George Champlin Mason, Sr.

George Champlin Mason Sr. (1820-1894) was an American architect who built a number of mansions in Newport, Rhode Island, during the Gilded Age. He helped to found the Newport Historical Society as well.

Early life and education Drawing by George Champlin Mason Sr. of former Rhode Island State House, today known as Old Colony House. From Newport Illustrated, 1854. George Champlin Mason was born to George Champlin Mason and Abigail Mumford Mason in Newport, Rhode Island in 1820. The Masons were a prominent New England family; his great-uncle Christopher G. Champlin was a U.S. Senator, and his aunt Elizabeth was married to Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. After his early schooling in Newport, he moved to New York at the age of 15, where he worked in a dry goods establishment for six years. He left because of poor health and not long afterwards went to Europe to study art in Rome, Paris, and Florence, specializing in landscape paintings. He returned to the United States in 1846 and two years later married Frances Elizabeth Dean. Their son, George Champlin Mason Jr. (who would also become an architect), was born in 1849. In 1891 Mason transferred to the Rhode Island Society of the Cincinnati. This was probably in recognition of his interest in preserving historical records and his family connection to Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry.

Mason died in 1894 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was buried in the Island Cemetery of Newport. He was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 2006.