(1827-1895)

What do the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Louvre, the base of the Statue of Liberty, and the Breakers in Newport have in common with the Howland Cultural Center? Richard Morris Hunt, nineteenth.century dean of American architects, designer, and primary architect of these historic structures, plus many more.

Hunt was born on October 31, 1827 in Brattleboro, Vermont, the fourth of five children of Jonathan and Jane Maria Hunt. Both parents came from distinguished families, prominent in New England for several generations. Hunt's father, a congressman, died when he was just four and a half years old, altering their lives and very existence. Several moves took the family to Boston, New Haven, and New York City. As a result of exposure to his mother's artistic friends in New York City, Hunt showed considerable talent in drawing and constructing projects at the early age of ten. Hunt's brother, William, was seriously ill with an apparent asthmatic condition which prompted his mother to make plans to move the family to Europe, believing the weather conditions there would be in William's best interest. On October 9th,1843, the family sailed for France - "This departure from America would have a profound influence on all their lives, and more important, on the history of American architecture and painting." One of Hunt's sight-seeing visits was to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. This was his first introduction to the school which would give direction to his work and his life as an architect. Hunt was fourteen when the family moved to Europe. He spent the next few years exploring the continent, particularly Italy with its enormous concentration of paintings, sculpture, and architecture. In 1846, Hunt began formal studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He was the first American student accepted at this prestigious school. The major emphasis of the Ecole training was in the design of public buildings, formal in composition, and monumental in scale. In addition, Hunt studied sculpture, painting, and drawing for periods of time in 1849 through 1851.

Returning to New York in 1857, Hunt immediately played a leading role in establishing the American Institute of Architects (A.I.A.). To establish and ensure professional standards for architects and to gain public recognition for them were two of his life-long goals. He also became closely involved in the founding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The germ of the idea to have a national institution and gallery of art was born in Paris when Hunt with a group of interested Americans met to discuss the possibility of creating an American museum. The pivotal figure in the decision to select Hunt as the museum architect was Henry G. Marquand, a distinguished collector and president of the Board of Trustees. Marquand, for whom Hunt had designed houses in Newport and New York, as well as the Marquand Chapel at Princeton, greatly admired Hunt, and, as a member of the building committee, had championed him for the job. It was Hunt who plotted the museum's architectural future. The facade of that great structure shows Richard Morris Hunt's absolute mastery of the art of classical Beaux-Arts composition.

Hunt was almost thirty-three years old when he met Catherine Clinton Howland, eighteen-year-old sister of Joseph Howland (the benefactor of the Howland Library, now The Howland Cultural Center). Although her family objected to the romance due to the differences in their ages and Hunt's artistic vocation, they finally consented only by an agreement with Richard and Catherine to delay wedding plans for six months. They were married on April 2, 1861 and on April 27, sailed for Le Havre, France, for a honeymoon which was to last for a year and a half. Returning to New York, they purchased a home from Hunt's mother in which they lived for twenty-five years. Four of the five children were born there; the first had been born in France. The next ten years, 1862 through 1872, revolved around the turmoil of the Civil War years and its aftermath. Hunt worked actively for the Union League Club, an organization involved in supporting the war effort in financial and political ways.

One of New York City's wealthiest men, James Lenox, had Hunt design a hospital and a library, as he simultaneously worked on major projects at Princeton, Yale College, Harvard, and the United States Military Academy. Hunt also became acquainted with Rutherford Stuyvesant who was impressed with Hunt's work on the Louvre extension. He commissioned Hunt to draw up plans for "flats" to serve the housing needs of the people of New York much like the flats they had both seen in Paris, France. Those apartments became known as Stuyvesant Village and were sought after by many prominent New Yorkers. There were also many commercial projects which are still to be seen, i.e. Tribune Building which housed the New York Tribune. Newport, Rhode Island became a center of many of Hunt's works. At least seven famous houses bear his architectural stamp.

Hunt came to the village of Matteawan (joined with Fishkill Landing to become Beacon) for his wealthy brother-in-law, Joseph Howland, his wife's older brother. The Howlands had bought a large farm on Fishkill Creek in the town of Fishkill and transformed it into an elegant home called "Tioronda" which means "the meeting of the waters," referring to the junction of Fishkill Creek with the Hudson River. Joseph Howland, a general in the Civil War, commissioned Hunt in 1871 to design a library and community center for the town known as Matteawan. (The library was totally paid for by General Howland and it remained a library in good standing until 1976. Needing larger quarters, the library moved to a new location on West Main Street.) Howland also commissioned Hunt to design the Presbyterian Church which burned to the ground in 1943. In 1893, Hunt's health began to rapidly decline as he traveled to various cities to supervise the progress of projects at Newport, Cambridge, Washington, Asheville, West Point, and Cleveland. Within two years the vitality for which he was well known became almost non-existent. A serious bout with gout, becoming chilled from exposure to a heavy rainstorm and traveling in wet clothes brought about fever and exhaustion. He was in his Newport home when early on July 30th Hunt began to fail rapidly. Their son, Dick, got to Newport in time to spend several hours with his father before he died at noon on July 31, 1895. Burial was in the Island Cemetery at Newport. Fourteen years later, Catherine Hunt was buried beside her husband, four of their children and other family members were also buried nearby.

During Hunt's life he received multiple honorary degrees from Europe and the United States. Most notable was an honorary doctorate of law from Harvard University on June 29, 1892. It was the first honorary doctorate awarded to an architect. Upon Hunt's death, a deluge of tributes to him poured forth from all over the world. He was characterized as the leading architect in the United States and a person widely recognized throughout the world. He was commended for his fine taste, for his exacting standards, for his work for the profession, for his conttribution to the causes of the arts in America, and for his qualitites as a man. A memorial monument to Richard Morris Hunt was erected in 1898 on Fifth Avenue between 70th and 71st Streets. "He was highly regarded for his efforts to promote the arts in America and to elevate the level of public taste." Hunt saw himself above all as an artist.