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Richard Morris Hunt

Richard Morris Hunt (October 31, 1827 – July 31, 1895) was an American architect of the nineteenth century and an eminent figure in the history of American architecture. He helped shape New York City with his designs for the 1902 entrance façade and Great Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World), and many Fifth Avenue mansions since destroyed.[1]

Richard Morris Hunt
Born(1827-10-31)October 31, 1827
DiedJuly 31, 1895(1895-07-31) (aged 67)
Alma materÉcole des Beaux-Arts
OccupationArchitect
SpouseCatharine Clinton Howland
BuildingsJohn N. A. Griswold House
Chateau-sur-Mer
New York Tribune Building
William K. Vanderbilt House
Marble House
Biltmore Estate
Signature
The William K. Vanderbilt House or the Petit Chateau in 1886, 660 Fifth Avenue, New York City

Hunt is also renowned for his Biltmore Estate, America's largest private house, near Asheville, North Carolina, and for his elaborate summer cottages in Newport, Rhode Island, which set a new standard of ostentation for the social elite and the newly minted millionaires of the Gilded Age.

Early life edit

 
Portrait of Richard Morris Hunt by John Singer Sargent (1895).

Hunt was born at Brattleboro, Vermont into the prominent Hunt family. His father, Jonathan Hunt, was a lawyer and U.S. congressman, whose own father, Jonathan Hunt, senior, was lieutenant governor of Vermont.[2] Hunt's mother, Jane Maria Leavitt, was the daughter of Thaddeus Leavitt, Jr., a merchant, and a member of the influential Leavitt family of Suffield, Connecticut.

Richard Morris Hunt was named for Lieut. Richard Morris, an officer in the U.S. Navy, a son of Hunt's aunt,[3][4] whose husband Lewis Richard Morris was a U.S. Congressman from Vermont and the nephew of Gouverneur Morris, author of large parts of the U.S. Constitution.[5] Hunt was the brother of the Boston painter William Morris Hunt, and the photographer and lawyer Leavitt Hunt.

Following the death of his father in Washington, D.C. in 1832 at the age of 44, Hunt's mother moved her family to New Haven, then in 1837 to New York, and then in the spring of 1838 to Boston.[6] There, Hunt enrolled in the Boston Latin School, while his brother William enrolled in Harvard College. However, in the summer of 1842, William left Harvard, transferring to a school in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, while Richard was sent to school in Sandwich, Massachusetts.[7]

European education edit

In October 1843, out of concern for William's health, Mrs. Hunt and her five children sailed from New York to Europe, eventually settling in Rome.[8] There, Hunt studied art, but was encouraged by his mother and brother William to pursue architecture.[9] In May 1844, Hunt enrolled in Mr. Briquet's boarding school in Geneva, and the following year, while continuing to board with Mr. Briquet, arranged to study with the Geneva architect Samuel Darier.[10]

In October 1846, Hunt entered the Paris atelier of the architect Hector Lefuel, while studying for the entrance examinations of the École des Beaux-Arts.[11] According to the historian David McCullough, "Hunt was the first American to be admitted to the school of architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts – the finest school of architecture in the world – and the subsequent importance of his influence on the architecture of his own country can hardly be overstated."[12]

In 1853, Hunt's mentor Lefuel was placed in charge of the ambitious project of completing the Louvre, following the death of the project's architect, Louis-Tullius-Joachim Visconti. Lefuel engaged Hunt to help supervise the work, and to help design the Pavillon de la Bibliothèque ("Library Pavilion"), prominently situated opposite the Palais-Royal.[13] Hunt would later regale the sixteen-year-old future architect Louis Sullivan with stories of his work on the Nouveau Louvre in Lefuel's atelier libre.[14]

Career in America edit

New York early years edit

Hunt spent Christmas 1855 in Paris, after which he returned to the United States. In March 1856, he accepted a position with the architect Thomas Ustick Walter helping Walter with the renovation and expansion of the U.S. Capitol, and the following year moved to New York to establish his own practice. Hunt's first substantial project was the Tenth Street Studio Building, where he rented space, and where in 1858 he founded the first American architectural school, beginning with a small group of students, including George B. Post, William Robert Ware, Henry Van Brunt, and Frank Furness.[15] Ware, who was deeply influenced by Hunt, went on to found America's first two university programs in architecture: at MIT in 1866, and at Columbia in 1881.

Hunt's first New York project, a pair of houses on 37th Street for Thomas P. Rossiter and his father-in-law Dr. Eleazer Parmly, required Hunt to sue Parmly for non-payment of the supervisory portion of his services. The jury awarded Hunt a 2-1/2% commission, at the time the minimum fee typically charged by architects.[16] According to the editors of Engineering Magazine, writing in 1896, the case, "helped to establish a uniform system of charges by percentage."[17]

It was in these early years that Hunt suffered his greatest professional setback, the rejection of his formal, classical proposal for the "Scholars' Gate", the entrance to New York's Central Park at 60th Street and Fifth Avenue.[18] According to Central Park historian Sarah Cedar Miller, the influential Central Park commissioner Andrew Haswell Green supported Hunt's design, but when the park commissioners adopted it, the park's designers, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux (advocates of a more informal design), protested and resigned their positions with the Central Park project. Hunt's plan was ultimately rejected, and Olmsted and Vaux rejoined the project.[19] Nevertheless, one work of Hunt's can be found in the park, albeit a minor one: the rusticated Quincy granite pedestal on which John Quincy Adams Ward's bronze statue The Pilgrim stands, on Pilgrim Hill overlooking the park's East Drive at East 72nd Street.[20][21][22][23]

