{{Short description|American architect}} {{infobox person | name = Richard Howland Hunt | image = Richard Howland Hunt.jpg | birth_date = {{birth date|1862|3|14}} | death_date = {{death date and age|1931|7|12|1862|3|14}} | birth_place = Paris, France | death_place = New York City, US | resting_place = Newport, Rhode Island<ref>{{cite web|publisher=familysearch.org|title=Richard Howland Hunt, New York City Deaths|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WK9-33W|access-date=2026-05-20|archive-date=2017-02-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170218010219/https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WK9-33W|url-status=live}}</ref> | alma_mater = Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br />École des Beaux-Arts }} [[File:William Jay Schieffelin House.JPG|thumb|230px|5 East 66th Street, now the Lotos Club]] [[File:69th-regiment-armory.JPG|thumb|right|230px|The 69th Regiment Armory in Manhattan, completed in 1906]] [[File:New-york-city-police-museum.JPG|thumb|right|230px|The First Police Precinct Station, now the New York City Police Museum]]
'''Richard Howland Hunt''' (March 14, 1862 – July 12, 1931) was an American architect and member of the Hunt family of Vermont who worked with his brother Joseph Howland Hunt in New York City at '''Hunt & Hunt'''.
The brothers were sons of Richard Morris Hunt, the first American Beaux-Arts architect. Richard practiced in his father's office until the elder Hunt died in 1895, then continued to carry out his father's designs for the central block of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,<ref>Hunt was unable to persuade the Museum's trustees to complete the sculptural groups. Bogart, Michele H. ''Public Sculpture and the Civic Ideal in New York City'' 1989:158-65</ref> not without initial resistance by the museum's trustees.<ref name="Baker1980">Baker, Paul R. ''Richard Morris Hunt'' Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press 1980:442ff.</ref> In 1901, the brothers formed a partnership<ref>[http://nycnpc.org/db/bb_files/77FIRSTPOLICEPRECINCT.pdf Landmarks Preservation Commission: First Precinct Police station, 20 September 1977] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727134155/http://nycnpc.org/db/bb_files/77FIRSTPOLICEPRECINCT.pdf |date=27 July 2011 }} Accessed 2 December 2008. Basic biographical details.</ref> that lasted until Joseph's death in 1924.<ref name="JHHObit1924" />
==Early life== Hunt was born on March 14, 1862, in Paris, where his father, Richard Morris Hunt (1827–1895), was completing his architectural studies. His mother, Catherine Clinton Howland (1841–1880), was the youngest daughter of the prominent merchant Samuel Shaw Howland of Howland & Aspinwall. His siblings were Catharine Howland Hunt (wife of Rear Adm. Livingston Hunt, son of William H. Hunt), fellow architect Joseph Howland Hunt,<ref name="JHHObit1924">{{cite news |title=JOSEPH H. HUNT DIES, NOTED ARCHITECT.; President of Municipal Art Society a Victim of Pneumonia at 54 Years. ! |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1924/10/12/archives/joseph-h-hunt-dies-noted-architect-president-of-municipal-art.html |access-date=25 June 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=October 12, 1924 |archive-date=29 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629204812/https://www.nytimes.com/1924/10/12/archives/joseph-h-hunt-dies-noted-architect-president-of-municipal-art.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Esther Morris Hunt (wife of George Muirson Woolsey),<ref>{{cite news |title=GEORGE WOOLSEY, S.P. C. A. HEAD, DIES; President of Society Since 1932 Held Many Offices in Organization |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1937/04/23/archives/george-woolsey-sp-c-a-head-dies-president-of-society-since-1932.html |access-date=25 June 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=April 23, 1937 |archive-date=2 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210702043130/https://www.nytimes.com/1937/04/23/archives/george-woolsey-sp-c-a-head-dies-president-of-society-since-1932.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and oilman Herbert Leavitt Hunt (who married Evelyn Frances Bell).<ref>{{cite news |title=HUNT LOSES SUIT FOR GIFTS.; Referee Holds That Wedding Presents Were Given to Him and Wife Jointly. