Charles Alling Gifford
Charles Alling Gifford (July 17, 1860 – May 3, 1937) was an American architect and a partner in the New York City firm of Gifford & Bates. He is best remembered for his resort hotels, but also designed houses, churches, and five armories for the New Jersey National Guard. Biography. The son of John Archer Gifford (1831–1924) and Mary Jane (née Alling) Gifford (1835–1909), Charles Alling Gifford was born in Newark, New Jersey on July 17, 1860. He attended the Latin School in Newark, and graduated in 1881 from the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. Gifford  worked for the architectural firm of McKim, Meade & White for about three years, before establishing his own firm in Newark. He became a member of the Architectural League of New York in 1881, and an associate of the American Institute of Architects in 1901. By 1889, he had opened an office at 50 Broadway, Manhattan. He formed a partnership with William A. Bates in 1900, an architect who had made a reputation designing houses in Bronxville, New York. In 1903, the offices of Gifford & Bates were located at 18 East 17th Street, Manhattan. Gifford served in the New Jersey National  Guard, 1890–1899, retiring with the rank of Major. He designed National Guard armory buildings for five cities in the state: Jersey City, Paterson, Camden, Newark, and Trenton. Federal law required able-bodied male college students to undergo military instruction for a state's reserve militia. Gifford designed a Colonial Revival armory/gymnasium for Rutgers College, the gift of brewer John Holme Ballantine:A generous Trustee of the College has during the past year provided a superbly appointed drill-room and armory. This drill-room affords an unobstructed space 100 by 60 feet, to which is added a large equipment-room  and offices for the instructor. [T]here is now under the capable direction of a United States officer, a battalion of 150 young men in training to serve the State in almost any military capacity should occasion arise. This building is devoted also to the purpose of general Physical Culture. Ballentine's daughter Alice married lawyer Henry Young Jr. in 1899, and the father-of-the-bride gave the couple a 100 acre (40.47 hectare) tract of mountainous land in Bernardsville, New Jersey as a wedding gift. Four years later, Gifford designed a country house for the Youngs, "Brushwood," a 30 -room Colonial Revival mansion overlooking Pleasant Valley. Gifford designed the New Jersey Building for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. This was a replica of the Ford Mansion in Morristown, New Jersey, General George Washington's headquarters, Winter 1779–1780. The building was used to promote business and tourism in the state, and served as headquarters for New Jersey visitors to the 1893 Fair. A decade later, Gifford designed another replica of the Ford Mansion for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. After the 1904 Fair, the New Jersey Building was relocated to Kirkwood, Missouri, and converted  into apartments. The Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire is Gifford's best-known work. The 1902 Gilded Age hotel is a National Historic Landmark. Several of Gifford's clients were members of the Jekyll Island Club, a private hunting resort in Glynn County, Georgia. Although never a member himself, he made multiple alterations to the Clubhouse, and designed the Sans Souci Apartments (1896), Pulitzer Cottage (1897–1898, burned 1951), Mistletoe Cottage (1900), and the Jekyll Island Clubhouse Annex (1901). All but Pulitzer Cottage survive, and are contributing properties in the Jekyll Island Club National Historic Landmark District. Gifford  also designed the nearby Old Glynn County Courthouse (1906-1907) in Brunswick, Georgia. Personal. On December 10, 1890, Gifford married Helen M. Conyngham (1868–1928), the daughter of Col. Charles Miner Conyngham and Helen Hunter Turner Conyngham of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The Giffords had five children: Alice Conyngham, Charles Conyngham (1895–1962), John Archer, Herbert Cammamann, and Donald Stanton. Gifford designed a Wilkes-Barre mansion for his father-in-law, "Conyngham Manor." It is now the Conyngham Student Center of Wilkes College. Gifford and his family lived at 60 Park Place in Newark. He later designed and built a country house in  Summit, New Jersey. Helen Conyngham Gifford died May 9, 1928. Gifford retired to their seashore home, at 7 South Brighton Avenue, Atlantic City, New Jersey. He died there on May 3, 1937, and is interred at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Newark, New Jersey.