Richard Morris Hunt Biography

Richard Morris Hunt (October 31, 1827 – July 31, 1895) was an American architect of the nineteenth century and a preeminent figure in the history of American architecture. Design critic Paul Goldberger wrote in The New York Times that Hunt was "American architecture's first, and in many ways its greatest, statesman." He helped sculpt the face of New York City, including designs for the façade and Great Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, and many Fifth Avenue mansions now lost to the wrecking ball. Hunt is equally renown for his elaborate summer cottages in Newport, Rhode Island, and the Biltmore Estate, America's largest private home, near Asheville, North Carolina.