Charles follen mckim biography

Charles Follen McKim (August 24, 1847 – September 14, 1909) was an American Beaux-Arts architect of the late 19th century.
Charles Follen McKim is one of the most celebrated American architects of the late nineteenth century.
Charles Follen McKim was an American architect who was of primary importance in the American Neoclassical revival.

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Charles Follen McKim, Architect

Charles Follen McKim (1847-1909) was the son of a leading figure in the abolitionist movement. Not an outstanding student, he attended Harvard for a year. Then, following in the footsteps of H. H. Richardson and Richard Morris Hunt, he convinced his parents to send him to study architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1870 he began his career as a draftsman for Richardson in New York. By 1879 McKim, Mead & White was established, working on significant residential projects for society’s elite and major civic projects in Newport, Boston, and New York.

Daniel H. Burnham, the director of works for the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, brought McKim and several other East Coast, Beaux-Arts trained architects to Chicago to design individual buildings and the plan for the main exhibition grounds of the fair. Many considered McKim’s Agricultural Building the most beautiful.

The fair’s neoclassical design was enormously popular and played a large role in the subsequent City Beautiful Movement in architecture and planning which held

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Charles Follen McKim (1847-1909)

Charles F. McKim, Architect, of McKim, Mead & White, New York

Parents (2)

Rev. James Miller McKim

Abolitionist & Anti-Slavery Pioneer, of New York

1810-1874

Sarah (Speakman) McKim

Mrs Sarah Allibone (Speakman) McKim

1813-1891

Spouse (1)

Julia (Appleton) McKim

Mrs Julia Amory (Appleton) McKim

1859-1887

Associated Houses (3)

Florham

Florham Park, New Jersey

The Marble Palace

Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

The Homestead

Lenox, Massachusetts

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Charles Follen McKim is one of the most celebrated American architects of the late nineteenth century. Along with William Rutherford Mead and Stanford White, he provided the architectural expertise as a member of the partnership McKim, Mead & White.

McKim was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania to Presbyterian minister and abolitionist James Miller McKim (1810-1874) and Sarah Speakman McKim. After attending Harvard University, McKim studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts (“School of Fine Arts”) in Paris from 1867-1870. Upon his return to America, he was employed as a draftsman in the office of Gambrill and Richardson in New York City and fell under the influence of his mentor, architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886), while the latter was completing Trinity Church in Boston.

In 1879, McKim formed his own firm in partnership with William Rutherford Mead (1846-1928) and Stanford White (1853-1906) and together established the most successful and influential architectural practice of its time. In the early years of their practice, the firm specialized in the design o