Henry Edwards Ficken was born May 25, 1852, inLondon. He was educated privately at home and at theGreenock Academy in Scotland.[1]
Ficken came to the United States in 1869 and worked variously for the firms ofRenwick & Sands,Potter &Robertson, andMcKim, Mead & Bigelow.[1] In 1878, he formed a partnership with Charles H. Smith as Ficken & Smith, though their association was brief. By the following year, he was instead in partnership withCharles D. Gambrill. In October 1878, Gambrill had dissolved his former partnership withHenry Hobson Richardson, with whom he had been associated with since 1867. Gambrill & Ficken existed only very briefly, as Gambrill died in 1880 in what was presumed to be a suicide.[2]
Aside from a brief association with Edward H. Clark, initiated in 1885,[3] Ficken maintained a private practice until 1913, when he was appointed supervising architect ofWoodlawn Cemetery, a position he held until his death in 1929.[4]
Ficken was an amateur athlete and a member of theNew York Athletic Club. In 1876, he wasnational champion in thehigh jump and, in 1877 and 1878, he was champion in the high jump as well as the120 yards hurdles, though he later retired from competition.[6][7] In 1883, he was chosen architect of the club's new building, though his design was eventually rejected due to cost. After construction began on a more expensive building designed byCharles W. Clinton, Ficken sued for and was awarded his full professional fee.[8]
Ficken married twice. He married his first wife Josephine Hubbard in 1880.[9] She died in 1886 soon after giving birth to twin daughters, Margery and Dorothy. In 1889, he married Mary Beck Goddard, as her second husband.[10] Dorothy married Frederick W. Gwynne and had three children. One of them,Fred Gwynne, would become a noted actor.
^AlthoughRichard Morris Hunt was the architect of the house begun in 1885, Pinchot hired Ficken to design interiors and alterations while Hunt was abroad.
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