page_title: Francis L. V. Hoppin
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Francis L. V. Hoppin / Career
context_page_description: Colonel Francis Laurens Vinton Hoppin was a prominent American architect and painter from Providence, Rhode Island.
context_section_description: On returning to the United States, Hoppin joined the firm of McKim, Mead and White in 1886. Reportedly, while with the firm, McKim noted Hoppin's exceptional skill at rendering with one architectural historian writing: "Among architects that had a facility for perspective Francis L.V. Hoppin stands out..." He became the office specialist in perspective, exemplified in his drawings for the Century Club and The Brooklyn Museum. Fellow office architect, Egerton Swartwout, characterized Hoppin's drawings as "colored, blue sky and trees where there aren't any, and flying shadows on the building, you know, a real snappy piece of work."
  In 1890, he joined his brother Howard and Spencer P. Read to form a new firm was known as Hoppin, Read & Hoppin.  They worked together until 1896, when Francis left to found the firm of Hoppin & Koen in New York City with Terence A. Koen. The firm was based is known for police stations, fire stations and dignified town houses in the Beaux Arts style. Among his apprentices at Hoppin & Koen were Robert P. Huntington and Dudley Newton, Jr., the son of a prominent Newport architect.
  The firm became well known for its large country houses in the most fashionable parts of America during the Gilded Age. They designed homes for Francis Vinton Greene (a relative), James F. D. Lanier, Andrew C. Zabriskie, John J. Wysong, Harris C. Fahnestock, Charles Oliver Iselin, Henry Clews, and William Watts Sherman. One of Hoppin's best known works was The Mount, Edith Wharton's home in Lenox. Wharton commissioned the firm to design her Lenox residence (with major input from her at every stage of the process), after having a falling out with Ogden Codman, Jr. Hoppin retired in 1923 to pursue a career as an artist, and Koen died the following year in 1923.
  When the Spanish-American War began, Hoppin enlisted in the 12th Regiment of the New York National Guard, reaching the rank of Major, and at one time was Adjutant General of the First Brigade, New York National Guard. He was later granted the title of "Colonel" by Gov. Charles Seymour Whitman, which he answered for the rest of his life.
caption: Hoppin's drawing of the design for The Brooklyn Museum.
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