Egerton Swartwout

The architect Egerton Swartwout, FAIA, earned his undergraduate degree from Yale University in 1891 and soon after joined McKim, Mead & White as a draftsman. He and Evarts Tracy, also at the firm, opened their own practice, Tracy & Swartwout, in New York in 1900. The firm operated under various names until Tracy’s death in 1922; Swartwout then practiced on his own until 1941. His buildings were in the neoclassical style and include the National Baptist Memorial Church in Washington, D.C., the Yale University art gallery; the Elks National Memorial in Chicago, and the U.S. Post Office and Courthouse in Denver. With sculptor Eugene Savage he designed the Bailey Memorial Fountain of the Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, New York. Swartwout wrote several books, including The Classical Orders in Architecture and The Use of the Order in Modern Architecture. He served as president of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects and was a director of the Fine Arts Federation of New York. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Academy of Design, and the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Swartwout was awarded the Gold Medal by the American Institute of Architects in 1920.