Hunt's extroverted personality, a factor in his successful career, is well-documented. After meeting Hunt in 1869 the philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in his journal of "one remarkable person new to me, Richard Hunt the architect. His conversation was spirited beyond any I remember, loaded with matter, and expressed with the vigour and fury of a member of the Harvard boat or ball club relating the adventures of one of their matches; inspired, meantime, throughout, with fine theories of the possibilities of art."[24] Hunt was said to be popular with his workmen, and legend has it that during a final walk-through of the William K. Vanderbilt house on Fifth Avenue, Hunt discovered a mysterious tent-like object in one of the ballrooms. Investigating, he found it covering a life-sized statue of himself, dressed in stonecutters' clothes, carved in secret as a tribute by the project's stonecutters. Vanderbilt permitted the statue to be placed on the roof over the entrance to the house. Hunt was said to be pragmatic; his son Richard quoted him as having said, "the first thing you've got to remember is that it's your client's money you're spending. Your goal is to achieve the best results by following their wishes. If they want you to build a house upside down standing on its chimney, it's up to you to do it."[25]

Hunt's professional trajectory gained impetus from his extensive social connections at Newport, Rhode Island, the resort where in 1859 Hunt's brother William bought a house. There in 1860 Hunt met the woman he would marry, Catharine Clinton Howland, the daughter of Samuel S. Howland, a New York shipping merchant, and his wife, Joanna Hone.[26] On April 2, 1861, they married at the Church of the Ascension, on Fifth Avenue at Tenth street,[27] and according to a newspaper reporter, the bride brought a dowry to the marriage of $400,000.[28] Many of Hunt's early wood-frame houses, and many of his later more substantial masonry houses, were built at Newport, some of the latter for the Vanderbilts, the family of railroad tycoons with whom Hunt had a long and rewarding relationship.

New York later years edit

Beginning in the 1870s, Hunt acquired more substantial commissions, including New York's Tribune Building (built 1873–75, one of the earliest buildings with an elevator), and the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty (built 1881–86). Hunt devoted much of his practice to institutional work, including the Theological Library and Marquand Chapel at Princeton; the Fogg Museum of Art at Harvard; and the Scroll and Key clubhouse at Yale, all of which except the last have been demolished.

Before Hunt's Lenox Library was completed in 1877 on Fifth Avenue, none of his American works were designed in the Beaux-Arts style with which he is usually associated, of which his entrance façade for the Metropolitan Museum of Art (completed posthumously in 1902) is perhaps the chief example. Late in life he joined the consortium of architects selected to plan Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, considered to be an exemplar of Beaux-Arts design.[29] Hunt's design for the fair's Administration Building won a gold medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects.

The last surviving New York City buildings entirely by Hunt are the Jackson Square Library and a charity hospital he designed for the Association for the Relief of Respectable Aged Indigent Females, completed in 1883 at Amsterdam Avenue between 103rd and 104th Streets. The red-brick building was renovated in the late 20th century and is now a youth hostel.

The Jackson Square Library, built in 1887 with funds from George Vanderbilt III (Grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt) still exists as well. This particular library — one of the very first purpose-built free and open public library buildings in New York (only the Ottendorfer Library on Second Avenue in the East Village is extant and older) — was also one of the very first libraries to introduce the innovation of open stacks. This allowed the public to actually pick books off the shelves themselves, rather than having to find a card number in a catalog and ask a librarian to retrieve the book for them, which was to this point standard practice, based in part upon fear of theft.  The building continued to operate as a library until it was decommissioned in the early 1960s.[30]

Professional advocacy edit

Referring to Hunt's efforts to elevate his chosen profession, the architecture critic Paul Goldberger wrote in The New York Times that Hunt was "American architecture's first, and in many ways its greatest, statesman."[31] In 1857, Hunt co-founded the New York Society of Architects, which soon became the American Institute of Architects, and from 1888 to 1891 served as the institute's third president. Hunt advocated tirelessly for the improved status of architects, arguing that they should be treated, and paid, as legitimate and respected professionals equivalent to doctors and lawyers. In 1893, Hunt co-founded New York's Municipal Art Society, an outgrowth of the City Beautiful Movement, and served as the society's first president.[32]

Many of Hunt's proteges had successful careers. Among the employees who worked in his firm was the Franco-American architect and École des Beaux-Arts graduate Emmanuel Louis Masqueray who went on to become Chief of Design at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. Hunt encouraged artists and craftsmen, frequently employing them to embellish his buildings, most notably the sculptor Karl Bitter who worked on many of Hunt's projects.

Death and legacy edit

 
Richard Morris Hunt Memorial, Fifth Avenue, New York City

Hunt died at Newport, Rhode Island in 1895, and was buried at Newport's Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery. In 1898, the Municipal Art Society commissioned the Richard Morris Hunt Memorial, designed by the architect Bruce Price, with a bust of Hunt and two caryatids (one representing art, the other architecture) sculpted by Daniel Chester French.[33] The memorial was installed in the wall of Central Park along Fifth Avenue near 70th Street, across the avenue from Hunt's Lenox Library, which has since been replaced by the Frick Collection.

