Charles Follen McKim

One of the fo­re­most Ame­ri­can ar­chi­tects, died Sep­tem­ber 14, 1909 at his sum­mer home in St. James, Long Is­land, New York. He was born in Ches­ter County, Penn­syl­va­nia, Au­gust 24, 1847. He spent a year at the La­wrence Sci­en­ti­fic School at Har­vard Uni­ver­sity and in 1867 went to Paris to enter the Ecole des Beaux-Arts as a pupil of Dau­met. On his re­turn from Eu­rope in 1872, he es­ta­blis­hed him­s­elf as an ar­chi­tect in New York. In 1877 he was joi­ned in part­nership by William R. Mead and two years later by Stan­ford White, when the firm of McKim, Mead & White was for­med. Some of the best known works exe­cu­ted by the firm are the Bos­ton Pu­blic Li­brary; the Rhode Is­land State House, Pro­vi­dence; Ma­di­son Square Gar­den, New York; and the Agri­cul­tu­ral Buil­ding at the Co­lum­bian Ex­po­si­tion, Chi­cago. In New York they erec­ted Co­lum­bia Uni­ver­sity Li­brary, the Hall of Fame of New York Uni­ver­sity, the Mu­seum of the Brook­lyn In­sti­tute of Arts and Sci­en­ces, Uni­ver­sity and Cen­tury clubs, the J. P. Mor­gan Li­brary, and the Penn­syl­va­nia Rail­road Sta­tion. Mr. McKim re­cei­ved a gold medal at the Paris Ex­po­si­tion of 1900, and King Ed­ward of Eng­land pre­sen­ted hi a gold medal in 1903 for va­luable ser­vices to ar­chi­tec­ture. The Ame­ri­can In­sti­tute of Ar­chi­tects awar­ded him its gold medal in 1909, alt­hough the pre­sen­ta­tion was not made until De­cem­ber 15, 1909, when it was re­cei­ved by his part­ner, Mr. Mead. Har­vard gave him the de­gree of M.A. in 1893; Co­lum­bia that of Litt. D. in 1904; and the Uni­ver­sity of Penn­syl­va­nia the de­gree of LL.D. in 1909. He was elec­ted an As­so­ciate of the Ame­ri­can In­sti­tute of Ar­chi­tects in 1875 and a Fel­low in 1877 and was its pre­si­dent from 1902 to 1903. He was elec­ted an As­so­ciate of the Na­tio­nal Aca­demy of De­sign in 1905 and an Aca­de­mi­cian in 1907. He was pre­si­dent of the Ame­ri­can Aca­demy at Rome and was an ho­no­rary mem­ber of the Na­tio­nal So­ciety of Mural Pain­ters and the Na­tio­nal Sculp­ture So­ciety. He had been a mem­ber of the Ar­chi­tec­tu­ral Le­ague of New York since 1889. He was a char­ter mem­ber of the So­ciety of Beaux-Arts Ar­chi­tects, a trus­tee of the Me­tro­po­li­tan Mu­seum of Art, and a mem­ber of the Con­gres­sio­nal Com­mis­sion for the Im­pro­ve­ment of the Park Sys­tem of the City of Wa­shing­ton.