# Arthur Rotch

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{{short description|American architect (1850–1894)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2023}}
{{Infobox architect
| name = Arthur Rotch
| image = Arthur Rotch(cropped).jpg
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1850|05|13}}
| birth_place = [Milton](/source/Milton%2C_Massachusetts), Massachusetts
| death_date = {{death date and age|1894|8|15|1850|5|13}}
| death_place = [Beverly](/source/Beverly%2C_Massachusetts), Massachusetts
| resting_place = [Mount Auburn Cemetery](/source/Mount_Auburn_Cemetery)
| signature = Signature of Arthur Rotch (1850–1894).png
| relatives = {{plainlist|
* [Abbott Lawrence Rotch](/source/Abbott_Lawrence_Rotch) (brother)
* [Abbott Lawrence](/source/Abbott_Lawrence) (grandfather)
}}
| embedded = {{infobox person|child=yes|
 education          = {{plainlist|
* [Harvard College](/source/Harvard_College)
* [École des Beaux-Arts](/source/%C3%89cole_des_Beaux-Arts)
}}}}
| practice = [Rotch & Tilden](/source/Rotch_%26_Tilden)
| spouse = {{marriage|Lisette DeWolf Colt|1892}}
}}

'''Arthur Rotch''' (May 13, 1850 – August 15, 1894) was an American [architect](/source/architect) active in [Boston](/source/Boston), [Massachusetts](/source/Massachusetts).<ref name="Harvard1895">{{cite book|last1=Castle|first1=William Richards|last2=Pier|first2=Arthur Stanwood|title=The Harvard Graduates' Magazine|date=1895|publisher=Harvard Graduates' Magazine Association|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yitYAAAAYAAJ&q=arthur+rotch+%28-1894%29&pg=PA290|access-date=5 March 2017|language=en}}</ref>

==Early life==
Rotch was born May 13, 1850, in [Milton, Massachusetts](/source/Milton%2C_Massachusetts) to Benjamin Smith Rotch (1817–1882) and Annie Bigelow Lawrence (1820–1893). His was a prominent [Boston](/source/Boston) family whose roots went back to [Nantucket](/source/Nantucket) and [New Bedford](/source/New_Bedford%2C_Massachusetts) [whaling](/source/whaling) and shipping interests in the 18th century. His maternal grandfather, [Abbott Lawrence](/source/Abbott_Lawrence), was minister to [Great Britain](/source/Great_Britain) and one of the founders of [Lawrence, Massachusetts](/source/Lawrence%2C_Massachusetts).<ref name=blue/>

He studied humanities at [Harvard College](/source/Harvard_College) for four years, graduating in 1871, and spent two years (1872–1873) at the [Massachusetts Institute of Technology](/source/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology). He then worked as a draftsman at the firm of [Ware](/source/William_Robert_Ware) and [Brunt](/source/Henry_Van_Brunt).<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZVSL6eyIxZkC&dq=rotch+and+tilden+architects&pg=PA112 O'Gorman, James F., ''On the Boards: Drawings by Nineteenth-Century Boston Architects'', University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989], {{ISBN|9780812212877}} p. 112</ref> From 1874 to 1880 studied at the [École des Beaux-Arts](/source/%C3%89cole_des_Beaux-Arts) and in the atelier of [Emile Vaudremer](/source/Emile_Vaudremer).<ref name="Lawrence1904">{{cite book|last1=Lawrence|first1=Robert Means|title=The Descendants of Major Samuel Lawrence of Groton, Massachusetts: With Some Mention of Allied Families|date=1904|publisher=Printed at the Riverside Press|isbn=9780608318417|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=osY6AAAAMAAJ&q=Lisette+DeWolf+Colt+rotch&pg=PA144|access-date=5 March 2017|language=en}}</ref>

==Career==
While in France he was in charge of the restoration of the [Château de Chenonceau](/source/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Chenonceau).

