Background
Lawson was born on September 13, 1863 in Hyde Park, New York, United States, the son of James Souveraine Purdy, an Episcopal clergyman, and Frances Hannah Carter.
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(Excerpt from The American Monthly Magazine, Vol. 39: July...)
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Lawson was born on September 13, 1863 in Hyde Park, New York, United States, the son of James Souveraine Purdy, an Episcopal clergyman, and Frances Hannah Carter.
Lawson Purdy graduated from St. Paul's School, Concord, in 1880, and received a Bachelor of arts from Trinity College in 1884. He returned to Trinity College for an Master of arts, awarded in 1887. Later he Purdy attended New York Law School.
Purdy toured Europe and Asia Minor in 1885-1886. While employed as treasurer of the New York Bank Note Company (1891 - 1897), Purdy was admitted to the bar in 1898. Like many other civic reformers of the early twentieth century, he was profoundly influenced by the single-tax doctrines of Henry George.
He served as president of the New York City Department of Taxes and Assessments (1906 - 1917); vice-president of the National Tax Association (1907 - 1912); and president of the National Municipal League (1916 - 1919). He had been a member of the advisory Heights of Buildings Commission in 1913 and vice-chairman of the Commission on Building Districts and Restrictions in 1914-1916; these commissions, appointed by the New York City Board of Estimate, laid the groundwork for the necessary enabling state legislation as well as the zoning law.
Purdy's interest in zoning and taxation led inexorably to advocacy of city planning. Purdy served as secretary of the New York State Commission to Revise the Tenement House Law in 1927; its work led to the comprehensive Multiple Dwelling Law of 1929, an updating of the nationally influential New York State Tenement House Law of 1901. After resigning the presidency of the Department of Taxes and Assessments, Purdy became general director of the New York Charity Organization Society (1918 - 1933).
In the 1930's he served as a trustee of numerous welfare and nonprofit organizations.
Purdy died in Port Washington, New York.
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(Excerpt from The American Monthly Magazine, Vol. 39: July...)
Purdy wanted to modernize the archaic and inequitable system of local and state taxation inherited from the preindustrial past. His ideal was always George's principle of land as the major revenue source, as opposed to taxes on income, labor products, or consumption. He advocated a "decent burial" for the personal property tax (a tax on possessions other than real estate). His vehement criticism was based on the blatant violation by that tax of the standards of efficiency and equity that governed his tax doctrines.
Purdy insisted that a fair assessment of personal property was impossible, producing a patchwork system of undertaxation and overtaxation for most individuals. The personal property tax failed to meet two critical tests: that taxes be in proportion to ability to pay and, most important, that taxes should be in proportion to the benefits received from government. Purdy's tax program also included elimination from state constitutions of archaic constraints upon the legislatures regarding taxation options; the apportionment of state taxes in proportion to local revenues; publication of assessment rolls; separate listing of land and building assessments; and a higher tax upon land than upon buildings.
Quotations: ''Men must try and try again. They must suffer the consequences of their own mistakes and learn by their own failures and their own successes. ''
Lawson Purdy had great diplomatic and conciliatory skills, combined with his unquestioned knowledge of land and tax issues. Cultivated and urbane, Purdy was likened by one contemporary to a French statesman - ecclesiastic in modern dress. His undergraduate training - traditional and literary - triggered a lifelong involvement in cultural pursuits: literature, theology, Gothic architecture.
On February 3, 1885 Purdy married Mary Jenkins McCracken. The couple had one daughter. His wife died in 1939, and Purdy married Hélène Schmitz Wexelsen on July 3, 1940. They had no children.