Edward Austin Kent (February 19, 1854 – April 15, 1912) was a prominent architect in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

. He died in the sinking of the RMS ''Titanic'' and was seen helping women and children into the lifeboats.

Biography

Edward Austin Kent was born in Bangor, Maine on February 19, 1854 to Harriet Ann Farnham (1830–1908) and Henry Mellen Kent (1823–1894). Kent moved with his family to Buffalo after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, where his father, Henry, opened a successful department store, Flint & Kent. He was the brother of

William Winthrop Kent William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

(1860–1955), also a prominent architect who studied under H. H. Richardson, and Charles Farnham Kent (1856–1878), who died aged 22 in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. Kent attended and graduated from

Yale 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 wor ...

, in 1875, and later the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...

, the famous

Beaux-Arts architecture Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorp ...

school in Paris. Returning to the U.S. in 1877, he became junior partner in the Syracuse, New York firm of Silsbee and Kent. In 1884, he returned to Buffalo and remained there for the rest of his career, helping to found the Buffalo Society of Architects and receiving many prominent commissions, including Flint & Kent. Until his death, he lived at the Buffalo Club. In 1912, he took a two-month vacation to France and Egypt and planned on retiring after returning home. He decided to delay his trip home so he could travel on the maiden voyage of the new and luxurious ocean liner, the .

Aboard the ''Titanic''

Kent traveled as a first-class passenger. He mingled with the other socialites, and with a writers' group which included

Helen Churchill Candee Helen Churchill Candee (October 5, 1858 – August 23, 1949) was an American author, journalist, interior decorator, feminist, and geographer. Today, she is best known as a survivor of the sinking of RMS ''Titanic'' in 1912, and for her late ...

and

Archibald Gracie Archibald Gracie (June 25, 1755 – April 11, 1829) was a Scottish-born shipping magnate and early American businessman and merchant in New York City and Virginia whose spacious home, Gracie Mansion, now serves as the residence of the Mayor of N ...

. He perished when the ship struck an iceberg and sank on the night of April 14–15, 1912. As the ship was sinking, he disregarded his own safety to help women and children into the lifeboats. He was last seen at around 2:20 a.m. making no attempts to save himself as he was swept into the ocean. His body was recovered by the CS ''Mackay-Bennett'' as body No. 258 and claimed by his brother when the ship docked. He was laid to rest in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in

Notable works

* Temple Beth Zion (destroyed) - erected in 1890 at 599 Delaware Avenue in

. Destroyed on October 4, 1961, when a fire, fueled by flammable liquids being used to refinish the pews, destroyed the building. * Chemical No. 5 Firehouse - erected in 1894 in the Art Nouveau style at 166 Cleveland Avenue in

. * A. E. Perron Company Building - erected in 1895 in the Beaux-Arts style at 674 Main Street as a factory and sales room for the A. E. Perron Company, a manufacturer of early automobiles, sleighs and harnesses. * Otto-Kent Building - erected in 1896 in the Beaux-Arts style at 636-644 Main Street in

adjacent to

Shea's Buffalo Shea's Performing Arts Center (originally Shea's Buffalo) is a theater for touring Broadway musicals and special events in Buffalo, New York. Originally called Shea's Buffalo, it was opened in 1926 to show silent movies. It took one year to bu ...

for his father's department store, Flint & Kent * Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo - erected in 1906 in the

English Gothic English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...

style at 695 Elmwood Avenue in

and listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on June 30, 2015.

References

External links

A trailer for a film about the life of Edward Austin Kent
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kent, Edward Austin 1854 births 1912 deaths Deaths on the RMS Titanic Architects from Bangor, Maine Architects from Buffalo, New York Yale University alumni American alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts Burials at Forest Lawn Cemetery (Buffalo) 19th-century American architects 20th-century American architects

Biography

Aboard the ''Titanic''

Notable works

See also

References

External links