R. H. Robertson
Robert Henderson Robertson (April 29, 1849 – June 3, 1919) was an American architect who designed numerous houses, institutional buildings and churches. Life and career. Robertson was born in Philadelphia of Scottish parents Archibald Robertson and Elizabeth Henderson. He was educated in Scotland, then graduated from Rutgers College in 1869. He apprenticed for several years in Philadelphia with Henry A. Sims, then moved to New York to work first for George B. Post, then in 1873-74 for Edward Tuckerman Potter. Having completed one of the first houses in America that manifested the "Queen Anne style", a cottage  for Theodore Timson in Sea Bright, New Jersey (1875), he formed a partnership with Potter's half-brother, William Appleton Potter, who also trained with Post. The partnership lasted from 1875 to 1881, working in a free Gothic Revival style; Robertson, the junior partner, appears to have been responsible for the firm's residences. In the 1880s, working on his own, he fell under the influence of H.H. Richardson's "Richardsonian Romanesque" a freely-handled revival style that depended for its effect on strong massing and the bold use of rustication. In the 1890s, in the wake of the "White  City" of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, he began to work in a classical style. He married Charlotte Markoe, and they had one son. Robertson died June 3, 1919, at William S. Webb's Adirondack lodge in Nehasane, Hamilton County, New York, which he had designed. He is buried in Southampton, New York. Commissions. Potter & Robertson. During his New York partnership with William Appleton Potter, from 1875 to 1881, the firm produced summer vacation cottages in Newport, Rhode Island, and the Jersey Shore, beginning with the Bryce Gray residence in Long Branch c.1877, now demolished. Potter and Robertson also  designed: Solo. Robertson's Park Row Building (1899) at 15 Park Row, built for August Belmont, was, for a brief period, the world's tallest office building. Among his many other commissions in New York City and elsewhere: Robertson & Potter. In 1902 Robertson took in as partner Robert Burnside Potter, nephew of William Potter. They designed a cottage, perhaps several, for Regis H. Post in Bayside, Long Island. References. Notes Bibliography