Following Hunt's death, his son Richard Howland Hunt continued the practice his father had established,[34] and in 1901 his brother Joseph Howland Hunt joined him to form the successor firm Hunt & Hunt. They completed many of their father's projects, including the 1902 wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The new wing (for which the father, a museum trustee, had made the initial sketches in 1894) included the Fifth Avenue entrance facade, the entrance hall and grand staircase.[35][36][37]

Selected works edit

Houses edit

Public buildings edit

Urban design edit

Statue pedestal edit

Gallery edit

Awards and honors edit

See also edit

References edit

Notes

  1. ^ "The Harvard Graduates' Magazine". Harvard Graduates' Magazine Association. March 30, 1893 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ Dwight, Benjamin Woodbridge (March 30, 1874). The History of the Descendants of John Dwight, of Dedham, Mass. J. F. Trow & son, printers and bookbinders. ISBN 9781981482658 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ Catharine Howland Hunt, Unpublished Biography of Richard Morris Hunt (1896–1906), page 1.
  4. ^ Lewis Richard Morris was married to Ellen Hunt, a sister of Richard Morris Hunt's father. See General Lewis R. Morris House, Springfield, Vt., National Register, Connecticut River Joint Commissions, crjc.org
  5. ^ Obituary of Richard Morris Hunt, The New York Times, August 1, 1895
  6. ^ Catharine Howland Hunt, Unpublished Biography of Richard Morris Hunt (1896–1906), page 16.
  7. ^ Catharine Howland Hunt, Unpublished Biography of Richard Morris Hunt (1896–1906), pages 19,20.
  8. ^ Catharine Howland Hunt, Unpublished Biography of Richard Morris Hunt (1896–1906), pages 19,20.
  9. ^ Puritan Boston & Quaker Philadelphia, Edward Digby Baltzell, Published by Transaction Publishers, 1996 ISBN 1-56000-830-X
  10. ^ Catharine Howland Hunt, Unpublished Biography of Richard Morris Hunt (1896–1906), pages 23,24.
  11. ^ Catharine Howland Hunt, Unpublished Biography of Richard Morris Hunt (1896–1906), pages 25.
  12. ^ McCullough, David (2011). The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781416576891.
  13. ^ Dwight, Benjamin Woodbridge (March 30, 1874). The History of the Descendants of John Dwight, of Dedham, Mass. J. F. Trow & son, printers and bookbinders. ISBN 9781981482658 – via Google Books.
  14. ^ Morrison, Hugh (March 30, 2018). Louis Sullivan, Prophet of Modern Architecture. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393730234 – via Google Books.
  15. ^ Catharine Howland Hunt, Unpublished Biography of Richard Morris Hunt (1896–1906), pages 99-110.
  16. ^ Catharine Howland Hunt, Unpublished Biography of Richard Morris Hunt (1896–1906), page 103.
  17. ^ Engineering Magazine, Vol. 10, The Engineering Magazine Co., New York, 1896
  18. ^ SOUZA, J. DA C. G. DE.; FRANCO, J. L. DE A. «Frederick Law Olmsted: Landscape Architecture and North American National Parks». Topoi, (Rio J.), Rio de Janeiro. v.21 (n.45): p. 754-774, sept./dec. 2020.
  19. ^ Miller, Sara Cedar: Central Park, An American Masterpiece p. 57. Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 2003 ISBN 0-8109-3946-0.
  20. ^ "Pilgrim : NYC Parks". Central Park Monuments. June 26, 1939. Retrieved August 16, 2020.
  21. ^ "Pilgrim Hill". www.centralpark.com. April 3, 2019. Retrieved August 16, 2020.
  22. ^ "Pilgrim Hill". Central Park Conservancy. July 28, 2020. Retrieved August 16, 2020.
  23. ^ Carroll, R.; Berenson, R.J. (2008). The Complete Illustrated Map and Guidebook to Central Park. Sterling Publishing Company, Incorporated. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-4027-5833-1. Retrieved August 16, 2020.
  24. ^ Ralph Waldo Emerson (1914). Edward Waldo Emerson and Waldo Emerson Forbes (ed.). Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1864–1876. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 280.
  25. ^ van Pelt, A Monograph of the William K. Vanderbilt House, 10, cited in Vanderbilt, Arthur T. Fortune's Children. William Morrow and Co., 1989, 89.
  26. ^ Catharine Howland Hunt, Unpublished Biography of Richard Morris Hunt (1896–1906), page 127.
  27. ^ Catharine Howland Hunt, Unpublished Biography of Richard Morris Hunt (1896–1906), page 131.
  28. ^ Hartford Courant, April 10, 1861, page 2.
  29. ^ Moseley, D.S. (1893). Picturesque Chicago and Guide to the World's Fair. p. 192. Retrieved November 13, 2020.
  30. ^ "Jackson Square Library: An Exquisite Building, and once a church of 'Exquisite Panic'". Village Preservation. July 6, 2020. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
  31. ^ Goldberger, Paul (May 22, 1986). "ARCHITECTURE: TWO RICHARD MORRIS HUNT SHOWS". The New York Times.
  32. ^ "To Make the City Beautiful," The New York Times, April 20, 1893, page 6.
  33. ^ . Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved February 11, 2007. History of the Municipal Art Society (official site)
  34. ^ Anonymous (October 1, 2009). Prominent Families of New York. BiblioBazaar. ISBN 9781115372305 – via Google Books.
  35. ^ "New Art Museum Wing," The New York Times, December 22, 1902, page 6.
  36. ^ MacKay, Robert B.; Baker, Anthony K.; Traynor, Carol A. (March 30, 1997). Long Island Country Houses and Their Architects, 1860-1940. Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities in association with, W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393038569 – via Google Books.
  37. ^ "Finding aid for the Henry Gurdon Marquand Papers, 1852-1903" (PDF). libmma.org.
  38. ^ "Everett – Dunn House Historical Marker". hmdb.org.
  39. ^ Thompson, Waldo (1885). Swampscott: Historical Sketches of the Town. p. 205.
  40. ^ llc, CC inspire. "Chateau-sur-Mer - Architecture & Design". www.newportmansions.org.
  41. ^ Craven, Wayne (2009). Gilded Mansions: Grand Architecture and High Society. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 111–126. ISBN 978-0-393067-54-5.
  42. ^ "VANDERBILT VILLA BURNED; Flames Cut Short W.K. Vanderbilt, Jr.'s, Honeymoon at Idle Hour. NARROW ESCAPE WITH BRIDE Flames Started While Household Slept -- Incendiary, Mr. Vanderbilt Says -- Bad Flue, Perhaps". The New York Times. April 12, 1899. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
  43. ^ Henry Gurdon Marquand joined Charles McKim as a pallbearer at Hunt's funeral.
  44. ^ Gold medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects.
  45. ^ Potter, Janet Greenstein (1996). Great American Railroad Stations. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 266. ISBN 978-0471143895.
  46. ^ "The Harvard Graduates' Magazine". Harvard Graduates' Magazine Association. March 30, 1893 – via Google Books.
  47. ^ Rybczynski, Witold (March 30, 2018). The Look of Architecture. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195156331 – via Google Books.

