Richard Howland Hunt

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Richard Howland Hunt
Richard Howland Hunt.jpg
Born(1862-03-14)March 14, 1862
Paris
DiedJuly 12, 1931(1931-07-12) (aged 69)
Manhattan
Resting placeNewport, Rhode Island[1]
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology
École des Beaux-Arts
5 East 66th Street, now the Lotos Club
The 69th Regiment Armory in Manhattan, completed in 1906
The First Police Precinct Station, now the New York City Police Museum

Richard Howland Hunt (March 14, 1862 — July 12, 1931) was an American architect and member of the notable Hunt family of Vermont, who worked in partnership with his brother Joseph Howland Hunt in New York City, as Hunt & Hunt. The brothers were sons of the first American Beaux-Arts architect, Richard Morris Hunt. Richard practiced in his father's office until the elder Hunt's death in July 1895, and continued, not without initial resistance on the part of trustees,[2] to carry out his father's designs for the central block of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[3] After a brief interval, the brothers formed a partnership in 1901[4] that was only terminated by Joseph's death in 1924.[5]

Early life[]

Hunt was born on March 14, 1862 in Paris, where his father, Richard Morris Hunt (1827—1895), was completing his architectural studies. His mother, Catherine Clinton Howland (1841–1880), was the youngest daughter of the prominent merchant Samuel Shaw Howland of Howland & Aspinwall. His siblings were Catharine Howland Hunt (wife of Rear Adm. , son of William H. Hunt), fellow architect Joseph Howland Hunt,[5] Esther Morris Hunt (wife of George Muirson Woolsey),[6] and oilman Herbert Leavitt Hunt (who married Evelyn Frances Bell).[7][8]

Hunt studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, where his father had studied. His younger brother Joseph Howland Hunt studied at Harvard College and the School of Architecture at Columbia University before following his brother to the École des Beaux-Arts, returning to New York in 1901.[5]

Career[]

In 1887, Richard Howland Hunt joined his father's offices, first as a draftsman and later an associate. In the interim following his father's death he attracted wealthy clients and built residences such as the Margaret Shepard house at 5 East 66th Street in 1900 (today home to the Lotos Club).[9]

Urban residences by Hunt & Hunt include the two Beaux-Arts houses designed for George W. Vanderbilt at 645 and 647 Fifth Avenue, known as The "Marble Twins". Only No. 647, a designated New York City Landmark, survives today.

The brothers were primarily known for their elegant residences in Long Island, Tuxedo Park, New York, and Newport, Rhode Island. Their armory building for the 69th Regiment, New York, was the first armory to abandon pseudo-medieval crenellations.

Hunt & Hunt projects[]

Collaborations with sculptors[]

As did many of the architects of the time, Hunt & Hunt designed bases and pedestals for sculptors. These include:[23]

References[]

Notes

  1. ^ "Richard Howland Hunt, New York City Deaths". familysearch.org.
  2. ^ Baker, Paul R. Richard Morris Hunt Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press 1980:442ff.
  3. ^ Hunt was unable to persuade the Museum's trustees to complete the sculptural groups. Bogart, Michele H. Public Sculpture and the Civic Ideal in New York City 1989:158-65
  4. ^ Landmarks Preservation Commission: First Precinct Police station, 20 September 1977 Accessed 2 December 2008. Basic biographical details.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c "JOSEPH H. HUNT DIES, NOTED ARCHITECT.; President of Municipal Art Society a Victim of Pneumonia at 54 Years. !". The New York Times. October 12, 1924. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  6. ^ "GEORGE WOOLSEY, S.P. C. A. HEAD, DIES; President of Society Since 1932 Held Many Offices in Organization". The New York Times. April 23, 1937. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  7. ^ TIMES, Special Cable to THE NEW YORK (December 2, 1908). "HUNT LOSES SUIT FOR GIFTS.; Referee Holds That Wedding Presents Were Given to Him and Wife Jointly". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  8. ^ "MRS. H. L. HUNT. DEAD; Wife of Oil Man Was Trustee! of Mary Baldwin College". The New York Times. May 8, 1955. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  9. ^ White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot (2000). AIA Guide to New York City (4th ed.). New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0-8129-3107-5.
  10. ^ Gray, Christopher. "Streetscapes: 647 Fifth Avenue; A Versace Restoration for a Vanderbilt Town House" The New York Times (April 9, 1995) accessed 2 December 2008.
  11. ^ Library of Congress.
  12. ^ Milford Heritage Tour.
  13. ^ Crofut, Doris (1975). St. Mary's-in-Tuxedo, 1888-1975. Tuxedo Park, NY: Library Research Associates Inc. p. 11. OCLC 2006112.
  14. ^ "A Tour of Our Campus". Retrieved July 12, 2021.
  15. ^ The armory.
  16. ^ The Architectural Record November 1916, Three Connecticut Country Houses, Vol XL No 5
  17. ^ New York Times, October 2, 2005, Real Estate section, "A Neighborhood to Move Around In", by Lisa Prevost.
  18. ^ [1]
  19. ^ Pinchot was the brother of the conservationist Gifford Pinchot, superintendent of the forest surrounding Biltmore, built by Richard Morris hunt for George Washington Vanderbilt, completed by Richard H. hunt in 1896.
  20. ^ Trager, James. Park Avenue, Street of Dreams (Atheneum, 1990).
  21. ^ MacKay, Robert B.; Anthony K. Baker; Carol A. Traynor (1997). Long Island Country Houses and Their Architects, 1860-1940. New York: Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities in association with W.W. Norton & Co. pp. 231–232. ISBN 978-0-393-03856-9.
  22. ^ historic CVampus Architecture Project: Alumnae House.
  23. ^ Search results: "Hunt & Hunt, architectural firm" on the Art Iventories Catalog of the Smithsonian American Art Museum via the Smithsonian Institution Research Information System

Bibliography

  • Mackay, Robert; Baker, Anthony; and Traynor, Carol eds. Long Island Country Houses And Their Architects 1860 to 1940

External links[]

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