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W.L. Vandewirt of Oyster Bay

Before the house at Sagamore Hill, Lamb & Rich designed a frame house and stable in Oyster Bay for “Mr. W.L. Vandewirt.”[1] This name appears nowhere else and is very likely a misspelling, possibly an egregious one (the American Architect turned Talbot J. Taylor into “Albert J. Talbot”).

It seems possible that Roosevelt heard about the firm through a neighbor. One wonders whether there is a Long Island historian who knows Mr. Vandewirt’s true identity…

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[1] “Summary of the Week,” The American Architect and Building News 11:338 (17 June 1882), 289.

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Who was Lorenzo B. Wheeler?

What did he look like? What did the “B.” stand for?

The mystery man deserves his own book. He is probably more interesting to historians of modern architecture and Victorian America than either Hugh Lamb or Charles Rich.

Wheeler grew up in Danbury and moved to Newark in the 1870s. The best obituary claims that he studied under the great William Halsey Wood, which is possible, although the two were about the same age. Wheeler joined up with Lamb around 1877 and went solo in 1881. In 1883 he began a wide-spread series of mostly Flemo-Moorish buildings from offices (most successive, some concurrent) in New York; Atlanta; Decatur, Alabama; Memphis; allegedly Washington, D.C.; and St. Louis.

There is some confusion out there regarding Wheeler’s firms in St. Louis. He was the “Wheeler” in Wheeler & McClure of that city. Partner Craig McClure’s previous firm was Fuller & Wheeler of Albany, which was founded by William Arthur Wheeler and has no connection to the peripatetic Lorenzo.

Wheeler is credited with bringing the practice of interior design, if not Taste itself, to the city of Atlanta. He died at his brother’s house in Danbury in 1899.

[Update 01.09.2011: A good guess for Wheeler’s middle name would be Birdsall.]

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New version of catalog — Henderson Place updated

The list (pdf) now numbers the houses of Henderson Place correctly.



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Henderson Place


The big project for John C. Henderson is always confusing, partly because eight of its houses have been demolished and others have been combined. Still, it is not clear that the historic district nomination got it right when it said there were originally thirty-two houses. The three building permits are for twelve, twelve, and six houses, a total of thirty, and the Sanborn maps of a few years later show only thirty houses (although one of them is given two numbers: 1 Henderson Place and 543 East 86th). The division of Henderson’s property following his death sets out these same thirty houses. To make matters worse, Charles Rich said or wrote in at least two places that there were forty houses. There is a gap on 87th where Henderson might have wanted to put houses, but that site couldn’t have held more than six of them.

Other new information:

  • The First National Bank of Sheffield, Alabama and other Wheeler projects.
  • A 1921 addition to the New Woodruff Hotel in Watertown, N.Y.
  • Houses of 1890 and 1908 for Elmer T. Butler on Staten Island. Thanks to those working to preserve the surviving second house, now the Staten Island Montessori School, for generously sharing information about this historic mansion.
  • A grand 1893 mansion (summer cottage) for Harley T. Procter, of Procter & Gamble, in Williamstown, Mass. This one was solved thanks to the detective work of the readers of Ephblog.
  • George Koyl’s design for the Woman’s Club of Ridgewood.

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[Update 11.10.2012: Broken link to school fixed, broken link to Ephblog removed.]

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New version of catalog posted

The list (pdf) now includes another four dozen buildings by the partners in their separate practices before and after their work with the main firm of Lamb & Wheeler/Rich.

The most interesting new entry is the Holland Building (1896, Wheeler & McClure), a notable early St. Louis skyscraper by Lorenzo B. Wheeler and Albany/St. Louis architect Craig McClure.

Another notable project is Hugh Lamb’s pair of apartment houses at 306-312 West 97th Street (1900). These large buildings are on the 2009 wish list (West End Avenue Study Area) of the Committee to Preserve the Upper West Side.



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Project page moved

Finally the web page for this project has been put into blog form, moved from http://www.dartmo.com/lambandrich/index.html to http://www.dartmo.com/lambandrich/index.php.

The various updates listed on the old page have been recreated here as backdated posts.

The old page will not be updated but will remain available at http://www.dartmo.com/lambandrich/index2.html.

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New version of catalog posted

The “Buildings and Projects” list (v. 5) is posted. Still a bare list, it has been made as comprehensive as possible, describing about 600 projects.

[Update 12.31.2009.  This information moved to this blog from static web page at http://www.dartmo.com/lambandrich/index.html.]