Résumé

Apprentice, Renwick, Aspinwall and Russell, Architects, New York, NY, 1884-1891. In American Architects and the Mechanics of Fame, historian Roxanne Kuter Williamson noted about Goodhue: "He was only fifteen, but in his autobiography he claimed to have been trained personally by James Renwick, Jr.--who would have been sixty-six at that time but was still dominating the office." (See Roxanne Kuter Williamson, American Architects and the Mechanics of Fame, [Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1991], p. 110.) In the Renwick, Aspinwall and Russell office, Goodhue spent two years at the beginning of his career as an office boy, before becoming a draftsman.

Partner, Cram, Wentworth, and Goodhue, Boston, MA, 1892-1898. Charles Francis Wentworth passed away in 1897, and, following his death, Cram and Goodhue elevated an employee, Frank W. Ferguson (1861-1926) to partner status. Within the Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson Office, Cram was known to work out the basic plan, massing and scale, while Goodhue and other partners were responsible for applying the details to the roughed-out scheme, this according to architectural historian, Douglas Shand Tucci (See "Ralph Adams Cram," in Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects, v. 1, [New York, NY: Free Press, 1982], p. 473.)

Partner, Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson, Architects, Boston, MA, and New York, NY, 1898-1913. Following the firm's success in landing the commission to design the US Army Military Academy at West Point, NY, in 1902, Cram, Wentworth, and Goodhue opened an office in New York, to supervise the West Point commission, with Bertram Goodhue leading this new branch. The firm of Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson ceased as of 12/31/1913.

Principal, Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, Architect, New York, NY, 1914-1924. After his death in 1924, the firm continued as "Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue Associates," led by architects Francis L.S. Mayers, Oscar H. Murry and Hardie Phillip. (See New York City Directory, 1925, p. 994.)

Professional Awards

Honorary doctorate of science, Trinity University, Hartford, CT, 1911.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) bestowed its Gold Medal, its highest award, on Goodhue posthumously in 1925.

Archives

Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue Architectural Drawings and Papers, 1882-1980, Columbia University, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, New York, NY, http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eresources/archives/avery/goodhue/ldpd.3460598.001.f.html (Accessed 06/19/2008)

High School

Coursework, Russell's Collegiate and Commercial Institute, New Haven, CT, 1880-1884.

Goodhue did not attend college, but apprencticed with James Renwick, Architect, New York, NY, c. 1884. In his writings, Goodhue espoused pride in his lack of a college degree, holding that traditional apprenticeship in good office taught the draftsman more. He parodied his draftsmen who attended a hidebound Ivy-League architectural program or, worse yet, the doctrinaire Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris.

Relocation

Goodhue was raised in Pomfret, CT, and attended Russell's Collegiate and Commercial Institute in New Haven, CT, from age 11 until age 15. In 1884, he moved to Manhattan to apprentice with the architectural firm of Renwick, Aspinwall and Russell, formed just before Goodhue arrived. He spent seven years at this New York firm before moving to Boston, MA, where he became acquainted with a remarkable intellectual circle that included the aesthete and art historian Ernest F. Fenollosa (1853-1908), Harvard art professor, Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908), physician and collector of Japanese art William Sturgis Bigelow (1850–1926), physician and Japanophile Charles Goddard Weld (1857–1911), zoologist and Japanese art and architecture specialist Edward Sylvester Morse (1838-1925), and artist and art teacher Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922), as well as Goodhue's future partner, Ralph Adams Cram (1863-1942). This amazing group stimulated serious interest in America in the arts of Japan and maintained a extraordinary range of interests beyond that in science, language, and literature. For Goodhue, interaction with some of these personalities must have been enlightening.

Cram, who had moved to Boston in 1881, formed an architectural partnership with Charles Francis Wentworth (1861-1897) in 04/1889. and would add Goodhue to the partnership three years later.

He obtained his first commission in CA for the James Waldron Gillespie House in Montecito (1906), for which he traveled extensively in Europe obtaining objects for the residence. During the 1910s, he spent a great deal of time in Pasadena, CA, working on the campus plan of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Goodhue spent the summer of 1917 in Hawaii at the invitation of two powerful families, the Bishops and the Dillinghams, who sought his expertise to design the Kamehameha Schools (1917) and Oahu College (1917, unbuilt). Goodhue and his successor firm, Goodhue Associates, would continue designing buildings in HI, including the Honolulu Academy of Arts (1927).

In 1921, he resided permanently at 106 East 74th Street in New York, NY.

Goodhue died in New York, NY, days before his 55th birthday. He was interred at the Church of the Intercession, New York, NY, a church designed by Goodhue and built between 1912 and 1915.

Parents

His parents were Charles Wells Goodhue (born in Brattleboro, VT) and his second wife, Helen Grosvenor (Eldredge) Goodhue.

Children

One son was named Hugo Goodhue; he gave the bulk of Bertram G. Goodhue's papers to Columbia University in 1983.

Biographical Notes

Goodhue liked to travel, taking a number of journeys abroad. He traveled frequently in California, where he had frequent work, and Europe, and liked to hunt in Canada. An around-the-world tour in 1902 proved especially informative, particularly Goodhue's exposure to Persian gardens and antiquities, according to historian, Richard Oliver. (See "Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue," Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects, v. 2, [New York, NY: Free Press, 1982], p. 229.)

According to a US Passport application of 1921, he spent one week in Cuba during that year. The application noted that he intended to take a tour of Europe in 11/1921. with the countries of France, Italy, the British Isles, Ireland, Spain and Gibraltar on the itinerary. This document also indicated that, at age 52, Goodhue stood 5-feet 9-and-3/4-inches tall, with a high forehead, oval face, straight nose, round chin and fair complexion. His hair was light and his eyes, green. The New York architect Donn Barber (1871-1925) served as a witness for Goodhue's passport application. This form also indicated that the architect had his nose broken at one time during his life. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; NARA Series: Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925; Roll #: 1766; Volume #: Roll 1766 - Certificates: 93750-94125, 27 Oct 1921-28 Oct 1921, accessed 07/20/2017.)

• Pomfret, CT (Architect's Birth)
  Pomfret, CT

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• New York, NY (Architect's Death)
  New York, NY

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