Richard Upjohn

Richard Upjohn (22 January 1802 – 16 August 1878) was a British-born American architect who emigrated to the United States and became most famous for his Gothic Revival churches. He was partially responsible for launching the movement to such popularity in the United States. Upjohn also did extensive work in and helped to popularize the Italianate style. He was a founder and the first president of the American Institute of Architects. His son, Richard Michell Upjohn, (1828-1903), was also a well-known architect and served as a partner in his continued architectural firm in New York.Doumato, Lamia. Richard Upjohn, Richard Michell Upjohn, and the Gothic Revival in America. Monticello, Ill: Vance Bibliographies, 1984. Upjohn, Everard M. Richard Upjohn, Architect and Churchman. New York: Columbia University Press, 1939.

Life and career

Richard Upjohn was born in Shaftesbury, England, where he was apprenticed to a builder and cabinet-maker. He eventually became a master-mechanic. He and his family emigrated to the United States in 1829. They initially settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts and then moved on to Boston in 1833, where he worked in architectural design. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1836. His first major project was for the entrances to the Boston Common, the town's central park and his first church would be St. John's Episcopal Church in Bangor, Maine. He had relocated to New York City by 1839 where he worked on alterations to the famed Trinity Church on Wall Street in lower Manhattan. The alterations were later abandoned and he was commissioned to design a new church, completed in 1846, and still extant today. He published his extremely influential book, ''"Upjohn's rural architecture: Designs, working drawings and specifications for a wooden church, and other rural structures"'', in 1852. The designs in this publication were widely used across the country by builders, with many examples remaining.

Upjohn, along with 13 other architects, co-founded the American Institute of Architects on February 23, 1857. He served as president of that organization from 1857 to 1876, being succeeded by Thomas Ustick Walter, fourth Architect of the Capitol. He went on the design many buildings in a variety of styles. He died at his home in Garrison, New York in 1878. Architectural drawings and papers by Upjohn and other family members are held by the Drawings and Archives Department of the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University, in New York City, also by the New York Public Library's Humanities and Social Sciences Library, in the Manuscripts and Archives division, and by the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

He died on 16 August 1878 in Putnam County, New York of cerebral softening.

Projects

Some of Upjohn's notable projects include:

* William Rotch, Jr. House in New Bedford, Massachusetts, (1834)
*Abiel Smith School in Boston, Massachusetts, (1835)
*St. John's Episcopal Church in Bangor, Maine, (1835–36, burned 1911)
* Trinity Church in New York City, (1839–46)
* Kingscote in Newport, Rhode Island, (1839)
* The Church of the Ascension in New York City, (1840–41)
* Christ Church in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, New York, (1841–42)
* Bethesda Episcopal Church in Saratoga Springs, New York, (1842)
* St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Newark, Delaware, (ca. 1843)
*Edward King House in Newport, Rhode Island, (1845–47)
* Grace Church in Providence, Rhode Island, (1845; with Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson)
* Church of the Holy Cross in Middletown, Rhode Island, (1845)
* Christ Church in Canaan, Connecticut, (1845–46)
* St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Brunswick, Maine, (1845)
* First Parish Church in Brunswick, Maine, (1845–46)
*Church of the Pilgrims (now Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Cathedral) in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, New York, (1846)
* St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Burlington, New Jersey, (1846–54)
* Christ Episcopal Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, (1846–48)
* St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, (1847)
*St. Saviours Episcopal Church, in Maspeth, Queens, New York (1847)
*St. James Episcopal Church, in New London, Connecticut (1847)
* Grace Church in Newark, New Jersey