LaFARGE, Christopher Grant (1862-1938), a prominent architect in New York City. N.Y. who was commissioned to design a new hunting and fishing Lodge and Clubhouse for the prestigious Laurentian Club of Montreal in 1895 (Gazette [Montreal], 15 February 1895, 3, descrip.). In this article, he was referred to as "...Mr. Lacharge [sic], the famous New York architect who is also a member of the Club". Located on a site overlooking Lac a la Peche near the St. Maurice River in Quebec, this three storey log residence, now called Wabenaki Lodge, still stands today, along with the adjacent Andrew Lodge, and both buildings were acquired by the Government of Canada when the La Mauricie National Park was created in 1970. Both lodge buildings are now used as dormitories and housing to accommodate park visitors.
La Farge was a member of the Laurentian Club, and would often spend his summers in the St. Maurice region, and he was the logical choice to design new buildings for the Club in 1895. He was born in Newport, Rhode Island, and was the son of John LaFarge, the famous American painter and stained glass designer. He was educated at Massachusetts Inst. of Technology in Cambridge and trained in the office Henry Hobson Richardson in Boston. He opened his own office in New York City in 1884, and in 1886 formed a partnership with George L. Heins (1860-1907), as Heins & La Farge. Together, they won the important competition in 1891 for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, and they toiled over the project for the next 15 years until the death of Heins in 1907. The project was then handed to Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson to complete to their own designs under Ralph Adams Cram. La Farge later received the commission for the sprawling Long Island mansion for J. Pierpont Morgan Jr. at Glen Cove, N.Y. in 1913 (R.B. MacKay, Anthony Baker & Carol A. Traynor, Long Island Country Houses and Their Architects 1860-1940, 1997, 240-41, illus. & descrip.). A photographic portrait and biography of La Farge is included in this publication.
LaFarge died in Saunderstown, Rhode Island on 11 October 1938 (obituary New York Times, 12 Oct. 1938; obituary Boston Globe, 11 Oct. 1938, 8; obit. Architectural Forum [New York], lxx, Jan. 1939, Supplement, 42; obit. Pencil Points [New York], Nov. 1938; biog. and list of works for Heins & La Farge in MacMillan Encyclopedia of Architects, 1982, vol. ii, 350-51). A full biography and list of works by La Farge was published in Henry Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, 1956, 357-58.