Stanford White
was born in 1853 in New York City. Trained as a draftsman in a prominent architectural firm, White joined architects Charles Follen McKim and William Rutherford Mead in 1880 in founding a new firm which became known as McKim, Mead & White. The firm's early building designs concentrated on large, informally planned wooden residences and public buildings, known as the Shingle style. White's Casino at Newport, Rhode Island, built in 1881, is one of the most subtle of this style.
McKim, Mead & White led the trend toward Neoclassicism. Among the prominent buildings in New York City designed by the firm during White's lifetime are The Brooklyn Museum (1897-1924); Bronx Community College's (formerly New York University University Heights Campus) Hall of Fame for Great Americans, Gould Memorial Library, Hall of Philosophy and Hall of Languages (1900); original design and buildings of Columbia University Campus (1897); Morgan Library (1906); Washington Arch at Washington Square Park (1892); Villard Houses (1884) (now the Helmsley Palace Hotel on Madison Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets); The Colony Club (1905) (now The American Academy of Dramatic Arts) at 120 Madison Avenue; Peter Cooper Monument (1897) base by Stanford White, statue, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Cooper Square South of 7th Street; Admiral David G. Farragut (1880) base by White, sculpture by Saint-Gaudens; Harry B. Hollins (1901) residence (now Consulate of Argentina, 12-14 West 56th Street); IRT Powerhouse (1904) (now Consolidated Edison), West 58th to West 59th Street between 11th and 12 Avenues; The Lambs Club (1905) (now Lambs Theater and Manhattan Church of the Nazarene), 130 West 44th Street; the sculpture of Nathan Hale (1893), (White designed base, Frederick MacMonnies, the statue) at Park Row, City Hall Park; Prospect Park / Grand Army Plaza, a necklace of classical ornaments embellishing the Arch (1894); and Church of St. Paul the Apostle (1885), Columbus Avenue at 60th Street, altar and baldachin by White. Stanford White also designed jewelry, furniture, a railway parlor car, magazine and book covers, and tombstones and architectural details.
White was known for his lavish entertainment and extroverted personality. He was shot by the jealous husband of the showgirl Evelyn Nesbit Thaw in the roof garden at the second Madison Square Garden at Madison Square Park (which his firm had designed) in 1906.
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