Bibliography

  • Baker, Paul, Richard Morris Hunt, MIT Press, 1980
  • Durante, Dianne, Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide (New York University Press, 2007): brief summary of Hunt's career and description of Daniel Chester French's Hunt memorial in Central Park, New York.
  • Great Buildings Online
  • Kvaran. Einar Einarsson, Architectural Sculpture of America
  • Stein, Susan Editor, The Architecture of Richard Morris Hunt, University of Chicago Press, 1986

Further reading

  • Exploration, Vision & Influence: The Art World of Brattleboro's Hunt Family, Catalogue, Museum Exhibition, The Bennington Museum, Bennington, Vermont, June 23 – December 31, 2005, Paul R. Baker, Sally Webster, David Hanlon, and Stephen Perkins

External links edit

  Media related to Richard Morris Hunt at Wikimedia Commons

  • Richard Morris Hunt at Find a Grave
  • Death of Richard Morris Hunt, One of the Foremost Architects of the United States, The New York Times, August 1, 1895
  • Additional obituary, Richard Morris Hunt, The New York Times, August 1, 1895
  • nyc-architecture.com

richard, morris, hunt, october, 1827, july, 1895, american, architect, nineteenth, century, eminent, figure, history, american, architecture, helped, shape, york, city, with, designs, 1902, entrance, façade, great, hall, metropolitan, museum, pedestal, statue,. Richard Morris Hunt October 31 1827 July 31 1895 was an American architect of the nineteenth century and an eminent figure in the history of American architecture He helped shape New York City with his designs for the 1902 entrance facade and Great Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty Liberty Enlightening the World and many Fifth Avenue mansions since destroyed 1 Richard Morris HuntBorn 1827 10 31 October 31 1827Brattleboro Vermont U S DiedJuly 31 1895 1895 07 31 aged 67 Newport Rhode Island U S Alma materEcole des Beaux ArtsOccupationArchitectSpouseCatharine Clinton HowlandBuildingsJohn N A Griswold HouseChateau sur MerNew York Tribune BuildingWilliam K Vanderbilt HouseMarble HouseBiltmore EstateSignatureThe William K Vanderbilt House or the Petit Chateau in 1886 660 Fifth Avenue New York CityHunt is also renowned for his Biltmore Estate America s largest private house near Asheville North Carolina and for his elaborate summer cottages in Newport Rhode Island which set a new standard of ostentation for the social elite and the newly minted millionaires of the Gilded Age Contents 1 Early life 2 European education 3 Career in America 3 1 New York early years 3 2 New York later years 3 3 Professional advocacy 4 Death and legacy 5 Selected works 5 1 Houses 5 2 Public buildings 5 3 Urban design 5 4 Statue pedestal 6 Gallery 7 Awards and honors 8 See also 9 References 10 External linksEarly life edit nbsp Portrait of Richard Morris Hunt by John Singer Sargent 1895 Hunt was born at Brattleboro Vermont into the prominent Hunt family His father Jonathan Hunt was a lawyer and U S congressman whose own father Jonathan Hunt senior was lieutenant governor of Vermont 2 Hunt s mother Jane Maria Leavitt was the daughter of Thaddeus Leavitt Jr a merchant and a member of the influential Leavitt family of Suffield Connecticut Richard Morris Hunt was named for Lieut Richard Morris an officer in the U S Navy a son of Hunt s aunt 3 4 whose husband Lewis Richard Morris was a U S Congressman from Vermont and the nephew of Gouverneur Morris author of large parts of the U S Constitution 5 Hunt was the brother of the Boston painter William Morris Hunt and the photographer and lawyer Leavitt Hunt Following the death of his father in Washington D C in 1832 at the age of 44 Hunt s mother moved her family to New Haven then in 1837 to New York and then in the spring of 1838 to Boston 6 There Hunt enrolled in the Boston Latin School while his brother William enrolled in Harvard College However in the summer of 1842 William left Harvard transferring to a school in Stockbridge Massachusetts while Richard was sent to school in Sandwich Massachusetts 7 European education editIn October 1843 out of concern for William s health Mrs Hunt and her five children sailed from New York to Europe eventually settling in Rome 8 There Hunt studied art but was encouraged by his mother and brother William to pursue architecture 9 In May 1844 Hunt enrolled in Mr Briquet s boarding school in Geneva and the following year while continuing to board with Mr Briquet arranged to study with the Geneva architect Samuel Darier 10 In October 1846 Hunt entered the Paris atelier of the architect Hector Lefuel while studying for the entrance examinations of the Ecole des Beaux Arts 11 According to the historian David McCullough Hunt was the first American to be admitted to the school of architecture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts the finest school of architecture in the world and the subsequent importance of his influence on the architecture of his own country can hardly be overstated 12 In 1853 Hunt s mentor Lefuel was placed in charge of the ambitious project of completing the Louvre following the death of the project s architect Louis Tullius Joachim Visconti Lefuel engaged Hunt to help supervise the work and to help design the Pavillon de la Bibliotheque Library Pavilion prominently situated opposite the Palais Royal 13 Hunt would later regale the sixteen year old future architect Louis Sullivan with stories of his work on the Nouveau Louvre in Lefuel s atelier libre 14 Career in America editNew York early years edit