Cass Gilbert Gilbert was a conservative who believed architecture should reflect historic traditions and the established social order. His design of the new Supreme Court building (1935), with its classical lines and small size, contrasted sharply with the large federal buildings going up along the National Mall in Washington, D.C., which he disliked. Heilbrun says "Gilbert's pioneering buildings injected vitality into skyscraper design, and his 'Gothic skyscraper,' epitomized by the Woolworth Building, profoundly influenced architects during the first decades of the twentieth century." Christen and Flanders note that his reputation among architectural critics went into eclipse during the age of modernism, but
The Captivity of Benjamin Gilbert The Captivity of Benjamin Gilbert The Captivity of Benjamin Gilbert and His Family, 1780-83 is a captivity narrative by William Walton relating the experiences of a Quaker family of settlers near Mauch Chunk in present-day Carbon County, Pennsylvania. The story was originally published in 1784, and has since been republished numerous times under varying titles. In 1780, the Gilbert family was settled near what was then the frontier between encroaching colonists and Native Americans. In a minor action in the American Revolution a war party from the British base at Fort Niagara, under the overall command of Colonel John Butler,