Egerton Swartwout

Egerton Swartwout (March 3, 1870 – February 18, 1943) was an American architect, most notably associated with his New York City architectural firm Tracy and Swartwout and McKim, Mead & White. His buildings, numbering over 100, were typically in the Beaux-Arts style. Six of his buildings are recognized on the National Register of Historic Places, and three others have been given landmark status by their city commissions.

Family Egerton was born March 3, 1870, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the first son of Satterlee Swartwout (grandson of Robert Swartwout) and Charlotte Elizabeth Edgerton (daughter of Alfred Peck Edgerton). Egerton married British-born Isabelle Geraldine Davenport, June 20, 1904, in Cambridge, England. They had two children, Robert Egerton Swartwout and Charlotte Elizabeth. Robert, better known as R.E. Swartwout, was an author and the first American to cox the Cambridge University rowing team to victory over Oxford University, in 1930.

Training and career Egerton Swartwout graduated from Yale University in 1891 with a B.A. degree. He had no formal training in architecture, but spent two summers during college working in small architecture offices. After graduating from Yale he presented a letter of introduction to Stanford White of McKim, Mead and White. White took him into the firm as an unpaid student, and after a few months he was hired as a draftsman.

Swartwout spent ten years at the firm and rose through the ranks of draftsmen. He worked primarily for Charles McKim, assisting in the design of several of McKim's major buildings, including the Low Memorial Library at Columbia University. The four internal staircases at the corners of the rotunda leading to four exits were Swartwout's contribution. He wrote in his memoir that he later regretted the idea, because when he used the library he could never manage to find the same stairs going down that he had used to come up, and when he was in a hurry to catch a train he often found himself leaving by the wrong exit in the rear of the building. He was made an honorary member of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1915. Swartwout was a member of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts from 1931 to 1936, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the National Academy of Design.

Death Swartwout died in New York City, New York, on February 18, 1943. Architect Eric Gugler served as executor for his estate. Swartwout is buried alongside his mother and daughter in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, New York.

Select buildings Hill-Stead (1898–1901) Farmington, Connecticut (in conjunction with Theodate Pope Riddle) 30 West 44th Street (1901) New York City, New York (formerly The Yale Club of New York City) Albany Public Bath House #2 (1905) 90 4th Ave, Albany, New York The Connecticut Savings Bank (1906) 45 Church Street, New Haven, Connecticut Ferguson Library (1910) Stamford, Connecticut, a two-story Georgian Revival brick building in what is now the Downtown Stamford Historic District Missouri State Capitol (1913–1918) Jefferson City, Missouri Mary Baker Eddy Memorial (1915) Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts Macon City Auditorium (1928) Macon, Georgia Bailey Fountain in Grand Army Plaza (1929–1932) Brooklyn, New York Brookwood American Cemetery Chapel (1929) Brookwood, Surrey, England