Francis L. V. Hoppin


Francis Laurens Vinton Hoppin was a prominent American architect and painter from Providence, Rhode Island.

Early life

Hopping was born on October 7, 1866 in Providence, Rhode Island. He was a son of Dr. Washington Hoppin, a homeopathic physician, and Louise Claire Hoppin. Among his siblings was Howard Hoppin, Louise Claire Hoppin, Harriet Jacob, and Washington Hoppin, Jr.
Francis was from a prominent and talented Providence family; his paternal grandparents were Thomas Coles Hoppin and Harriet Dunn Hoppin. His maternal grandparents were Maj. John Rogers Vinton and Lucretia Dutton Vinton of Boston. Among his paternal uncles were Augustus Hoppin, a prominent illustrator, and Dr. Courtland Hoppin, also a homeopathic physician, was the grandfather of Courtland Hector Hoppin, a pioneer in the field of animated film. His maternal uncle, David Hammond Vinton, Quartermaster General of Florida, was the father of The Right Reverend Alexander Hamilton Vinton, the first Bishop of Western Massachusetts, and Harriette Arnold Vinton.
After early training at the Trinity Military Institute, Providence, he prepared for a career in the U.S. Army, but left to study architecture at Brown University and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After MIT, he went to Paris for training, but apparently not at the École des Beaux Arts as has been reported.

Career

On returning to the United States, Hoppin joined the firm of McKim, Mead and White in 1886. Reportedly, while with the firm, McKim noted Hoppin's exceptional skill at rendering with one architectural historian writing: "Among architects that had a facility for perspective Francis L.V. Hoppin stands out..." He became the office specialist in perspective, exemplified in his drawings for the Century Club and The Brooklyn Museum. Fellow office architect, Egerton Swartwout, characterized Hoppin's drawings as "colored, blue sky and trees where there aren't any, and flying shadows on the building, you know, a real snappy piece of work."
In 1890, he joined his brother Howard and Spencer P. Read to form a new firm was known as Hoppin, Read & Hoppin. They worked together until 1896, when Francis left to found the firm of Hoppin & Koen in New York City with Terence A. Koen. The firm was based is known for police stations, fire stations and dignified town houses in the Beaux Arts style. Among his apprentices at Hoppin & Koen were Robert P. Huntington and Dudley Newton, Jr., the son of a prominent Newport architect.
The firm became well known for its large country houses in the most fashionable parts of America during the Gilded Age. They designed homes for Francis Vinton Greene, James F. D. Lanier, Andrew C. Zabriskie, John J. Wysong, Harris C. Fahnestock, Charles Oliver Iselin, Henry Clews, and William Watts Sherman. One of Hoppin's best known works was The Mount, Edith Wharton's home in Lenox. Wharton commissioned the firm to design her Lenox residence, after having a falling out with Ogden Codman, Jr. Hoppin retired in 1923 to pursue a career as an artist, and Koen died the following year in 1923.
When the Spanish-American War began, Hoppin enlisted in the 12th Regiment of the New York National Guard, reaching the rank of Major, and at one time was Adjutant General of the First Brigade, New York National Guard. He was later granted the title of "Colonel" by Gov. Charles Seymour Whitman, which he answered for the rest of his life.

Painting career

In 1925 and 1929, Hoppin gave a one-man show of his watercolors in New York. He largely painted on location at visits to Soissons, Rheims, Arras, Ypres, Rome, Paris, Newport and Bar Harbor, Maine.
He produced dozens of watercolors usually of architectural subjects or of gardens.

Notable architectural projects

As Hoppin, Read & Hoppin, 1890–1896:
As Hoppin & Koen, 1896–1922:
On June 3, 1893, Hoppin was married to Sarah Carnes Weeks at Oyster Bay on Long Island. She was the youngest daughter of John Abeel Weeks and Alice Hathaway Weeks. Sarah was a first cousin of Henry W. DeForest and Robert W. DeForest.
In 1910, he married, secondly, to Mary Latham Gurnee, a daughter of Walter Scott Gurnee and Mary Isabelle Gurnee. After his retirement, the Hoppins were frequent hosts at their homes in Newport, and Palm Beach.
Hoppin died at Auton House, his residence on Harrison Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island on October 9, 1941. Hoppin had two services, first at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Newport and second at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in New York City before being buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery at Tarrytown, New York. After his death, his widow remarried twice; first to Alfred Hudson Townley in 1949 ; and, after his death in 1954, Cyril Barthurst Judge past president of the Newport Country Club, in 1963.