WALTER COPE

Background

Walter Cope was born in 1860 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

Education

He was educated at the Friends’ School in Germantown.

Career

He entered the office of a builder, later received a thorough architectural training under T .P. Chandler. In 1884 he left for a year of travel and study in Europe, and upon his return to Philadelphia in 1886 exhibited sketches prepared during his tour showing skilled draftsmanship.

Later in the eighties Mr. Cope formed a partnership with John and Emlyn Stewardson, and in the course of the next few years Cope & Stewardson became one of the leading architectural firms in the east. Their first commission to design Radnor Hall at Bryn Mawr College was followed successively by Pembroke and Denbigh Halls, the Library and Gymnasium. With that achievement, the firm's reputation as specialists in the field of college architecture was firmly established. In 1896 Mr. Cope and his partners were appointed architects of buildings at Princeton University, of which Blair Hall with its great arched tower and its flanking dormitories are notable examples. These were the most important of the firm's designs prior to the death of John Stewardson by accidental drowning in 1896. Later work at Princeton included the Ivy Club, 1897, Stafford Little Hall', 1899, and the huge Gymnasium, completed in 1903. Considered by many the finest of Cope & Stewardson's educational buildings was Brookings Hall at Washington University, St. Louis, awarded the firm in a competition of 1899, and in 1904 occupied as the Administration Building of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Busch and Cupples Halls and the Ridgeley Library were also designed by Mr. Cope. At the University of Pennsylvania the firm is represented by the Law School (of modified Georgian style), and in striking contrast, the early Romanesque Archaeological Museum, the latter in association with Frank M. Day and Wilson Eyre. Also credited to Mr. Cope is Lloyd Hall at Haverford College, Pa.

After winning recognition in collegiate work of English type, Mr. Cope demonstrated his versatility in employing other styles with equal success to various types of public and private buildings. Among these were the Pennsylvania State Institute for the Instruction of the Blind at Overbrook, Pa., a most successful adaptation of informal Spanish Renaissance; the Lady Chapel at St. Mark's Church, Philadelphia, in the richest late Gothic, while the Municipal Building in Washington. D. C., completed in 1908 after his death, (later named the District Building) was of French type in the classical style. In domestic architecture his work was equally distinctive, including a number of homes in Philadelphia and suburban locations.

Mr. Cope served several years as a manager of the Stewardson Traveling Scholarship (founded by his partner) was largely responsible for the founding of the T-Square Club.

Works

More photos

• Other Work

  • Blair Hall of Princeton University

    (now containing memorial tablets to both Mr. Cope and the ...)

  • Radnor Hall at Bryn Mawr College

    (The first commission of Cope & Stewardson. In designing o...)

Membership

A member and in 1893 elected a Fellow of the A.I.A., he was later appointed Chairman of the Committee.

Connections

Married Eliza Middleton Kane, 1893.

Father:

Thomas P. Cope

Mother:

Elizabeth (Stokes) Cope

teacher:

T .P. Chandler

Walter Cope received a architectural training under T .P. Chandler.

coworker:

Emlyn Stewardson

In the eighties Mr. Cope formed a partnership with John and Emlyn Stewardson

coworker:

Wilson Eyre

Romanesque Archaeological Museum was designed by Mr. Cope in association with Frank M. Day and Wilson Eyre