
Sidney Vanuxem Stratton (August 8, 1845
[Edward Carpenter, and Louis Henry Carpenter, ''Samuel Carpenter and His Descendants'' (1912:71).] – June 17, 1921) was an American architect born in
Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez ( ) is the county seat of and only city in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Natchez has a total population of 14,520 (as of the 2020 census). Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, ...
,
but whose practice was entirely in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
. Stratton is now scarcely known, but he was one of the first American architecture students at 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 ...
in Paris, along with
H. H. Richardson
Henry Hobson Richardson, FAIA (September 29, 1838 – April 27, 1886) was an American architect, best known for his work in a style that became known as Richardsonian Romanesque. Along with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, Richardson is one ...
and
Richard Morris Hunt
Richard Morris Hunt (October 31, 1827 – July 31, 1895) was an American architect of the nineteenth century and an eminent figure in the history of American architecture. He helped shape New York City with his designs for the 1902 entrance fa� ...
, in whose office he worked in the 1870s before establishing his own practice.
In his picturesque structure for the New York House and School at 120 West 16th Street (1878), a charitable institution teaching sewing skills to poor women, he introduced the
Queen Anne style to the United States. This building was designated a
New York City landmark
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
in 1990. At the
Seventh Regiment Armory
The Seventh Regiment Armory, also known as Park Avenue Armory, is a historic National Guard armory building located at 643 Park Avenue in the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The building is a brick and stone structure ...
, Stratton's Queen Anne-style room for the affluent and socially prominent Company K, of which he was a member, is among the best-preserved.
He met
Charles Follen McKim
Charles Follen McKim (August 24, 1847 – September 14, 1909) was an American Beaux-Arts architect of the late 19th century. Along with William Rutherford Mead and Stanford White, he provided the architectural expertise as a member of the par ...
at the École, and later collaborated with
McKim, Mead, and White
McKim, Mead & White was an American architectural firm that came to define architectural practice, urbanism, and the ideals of the American Renaissance in fin de siècle New York. The firm's founding partners Charles Follen McKim (1847–1909), Wi ...
– from whom he sublet space from 1877 as an independent contractor – on several projects: a church in Quogue, New York (1884), the redesign of the Elliott Roosevelt town house in New York City the same year, and in redesigned interiors in an early classicizing style, for Mr. and Mrs.
Stuyvesant Fish
Stuyvesant Fish (June 24, 1851 – April 10, 1923) was an American businessman and member of the Fish family who served as president of the Illinois Central Railroad. He owned grand residences in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island, entertai ...
's town house at
19 Gramercy Park South __FORCETOC__
19 Gramercy Park South, also known as 86 Irving Place or the Stuyvesant Fish House, is a four-story row house located at the corner of Gramercy Park South ( East 20th Street) and Irving Place in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manha ...
(1887).
Other works include:
*Avamaya,
Bar Harbor, Maine
Bar Harbor is a resort town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, Maine
Maine () is a U.S. state, state in the New England and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the wes ...
, for Maj. George Montague Wheeler (Later known as Blair Eyrie for second owner D.C. Blair) (1894, demolished).
*Carriage House, 150 East 22nd Street, for Miss E.L. Breese (1901); Flemish Renaissance, of
Roman brick
Roman brick can refer either to a type of brick used in Ancient Roman architecture and spread by the Romans to the lands they conquered; or to a modern type inspired by the ancient prototypes. In both cases, it characteristically has longer and ...
and limestone, with a stepped gable.
Stratton was a member of the
Architectural League of New York
The Architectural League of New York is a non-profit organization "for creative and intellectual work in architecture, urbanism, and related disciplines".
The league dates from 1881, when Cass Gilbert organized meetings at the Salmagundi Club for ...
. He seems to have retired to Natchez, where he had been born and where his father had married his second wife, Miss Caroline Matilda Williams, daughter of Austin Williams of Natchez.
[Sidney V. Stratton's ''Stratton genealogy of Long Island, N.Y.,''; was published at Natchez, Mississippi, in 1901.]
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stratton, Sidney V.
19th-century American architects
1845 births
1921 deaths
People from Natchez, Mississippi
American alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts
20th-century American architects