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 Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1894 and from the

École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French ''grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Science ...

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 Hoboken Terminal is a commuter-oriented intermodal passenger station in Hoboken, Hudson County, New Jersey. One of the New York metropolitan area's major transportation hubs, it is served by nine NJ Transit (NJT) commuter rail lines, one Metr ...

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 Apartment ...

, 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 The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the private operator of New York City's original underground subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier elevated railways and additional rapid transit lines in New York City. The IRT w ...

Grand Central–42nd Street station The Grand Central–42nd Street station (also signed as 42nd Street–Grand Central) is a major station complex of the New York City Subway. Located in Midtown Manhattan at 42nd Street between Madison and Lexington Avenues, it serves trains o ...

, as ''The New York Times'' reported.

Buildings

He also designed: * Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Station-

Johnstown (Amtrak station) Johnstown station is an Amtrak intercity rail station in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, United States. The station is north of downtown Johnstown across the Little Conemaugh River. It is served by the daily round trip of the '' Pennsylvanian''. Histor ...

Jamaica (LIRR station) Jamaica station is a major train station of the Long Island Rail Road located in Jamaica, Queens, New York City. With weekday ridership exceeding 200,000 passengers, it is the largest transit hub on Long Island, the fourth-busiest rail station ...

, Jamaica, New York. * Long Beach (LIRR station), 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 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 ...

* New Colonial Hotel, Nassau * First National Bank Building,

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...

* The

Murchison Building The Murchison Building is an eleven-story brick and marble building in Wilmington, North Carolina, USA. It occupies the corner of Front and Chestnut Street. Sitting on historic waterfront property, the building overlooks the Cotton Exchange and Ca ...

, 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 Coas ...

* Luola Chapel, built at

Orton Plantation The Orton Plantation is a historic plantation house in the Smithville Township of Brunswick County, North Carolina, United States. Located beside the Cape Fear River between Wilmington and Southport, Orton Plantation is considered to be a nea ...

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 Narragansett is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 14,532 at the 2020 census. However, during the summer months the town's population more than doubles to near 34,000. The town of Narragansett occupies ...

* 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)

References

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