Charles C. Haight
Charles C. Haight (b. 1841 - d. 1917)
American architect, Charles Coolidge Haight, was the son of a minister at New York’s prestigious Trinity Church. After serving in the Civil War, Haight studied with Emlen T. Littell (1840–91), opening his own office in 1867. In the 1870s he became architect for Trinity Corporation and designed many commercial and institutional buildings for that organization.
Haight was an early proponent of the English-inspired collegiate Gothic style, which he used initially for Columbia College’s mid-town New York campus (1880–84; destroyed c. 1900). For the Episcopal Church’s General Theological Seminary (1883–1902) at Chelsea Square, New York, he planned a pair of adjoining quadrangles enclosed on three sides by collegiate Gothic buildings of brick with stone trim. The ensemble, dominated by the library (destroyed 1958), chapel and refectory, was to be reminiscent of an English academic complex.
Haight made extensive use of the collegiate Gothic at Yale University, New Haven, CT, designing buildings between 1894 and 1914, most notably Vanderbilt Hall (1894) and Phelps Hall (1896) with their Tudor-inspired gatehouses leading to the main campus. Haight was also responsible for the H. O. Havemeyer Residence (1891–3; destroyed c. 1948), New York, generally considered to have been one of the finest Fifth Avenue mansions. The building exemplified Haight’s preference for simple, bold forms rather than the flamboyant ornament favored by many of his contemporaries.
A number of his buildings survive at Yale University and Trinity College Haight’s contributions to both Yale and the Episcopal Seminary remain significant to this day. His architectural drawings and photographs are held in the Department of Drawings and Archives at the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University in New York City.