amount of paper on the table, including journalistic articles, flight photos, templates for cutting envelopes and models of nacelles for their airships, etc. |
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| Santos=Dumont's office front photo - S=D evaluates a metal piece, details to be observed: wallpaper with an owl motif, the radica table, lamp and art nouveau frame |
“The New York papers
were engaged in a fierce competition for readers, and the New-York Mail and
Express had sent a reporter to Santos-Dumont's Paris apartment so it could
publish an exclusive story when he arrived in the States.”
Also according to
Sodré, Santos was almost daily subject in the pages of a newspaper competitor,
the New York Herald, for being a celebrity and also for being a friend of its
owner, James Gordon Bennett, a millionaire who lived in Paris.
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| Front view of the oval room (roundabout room N.1) - detail of the background with the great pyramid, 1890 photo by Lekegian studio, collection of clocks on the fireplace, replica of the statue of Jean-Antoine Injalbert (1845–1933), La Renommée - "the fame" and bust of Victor Hugo, work of Auguste Rodin. |
Of course, the
first hand news about the aviator sells more newspapers.
Therefore the editor
of the New York Mail and Express decided tarnish the shine of Santos Dumont,
the journalist said himself
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| Planta baixa do apartamento de Santos=Dumont em París |
"The tea service displayed
on a corner of the room and there he often drink this female drink. Everything
in the room is extremely tasteful and nothing indicates, nor for a moment, a
masculine touch"
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| Santos=Dumont's third room would be the equivalent of engineering. Place where he designs the technical part of his aircraft, maintains ropes, cables and fuel, spare parts, as well as builds and tests his miniature models. |
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| and the fourth environment is the dinner in the sky room, where there is the high table. |
Sodré concludes that the tea set, as well as the good taste of Santos
was sufficient for this prejudiced reporter to create a biased article.
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Santos=Dumont exotic
invention, the two meter high table and chairs
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All other newspapers have treated our hero more respectfully as this
beautiful article written by the British magazine "The Sketch" inset
in the Illustrated London News to cover the aristocracy and high society of the
time.
Anyway, as I am in the midst of a creative process, seeking to
understand the life of the aviator, and create the illustrations for my book as
well, I decided to put some references of my research on the apartment that
Santos Dumont kept on Avenue Champs Elysées, 114 or rue Washington, 5 in Paris.
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S=D Office
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Apartment nowadays
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papier peint 1
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papier peint 2
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Main door handle |
About the property
Please find below a detailed plan of the building where Santos=Dumont lived. Located at Avenue des Champs-Élysées and Rue Washington in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.
This building consists of two apartments per floor (here we see the corner apartment, where S=D used to live) and has interesting architecture, including details such as the corner rotunda, the sculptures on the stairs and decorative stained glass.
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| Plan prontonil of the apartment of Rue Washington where Santos Duomnt lived |
The building was built in 1893 by architect Albert Le Voivenel for Heudebert.
It has a monumental composition with five spans on the avenue and a corner rotunda that houses loggias, in addition to six spans on Rue Washington.
The main facade of the building is richly decorated and has a carved entrance. The ironwork on the door is also notable, contributing to the building's distinctive appearance.
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| Wonderful entrance hall and door of the Santos=Dumont apartment. |
Throughout the 20th century, the building underwent some transformations. The ground floor has been converted into four open shops, each with two bay windows. One such store is the J.-M. Weston boutique, a shoemaker, which is still present today.
The building has a pentagonal atrium in the center, surrounded by three wings that rest on adjacent buildings.
Access to the courtyard is via a vehicle passageway that formerly allowed taxis to enter. This passageway is vaulted in a semicircular shape.
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| Detail of angels on the window facing Rue Washington. |
The building has six floors above and four below ground level. The structure includes the creation and relocation of stairs and elevators on all floors, renovation of facades, replacement of exterior window frames and modification of bales on facades on the ground floor and 1st floor on the street and patio. In addition, there was the creation of a glass roof on the 5th floor.
The building is protected by the P.L.U. (Local Urbanization Plan) and is part of the Champs-Élysées District. Its architecture and features are considered remarkable and valuable, contributing to the architectural identity of the area.
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| Wallpaper, Owl Motif |
In the 1950s, modifications were made to the apartments, including the demolition of old service stairs and the construction of new stairs on the Rue Washington side. The main staircase (main staircase) was also extended to reach the attic level.
Some parts of the building's decorations were removed to allow modification of the walls of the cage d'escalier (staircase cage).
In the 1990s, more transformations took place, including replacing more apartments with offices and renovating the floor of the cour principale (main courtyard) to create a disco dance floor.
Some future proposals were discussed, such as covering the cour (courtyard) with a large verrière métallique (metal skylight) and creating a trémie (opening) in the floors to offer different heights and spaces for customers.
The Apple company has expressed interest in using the building for its offices and a store.
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| View of the facade with roundabout. |
The Commission du Vieux Paris (Commission for Old Paris) examined the restructuring project for the building constructed in 1893 by architect Albert Le Voisvenel.
Proposed changes, such as a new, more cohesive socle commercial (commercial base) for the building, were suggested by the Commission.
Sources and Bibliographies
- GRAHAL, Étude historique et documentaire, 2015.
- Pascal Payen-Appenzeller et Brice Payen, Champs-Élysées: Dictionnaire historique, architectural et culturel, Paris, Ledico éditions, 2013.
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