Henry Killam Murphy (August 19, 1877 – October 12, 1954) 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 ...
noted for his design of educational establishments in the North-East of the United States, China and Japan.
Early life and education
Henry Killam Murphy was born in 1877 in
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
, to parents Alice Button Killam and John Murphy.
Murphy attended the
Hopkins School
Hopkins School is a private, college-preparatory, coeducational, day school for grades 7–12 located in New Haven, Connecticut.
In 1660, Edward Hopkins, seven-time governor of the Connecticut Colony, bequeathed a portion of his estate to found s ...
, graduating in 1895. He then went on to study at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
graduating in 1899 with a
Bachelor of Fine Arts
A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases.
Background
The Bachelor ...
degree. After a year spent at the Yale Graduate School preparing for a career as an architect, Murphy was first employed in this capacity in the
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 ...
offices of Tracey and Startwout in 1900.
Murphy & Dana Architects
In 1906 Murphy opened his own firm with Yale University instructor, Richard Henry Dana Jr., a business partnership that lasted until 1921. Together they took on work such as designing the early
Loomis Chaffee
The Loomis Chaffee School (; LC or Loomis) is a selective independent, coeducational, college preparatory school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, including postgraduate students, located in Windsor, Connecticut, seven miles north ...
campus in 1912,
["From Hopkins' Baldwin Hall to China's Memorial Hall" for ''Views on the Hill'' Spring/Summer '06 by Thom Peters.] and successfully earned commissions to design numerous private residential and college academic buildings in the North East of the United States, in China and in Japan. Examples of their architectural work still extant include the historic administration buildings, old library and college chapel of
Rikkyo University
, also known as Saint Paul's University, is a private university, in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, Japan.
Rikkyo is known as one of the six leading universities in the field of sports in Tokyo (東京六大学 "Big Six" — Rikkyo University, University of ...
in Tokyo.
After Dana left in 1921, the firm continued as Murphy, McGill & Hamlin until 1924 when Murphy established his own independent practice.
Noted architectural works
Murphy, both in partnership and independently, designed a wide range of buildings throughout his career, including several buildings in his home state of Connecticut. Murphy worked for his
alma mater Hopkins School
Hopkins School is a private, college-preparatory, coeducational, day school for grades 7–12 located in New Haven, Connecticut.
In 1660, Edward Hopkins, seven-time governor of the Connecticut Colony, bequeathed a portion of his estate to found s ...
, designing the early campus in 1922 and center building Baldwin Hall in 1925.
During his career Murphy made eight trips to China, the first for a few weeks in 1914, the last and longest from 1931 to 1935. In 1919, he was in charge of designing the campus of
University of Shanghai
University of Shanghai, also known as Shanghai College and Hujiang University (), was a university established by the American Baptist Missionary Union and the Southern Baptist Convention in Shanghai.
It was the predecessor of University of Sh ...
(now
University of Shanghai for Science and Technology). In the early 1920s, Murphy designed several landmark buildings for
Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University (; abbreviation, abbr. THU) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Minis ...
, Beijing, including The Grand Auditorium and the Main Library. He was an advocate of traditional Chinese architectural styles, adapted to modern uses.
Murphy attracted the attention of
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
leader
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
and was hired in 1928 to design a modern capital for China in the ancient city of
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
. One of his more notable proposals was to save the wall around the city as a
concourse
A concourse is a place where pathways or roads meet, such as in a hotel, a convention center, a railway station, an airport terminal, a hall, or other space.
The term is not limited to places where there are literally pathways or roadways or t ...
. Murphy designed other Chinese buildings such as the
Memorial Hall for Revolutionary Martyrs
A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...
on
Purple Mountain Purple Mountain may refer to:
China
* Purple Mountain (Nanjing), a mountain in Nanjing, Jiangsu
Ireland
* Purple Mountain (Kerry), a mountain in County Kerry
United States
* Purple Mountain (Alaska), a mountain in Alaska
* Purple Peak (Col ...
over Nanjing.
Chiang Kai-shek was not Murphy's only connection to China. Murphy also designed a small
Chinese village
The Chinese Village in the Alexander Park of Tsarskoye Selo, Russia was Catherine the Great's attempt to follow the 18th-century fashion for the Chinoiserie.
Probably inspired by a similar project in Drottningholm, Catherine ordered Antonio ...
of eight homes in
Coral Gables, Florida
Coral Gables, officially City of Coral Gables, is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The city is located southwest of Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 U.S. census, it had a population of 49,248.
Coral Gables is known globally as home to the ...
, as well as the Chinese Nationality Room in the
Cathedral of Learning
The Cathedral of Learning is a 42-story skyscraper that serves as the centerpiece of the University of Pittsburgh's (Pitt) main campus in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Standing at , the 42-story Late Gothic Revival Cat ...
Murphy returned to the United States in 1935 and retired to a house he designed in
Branford, Connecticut
Branford is a shoreline New England town, town located on Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut, New Haven County, Connecticut, about east of downtown New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven. The population was 28,273 at the 2020 United Sta ...
. He died at his home in 1954.
Family
Murphy was married four times, and had no children. His first marriage was in 1905 to Edna Mitchell Cook, who died in 1918. His second marriage in 1920 was to Ethel Andrews, from whom he was divorced in 1926. (She would remarry John Marshall Harlan II in 1928.) In 1930 Murphy married the art historian and collector of Eurasian bronzes Dagny Carter, author of ''China Magnificent, Five Thousand Years of Chinese Art'' (first published 1936). In 1949 he married his fourth wife, Rosalie Smith Exum, in North Carolina.
[North Carolina Index to Marriages 1741-2004]
References
Further reading
*Jeffrey W. CODY, ''Building in China: Henry K. Murphy's "Adaptive Architecture", 1914-1935'', Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Henry Killam
1857 births
1954 deaths
20th-century American architects
Architects from New Haven, Connecticut
Hopkins School alumni
Yale School of Architecture alumni