R._H._Robertson

R. H. Robertson

R. H. Robertson

American architect

Robert Henderson Robertson (April 29, 1849 – June 3, 1919) was an American architect who designed numerous houses, institutional and commercial buildings, and churches. He is known for his wide-variety of works and commissions, ranging from private residences such as Jacqueline Kennedy's childhood home Hammersmith Farm and the Adirondacks Great Camp Santanoni to some of the earliest steel skyscrapers in New York City.[2]

Quick Facts Robert Henderson Robertson, Born ...
The Park Row Building in New York, designed by Robertson (completed 1899)
Witherspoon Hall of Princeton University (Potter & Robertson, built 1875–77)
The Charles H. Baldwin House in Newport, Rhode Island (Potter & Robertson, built 1877–78)
The Church of the Presidents in Elberon, New Jersey (Potter & Robertson, completed 1879)
Camp Santanoni main lodge, for Robert C. Pruyn (built 1892–93)
Robertson's 1886 designs for a church on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The main church was never built, but the chapel was, as Knox Presbyterian Church, now St. John the Martyr Roman Catholic Church (Manhattan).
The "eclectic" MacIntyre Building at 874 Broadway (built 1890–92) contains Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic elements[1]
American Tract Society Building at 150 Nassau Street (built 1894–1895)
Engine Company 55 Firehouse at 363 Broome Street (completed 1895)
Bedford Park Presbyterian Church

Robertson was one of the architects of choice for the late nineteenth century titans of industry, and designed several buildings for the extended Vanderbilt Family, including Shelburne Farms and the outbuildings at the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site.[3]

Life and career

Pequot Library Association (1894)

Robertson was born in Philadelphia to Scottish parents Archibald Robertson and Elizabeth Henderson.[4] 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.[4] Having completed one of the first houses in America to manifest the "Queen Anne style", a cottage for Theodore Timson in Sea Bright, New Jersey (1875),[5] he formed a partnership with Potter's half-brother, William Appleton Potter, who had also trained with Post. Their partnership lasted from 1875 to 1881, during which time they worked mostly in a free Gothic Revival style, with Robertson as the junior partner responsible for the firm's residential commissions.[6] 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 1894, he finished construction of Southport's Pequot Library Association.[7] Founded by the influential Marquand and Monroe families, Pequot Library is a special collections institution.[8] 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.[4]

Robertson died on 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.[9]

Commissions

Potter & Robertson (1875-1881)

During his New York partnership with William Appleton Potter the firm designed many summer vacation cottages in Newport, Rhode Island, and the Jersey Shore, beginning with the Bryce Gray residence in Long Branch, New Jersey (completed c. 1877; since demolished).[6] Potter & Robertson also designed:

Solo career (1881-1902)

Robertson's Park Row Building (completed 1899) at 15 Park Row, built for August Belmont, was, for a brief period, the world's tallest office building.[18] Among his many other commissions in New York City and elsewhere:[19]

Robertson & Potter (1902-1919)

In 1902, Robertson took on as partner Robert Burnside Potter (1869-1934), nephew of William Potter. They designed a cottage, perhaps several, for Regis H. Post in Bayside, Long Island.[6]

  • Hugh D. Auchincloss House (1903) – 33 East 67th Street.[59]
  • House of Relief Ambulance Annex (1907–08) – 9 Jay Street, was attached by an enclosed overhead bridge to the House of Relief, New York Hospital across Staple Street; within the Tribeca Historic District.[60][61]

