United States Immigration Station,Ellis Island, 1897-1900
Edward Lippincott Tilton (October 19, 1861 – January 5, 1933) was an American architect, with a practice inNew York City, where he was born.[1] He specialized in the design of libraries, completing about one hundred in the U.S. and Canada, including manyCarnegie libraries and structures for educational institutions.[2]
In about 1881, Tilton abandoned a budding career in banking to work as a draftsman in the office ofMcKim, Mead & White,[3] a traditional apprenticeship for which he prepared with a private tutor in architecture and which prepared him for a course of further study at theÉcole des Beaux-Arts, Paris (1887–1890). Early commissions came through family connections; they included the casino (1891–92) in Belle Haven, an affluent shoreline community ofGreenwich, Connecticut, and the Hotel Colorado in the resort ofGlenwood Springs, Colorado (1891–93).[2]
He and the partner that he met in Paris,William A. Boring, won a competition in 1897 to design the first phase of new buildings for the U.S. Immigration Station onEllis Island inNew York Harbor. Four major buildings were all constructed to their designs before the formal partnership was amicably dissolved in 1904. The two architects continued to share an office.
He published his thoughts on library planning and construction, inEssentials in Library Planning with A.E. Bostwick and S.H Ranck (1928), and "Library Planning" posthumously published in theJournal of the Royal Institute of British Architects (1936).
Knight Memorial Library, Providence Rhode Island (1924)
Tilton worked in the partnershipBoring & Tilton (1881-1904), as a solo architect, in the partnershipTilton & Githens (1916-1932), then again briefly in solo practice as consulting architect until his death.
U.S. Immigration Station onEllis Island inNew York Harbor: Main Building (1897–1900), Kitchen and Laundry Building (1900–01), Main Powerhouse (1900–01), and Main Hospital Building (1900–01)
^The monograph is Lisa B. Mausolf with Elizabeth Durfee Hengen,Edward Lippincott Tilton A Monograph on His Architectural Practice, 2007 (on-line text).
^SPR.176, Massachusetts Cultural Resources Information System (MACRIS).
^"Knight Memorial Library: History"(brochure).Providence Public Library. Providence, Rhode Island. RetrievedJune 16, 2020.Knight Memorial Library, designed by noted library architect Edward Tilton, opened in 1924
