Designs for the Gateways of the Southern Entrances to the Central Park
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Hunt was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, on October 31, 1827. He came from early Colonial stock, his paternal ancestry going back to Jonathan Hunt who was born at Winchester, Connecticut, in 1637. The successive representatives of the family were men of substance and each one appears to have possessed an unusually forceful temperament. Toward the end of the eighteenth century a large part of the family estate was situated in Brattleboro, Vt. , and this became the inheritance of two brothers, Jonathan and Arad, both of them born in Brattleboro, the former in 1787, the latter in 1790. Jonathan became a member of Congress and died from cholera in Washington in 1832. He married Jane Maria Leavitt who also came from old American stock and was born at Suffield, Connecticut They had five children, Jane, William Morris, John, who studied medicine, Richard, and Leavitt.
From his father Richard inherited the type of character that imposes its will on others. With it, redeeming it from harshness or ruthlessness, went a warm-hearted and fair-minded perception and regard for the rights of others. From his mother came a love of art; and the combination of these qualities was the foundation of his success. While his artistic power is unquestioned, it would not have found fields in which to grow and expand had not his personal magnetism won him friends and inspired them with confidence in his ability. He and his brothers and sister made an interesting group and a large measure of the ability shown by all of the children doubtless came from the brilliant qualities of their mother. Both Mrs. Hunt and her daughter Jane painted, the former in oil and on china, in which mediums she exhibited unusual talent.
Education
The atmosphere of art in his house was stimulated by the advent within the family circle of the Italian painter, Gambadella, a refugee from his native country. He gave lessons to Mrs. Hunt and Jane, and William probably received much of the impulse of his youth toward painting from this early association. Richard was too young to do much as a painter at that period, but he constructed a small brick house for himself in the back yard and from that, those who wish to, can trace the budding genius of the architect.
As a boy, Richard attended a Quaker school at Sandwich, Massachussets, and subsequently went to the Boston Latin School from which he graduated in 1843. In that year the family went to Paris. Richard was sent on to a military school in Geneva and expected to become a soldier. Fortunately, his interest in architecture manifested itself too strongly to permit such a waste.
In 1892 he received the honorary degree of LL. D. from Harvard University, the first artist so honored by that university.
Career
He went to work in the studio of Samuel Darier in Geneva. During the following year, 1845, he entered the studio of Hector Martin Lefuel in Paris and was admitted at the age of nineteen to the Beaux-Arts in December of 1846. He continued his studies in Paris for nine years. During this time he also worked with the painter, Couture, and the sculptor, Barye. At different times during this period he made trips through Europe, Asia Minor, and Egypt, going up the Nile in 1852. He finally took up practical work in architecture (1854) under Lefuel as an inspector of construction employed on additions to the Louvre and the Tuileries.
In 1855 he returned to America. His first job was as a draftsman under Thomas U. Walter, working on the Capitol at Washington. Toward the end of 1856 or the early part of 1857 he settled in New York and in 1858 opened a studio where a number of young architects obtained their first ideas of the art from him. William R. Ware, who developed the School of Architecture at Columbia University, was one of his disciples. Other students were Henry Van Brunt, George B. Post, and Frank Furness.
Hunt was not the kind of man to accept opposition peacefully, especially if it was unreasonable or unfair. When a certain dentist, Dr. Parmly, built two expensive houses from designs which the young architect claimed to have drawn, and refused to compensate him, Hunt brought suit against him. He was awarded only a part of the usual commission, although he produced a large mass of working drawings made by him and used on the buildings. The case was of great benefit to American architects from the professional point of view as it developed better methods of professional practice. It had much to do with the young man's early successes because it brought him to the notice of wealthy New Yorkers. Shortly after this, during the sixties, he went again to Europe and remained there until 1868.
Returning to New York, he reopened an office there and began the work by which he is best known. His earlier buildings were not immune from criticism. One of them, the Tribune Building, built in 1873, was the first of the elevator office buildings. His most successful efforts were the Newport residences that he designed for such clients as Ogden Goelet, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Oliver H. P. Belmont, and Mrs. William Vanderbilt. His last, the most magnificent of his country-house creations, was "Biltmore, " at Asheville, N. C. , designed and built in 1890 in the style of Francis I. He constructed a number of town houses, one in 1891 for Elbridge T. Gerry at Fifth Avenue and Sixty-first Street and one in 1893 for John Jacob Astor at Fifth Avenue and Sixty-fifth Street.
Many architects believe that his preeminent masterpiece was the William K. Vanderbilt house, begun in 1878, on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and Fifty-second Street. It was also in French Renaissance design as far as the exterior, main staircase, hall, and banquet hall were concerned, although some of the salons were lovely examples of the Régence. The Caen Stone staircase was a particularly elaborate piece of stone carving and rose from the main hall opposite a large carved stone fireplace to a beautiful gallery above. The banquet hall across the rear of the house was two stories in height and was surrounded by a wainscot of carved oak panels, each a gem of design and of the carver's art.
One of Hunt's most important structures was the Administration Building of the World's Fair of 1893. He was also responsible for the main portion of the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York, the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, the Lenox Library, Scroll and Key Club at Yale University, and the National Observatory in Washington. Hunt acted as a member of the fine arts juries of the sections of architecture at the Paris Exposition in 1867, of the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, and in 1891 of the forthcoming World's Columbian Exposition.
He was one of the founders of the American Institute of Architects and its first secretary from 1857 to 1860. Most of its early meetings were held in his office and from 1888 to 1891 he was its third president.
He was an honorary and corresponding member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts of the Institute of France and a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. He was elected a member of the Société Centrale des Architects and was an honorary and corresponding member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and of the Society of Engineers and Architects of Vienna.
Connections
On April 2, 1861, in New York City, he married Catharine Clinton Howland, the daughter of Samuel Shaw Howland and niece of Gardiner Greene Howland. They had five children of whom Richard and Joseph studied architecture.