Kenneth MacKenzie Murchison, Jr. (September 29, 1872 – December 15, 1938) was a prominent American Beaux-Arts and

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

architect.

Early life

He was born in Brooklyn, New York City in 1872. Murchison graduated from Columbia University in 1894 and from the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France, in 1900.

Career

Two years after graduating from the École des Beaux-Arts, he opened an office in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

where his first major commissions were for railroad stations for the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

company. Among the stations he designed are Hoboken Terminal in New Jersey; the Lackawanna Terminal and the Lehigh Valley Terminal, both in Buffalo, New York; and Baltimore Pennsylvania Station. In New York, he was well known as one of the founders of the Beaux Arts Balls, elaborate costume parties benefiting architects who had fallen on hard times. He also was a founder of the Mendelsohn Glee Club. At the time of his death, he had started work on a new Dunes Club to replace the one destroyed a few months earlier.

Personal life

On April 5, 1902, Murchison married Aurelie de Mauriac. They lived in the

Beaux-Arts Apartments The Beaux-Arts Apartments are a pair of apartment towers on 307 and 310 East 44th Street in the East Midtown and Turtle Bay neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Raymond Hood and Kenneth Murchison, the Beaux-Arts Apartments ...

, which he designed, at 310 E. 44th St. They were the parents of two daughters: * Katherine Murchison, who married Hays Browning. * Aurelie Murchison, who married Edouard de Wardener. Murchison died suddenly, at 11:45 p.m. on December 15, 1938, while at the Interborough Rapid Transit Company's Grand Central–42nd Street station, as ''The New York Times'' reported.

Buildings

He also designed: * Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Station- Johnstown (Amtrak station) * Jamaica (LIRR station), Jamaica, New York. *

Long Beach (LIRR station) Long Beach is the terminus of the Long Beach Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. It is located at Park Place and Park Avenue in the City of Long Beach, New York. The MTA offers a package which includes train fare and admission to the beach. H ...

, Long Beach, New York. * The original Dunes Club, Narragansett, Rhode Island. (Only the gatehouse remains after the 1938 hurricane.) * Sands Point Bath Club, East Egg, LI (destroyed by fire in 1986) * Forest Hills Stadium,

West Side Tennis Club The West Side Tennis Club is a private tennis club located in Forest Hills, Queens, Forest Hills, a neighborhood in the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Queens. The club has 38 tennis courts in all four surfaces (clay court, H ...

Forest Hills, Queens Forest Hills is a mostly residential neighborhood in the central portion of the borough of Queens in New York City. It is adjacent to Corona to the north, Rego Park and Glendale to the west, Forest Park to the south, Kew Gardens to the southeast, ...

, New York City * New Colonial Hotel, Nassau * First National Bank Building, Hoboken, New Jersey * The Murchison Building, Wilmington, North Carolina * Co-op Apartments, 39 E. 79th St., New York. * The Tully House (Residence),

Mill Neck, New York Mill Neck is a village in the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 997 at the 2010 census. History Mill Neck incorporated as a village in 1925. Many Gold Coast-e ...

* Luola Chapel, built at Orton Plantation in Brunswick, North Carolina, in memory of his sister who died in 1916. He also added wings to the main house. * Summer Residences, Narragansett, Rhode Island * Primelles Building, Havana, Cuba (American Architect. Vol. 119, Part 1) * St. Elmo Hall, home to the St. Elmo Society, at 111 Grove Street at Yale University, today known as Rosenfeld Hall. *

William A. Clark House The William A. Clark House, nicknamed "Clark's Folly", was a mansion located at 962 Fifth Avenue on the northeast corner of its intersection with East 77th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. It was demolished in 1927 an ...

(with

Lord and Hewlett Austin Willard Lord FAIA (June 27, 1860 – January 19, 1922) was an American architect and painter. He was a partner in the firm of Lord & Hewlett, best known for their work on the design of the former William A. Clark House on Fifth Aven ...

)

References

1872 births 1938 deaths Architects from New York City American alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts American railway architects {{US-architect-stub