J. Lawrence Aspinwall (June 3, 1854 – May 16, 1936) was an American architect in practice in New York City during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was a partner of, and successor to, major architectJames Renwick Jr. In his own practice Aspinwall continued to design notable buildings and for many years was the go-to architect for several major charities, including theAmerican Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and theProvident Loan Society.
James Lawrence Aspinwall was born June 3, 1854, in New York City to James S. Aspinwall and Margaret Aspinwall, née Maxwell. He was educated in several private schools in New York. In 1875 he joined the office of architectJames Renwick Jr., whose wife, Anna Lloyd Aspinwall, was his cousin. As Renwick's employee Aspinwall was responsible for much of the detail of the new spire ofGrace Church (1883), which Renwick had originally completed in 1846.[1] In 1883 he became a partner in the Renwick firm, which was renamed Renwick, Aspinwall & Russell. It was reorganized as Renwick, Aspinwall & Renwick in 1891.[2]
After Renwick's death in 1895 Aspinwall became head of the firm, which in 1896 was reorganized as Renwick, Aspinwall & Owen to include Walter Tallant Owen, an employee sincec. 1887. Owen had previously been chief designer of the firm'sGeorge Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum inSpringfield, Massachusetts, completed shortly before Renwick's death.[3] Owen died in 1902. Aspinwall was sole proprietor until 1904, when he was joined by Fitz-Henry Faye Tucke in the reorganized Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker. Tucker withdrew in 1925 and was replaced by Shirley R. Guard, the firm being renamed Renwick, Aspinwall & Guard. Aspinwall retired in the 1930s and Guard continued the firm under the same name until his own death in 1943.[4]
Aspinwall was an original member of Troop A, nowSquadron A, in 1889 and was discharged in 1891.[6] He was a second cousin of Renwick's wife, Anna Lloyd Aspinwall, through their great-grandfather, John Aspinwall (1705–1774).[7]Edward Livingston Trudeau of theAdirondack Cottage Sanitarium was also a cousin. He was married in 1891 to Mary Morris Carnochan, a daughter of surgeonJohn Murray Carnochan. They had no children and she died in 1892.[8]
Garrett's grandfather wasJohn W. Garrett, on whose estate,Evergreen, the house was built. The house, designated Evergreen Junior, was planned by Garrett's widowed mother Alice as a wedding gift to him and his new wife, Charlotte, though he died of cancer shortly before construction was completed.[12] Shortly before the commencement of Evergreen Junior, Alice Garrett hired to firm to renovate Evergreen senior. Here the firm added a new main entrance and stair and closed off the original entrance. Charlotte Garrett marriedCarlyon Bellairs in 1911 and no member of the Garrett family ever lived in the house. In 1921 the house was bought by the predecessor ofLoyola University Maryland, which has used it as itsHumanities Center since 1994.NRHP-listed.
Castleman was the widow of George Alfred Castleman, a former Missouri state legislator, and a sister of Illinois representativeBenjamin T. Cable. Later known as the Castleman–MacKay House. Demolished in 1982.
Later remodeled into a condominium building by architectsPlatt Byard Dovell White, who removed the fourth floor and added eight new floors. The authors of the fifth edition of theAIA Guide to New York City described the remodeling as a "lobotomy."[16]
The country estate ofPercy Rivington Pyne II. Destroyed by fire in 1982. About twenty years later a new house of the same name was built on the same site.[17]
Aspinwall later designed Stony Wold Hall (1909), the sanatorium's chapel. The property was later a seminary operated by theWhite Fathers before being demolished; the chapel survives.[22]
For thirty years, Aspinwall was also responsible for the society's branch network. For twenty years these were, like the headquarters building, designed in theItalian Renaissance Revival style. Later, they adopted elements of theStripped Classical andModerne styles. In addition to the headquarters, the six surviving branch offices are:Bronx, 522 Courtlandt Ave (1910); Mount Morris, 2050 Lexington Ave (1911); East Houston Street, 225 E Houston St (1913); Eighth Avenue, 2365 Frederick Douglass Blvd (1917);Fordham, 2574 Decatur Ave (1929);Flatbush, 2240 Church Ave (1932); West 72nd Street, 159 W 72nd St (1932); Grand Central, 21 E 47th St (1935). The last two are extant but are wholly altered.[26][27]
^George McCue,The Building Art in St. Louis: Two Centuries - A Guide to the Architecture of the city and its Environs (St. Louis: AIA St. Louis, 1967): 49.
^American Architect and Building News 53, no. 1082 (September 19, 1896): xvii.
^Norval White and Elliot Willensky with Fran Leadon,AIA Guide to New York City, 5th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010): 240.
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