In 1880, he became partner of [Rotch & Tilden](/source/Rotch_%26_Tilden) (Boston) with [George Thomas Tilden](/source/George_Thomas_Tilden), designing churches, the Memorial Library in [Bridgewater, Massachusetts](/source/Bridgewater%2C_Massachusetts), gymnasiums of [Bowdoin College](/source/Bowdoin_College) and [Phillips Exeter Academy](/source/Phillips_Exeter_Academy), various buildings of [Milton Academy](/source/Milton_Academy), the art schools and art museum of [Wellesley College](/source/Wellesley_College), and many private houses and business blocks throughout the [United States](/source/United_States). In 1893, he designed [Ventfort Hall](/source/Ventfort_Hall_Mansion_and_Gilded_Age_Museum) in [Lenox, Massachusetts](/source/Lenox%2C_Massachusetts) for George Hale Morgan and Sarah Morgan, the daughter of [Junius Spencer Morgan](/source/Junius_Spencer_Morgan).<ref name="gilded">{{cite news|last1=Brooke|first1=James|title=Travel Advisory; Berkshires Mansion Preserves the Gilded Age|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/19/travel/travel-advisory-berkshires-mansion-preserves-the-gilded-age.html |access-date=2023-06-07 |newspaper=[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)|date=19 August 2001}}</ref>

In 1884, he designed for his brother, [Abbott Lawrence Rotch](/source/Abbott_Lawrence_Rotch), the [Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory](/source/Blue_Hill_Meteorological_Observatory), the oldest, continuously operated weather Observatory in the United States – now both an International Benchmark Climate Station and a National Historic Landmark.<ref name=blue>[http://bluehill.org/observatory/about-us/history/ "A Brief History of the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory"], Blue Hill Observatory and Science Center</ref>

Rotch was chairman of the visiting committee of Fine Arts of [Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University), a member of the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

==Personal life==
On November 16, 1892, he married Lisette DeWolf Colt.

In his will, he left more than $100,000 (equivalent to ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|100000|1894}}}} today) to public and charitable organizations.<ref>{{cite news |title=Boston Institutions Remembered.; Two Men Leave Large Sums of Money for Their Endowment. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-times-boston-institutions-r/127740604/ |access-date=2023-07-06 |newspaper=[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times) |publication-date=23 August 1894 |page=12 |date=1894-08-22 |place=Boston |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

In 1883, Rotch and his siblings founded the Rotch Traveling Scholarship in memory of their father, Benjamin Smith Rotch. The scholarship sends an American student of architecture for a minimum of eight months study and travel abroad. Benjamin Rotch, a relatively well-known landscape artist, had studied painting in Paris in 1847,<ref>[http://rotch.org/about/index.html#history Rotch Travelling Scholarship]</ref> and appreciated the "value of foreign travel in stimulating young architects' imagination through contact with great buildings of the past."<ref>White, Eric. [https://www.architects.org/news/memory-fathers "In Memory of Fathers"], Boston Society of Architects, June 15, 2016</ref>

Arthur Rotch died of [pleurisy](/source/pleurisy) in [Beverly, Massachusetts](/source/Beverly%2C_Massachusetts) on August 15, 1894, at the age of forty-four.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KRdLAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA57 |title=Death of Arthur Rotch |journal=American Architect & Building News |volume=XLV |number=793 |page=57 |date=August 18, 1894 |access-date=2023-07-06 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KRdLAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA21 |title=Twenty-Eighth Annual Report of the Board of Directors, A. I. A. |journal=American Architect & Building News |volume=XLVI |number=982 |page=20 |date=1894-10-20 |access-date=2023-07-06 |via=Google Books}}</ref> He was buried at [Mount Auburn Cemetery](/source/Mount_Auburn_Cemetery).<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/boston-evening-transcript-funeral-of-art/127741417/ |title=Funeral of Arthur Rotch |newspaper=[Boston Evening Transcript](/source/Boston_Evening_Transcript) |page=1 |date=1894-08-18 |access-date=2023-07-06 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

He was a vestryman at [Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Boston](/source/Emmanuel_Episcopal_Church%2C_Boston); the reredos was donated by his sister Aimee Rotch Sergent Sargent in memory of him, their sister, and their parents.<ref>[https://www.emmanuelboston.org/mission/building/highlights-of-our-building/highlights-furnishings-memorials/#rotch "Rotch Reredos"], Emmanuel Episcopal Church</ref>

==See also==
* [Rotch & Tilden](/source/Rotch_%26_Tilden)

==References==
;Notes
{{Reflist}}

;Sources
* {{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Rotch, Arthur|year=1900}}

==External links==
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Arthur Rotch |sopt=t}}
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=YRSZ30aTMkAC&dq=rotch+and+tilden+architects&pg=PA20 Photo of Arthur Rotch]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rotch, Arthur}}
Category:1850 births
Category:1894 deaths
Category:Architects from Boston
Category:Harvard College alumni
Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
Category:People from Milton, Massachusetts
Category:American alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts
Category:19th-century American architects
Category:Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Arthur Rotch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rotch) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rotch?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.