George Champlin Mason, Jr.
| George Champlin Mason, Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 8, 1849 Newport, Rhode Island |
| Died | April 22, 1924 (aged 74) Ardmore, Pennsylvania |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Spouse(s) | Sarah Borie |
| Practice | George C. Mason & Son |
George Champlin Mason, Jr. (1849–1924) was an American architect who is considered the first professional architectural preservationist in the United States.
George Champlin Mason, Jr., was born in 1849 to Frances (Dean) and George Champlin Mason, Sr. in Newport, Rhode Island. He was educated at the local Berkeley Institute and at the Oak Hill Military Academy in Yonkers, New York. His father was a well-known Newport architect, and Mason, Jr., began working in his firm at the age of eighteen. Four years later, in 1871, his father made him a partner and renamed the firm George C. Mason & Son. He stayed in this partnership until his father's death in 1894.
Mason's earliest commission is thought to be the Thomas Cushing House in Newport, designed in 1869-70 as an essay in the Stick style. Around the time he joined his father's firm, he designed the Frederick Sheldon house (since destroyed), which is considered by some historians to be the earliest Colonial Revival house in the United States. In the 1880s he designed the main building (now known as Luce Hall) of the Naval War College. In 1888, he moved to Philadelphia with his new wife, Sarah (Borie) Mason, and opened a branch of the firm there.
Mason became interested in American architectural history early in his career and wrote a number of articles on the subject. He became a fellow of the American Institute of Architects at the age of 25 and was one of the founders of the Rhode Island chapter, later becoming secretary of the Philadelphia chapter. He was made chairman of an AIA subcommittee that was set up to survey American colonial architecture with the goal of drawing attention to the work of early American architects. He wrote the committee's report, which was published in American Architect and Building News and illustrated with his own drawings. One major effect of this survey was to clearly distinguish between the American Colonial (including First Period and Colonial Georgian), the Federal, and the Colonial Revival building styles, ending the practice of considering these names as interchangeable terms for a single style. He used this forum to call for architects of the future to pay closer attention to the principles that had guided colonial architects and not just "find quaint details to copy in modern work and then unblushingly christen those works Queen Anne or Georgian."
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