Hunt spent Christmas 1855 in Paris after which he returned to the United States In March 1856 he accepted a position with the architect Thomas Ustick Walter helping Walter with the renovation and expansion of the U S Capitol and the following year moved to New York to establish his own practice Hunt s first substantial project was the Tenth Street Studio Building where he rented space and where in 1858 he founded the first American architectural school beginning with a small group of students including George B Post William Robert Ware Henry Van Brunt and Frank Furness 15 Ware who was deeply influenced by Hunt went on to found America s first two university programs in architecture at MIT in 1866 and at Columbia in 1881 Hunt s first New York project a pair of houses on 37th Street for Thomas P Rossiter and his father in law Dr Eleazer Parmly required Hunt to sue Parmly for non payment of the supervisory portion of his services The jury awarded Hunt a 2 1 2 commission at the time the minimum fee typically charged by architects 16 According to the editors of Engineering Magazine writing in 1896 the case helped to establish a uniform system of charges by percentage 17 It was in these early years that Hunt suffered his greatest professional setback the rejection of his formal classical proposal for the Scholars Gate the entrance to New York s Central Park at 60th Street and Fifth Avenue 18 According to Central Park historian Sarah Cedar Miller the influential Central Park commissioner Andrew Haswell Green supported Hunt s design but when the park commissioners adopted it the park s designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux advocates of a more informal design protested and resigned their positions with the Central Park project Hunt s plan was ultimately rejected and Olmsted and Vaux rejoined the project 19 Nevertheless one work of Hunt s can be found in the park albeit a minor one the rusticated Quincy granite pedestal on which John Quincy Adams Ward s bronze statue The Pilgrim stands on Pilgrim Hill overlooking the park s East Drive at East 72nd Street 20 21 22 23 Hunt s extroverted personality a factor in his successful career is well documented After meeting Hunt in 1869 the philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in his journal of one remarkable person new to me Richard Hunt the architect His conversation was spirited beyond any I remember loaded with matter and expressed with the vigour and fury of a member of the Harvard boat or ball club relating the adventures of one of their matches inspired meantime throughout with fine theories of the possibilities of art 24 Hunt was said to be popular with his workmen and legend has it that during a final walk through of the William K Vanderbilt house on Fifth Avenue Hunt discovered a mysterious tent like object in one of the ballrooms Investigating he found it covering a life sized statue of himself dressed in stonecutters clothes carved in secret as a tribute by the project s stonecutters Vanderbilt permitted the statue to be placed on the roof over the entrance to the house Hunt was said to be pragmatic his son Richard quoted him as having said the first thing you ve got to remember is that it s your client s money you re spending Your goal is to achieve the best results by following their wishes If they want you to build a house upside down standing on its chimney it s up to you to do it 25 Hunt s professional trajectory gained impetus from his extensive social connections at Newport Rhode Island the resort where in 1859 Hunt s brother William bought a house There in 1860 Hunt met the woman he would marry Catharine Clinton Howland the daughter of Samuel S Howland a New York shipping merchant and his wife Joanna Hone 26 On April 2 1861 they married at the Church of the Ascension on Fifth Avenue at Tenth street 27 and according to a newspaper reporter the bride brought a dowry to the marriage of 400 000 28 Many of Hunt s early wood frame houses and many of his later more substantial masonry houses were built at Newport some of the latter for the Vanderbilts the family of railroad tycoons with whom Hunt had a long and rewarding relationship New York later years edit Beginning in the 1870s Hunt acquired more substantial commissions including New York s Tribune Building built 1873 75 one of the earliest buildings with an elevator and the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty built 1881 86 Hunt devoted much of his practice to institutional work including the Theological Library and Marquand Chapel at Princeton the Fogg Museum of Art at Harvard and the Scroll and Key clubhouse at Yale all of which except the last have been demolished Before Hunt s Lenox Library was completed in 1877 on Fifth Avenue none of his American works were designed in the Beaux Arts style with which he is usually associated of which his entrance facade for the Metropolitan Museum of Art completed posthumously in 1902 is perhaps the chief example Late in life he joined the consortium of architects selected to plan Chicago s 1893 World s Columbian Exposition considered to be an exemplar of Beaux Arts design 29 Hunt s design for the fair s Administration Building won a gold medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects The last surviving New York City buildings entirely by Hunt are the Jackson Square Library and a charity hospital he designed for the Association for the Relief of Respectable Aged Indigent Females completed in 1883 at Amsterdam Avenue between 103rd and 