Stephen Decatur Hatch

Stephen Decatur Hatch (b. 1839 - d. 1894)[2] was a prominent late-19th century architect who was responsible for a number of historically or architecturally significant buildings in Manhattan, New York City and elsewhere. He primarily designed commercial buildings.[3]

Part of Hatch's "extraordinary"[1] 3-story mansard roof for Gilsey House

Jubilee Hall at Fisk University

Murray Hill Hotel, built 1884, razed 1947 (c.1900-1910)

The former New York Life Insurance Company Building

Life and career

Hatch was born in Swanton, Vermont,[4] the son of an inventor,[3] and moved to New York City, where he found employment as a construction inspector.[3] He joined the busy architectural firm of John B. Snook in 1860 as a draftsman.[4] He left around 1864 to start his own practice, and became the architect of the U.S. War Department, responsible for construction of military posts in New York.[3] His practice began to flourish in 1868.[4]

Hatch died in 1894, during the construction of an extension to the headquarters building of the New York Life Insurance Company.

Works

Manhattan

• 213-215 Water Street – warehouse, built 1868 for A.A. Thompson & Co., now part of South Street Seaport Museum,[5] within the South Street Seaport Historic District
• 118 East 18th Street – built 1868[6]
• Gilsey House Hotel – 1200 Broadway, built 1869-1871, converted to residential use 1980, a NYC landmark (1979)[1]
• 836-838 Broadway - built 1876-1877[7]
• Robbins & Appleton Building – manufacturing, built 1879-1880, a NYC landmark (1979)[8]
• Schepp Building – warehouse, 45-53 Hudson Street, built 1880, within the Tribeca North Historic District [9]
• 165 Duane Street – lofts, built 1881, within the Tribeca West Historic District [10]
• Murray Hill Hotel – Park Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets, built 1884, razed 1947[11]
• U.S. Army Building – also known as 3 New York Plaza, Water & Whitehall Streets, offices, built 1886[12]
• 168 Duane Street – warehouse, built 1886-1887, within the Tribeca West Historic District,[9] Dutch Revival style [13]
• Manhattan Savings Institution[14] – also known as Bleecker Tower,[15] 644 Broadway, built 1889-1891, within the NoHo Historic District [16]
• Fleming Smith Warehouse – 451-453 Washington Street, built 1891-1892, a NYC landmark (1978)[17]
• Roosevelt Building – lofts, 839-841 Broadway, built 1893[18]
• Former New York Life Insurance Company Building – also known as the Clock Tower Building, offices, 346 Broadway, built 1894-1895, completed by McKim, Mead & White, a NYC landmark (1987)[19] and on the National Register of Historic Places (1982)

Elsewhere

• Methodist Episcopal Church – Madison, New Jersey, built 1870, on the National Register of Historic Places (2008)
• Jubilee Hall – Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, built 1876, a National Historic Landmark (1974)
• Laclede Building – St. Louis, Missouri, built 1888[20]
• Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Rooms 231 & 232 – Washington, D.C., office suite for the U.S. Secretary of War, completed March 1888[2]

References

Notes

1. NYCLPC p.80
2. "History of Rooms 231 and 232" on the White House website
3. "South Street Seaport Museum 213-215 Water Street" Historic American Buildings Survey, #NY-5684
4. Dillon, James T. Gilsey House Designation Report of the New York City Landmark Preservation Commission (September 11, 1979)
5. "South Street Seaport Museum, 213-215 Water Street, New York, New York, NY" on Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
6. "118 East 18th Street" on the Gramercy Neighborhood Associates website
7. "836-838 Broadway" on the Endangered Cast-Iron Buildings website
8. NYCLPC, p. 62
9. NYCLPC, p.21
10. White & Willensky, p.63
11. "Murray Hill Hotel, 1918", City University of New York DSpace
12. White & Willensky, p.26
13. "About Tribeca"
14. http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2010/06/manhattan-savings-institute-644.html
15. "Bleecker Tower" on Wired New York website
16. NYCLPC, p.60
17. NYCLPC, p.36
18. White & Willenski, p. 166
19. NYCLPC, p.34
20. "The Gilsey House - 29th and Broadway" Accessed:2010-11-20

Bibliography

• New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; Dolkart, Andrew S.; Postal, Matthew A. (2009). Postal, Matthew A. (ed.). Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-28963-1.
• White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot (2000). AIA Guide to New York City (4th ed.). New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0-8129-3107-5.

External links

• Media related to Stephen Decatur Hatch at Wikimedia Commons