Episode 382 of the Bowry Boys, Richard Morris Hunt, architect of the Gilded Age.

Hey, it's the Bowry Boys!

Hey!

Hi there, welcome to the Bowry Boys. This is Greg Young.

And this is Tom Myers. Surprise, surprise. I've flown in from my Gilded Cage Greg to record

an episode at the Bowry Boys with you. Welcome back. As many of you may have heard,

Tom has been off recording the official Gilded Age podcast, which is the official tie-in

to the HBO show The Gilded Age. But you are back for this episode, and

yes. Well, I hope you're not tired of talking about the Gilded Age.

How could I be? How well do you know me? How possible is that?

Today's topic certainly takes us right into the Gilded Age,

but it's also a story about architecture, or rather one architect.

One of the most important in American history, Richard Morris Hunt.

Hunt's career spans the latter half of the 19th century, a period when the United States was

experiencing tremendous economic growth and developing an international profile.

But the country was still quite young and formative, and well, at least from an artistic perspective.

The United States was only beginning to develop its identity. Most then turned to Europe for

guidance on how to look and how to think and how to live. And that is where Hunt comes in.

He was the first American to study at the very influential Ecole des Beaux Art in Paris,

and Hunt would bring the ideas and the rules that he learned there in Paris back to New York

at a moment when the city was very receptive to the notions of French Renaissance and Italian

Baroque style. Now for the wealthy American who wanted to live like a European, Hunt was your guy.

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