Background
Henry Ogden Avery was born in 1852 at Brooklyn, N. Y„ he was the son of Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904)
Henry Ogden Avery was born in 1852 at Brooklyn, N. Y„ he was the son of Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904)
The youth received his first training in architecture at the Art School of Cooper Union, and after a subsequent period of apprenticeship under the late Russell Sturgis, completed his professional studies at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, mainly under the tutelage of Professor Andre, mem¬ber of the French Academy.
Mr Avery returned to New York in 1879, and after a few years of draftsmanship in his office of Richard, M. Hunt. began practice for himself in 1883, devoting his attention mainly to designing monuments and mortuary buildings, also private homes of distinction. Among the latter was a two story budding erected in 1887 on the Caswell Estate on Fifth Avenue ad lining the Stewart Museum, and used for Exhibition purposes.
After Mr Avery's decease his father founded the Henry Ogden Avery Library of Architecture at Columbia University, and the building erected on the campus in 1912 stands as a memorial to both father and son.