Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1895-08-09
IN THE LOCAL FIELD.
RICHARD MORRIS HUNT,

RICHARD MORRIS HUNT.
The Distinguishing characteristics of
His VVorIS---SOme of the Most Noted
Buildings which he has Designed.
Architecture in America, like painting
here and everywhere else, has had certain
masters to whom the rank and file have
looked for inspiration, says the New York
Tribune. For long time, and that the
most crucial period in the artistic history
of the country, the personal supremacy
was divided between two men-Henry Hob
son Richardson and Richard Morris Hunt
The former did his life work in Massachu-
sets. He built Trinity church in Boston,
and set an example which scores of young
architects tried to follow and by which they
profited even when they preferred not to
emulate it closely. He imposed the i'm
pulses of his individuality upon following
so large that it promised to form itself into
a school. Then it faded, so that now it
scarcely exists at all; faded, not because
Richardson's style was bad style-on the
contrary, II was superb-but because it was
essentially personal, essentially the express
sion of a specific strain of genius and could
not, therefore, be perpetuated by its imi-
tators. Hunt abandoned the personal bias
at the outset of his career. He was, from
first to last, an academic artist, rich in
character, in strength of temperament, but
scholastic to the core. The difference be-
tween these two most conspicuous figures
in American architecture is inevitably
noted as the career of either of them is ap-
preached. To any one who has studied
the progress of architecture in this country
to "a tvt-,N in,
fluences working side by side, and to see in
the longer survival of that with which we
are now concerned another proof of the
cosmopolitan, eclectric nature of American
architecture, its refusal to bow to a personal
style and its steady return to the abstract
principles which a man like Hunt was pre-
eminently qualified to teach. Hunt did
teach his countrymen. He did not make
them mould their styles on his. But he
drilled them in the logic of architecture, in
its rectitude, in those elements of it which
are independent of temperament 1t is in
that light that he now appears, now that
his career has been ended, as one of the
most remarkable artists of his time.
How far Hunt could 90 in the direction
of mere picturesque charm when he chose,
in the direction of mere elegance and SEN
suous beauty, he showed by the house for
W. X. Vanderbilt, at Fifth avenue and
Fifty-second street. 1t is perhaps, less
characteristic of him than many other de
signs which might be cited. 1t is a tour
de force, and in its enchanting revival of
old French motives it shines rather by con-
trast in the long line of houses which were
planned by this architect But, though it
stands alone, it is none the less to his credit
1t stands alone in all America, for that
matter. There has never been anything to
equal it here for grace, for exquisite finish,
for daintness which reminds us of some
great French chateau, rather than of Fifth
avenue. 1t has often been said that the
house needed a park around it This is
very true. 1t would be greatly enhanced
by slight distance, by avenues of trees and
adequate terracing. But, Just as ii is, it is
a brilliant performance. The outlines are
ravishingly picturesque. The decorations
come as near to being lacework in stone as
architectural decoration has a right to
come. And for a fairly princely effect
there is nothing in this country that can
touch its spacious portal. Hunt was pos
sibly aware that he had produced his mas
terpiece in this, that he had done some
thing in the glttering casket of pinnacles
and fretwork which neither he nor any one
else in America would surpass, or even
rival. He had, for once at least, been a
poet as well as an architect, and he caused
himself to be represented in stone upon
the apex of the house.
Better than either his city houses or his
country houses were Hunts public build
ings There the old worker on the pavil-
ions of the Louvre came back to the prob
lens that interested him most and that
were worthiest of his finest faculties
Once, in the w. K. Vanderbilt house in
Fifth avenue, he had had lyric inspira-
ton and had put forth an isolated triumph
of lightness and vivacious beauty, but in
the Administration building of the Worlds
Fair at Chicago he struck the note that
was peculiarly his at any period of his life
1t was the note that he approached in
three-fourths of his city dwellings that we
miss in his country houses and regret to
miss, the grandiOse note of a kind of for
NAL magniticence, of academic and official
dignity. There was no building at the
Chicago exposition more precisely adapted
to its position and purposes, more perfect
in its field, than the splendid structure
which Hunt erected at the entrance to the
grounds. 1t was brilliant, as befitted the
principal edifce in the fair, but it was also
designed with the utmost formality. 1t
was as picturesque as could have been de-
sired, yet it was obviously academic. Its
proportions were good, its details were
good, it fitted its place and it dominated,
as was intended, everything that surround
ed it. Hunt did much for the artistic side
of the fair. His energy flowed into its
channels increasingly and was of incalcula-
BILE service to the army of workers concen-
trated in Jackson park. But his best serv-
ice was rendered in showing how public
building could be designed with originate
ty and yet with restraint, independently
and yet in excellent taste, with an Ameri-
can vivacity in its outlines and yet with a
dignity that makes even the most festal of
buildings impressive. 1t was this build
ing, coming toward the close of a career
which had been fruitful throughout of
fine results, that brought Hunt not long
ago the gold medal of the Royal Institute
of British Architects, an honor conferred
by the queen through the great profession
al society of England, and regarded as one
of the chief prizes of architectural merit
in the world.
His Death as a Loss TO the Art OF Arch