104th Streets The red brick building was renovated in the late 20th century and is now a youth hostel The Jackson Square Library built in 1887 with funds from George Vanderbilt III Grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt still exists as well This particular library one of the very first purpose built free and open public library buildings in New York only the Ottendorfer Library on Second Avenue in the East Village is extant and older was also one of the very first libraries to introduce the innovation of open stacks This allowed the public to actually pick books off the shelves themselves rather than having to find a card number in a catalog and ask a librarian to retrieve the book for them which was to this point standard practice based in part upon fear of theft The building continued to operate as a library until it was decommissioned in the early 1960s 30 Professional advocacy edit Referring to Hunt s efforts to elevate his chosen profession the architecture critic Paul Goldberger wrote in The New York Times that Hunt was American architecture s first and in many ways its greatest statesman 31 In 1857 Hunt co founded the New York Society of Architects which soon became the American Institute of Architects and from 1888 to 1891 served as the institute s third president Hunt advocated tirelessly for the improved status of architects arguing that they should be treated and paid as legitimate and respected professionals equivalent to doctors and lawyers In 1893 Hunt co founded New York s Municipal Art Society an outgrowth of the City Beautiful Movement and served as the society s first president 32 Many of Hunt s proteges had successful careers Among the employees who worked in his firm was the Franco American architect and Ecole des Beaux Arts graduate Emmanuel Louis Masqueray who went on to become Chief of Design at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St Louis Hunt encouraged artists and craftsmen frequently employing them to embellish his buildings most notably the sculptor Karl Bitter who worked on many of Hunt s projects Death and legacy edit nbsp Richard Morris Hunt Memorial Fifth Avenue New York CityHunt died at Newport Rhode Island in 1895 and was buried at Newport s Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery In 1898 the Municipal Art Society commissioned the Richard Morris Hunt Memorial designed by the architect Bruce Price with a bust of Hunt and two caryatids one representing art the other architecture sculpted by Daniel Chester French 33 The memorial was installed in the wall of Central Park along Fifth Avenue near 70th Street across the avenue from Hunt s Lenox Library which has since been replaced by the Frick Collection Following Hunt s death his son Richard Howland Hunt continued the practice his father had established 34 and in 1901 his brother Joseph Howland Hunt joined him to form the successor firm Hunt amp Hunt They completed many of their father s projects including the 1902 wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art The new wing for which the father a museum trustee had made the initial sketches in 1894 included the Fifth Avenue entrance facade the entrance hall and grand staircase 35 36 37 Selected works editHouses edit Thomas P Rossiter Eleazer Parmly Houses New York City 1855 1857 J N A Griswold House Newport Rhode Island 1863 1864 Everett Dunn House Tenafly New Jersey 1867 38 William F Coles House The Lodge Newport Rhode Island 1869 1870 demolished Martin Brimmer Houses Boston Massachusetts 1870 Richard Baker Jr House Westcliff Newport Rhode Island alterations about 1870 Richard Morris Hunt House Hypotenuse Newport Rhode Island alterations about 1870 Thomas Gold Appleton House Newport Rhode Island 1870 1871 destroyed by fire about 1920 Henry Marquand House Linden Gate Newport Rhode Island 1872 1873 destroyed by fire in 1973 H B Hollins Estate Meadow Farm East Islip New York Jacob Haskell House Orient Street Swampscott Massachusetts 1871 1873 39 Howland Circulating Library Beacon New York 1871 72 Marshall Field House Prairie Avenue Chicago Illinois 1873 1876 demolished 1955 G P Wetmore House Chateau sur Mer Newport Rhode Island alterations 1870 1873 and 1876 1880 40 William K Vanderbilt House Petit Chateau Fifth Avenue New York City 1878 1882 demolished 1926 41 William Kissam and Alva Vanderbilt House Idle Hour Suffolk County New York 1878 1882 destroyed by fire in 1899 42 Charles W Shields House Netherecliffe Newport Rhode Island 1881 1883 Henry Marquand House Madison Avenue New York City 1881 1884 demolished 43 Chateau de Montmery built for Theodore Haviland Ambazac Haute Vienne France 1885 James Pinchot House Grey Towers Milford Pennsylvania 1884 1886 Ogden Mills House Fifth Avenue New York City 1885 1887 demolished William Borden House Chicago Illinois 1884 1889 demolished Archibald Rogers Estate Hyde Park New York 1886 1889 William Kissam Vanderbilt House Marble House Newport Rhode Island 1888 1892 J R Busk House Indian Springs currently known as Wrentham House Newport Rhode Island 1889 1892 Ogden Goelet House Ochre Court Newport Rhode Island 1888 1893 Dorsheimer Busk House Newport Rhode Island 1890 1893 Oliver Belmont House Belcourt Newport Rhode Island 1891 1894 John Jacob Astor IV House Fifth Avenue New York City 1891 1895 demolished 1926 George Washington Vanderbilt House Biltmore Estate Asheville North Carolina 1890 1895 the largest private house in America Cornelius Vanderbilt II house The Breakers Newport Rhode Island 1892 1895 Elbridge Gerry