Hunt

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, Mass., and subse-
quently 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 be-
come a soldier. Fortunately, his interest in ar-
chitecture manifested itself too strongly to per-
mit such a waste and before long 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 dur-
ing this period he made trips through Europe,
Asia Minor, and Egypt, going up the Nile in
1852. He finally took up practical work in ar-
chitecture (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 un-
der 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 Univer-
sity, 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 oppo-
sition peacefully, especially if it was unreason-
able or unfair. When a certain dentist, Dr.
Parmly, built two expensive houses from de-
signs 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 pro-
duced 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 be-
cause it bnwght him to the notice of wealthy
New Yorkers. Shortly after this, during the
sixties, he went again to Europe and remained
tbere mill 1868. Returning to New York, he
reopened an office there and began the work by
wfjkfc he is best tapwn. His earlier buildings

Hunt

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 Goe-
let, 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 con-
structed 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 1C 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 Regence. 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 carv-
er's art One of Hunt's most important struc-
tures 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 Li-
brary, Scroll and Key Club at Yale University,
and the National Observatory in Washington.
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 On Apr. 2,1861, in New
York City, he married Catharine Clinton How-
land, the daughter of Samuel Shaw Howland
and niece of Gardiner Greene Howland [#.#.].
They had five children of whom Richard and
Joseph studied architecture.

Hunt acted as a member of the fine arts juries
of the sections of architecture at the Paris Ex-
position in 1867, of the Centennial Exposition at
Philadelphia in 1876, and in 1891 of the forth-
coming World's Columbian Exposition. In 1892
he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from
Harvard University, the first artist so honored
by that university. He was an honorary and
corresponding member of the Academic des
Beaux-Arts of the Institute of Francs and a

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