Clarence Fagan True,

AIA AIA or A.I.A. or Aia may refer to: Aia * Aia, a small town in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa, Spain * Aia, current Kutaisi, ancient capital of Colchis * Aia, another name for Aea (Malis), an ancient town in Greece * ''Aia'', the collected ed ...

(1860–1928) was an American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, one of the most prolific and competent architects to work on the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

and in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

New York Landmarks Conservancy
/ref> during the last decade of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century.

Early life

Born 1860, True was the son of an

Episcopal Episcopal may refer to: *Of or relating to a bishop, an overseer in the Christian church *Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a diocese *Episcopal Church (disambiguation), any church with "Episcopal" in its name ** Episcopal Church (United State ...

clergyman from College Point, Queens. The family moved to

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, and by 1890, True was working in the same office building as developer Charles G. Judson.Gray, Christopher.
"Streetscapes:157 and 159 West 88th Street; Revamping a Pair of 1891 Low-Stoop Brownstones"
''The New York Times'', 24 June 2001. Retrieved 3 April 2007.

Career

True "worked in the office of the Gothicist

Richard M. Upjohn Richard Michell Upjohn, FAIA, (March 7, 1828 – March 3, 1903) was an American architect, co-founder and president of the American Institute of Architects. Early life and career Upjohn was born on March 7, 1828 in Shaftesbury, Dorsetshire, E ...

until he went out on his own in 1884 with a few minor commissions, like two in Queens: a Queen Anne cottage in Flushing and a Gothic-style clubhouse for the Aerial Athletic Association in Woodside." About 1890 Judson hired True, at that point a newly established architect. The same year, True planned his first

row houses In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...

on the West Side of New York City. In 1891 he designed buildings at 157 and 159 West 88th Street, the low stoop row houses were each constructed for

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

12,000 a piece. His development corporation for his speculative buildings was the Riverside Building Company. Two richly varied rows of True's signature "low-stoop" townhouses, contrasting harmoniously in Italian, French Gothic and Flemish Renaissance taste, remain to recall his presence in the Upper West Side; they are at 316-26 West

85th Street 85th Street is a westbound-running street, running from East End Avenue to Riverside Drive in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. At Fifth Avenue, the street feeds into the 86th Street transverse, which runs east–west through Central P ...

(1892) and at 103, 104, 105, and 107-109 Riverside Drive awith 332 West 83 Street (1898–99). An additional row remains at 469-77 West 143rd Street (1893), which includes four townhouses and one five-story multifamily apartment building with commercial frontage at 1681-87 Amsterdam Avenue in Hamilton Heights, Manhattan. Several other examples survive in Harlem's Sugar Hill neighborhood including 43-57 St. Nicholas Place and 842 and 844 St. Nicholas Avenue.

William Van Alen William Van Alen (August 10, 1883 – May 24, 1954) was an American architect, best known as the architect in charge of designing New York City's Chrysler Building (1928–30). Life William Van Alen was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1883 to ...

, architect of the Chrysler Building, trained in his office.

Works

* 1892: John B. Leech Residence,

520 West End Avenue 520 West End Avenue, also known as the John B. and Isabella Leech Residence, is a landmarked mansion on the northeast corner of West End Avenue and 85th Street, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The house, built as a single-family residence, ...

. *Row of five townhouses on West 143rd Street,

Hamilton Heights Hamilton Heights is a neighborhood in the northern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is the northernmost part of the West Harlem area, along with Manhattanville and Morningside Heights to its south, and it contains the sub-neighborhood an ...

, Manhattan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:True, Clarence 1928 deaths 1860 births American residential architects Defunct architecture firms based in New York City People from Queens, New York Architects from New York City