George Champlin Mason, Sr.
| George Champlin Mason, Sr. | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 17, 1820 Newport, Rhode Island |
| Died | January 30, 1894 (aged 73) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Spouse(s) | Frances Elizabeth Dean |
| Children | George Champlin Mason, Jr. |
| Practice | George C. Mason & Son |
George Champlin Mason, Sr. (1820-1894) was an American architect who built a number of mansions in Newport, Rhode Island, during the Gilded Age. He helped to found the Newport Historical Society as well.
George Champlin Mason was born to George Champlin Mason and Abigail Mumford Mason in Newport, Rhode Island in 1820. The Masons were a prominent New England family; his great-uncle Christopher G. Champlin was a U.S. Senator, and his aunt Elizabeth was married to Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. After his early schooling in Newport, he moved to New York at the age of 15, where he work in a dry goods establishment for six years. He left because of poor health and not long afterwards went to Europe to study art in Rome, Paris, and Florence, specializing in landscape paintings. He returned to the United States in 1846 and two years later married Frances Elizabeth Dean. Their son, George Champlin Mason, Jr. (who would also become an architect), was born in 1849.
Mason spent the 1840s trying unsuccessfully to make a living as landscape painter in a Romantic pastoral style derived from the Hudson River School. During this period, he published Newport and Its Environs, a collection of 11 engravings of his landscape views of Newport that is one of the earliest books about Newport to showcase its potential as a vacation destination. It was noted as volume 1, but no further volumes ever materialized.
In 1851, Mason switched professions and became part owner and editor of the Newport Mercury newspaper. He often wrote about architectural subjects, and he worked with fellow citizens on developing the then-expanding plat of Newport. Beginning a few years later, he would occasionally write articles for the Providence Journal, the New York Evening Post, and other newspapers, sometimes using the pen names 'Aquidneck' and 'Champlin'. In 1854 he published Newport Illustrated, a guidebook that emphasizes the history of Newport buildings and places, and in 1884 he published a compendium of his occasional pieces under the title Reminiscences of Newport. Both were illustrated with black-and-white line drawings or engravings of Newport buildings, many of which are now long gone or substantially changed. Mason was also influential in the establishment of the Newport Historical Society (originally a branch of the Rhode Island Historical Society), and he was active in the Redwood Library and Athenaeum and other local organizations.
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