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1908/12/02/archives/hunt-loses-suit-for-gifts-referee-holds-that-wedding-presents-were.html |access-date=25 June 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=December 2, 1908 |archive-date=25 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625185532/https://www.nytimes.com/1908/12/02/archives/hunt-loses-suit-for-gifts-referee-holds-that-wedding-presents-were.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=MRS. H. L. HUNT. DEAD; Wife of Oil Man Was Trustee! of Mary Baldwin College |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1955/05/08/archives/mrs-h-l-hunt-dead-wife-of-oil-man-was-trustee-of-mary-baldwin.html |access-date=25 June 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=May 8, 1955 |archive-date=29 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629183906/https://www.nytimes.com/1955/05/08/archives/mrs-h-l-hunt-dead-wife-of-oil-man-was-trustee-of-mary-baldwin.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
Hunt studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, where his father had studied. His younger brother Joseph studied at Harvard College and the School of Architecture at Columbia University before following his brother to the École des Beaux-Arts, returning to New York in 1901.<ref name="JHHObit1924"/>
==Career== In 1887, Richard Hunt joined his father's offices, first as a draftsman and later an associate. After his father's death, he attracted wealthy clients and built residences such as the Margaret Shepard house at 5 East 66th Street in 1900 (today home to the Lotos Club).<ref>{{cite AIA4}}</ref>
Urban residences by Hunt & Hunt include the two Beaux-Arts houses designed for George W. Vanderbilt at 645 and 647 Fifth Avenue, known as The "Marble Twins". Only No. 647, a designated New York City Landmark, survives today.
The brothers were primarily known for their elegant residences in Long Island, Tuxedo Park, New York, and Newport, Rhode Island. Their armory building for the 69th Regiment, New York, was the first armory to abandon pseudo-medieval crenellations.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}
==Hunt & Hunt projects== *Alumnae House and Williams House, Vassar College. 1924. Half-timbered construction.<ref>[http://puka.cs.waikato.ac.nz/cgi-bin/cic/library?a=d&d=p1831 historic CVampus Architecture Project: Alumnae House] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724191852/http://puka.cs.waikato.ac.nz/cgi-bin/cic/library?a=d&d=p1831 |date=2011-07-24 }}.</ref> thumb|The gravesite of Clyde Fitch *Memorial and sarcophagus for playwright Clyde Fitch at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City, 1910s. *George Washington Vanderbilt Houses, 645 and 647 Fifth Avenue, New York, called the "Marble Twins." 1902-05. Number 647 survives, a designated landmark, as the flagship store for Versace;<ref>Gray, Christopher. "Streetscapes: 647 Fifth Avenue; A Versace Restoration for a Vanderbilt Town House" ''The New York Times'' (April 9, 1995) accessed 2 December 2008.</ref> the site of 645 is now Olympic Tower. *Forest Hall, Milford, Pennsylvania. 1903. For James Pinchot, for whom Richard Morris hunt had built Grey Towers. (National Register of Historic Places) *Garden City Golf Club clubhouse, Garden City, New York. 1899.<ref>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Mildred H. |title=Garden City, Long Island, in Early Photographs, 1869-1919 |year=1998 |publisher=Dover |location=New York |isbn=0-486-40669-5 |page=38}}</ref> *Sanderson estate, Oyster Bay, New York.<ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/alad:@field(OTHER+@od1(Hunt+&+Hunt,+architectural+firm)) Library of Congress].</ref> 1885.<ref>[http://www.delawareriverhighlands.com/pike/heritage_tours/historic_district/ Milford Heritage Tour] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709011023/http://www.delawareriverhighlands.com/pike/heritage_tours/historic_district/ |date=2011-07-09 }}.</ref> *Idle Hour estate of William K. Vanderbilt, Oakdale, N.Y. *St. Mary's-in-Tuxedo Episcopal Church Rectory, Tuxedo Park, New York.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Crofut|first=Doris|title=St. Mary's-in-Tuxedo, 1888-1975|publisher=Library Research Associates Inc.|year=1975|location=Tuxedo Park, NY|pages=11|oclc=2006112}}</ref> 1895.