Hugh Lamb and Charles Alonzo Rich

Charles A. Rich

Charles Alonzo Rich was an American architect who practiced in New York City from 1882 until 1933. Rich was a member of the Architectural League of New York...

were partners in the 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...

 architecture

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

 firm of Lamb & Rich. There firm was established just after 1880 and operated to 1899.The firm was preceded by the firm of Lamb & Wheeler (1877–1881) and succeeded by the firms of Charles A. Rich, Architect (1899–1916), Rich & Mathesius (1916–1928), and Rich, Mathesius & Koyl (1928–1932).

Both were born about 1850 - Lamb was a native of Scotland; Rich was born in Beverly, Mass., and attended Dartmouth. Not much is known of their training, but various sources indicate that Lamb generally handled the firm's business side and Rich was the designer. Lamb died in 1903, and Rich in 1943.

One of their earliest commissions was Henderson Place, a tight-knit group of two dozen houses built in 1882 and located at 86th Street and East End Avenue in Manhattan. Additional buildings they designed include: Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...

's country house Sagamore Hill

Sagamore Hill

Sagamore Hill was the home of the 26th President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt from 1885 until his death in 1919. It is located at the end of Cove Neck Road in the Incorporated Village of Cove Neck, New York, on Long Island, 25 miles east of Manhattan. Sagamore Hill is located within...

 in Oyster Bay Long Island (completed 1887), Mount Morris Bank

Mount Morris Bank

The Mount Morris Bank building, known as the Corn Exchange Bank after 1913, is an historic bank building located in Harlem in New York City. It was designed by the noted architectural firm of Lamb and Rich and built in 1883 and expanded in 1897 as a mixed use residential and commercial building...

 in Harlem

Harlem

Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...

 (1883), the Victorian Renaissance revival style Main Building at Pratt Institute

Pratt Institute

Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...

 in Brooklyn (1887), the Queen Anne style Astral Apartments

Astral Apartments

Astral Apartments is a historic apartment building located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York, New York.The Astral was built in 1885-1886 as affordable housing for employees of Charles Pratt's Astral Oil Works. It is a massive brick and terra cotta building in the Queen Anne style. It features a...

 (commissioned by Charles Pratt-built 1885/86) at 184 Franklin St. in Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Greenpoint is the northernmost neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bordered on the southwest by Williamsburg at the Bushwick inlet, on the southeast by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and East Williamsburg, on the north by Newtown Creek and Long Island City, Queens at the...

 (national register #82001178), the Frank Babbott house at 153 Lincoln Place in Park Slope, Brooklyn

Park Slope, Brooklyn

Park Slope is a neighborhood in western Brooklyn, New York City's most populous borough. Park Slope is roughly bounded by Prospect Park West to the east, Fourth Avenue to the west, Flatbush Avenue to the north, and 15th Street to the south, though other definitions are sometimes offered. Generally...

, the main building of Barnard College

Barnard College

Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...

 in Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

, the John M. Greene Hall at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 and "Copshaholm," James Oliver

James Oliver (inventor)

James Oliver was an American inventor and industrialist best known for his creation of the South Bend Iron Works, which was reincorporated as the Oliver Farm Equipment Company after his death. After buying a South Bend, Indiana foundry with partner Harvey Little in 1855 he began experimenting with...

's house in South Bend, Indiana

South Bend, Indiana

The city of South Bend is the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total of 101,168 residents; its Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 316,663...

. Most of the firm's projects were located within commuting distance of Manhattan, with a significant cluster in New Hampshire

New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

, especially at Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

.

The historian Vincent J. Scully Jr. singled out the vitality of their designs in his 1971 book, The Shingle Style and the Stick Style: Architectural Theory and Design From Richardson to the Origins of Wright (Yale University Press, 1971).

Sources

• Scott Meacham, "The Buildings and Projects of Lamb & Rich, Architects, and Related Firms, 1876-1935" (2004) (http://www.dartmo.com/rich/buildings.html).

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/ARCH/ARCH-LambRich.htm