Background
Christopher Grant La Farge was born in 1862 in United States.
Christopher Grant La Farge was born in 1862 in United States.
Two years he studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He began practical training in the office of Henry Hobson Richardson at Brookline, Mass., he opened an office to start professional practice in New York in 1884, and shortly after joined a classmate, George L. Heins in organizing the firm of Heins & LaFarge. About that time a nation-wide competition was instituted for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, and the partners submitted a design of the proposed edifice. Against twenty-five of the leading architects in the country Heins and LaFarge won the competition and later were commissioned architects of the building. Within a year plans were completed, and following the laying of the corner-stone on December 27, 1892, work on the structure was continued until the death of Mr. Heins in 1907, when Mr. LaFarge assumed charge.
Between 1910 and 1915 he was associated in partnership with Benjamin W. Morris (LaFarge & Morris), and after an interval of independent practice, carried on work under the successive firms of LaFarge, Warren & Clark, and LaFarge, Clark & Creighton. During the last phase of his career his son Christopher, a member of his office for several years, was taken into partnership under the name of LaFarge & Son.
Throughout a practice of more than fifty years Mr. LaFarge was a leading practitioner in the field of ecclesiastical and institutional architecture. Among the distinguished examples of his work should be cited the Fourth Presbyterian Church and Parsonage in New York at the corner of West End Avenue and 93rd Street; St. Matthews Roman Catholic Cathedral, 1725 Rhode Island Avenue, Washington, D. C., began in 1893 and unfinished at the time of his decease; Church of the Blessed Sacrament in Providence, R. I., St. Paul’s Church and Parish House in Rochester, N. Y., Chapel and Parish House of St. Michael’s Church, Geneseo, N. Y., Houghton Memorial Chapel, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass., Catholic Church at Tuxedo, N. Y., St. Faith’s Deaconess Home in New York, West 115 Street; and the Roman Catholic Chapel at West Point, N. Y. During his association with Benjamin Morris the firm designed St. James Cathedral at Seattle, Wash., and St. Patrick's Church in Philadelphia, both built about 1915.
Mr. LaFarge was also identified with the design of several notable secular buildings which were: the U. S. Naval Hospital at Brooklyn (war work); all stations of the New York Subway built for the Rapid Transit Commission; all buildings at the New York Zoological Park; Packard Memorial Library, Salt Lake City, Utah; Morgan Building and the Wiliiams Memorial at Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., and in New York the Genealogical Society Building, and the Chelsea-Moore Apartment House. Mr. LaFarge also designed the residence of Casper Whitney at Irvington, N. Y., the Donald Frothingham home at Darien, Conn., and several other distinguished houses.
An eminent member of the profession, Mr. LaFarge was affiliated with many architectural organizations. He was a member and past president of both the New York Chapter, A. I. A. and the Architectural League of New York; was chosen for Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects in 1909, served on the Board of Directors during several years, and held the office of VicePresident for one term. Also a member of the A. I. A.'s Committee for Edu¬cation, he rendered great services to the profession during his latter years, visiting architectural schools over the country and lecturing on the cultural aspects of the profession. At Columbia University he was elected Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the School of Architecture, and served in the same capacity at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He left three sons, Christopher, who succeeded to his practice, Francis, and Oliver (author and anthropologist), and a daughter, Margaret (Mrs. V. H. Osborn).