William Pitt Preble Longfellow

“ Richardson’s uncommon personality so embodied itself in his works that it cannot be overlooked. He had an inexhaustible energy of body and mind, an enthusiasm more genial than combative, but so abounding and at times vehement that few men and few bodies of men could resist him. ”

“ Trinity church, the Pittsburg buildings and the Capitol at Albany were works of great importance, which have had a strong influence on men who followed him and brought him wide acknowledgment. It is notable that American architects who have studied in Europe, especially in Paris, are apt to drift either into a pathless eclecticism or into the English current. ”

“ He was graduated from Harvard University in 1859, and going immediately to Paris to study architecture, entered the École des Beaux-Arts. The Civil War, which broke out in the United States while he was in the school, prevented his return to Louisiana, and stripped his family of their possessions, so that Richardson provided for his own support by working in the offices of practising architects in Paris, till the fall of 1865. Coming back, he established himself in New York, where he soon made his way into practice as an architect. ”