Hunt, Richard Morris (1827-1895), was an American architect. He was largely responsible for shifting American architecture away from English sources and toward French influences. Hunt is perhaps best known for the magnificent summer houses that he designed late in his career for wealthy clients, especially the Vanderbilt family.
Many of the mansions that Hunt designed, such as George Washington Vanderbilt’s estate near Asheville, North Carolina, were patterned after the French Renaissance chateau. Hunt designed other mansions in New York and in Newport, Rhode Island, notably The Breakers and Marble House. In addition, Hunt designed the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty and the front wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. See Statue of Liberty .
Hunt was born on Oct. 31, 1827, in Brattleboro, Vermont. He was the first American architect trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Hunt opened a studio in New York City in 1857, where he conducted workshops modeled after those of the Ecole. These workshops represented the first such education in architecture in the United States. Hunt died on July 31, 1895.
