DELANO, William Adams (1874-1960) and his partner Chester Holmes Aldrich (1871-1940) were among the leading American designers of sumptuous country houses for the wealthy elite in New England, including the Vanderbilt, Whitney, Rockefeller and Astor families. Delano was born in New York City on 21 January 1874 and graduated from Yale University in 1895. Aldrich was born in Providence, R.I. on 4 June 1871 and graduated from Columbia University in 1893. Both attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and later worked in the office of Carrere & Hastings before commencing their own practice in 1903, a successful association which was to last for the next four decades. Their important works in the United States included the Union Club and the Knickerbocker Club in New York, the Japanese Embassy in Washington, the United States Embassy in Paris, the Sterling Labs and Sage Hall at Yale University, and the Federal Post Office Department Building in Washington.
In Canada they had a continuing relationship with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese in Newfoundland which commissioned them to design two hospitals and a restrained Italian Renaissance palazzo for the Bishop in St. John's. In Toronto their elegant and civilized scheme for the country mansion of stockbroker Frank P. Wood (1930) is considered one of the finest Georgian Revival houses in Canada. A collection of their American residential designs entitled Portrait of Ten Country Houses was published in 1924. The death of Aldrich in Rome, Italy on 26 December 1940 brought an end to the partnership (obit. New York Times, 27 Dec. 1940, 19; biog. National Cyclopedia of American Biography, xxxiii, 237-8; H. Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, 1956, 13-14). Delano died in New York City on 12 January 1960 (obit. New York Times, 13 Jan. 1960, 48; biog. National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. F, 1939-42, 383-4). The firm of Delano & Aldrich is also known for their designs of several lavish private mansions located on Long Island, N.Y. (Robert MacKay, Anthony Baker & Carol Traynor, Long Island Country Houses and Their Architects 1860-1940, 1997, 127-143, illus.).
DELANO & ALDRICH
MURRAY BAY., QUE., summer residence for Louis Swan, 1907 (P. Dube, Deux cents ans de Villegiature dans Charlevoix, 1986, 182-3, illus.)
(with Jonas Barter, St. John's) ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST ROMAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL, Military Road, extensive repairs and restoration, 1920 (St. John's Daily Star, 13 April 1920, 12, descrip.)
TWILLINGATE, NFLD., Notre Dame Memorial Hospital, 1921-24 (Centennial Souvenir: A Century of Methodism in Twillingate and Notre Dame Bay 1831-1931, 89-90, illus.)
ST. JOHN'S, NFLD., Bishop's Palace, for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John's, 1924 (Newfoundland Quarterly, xxiv, March 1925, 18-19, illus. & descrip.)
TORONTO, ONT. mansion for Frank P. Wood, Bayview Avenue near Lawrence Avenue East, 1930-31 (C.R., xliv, 20 Aug. 1930, 93; W. Dendy & W. Kilbourn, Toronto Observed, 1986, 230-31, illus.)
ST. JOHN'S, NFLD., new stained glass windows for St. John The Baptist Roman Catholic Cathedral, 1934 (The Monitor [St. John's], 30 June 1934, 4)
ST. JOHN'S, NFLD., St. Clare's Mercy Hospital, 1938-39 (Newfoundland Quarterly, Dec. 1938, 22-3, descrip.)