House Fifth Avenue New York City 1895 demolished 1929 Public buildings edit Tenth Street Studio Building New York City 1857 demolished in 1956 Stuyvesant Apartments 142 East 18th Street New York City 1869 demolished about 1959 Scroll and Key Secret Society Yale University New Haven Connecticut 1869 East Divinity Hall Edwards Hall Yale University New Haven Connecticut 1869 demolished Marquand Chapel Yale University New Haven Connecticut 1871 demolished Presbyterian Hospital New York City 1869 1872 demolished Travers Block Bellevue Avenue Newport Rhode Island 1870 1872 Howland Cultural Center Beacon New York 1872 designed as the Howland Library for Hunt s brother in law Joseph Howland First Presbyterian Church Beacon New York 1872 partly burned Virginia Hall and other buildings Hampton Institute now Hampton University Hampton Virginia 1874 New York Tribune Building New York City 1875 demolished in 1966 Lenox Library Fifth Avenue New York City 1871 1877 demolished in 1912 Lenox Theological Library Princeton University Princeton New Jersey 1879 demolished about 1956 St Mark s Episcopal Church Islip New York 1879 1880 Marquand Chapel Princeton University Princeton New Jersey 1881 1882 destroyed by fire in 1920 Association Residence Nursing Home Amsterdam Avenue New York City 1881 1883 Statue of Liberty Liberty Enlightening the World pedestal Liberty Island 1881 1886 Aaron Burr Hall Princeton University Princeton New Jersey 1891 Clark Hall Case Western Reserve University Cleveland Ohio 1891 1892 Administration Building World s Columbian Exposition Chicago Illinois 1892 1893 demolished 44 Fogg Art Museum Cambridge Massachusetts 1892 1895 demolished and replaced in 1925 Southern Railway Biltmore Station One Biltmore Plaza Asheville North Carolina 1896 45 Cathedral of All Souls Biltmore Village Asheville North Carolina 1896 Metropolitan Museum of Art Main Wing entrance facade entrance hall and grand stairway Fifth Avenue New York City completed posthumously in 1902 Urban design edit Master plan for Columbia University s Morningside Heights campus New York City 1892 a losing entry in a three way competition won by McKim Mead amp White Statue pedestal edit Pedestal to The Pilgrim statue Pilgrim Hill Central Park New York City 1884 Gallery edit nbsp John N A Griswold House Newport Rhode Island 1861 1863 nbsp East Divinity Hall Yale College built 1869 demolished nbsp Scroll and Key Tomb Yale University 1869 nbsp Hunt s own house Hypotenuse Newport Rhode Island alteration c 1870 nbsp Travers Block Newport Rhode Island 1870 71 nbsp Marquand Chapel Yale College built 1871 demolished nbsp Henry G Marquand House Newport Rhode Island 1872 73 nbsp New York Tribune Building New York City built 1875 doubled in size in 1905 demolished 1966 nbsp Chateau sur Mer Newport Rhode Island enlarged and altered in 1870 1873 and 1876 1880 nbsp William K Vanderbilt House Fifth Avenue New York City built 1878 1882 demolished in 1926 nbsp Association Residence Nursing Home Amsterdam Avenue New York City built 1883 nbsp Henry G Marquand House Madison Avenue New York City built 1884 demolished nbsp Statue of Liberty Liberty Enlightening the World pedestal built 1881 1886 nbsp Jackson Square Library New York City 1887 nbsp Marble House Newport Rhode Island built 1888 1892 nbsp Ochre Court Newport Rhode Island built 1888 1893 nbsp Biltmore Estate America s largest private house designed for George Washington Vanderbilt II built 1890 1895 nbsp The Breakers Newport Rhode Island designed for Cornelius Vanderbilt II built 1892 1895 nbsp Vanderbilt Mausoleum Staten Island New York built 1885 1886 nbsp Administration Building World s Columbian Exposition Chicago completed 1893 demolished nbsp The Elbridge Gerry House Fifth Avenue New York City completed in 1895 demolished nbsp The Fogg Museum of Art Harvard University completed in 1895 demolished in 1925 nbsp Entrance wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York City completed posthumously in 1902 Awards and honors editHonorary Doctorate Harvard University Cambridge Massachusetts first architect to receive the honor 46 Royal Gold Medal Royal Institute of British Architects 1893 first American architect to be so honored Honorary member Academie francaise Chevalier of the Legion of Honor France 47 See also editThaddeus Leavitt Jarvis Hunt Jonathan Hunt Vermont Representative Jonathan Hunt Vermont Lieutenant Governor Leavitt Hunt William Morris Hunt Richard Sharp SmithReferences editNotes The Harvard Graduates Magazine Harvard Graduates Magazine Association March 30 1893 via Google Books Dwight Benjamin Woodbridge March 30 1874 The History of the Descendants of John Dwight of Dedham Mass J F Trow amp son printers and bookbinders ISBN 9781981482658 via Google Books Catharine Howland Hunt Unpublished Biography of Richard Morris Hunt 1896 1906 page 1 Lewis Richard Morris was married to Ellen Hunt a sister of Richard Morris Hunt s father See General Lewis R Morris House Springfield Vt National Register Connecticut River Joint Commissions crjc org Obituary of Richard Morris Hunt The New York Times August 1 1895 Catharine Howland Hunt Unpublished Biography of Richard Morris Hunt 1896 1906 page 16 Catharine Howland Hunt Unpublished Biography of Richard Morris Hunt 1896 1906 pages 19 20 Catharine Howland Hunt Unpublished Biography of Richard Morris Hunt 1896 1906 pages 19 20 Puritan Boston amp Quaker Philadelphia Edward Digby Baltzell Published by Transaction Publishers 1996 ISBN 1 56000 830 X Catharine Howland Hunt Unpublished