Horace Trumbauer, architect, [1859-1939]
Horace Trumbauer [†], one of the most successful practitioners of European-revival styles. Trumbauer spent eight years in the office of George and William Hewitt as an errand boy. He had never been to Europe yet opened his own office in 1892. His first major commission, Grey Towers, is an American Castle that proclaims its owner "cultured," wealthy, and a patron of the arts.
The first great step in Trumbauer's career came when he received the com- mission to design Grey Towers for William Welsh Harrison in 1893. Until then his commissions as a newly-established architect had been on a small scale. Grey Towers typifies the eclectic school of architecture developing at the time and Trumbauer's own first important residence in this style. When complete the building was known as one of America's largest homes and is recognized today as an outstanding example of an American castle. It attracted attention to Trumbauer and led to commissions for other large mansions in the European manner.
In the Philadelphia area Trumbauer enjoyed the patronage of the Widener and Elkins families. In 1896 he created Chelten House in the Tudor style for George W. Elkins. In 1898 the Italian Renaissance villa Elstowe Park was built for William Lukens Elkins and in the same year came Lynnewood Hall, the Georgian home of Peter A. B. Widener. Meanwhile, in 1897, Trumbauer had designed Balangary, another Georgian mansion, for Martin Maloney at Spring Lake, New Jersey. In 1899, he drew plans for The Elms, the eighteenth century French home of Edward Julius Berwind in Newport, Rhode Island. Succeeding years found him creating more residences in Newport (Chetwode in 1900, Clarendon Court in 1903, and Miramar in 1913), town houses in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, and several hotels, office buildings, medical school buildings, and private clubs in Philadelphia. He also designed campus buildings for Harvard and Duke Universities. In 1916, his office began work on Whitemarsh Hall, the vast suburban Philadelphia estate of Edward T. Stotesbury, now a large housing development.
Some critics regard Trumbauer as the successor to Richard Morris Hunt in creating mansions of distinction for America's wealthy. Most of the plans produced in Trumbauer's office ranged from Medieval and Tudor styles through Italian and French Renaissance to Georgian and eighteenth century French. In time he appears to have designed more in the latter two periods. Never again did he produce a medieval castle such as Grey Towers.
† Kenneth D. Matthews, Jr., Professor, .Edited Carolyn Pitts, Architectural Historian, Grey Towers (William Welsh Harrison House, 1975, nomination document, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.