<ref>{{Cite web|title=A Tour of Our Campus|url=https://www.stmtux.org/campus|access-date=July 12, 2021|website=|archive-date=June 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210602214340/https://www.stmtux.org/campus|url-status=live}}</ref> *69th Regiment Armory, between 25th and 26th Streets and Lexington and Park Avenues. 1903-06.<ref>[http://www.sixtyninth.net/armory.html The armory] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626161650/http://www.sixtyninth.net/armory.html |date=2012-06-26 }}.</ref> * Saddle Rock House, Shippan Point, Connecticut, 1914, for inventor Thomas Robins.<ref>The Architectural Record November 1916, Three Connecticut Country Houses, Vol XL No 5</ref> * Terre Bonne, Shippan Point, Connecticut, 1914, for pioneer filmmaker/movie producer Frank J. Marion.<ref>New York Times, October 2, 2005, Real Estate section, "A Neighborhood to Move Around In", by Lisa Prevost.</ref> *Edward Harden Mansion, Sleepy Hollow, New York, 1909. *Sabine Farm Greenwich, Connecticut, 1910, for publisher H. J. Fisher <ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sothebysrealty.com/eng/sales/detail/180-l-1180-tr7w4d/sabine-farm-south-of-parkway-greenwich-ct-06831 |title=9 Sabine Farm Road Greenwich, Connecticut, United States – Luxury Home For Sale |website=www.sothebysrealty.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171103152928/http://www.sothebysrealty.com/eng/sales/detail/180-l-1180-tr7w4d/sabine-farm-south-of-parkway-greenwich-ct-06831 |archive-date=2017-11-03}}</ref> *First Precinct Police Station, New York. 1909-11. *Amos R. E. Pinchot House,<ref>Pinchot was the brother of the conservationist Gifford Pinchot, superintendent of the forest surrounding Biltmore, built by Richard Morris Hunt for George Washington Vanderbilt, completed by Richard H. hunt in 1896.</ref> Park Avenue at 85th Street. 1910.<ref>Trager, James. ''Park Avenue, Street of Dreams'' (Atheneum, 1990).</ref> *Beacon Towers, Sands Point, New York, 1917–18, for Alva Belmont. It was their last commission on the Gold Coast.<ref name="countryhouses">{{cite book |title=Long Island Country Houses and Their Architects, 1860-1940 |last=MacKay |first=Robert B. |author2=Anthony K. Baker |author3=Carol A. Traynor |year=1997 |publisher=Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities in association with W.W. Norton & Co. |location=New York |isbn=978-0-393-03856-9 |pages=231–232 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jIXc9ES8qcAC&q=%22Beacon+Towers%22&pg=PT115 }}</ref>
==Collaborations with sculptors== As did many of the architects of the time, Hunt & Hunt designed bases and pedestals for sculptors. These include:<ref>[http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1NH0435702P32.142928&profile=ariall&uri=link=3100006~!209575~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ri=2&source=~!siartinventories&term=Hunt+%26+Hunt%2C+architectural+firm.&index=AUTHOR Search results: "Hunt & Hunt, architectural firm"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120922133142/http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1NH0435702P32.142928&profile=ariall&uri=link=3100006~!209575~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ri=2&source=~!siartinventories&term=Hunt+&+Hunt,+architectural+firm.&index=AUTHOR |date=2012-09-22 }} on the Art Iventories Catalog of the Smithsonian American Art Museum via the Smithsonian Institution Research Information System</ref> *William McKinley Monument by Charles Mulligan, Chicago, Illinois, 1905 *Sighting the Enemy for Edward Clark Potter in Monroe, Michigan, 1910 *Lafayette Monument by John Ferguson Weir, Milford, Pennsylvania
==References== '''Notes''' {{reflist|2}}
'''Bibliography''' *Mackay, Robert; Baker, Anthony; and Traynor, Carol eds. ''Long Island Country Houses And Their Architects 1860 to 1940''
==External links== *{{commons category-inline|Richard Howland Hunt}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Richard Howland}} Category:Beaux Arts architects Category:1862 births Category:1931 deaths Category:American neoclassical architects Category:Architects from New York City Category:American alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Richard Howland Category:19th-century American architects Category:20th-century American architects Richard