References

Notes

  1. [1]
    White & Willensky, p.195
  2. [2]
    "Robert Henderson Robertson (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved March 4, 2024.
  3. [3]
    Musso, Anthony P. "From horse and carriage to automobiles, Vanderbilt coach house served many uses". Poughkeepsie Journal. Retrieved March 4, 2024.
  4. [4]
    The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Vol. VI. James T. White & Company. 1896. p. 98. Retrieved November 26, 2020 – via Google Books.
  5. [5]
    It was illustrated in The American Architect and Building News, July 22, 1876, without the client's name (illustration Archived 2010-06-13 at the Wayback Machine).
  6. [6]
    MacKay, Baker and Traynor, p. 165
  7. [7]
    "Our Story". Pequot Library. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
  8. [8]
    "Our Story". Pequot Library. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
  9. [9]
    "Robert H. Robertson Dead". The New York Times. June 5, 1919. p. 13. Retrieved November 26, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. [10]
    Dunlap, p.135
  11. [11]
    illustration from The American Architect and Building News, 5 February 1876.
  12. [12]
    Dunlap, p.89
  13. [13]
    The design was illustrated in The American architect and Building News 27 May 1876 (illustration Archived 2010-06-13 at the Wayback Machine
  14. [14]
    Dunlap, p.193
  15. [15]
    Illustration
  16. [16]
    MacKay, Baker and Traynor, pp. 165–67
  17. [17]
    MacKay, Baker and Traynor, p. 166; the Potter & Robertson design, as first built, was illustrated in The American architect and Building News, 12 October 1878 (illustration Archived 2010-06-13 at the Wayback Machine)
  18. [18]
    White & Willensky pp.67–68
  19. [19]
    Noted in obituary, "Robert H. Robertson Dead", The New York Times, June 5, 1919 and in McKay, Baker & Traynor
  20. [20]
    White & Willensky, p.407
  21. [21]
    Dunlap, p.11
  22. [22]
    Dunlap, p.44
  23. [23]
    Landmark permit 23 March 2007 Archived 8 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
  24. [24]
    Illustration.
  25. [25]
    MacKay, Baker and Traynor, p. 167
  26. [26]
    Dunlap, p.219
  27. [27]
    "A Starter Sanctuary", New York Times, 4 June 2009. Accessed 5 June 2009
  28. [28]
    Elwin Robison, and Kevin Rose, "East High Street: An Open Museum of Architecture and Enterprise" Archived 2008-11-20 at the Wayback Machine
  29. [29]
    National Register District Address Finder Archived 2013-09-28 at the Wayback Machine, Ohio Historical Society, 2013. Accessed 2013-01-18.
  30. [30]
    "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  31. [31]
    NYCLPC, p.98
  32. [32]
    Dunlap, p.116
  33. [33]
    Dunlap, p.186
  34. [34]
    St. Luke's Episcopal Church Archived 2010-01-05 at the Wayback Machine
  35. [35]
    Published in American Architect & Building News 3 April 1886 (illustration).
  36. [36]
    White & Willensky, p.483
  37. [37]
    NYCLPC, p.189
  38. [38]
    "Pequot Library, Southport CT"
  39. [39]
    NYCLPC, p.27, gives the dates 1894-95; White & Willensky, p.68, gives the date as 1896
  40. [40]
    Landmarks Preservation Committee Designation List (pdf file)
  41. [41]
    NYCLPC, p.27
  42. [42]
    The Landmarks Preservation Committee Designation List for the American Tract Society Building says 1898–99.
  43. [43]
    White & Willensky, p.85
  44. [44]
    NYCLPC, p.47
  45. [45]
    "In Rough Market, a Slow Market (Balducci's) Suffers", New York Times, 6 April 2009. Accessed 6 April 2009: images.
  46. [46]
    New York County Savings Bank
  47. [47]
    NYCLPC, p.59
  48. [48]
    NYCLPC, p.76
  49. [49]
    White & Willensky, p. 196
  50. [50]
    "Mendelssohn Glee Club: Opening of New Home Built for It By Mr. Clark" (PDF). New York Times. December 7, 1892. p. 4.
  51. [51]
    http://www.firstcongregationalstalbans.org
  52. [52]
    White & Willensky, p.332
  53. [53]
    NYCLPC, p.148
  54. [54]
    NYLPC, p.116
  55. [55]
    White & Willensky, p.601
  56. [56]
    White & Willensky, p.210
  57. [57]
    Potter, Janet Greenstein (1996). Great American Railroad Stations. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 121. ISBN 978-0471143895.
  58. [58]
    "Camp Santanoni Historic Area" on the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation website
  59. [59]
    White & Willensky, p. 397
  60. [60]
    NYCLPC, p.22
  61. [61]
    White & Willensky, p.63

Bibliography
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