Richard Morris Hunt Memorial

Richard Morris Hunt was born to a well-respected family in Brattleboro, Vermont on October 31, 1827. His father, Jonathan Hunt, was a lawyer and politician, who served in Vermont’s lower house in the 1810s and in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1827 until his untimely death in 1832. As a young boy, Hunt attended private schools in New Haven and Boston. In 1843, his mother moved the family to Europe, where she helped to expose her children to as much art and culture as possible. A few years later, Hunt became the first American to study architecture at the prestigious, world-renown École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. After graduating, he embarked on an architectural tour of Europe, Asia Minor, and Egypt. In 1854, Hunt returned to Paris and became the inspector of works on the buildings that connected the Tuileries Palace and the Louvre. During his brief time in the position, under the supervision of his former mentor at the École des Beaux-Arts, Hector Lefuel, he designed the Pavillon de la Bibliothèque across from the royal palace. In 1855, Hunt returned to the country of his birth and settled in New York City, where he opened his own firm. 

Over the course of the next forty years, Hunt designed many public buildings, private residences, and monuments in New York City and elsewhere. He drew up plans for the Lenox Library, the Tribune Building, and the Fifth Avenue façade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hunt also accepted commissions to design mansions for some of the era’s wealthiest and most powerful Americans, including John Jacob Astor and George W. Vanderbilt, for whom he planned Biltmore Estate near Asheville, North Carolina. Hunt also designed monuments and components of monuments, including the Yorktown Monument in Virginia and the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. His work won him awards. At the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, Hunt’s Administration Building earned him the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Royal Gold Medal. 

During his career, Hunt worked to advance his profession in the United States. He helped to found the American Institute of Architects and served as its third president from 1888 to 1891. Hunt also opened an architectural atelier and helped to establish educational and professional standards for architects in the United States. Later, some of his proteges created the first architectural training programs in the country. 

On July 31, 1895, Hunt died of natural causes at his home in Newport, Rhode Island. He was sixty-seven years old. His remains were buried in the city’s Island Cemetery. 

In 1898, the Art Societies of New York dedicated a monument in Hunt’s honor. Designed by sculptor Daniel Chester French and placed on the eastern perimeter wall of Central Park, the monument is a granite exedra with columns and a cornice measuring thirty-one feet long and thirteen feet tall. At its center is a larger-than-life-sized bronze bust of Hunt. At each end are standing bronze female figures symbolizing architecture, painting, and sculpture. On the back wall of the exedra are listed the names of the organizations that Hunt either founded or contributed to during his life. A mosaic tile floor adorns the monuments interior space. 

"Death of Richard M. Hunt." The New York Times, August 1, 1895.

"Richard Morris Hunt." Central Park Conservancy. Web. 15 October 2020 <https://www.centralparknyc.org/locations/richard-morris-hunt>.

"Richard Morris Hunt." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Web. 15 October 2020 <https://www.britannica.com/topic/Metropolitan-Museum-of-Art>.

"Richard Morris Hunt: Background and Select Bibliography." The Library of Congress. February 2013. Web. 15 October 2020 <https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/coll/Hunt.html>.

"Richard Morris Hunt Memorial." New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The City of New York. Web. 15 October 2020 <https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/central-park/monuments/756>.