LENT, Franklin Townsend (1855-1919) was born in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. on 3 March 1855 and entered the military academy there at a young age. He later graduated from Rutgers University in New Jersey and began an apprenticeship with the leading New York firm of Potter & Roberston. After 1880 he practiced his profession in Colorado, in New York City (in 1890 and again in 1896-97), in Lowell, Mass. in 1894, and in Boston after 1897. One of his major projects from this period was an elaborate Colonial style summer mansion located in York Cliffs, Maine, part of a seaside estate of 13 mansions, eight of which still stand and are now listed on United States National Register of Historic Places (26 July 1984). This residence, for an unidentified client, may be the mansion now called "Boulder Cottage" (c. 1894), or the mansion called "Pinehurst Cottage", (c. 1895). From 1900 Lent appears to have taken up permanent year-round residency in Gananoque, Ont. where he served a large number of American and Canadian clients who spent their summers in the nearby resort area of the Thousand Islands. By 1910 he had left Ontario and had moved to Leominster, Massachusetts where he continued to practise.
As an author, he published three pattern books of plans including Sensible Suburban Residences (1894), Sound Sense in Suburban Architecture (1895), and Summer Homes and Camps (1899). Many of these designs were likely used as the basis for summer house projects in the Thousand Islands on both sides of the Canadian-American border, particularly in the summer town of Thousand Island Park on Wellesley Island, N.Y. Lent died in Sterling, Mass. on 3 December 1919 (obit. Evening Gazette [Worcester, Mass.], 5 December 1919; obit. Fitchburg Daily Sentinel [Fitchburg, Mass.], 5 Dec. 1919, 16; obit. Gananoque Reporter, 13 December 1919, 4; biog. Pierre du Prey, Ah,Wilderness: Resort Architecture in the Thousand Islands, 2004, 19-21; 94-5, illus.). The Queen's University Library in Kingston, Ont. holds a copy of a detailed thesis on Lent, written in 2012 by Margaret Anne Brule, entitled "From A Home in The Suburbs to a Retreat in the Wilderness: The Domestic Architecture of Frank T. Lent" (biog. and port. Jennifer McKendry, Architects Working in the Kingston Region 1820-1920, 2019, 70-71, illus.)
F.T. LENT (works in Ontario)
PICTON, ONT., "Claramount", a large residence for James R. Brown, Johnson Street near Main Street, c. 1900 (Tom Cruickshank & Peter J. Stokes, The Settler's Dream: A Pictorial History of the Older Buildings in Prince Edward County, 1984, 267-68, illus. & descrip., but lacking attribution; inf. Margaret Anne Brule, Queen's Univ., Kingston; inf. Bruce Ballantyne)
THOUSAND ISLANDS, summer house on Big White Calf Island, Ont. for Dr. Edward L. Atkinson, c. 1900 (Pierre du Prey, Ah,Wilderness: Resort Architecture in the Thousand Islands, 2004, 94-99, illus.)
GANANOQUE, ONT., residence for Frank T. Lent, Architect, Market Street at Clarence Street, c. 1900 (Pierre du Prey, Ah,Wilderness: Resort Architecture in the Thousand Islands, 2004, 96)
GANANOQUE, ONT., parish house for Christ Church [Anglican], Princess Street, c. 1900 (list of works in F. Britton, Souvenir of Gananoque and the Thousand Islands, 1901, unpag.)
THOUSAND ISLANDS, in the Canadian Channel, demolition of the old Fairchild mansion, and construction of a new and larger mansion for the owner Henry Batterman of Brooklyn, N.Y., 1902 (Weekly British Whig [Kingston], 11 Sept. 1902, 5, detailed descrip.)
THOUSAND ISLANDS, St. Lawrence Summer School, Float Island, 1902-03 (dwgs. NAC, Power Collection, 81203/19)
GANANOQUE, ONT., clock tower, Stone Street South near Pine Street, 1903; still standing in 2023 (Gananoque Historical Society Newsletter, Feb. 1986, 39-40)
GANANOQUE, ONT., new clubhouse for the Ganaoque Yacht Club, 1904 (Montreal Daily Star, 23 July 1904, 19, descrip.; Daily British Whig [Kingston], 29 Aug. 1905, 2, descrip.; inf. Robert Hamilton, of Hamilton, Ont.)
KINGSTON, ONT., major additions and remodeling of residence for Cornelius Bermingham, Barrie Street, 1905 (dwgs. Queen's University Archives; J. McKendry, Modern Architecture in Kingston, 2014, 17, illus. & descrip.)
THOUSLAND ISLANDS, 'Wee Rocks', a summer residence for Frank T. Lent, Architect on McDonald Island, c. 1905 (Pierre du Prey, Ah,Wilderness: Resort Architecture in the Thousand Islands, 2004, 94)
GANANOQUE, ONT., new clubhouse for the Gananoque Canoe Club, located opposite The Gananoque Inn, facing the Harbour, 1908 (Daily Standard [Kingston], 12 Aug. 1908, 2)
THOUSANDS ISLANDS, 'Nokomis Lodge', a residence on Howe Island, Ont. for William H. Nichols, 1914 ; burned 2003 (Pierre du Prey, Ah,Wilderness: Resort Architecture in the Thousand Islands, 2004, 88-93, illus. & descrip.)
F.T. LENT (works in the United States)
NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY, a large residence and office for Dr. J. Warren Rice, Livingstone Avenue, opposite Monument Square, 1893 (Daily Times [New Brunswick, N.J.], 30 Sept. 1893, 1, descrip.)
NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY, Park Public School, Hale Street, 1893 (Daily Times [New Brunswick, N.J.], 6 July 1893, 1)
PLAINFIELD, NEW JERSEY, First National Bank, 1895 (Monmouth Press [Atlantic Highlands, N.J.], 30 March 1895, 5)
YORK, MAINE, a summer mansion at Agamenticus Avenue, York Cliffs, for an unnamed client, 1895 (Monmouth Press [Atlantic Highlands, N.J.], 24 Aug. 1895, 5, descrip.)
ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS, NEW JERSEY, a large residence for A.B Cooke, Leonard Avenue, Brevent Park, 1895 (Monmouth Press [Atlantic Highlands, N.J.], 7 Sept. 1895, 1)
NAVESINK HIGHLANDS, NEW JERSEY, residence for F.C. Morse, 1895 (Monmouth Press [Atlantic Highlands, N.J.], 16 Nov. 1895, 1)
ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS, NEW JERSEY, residence for Mr. Jensen, Fourth Avenue, 1895 (Monmouth Press [Atlantic Highlands, N.J.], 16 Nov. 1895, 1)
ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS, NEW JERSEY, residence for A.P. Boller "..to be built east of Mr. Lawrie's place", 1895 (Monmouth Press [Atlantic Highlands, N.J.], 16 Nov. 1895, 1)
ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS, NEW JERSEY, a Casino and Music Hall, 1896 (Monmouth Press [Atlantic Highlands, N.J.], 11 July 1896, 1)
LEOMINSTER, MASS., Monoosnock Golf & Country Club, Monoosnock Avenue, 1911 (Fitchburg Daily Sentinel [Fitchburg, Mass.], 26 May 1911, 1 & 4, illus. & descrip.)
LEOMINSTER, MASS., Town Hall, West Street at Church Street, 1910-11 (Fitchburg Daily Sentinel [Fitchburg, Mass.], 9 Dec. 1910, 5; 1 Aug. 1911, 1 & 6)