Isaac Newton Phelps-Stokes
Encyclopedia
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
. He was the eldest son of multimillionaire Anson Phelps Stokes
Anson Phelps Stokes
For other men with the same name, see Anson Phelps Stokes Anson Phelps Stokes was a merchant, banker, publicist, philanthropist, and became a multimillionaire. Born in New York City, he was the son of James Boulter and Caroline Stokes; brother of William Earl Dodge Stokes and Olivia Eggleston...
, and graduated from Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1891. He designed St. Paul's Chapel
St. Paul's Chapel (Columbia University)
St. Paul's Chapel is the chapel of Columbia University in New York City. Designed and built from 1904 to 1907 by I. N. Phelps Stokes of the architectural firm Howells & Stokes in an elaborate mixture of Italian Renaissance, Byzantine, and Gothic styles, its interior features Guastavino tile...
at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and several urban housing projects in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Sanger Hill, a New York State country house in the English manner, represents his private housing work.
He married Edith Minturn Stokes in 1895. A friend sponsored their famous portrait in oil, by John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings...
, as a wedding gift. Edith also served as the artist's model for a well-known sculpture, Statue of the Republic
Statue of the Republic
The Statue of the Republic is a gilded bronze sculpture in Jackson Park, Chicago, Illinois. The statue was built in 1918 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago and the Illinois statehood centennial...
by Daniel Chester French
Daniel Chester French
Daniel Chester French was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Life and career:...
, and a portrait by Cecilia Beaux
Cecilia Beaux
Cecilia Beaux was an American society portraitist, in the manner of John Singer Sargent. She was a near contemporary of better-known American artist Mary Cassatt and also received her training in Philadelphia and France...
. She was President of the New York Kindergarten Association and of the Municipal Art Commission. She was the aunt of Edie Sedgewick, who was named after her.
I.N. Phelps Stokes founded an architectural firm, Howells & Stokes
Howells & Stokes
Howells & Stokes was an American architectural firm. Founded in 1897 by John Mead Howells and Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes, it designed, among other structures, St...
, with a partner, John Mead Howells
John Mead Howells
John Mead Howells was an American architect. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts as the son of author William Dean Howells, he studied architecture at Harvard and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he met his future partners, I. N. Phelps Stokes and Raymond Hood...
, in 1897.
Mr. Stokes was active in housing reform
Housing Act of 1937
The Housing Act of 1937, sometimes called the Wagner-Steagall Act, provided for subsidies to be paid from the U.S. government to local public housing agencies to improve living conditions for low-income families....
. He was a co-author of the Tenement House Law of 1901
New York State Tenement House Act
One of the reforms of the Progressive Era, the New York State Tenement House Act of 1901 was one of the first such laws to ban the construction of dark, poorly ventilated tenement buildings in the state of New York...
, and designer of the University Settlement House.
In 1910, Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes dismantled a large timber framed house, formerly the Queens Head, located next to what is now the A140 Ipswich to Norwich route in Thwaite, Suffolk
Thwaite, Suffolk
Thwaite is a rural village in England.Thwaite is based on and around the A140 road, midway between Suffolk's county town of Ipswich and the city of Norwich, in Norfolk...
, UK. He transported it in 688 crates from Tilbury Docks
Port of Tilbury
The Port of Tilbury is located on the River Thames at Tilbury in Essex, England. It is the principal port for London; as well as being the main United Kingdom port for handling the importation of paper. There are extensive facilities for containers, grain, and other bulk cargoes. There are also...
to the USA, where it was re-constructed using the timbers of a wrecked English ship, on a hill overlooking Long Island Sound near Greenwich, Connecticut
Greenwich, Connecticut
Greenwich is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 61,171. It is home to many hedge funds and other financial service companies. Greenwich is the southernmost and westernmost municipality in Connecticut and is 38+ minutes ...
. It was renamed High Low House (one of its former names whilst standing in Thwaite).
Stokes may be best remembered for an exhaustive and authoritative six volume work entitled The Iconography of Manhattan Island
The Iconography of Manhattan Island
The Iconography of Manhattan Island is a six volume study of the history of New York City by Isaac Newton Phelps-Stokes, published between 1915 and 1928 by R. H. Dodd in New York. The work comprehensively records and documents key events of the city's chronology from the sixth to the early...
, published between 1915 and 1928. He later became a political ally and then a friend of New York Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia
Fiorello H. LaGuardia
Fiorello Henry LaGuardia was Mayor of New York for three terms from 1934 to 1945 as a liberal Republican. Previously he was elected to Congress in 1916 and 1918, and again from 1922 through 1930. Irascible, energetic and charismatic, he craved publicity and is acclaimed as one of the three or...
. During the New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
, as head of the Art Commission, Stokes oversaw the WPA mural program for the City of New York , which sponsored murals at locations including the Marine Air Terminal
Marine Air Terminal
-External links:*...
at LaGuardia Airport, Harlem Hospital, and New York Public Library
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
.
External links
- I.N. Phelps Stokes : His Print Collection and the Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909 - Avery Architectural & Fine Arts LibraryAvery Architectural and Fine Arts LibraryThe Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library is one of twenty-five libraries in the Columbia University Library System and is located in Avery Hall on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University in the City of New York. It is the largest architecture library in the world...
, Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, New York. - City Journal article on I.N. Phelps Stokes
- St-Paul's Chapel at Columbia University
- Paintings and sculptures of Edith Minturn Stokes