Biography of Richard Morris Hunt 1896 1906 pages 23 24 Catharine Howland Hunt Unpublished Biography of Richard Morris Hunt 1896 1906 pages 25 McCullough David 2011 The Greater Journey Americans in Paris New York Simon amp Schuster ISBN 9781416576891 Dwight Benjamin Woodbridge March 30 1874 The History of the Descendants of John Dwight of Dedham Mass J F Trow amp son printers and bookbinders ISBN 9781981482658 via Google Books Morrison Hugh March 30 2018 Louis Sullivan Prophet of Modern Architecture W W Norton amp Company ISBN 9780393730234 via Google Books Catharine Howland Hunt Unpublished Biography of Richard Morris Hunt 1896 1906 pages 99 110 Catharine Howland Hunt Unpublished Biography of Richard Morris Hunt 1896 1906 page 103 Engineering Magazine Vol 10 The Engineering Magazine Co New York 1896 SOUZA J DA C G DE FRANCO J L DE A Frederick Law Olmsted Landscape Architecture and North American National Parks Topoi Rio J Rio de Janeiro v 21 n 45 p 754 774 sept dec 2020 Miller Sara Cedar Central Park An American Masterpiece p 57 Harry N Abrams Inc 2003 ISBN 0 8109 3946 0 Pilgrim NYC Parks Central Park Monuments June 26 1939 Retrieved August 16 2020 Pilgrim Hill www centralpark com April 3 2019 Retrieved August 16 2020 Pilgrim Hill Central Park Conservancy July 28 2020 Retrieved August 16 2020 Carroll R Berenson R J 2008 The Complete Illustrated Map and Guidebook to Central Park Sterling Publishing Company Incorporated p 57 ISBN 978 1 4027 5833 1 Retrieved August 16 2020 Ralph Waldo Emerson 1914 Edward Waldo Emerson and Waldo Emerson Forbes ed Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson 1864 1876 Boston Houghton Mifflin Company p 280 van Pelt A Monograph of the William K Vanderbilt House 10 cited in Vanderbilt Arthur T Fortune s Children William Morrow and Co 1989 89 Catharine Howland Hunt Unpublished Biography of Richard Morris Hunt 1896 1906 page 127 Catharine Howland Hunt Unpublished Biography of Richard Morris Hunt 1896 1906 page 131 Hartford Courant April 10 1861 page 2 Moseley D S 1893 Picturesque Chicago and Guide to the World s Fair p 192 Retrieved November 13 2020 Jackson Square Library An Exquisite Building and once a church of Exquisite Panic Village Preservation July 6 2020 Retrieved October 18 2022 Goldberger Paul May 22 1986 ARCHITECTURE TWO RICHARD MORRIS HUNT SHOWS The New York Times To Make the City Beautiful The New York Times April 20 1893 page 6 The Municipal Art Society of New York Archived from the original on September 27 2007 Retrieved February 11 2007 History of the Municipal Art Society official site Anonymous October 1 2009 Prominent Families of New York BiblioBazaar ISBN 9781115372305 via Google Books New Art Museum Wing The New York Times December 22 1902 page 6 MacKay Robert B Baker Anthony K Traynor Carol A March 30 1997 Long Island Country Houses and Their Architects 1860 1940 Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities in association with W W Norton amp Company ISBN 9780393038569 via Google Books Finding aid for the Henry Gurdon Marquand Papers 1852 1903 PDF libmma org Everett Dunn House Historical Marker hmdb org Thompson Waldo 1885 Swampscott Historical Sketches of the Town p 205 llc CC inspire Chateau sur Mer Architecture amp Design www newportmansions org Craven Wayne 2009 Gilded Mansions Grand Architecture and High Society New York W W Norton amp Company pp 111 126 ISBN 978 0 393067 54 5 VANDERBILT VILLA BURNED Flames Cut Short W K Vanderbilt Jr s Honeymoon at Idle Hour NARROW ESCAPE WITH BRIDE Flames Started While Household Slept Incendiary Mr Vanderbilt Says Bad Flue Perhaps The New York Times April 12 1899 ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved September 14 2021 Henry Gurdon Marquand joined Charles McKim as a pallbearer at Hunt s funeral Gold medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects Potter Janet Greenstein 1996 Great American Railroad Stations New York John Wiley amp Sons Inc p 266 ISBN 978 0471143895 The Harvard Graduates Magazine Harvard Graduates Magazine Association March 30 1893 via Google Books Rybczynski Witold March 30 2018 The Look of Architecture Oxford University Press ISBN 9780195156331 via Google Books Bibliography Baker Paul Richard Morris Hunt MIT Press 1980 Durante Dianne Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan A Historical Guide New York University Press 2007 brief summary of Hunt s career and description of Daniel Chester French s Hunt memorial in Central Park New York Great Buildings Online Kvaran Einar Einarsson Architectural Sculpture of America Stein Susan Editor The Architecture of Richard Morris Hunt University of Chicago Press 1986Further reading Exploration Vision amp Influence The Art World of Brattleboro s Hunt Family Catalogue Museum Exhibition The Bennington Museum Bennington Vermont June 23 December 31 2005 Paul R Baker Sally Webster David Hanlon and Stephen PerkinsExternal links edit nbsp Media related to Richard Morris Hunt at Wikimedia Commons Richard Morris Hunt at Find a Grave Death of Richard Morris Hunt One of the Foremost Architects of the United States The New York Times August 1 1895 Additional obituary Richard Morris Hunt The New York Times August 1 1895 nyc architecture com Richard Morris Hunt collection The Octagon Museum The Museum of The American Architectural Foundation Washington D C Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Richard Morris Hunt amp oldid 1193588370, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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