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Mantle Fielding

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American architect, biographical compiler, and art historian

Mantle Fielding, Jr. (September 30, 1865 – March 27, 1941) was an American architect, art historian, and tennis player.

Career

Fielding was born in Manhattan to Mantle Fielding (1837–1890) and Anne Margaret Stone (maiden; 1838–1906). He graduated from Germantown Academy in 1883 and went on to study architecture at the Boston School of Technology (MIT), reportedly for one year, likely between the fall of 1883 through the spring of 1884. In 1886, he began his career as an independent architect in Philadelphia. Fielding undertook over 200 works of architecture, mostly in the Philadelphia area for many different patrons.

He also was a historian, biographer, and compiler of early American art, artists, and engravers – notably, his 1926 publication, Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers. (see § Published work (chronological), below)

Tennis; Grand Slam Finals – Mixed Doubles

Fielding competed in the 1895 and 1896 U.S National Tennis Championships and reached the finals of the mixed doubles events with his future wife Amy Williams. (see § Family, below)

Result Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 1895 U.S. Championships Grass United States Amy Williams United States Juliette Atkinson
United States Edwin P. Fischer		 6–4, 6–8, 2–6
Loss 1896 U.S. Championships Grass United States Amy Williams United States Juliette Atkinson
United States Edwin P. Fischer		 2–6, 3–6, 3–6

Architectural work

Fielding's works include:

  1. 1891 – Fielding's own residence – "The Barn" – at 28 West Walnut Lane, Philadelphia, was a renovation by Fielding that was once the Wyck barn, built in 1796 by J. Frederick Thomas.
  2. 1892 – The Terry Building, 207 South Jefferson Street (at Campbell, southeast corner), Roanoke, Virginia. A seven-story Italianesque stone and pressed-brick office building with a mansard roof, became the tallest building in Roanoke. Peyton Leftwich Terry (1835–1898) was the building's namesake. The building was razed in 1926 and, in its place, in 1927, the Colonial National Bank building was erected.
  3. 1898 – The Boys' and Girls' Club, originally called the Boys Parlor Association, 23 West Penn Street, Germantown
  4. 1898 – Robert Early Strawbridge, Jr., Residence, "Meadow Lodge," Bryn Mawr, on the Main Line, which, as described by The New York Times, is a Tudor Country House on 47 acres with gardens, tennis courts, orchard, 17th century English style, half-timbered architecture, carved wood paneling, archways, lead mullioned windows, fire places. The entrance is patterned after Windsor Castle's Great Hall. Thirty-two rooms.
  5. 1899 – The Charles Currie House (Charles Aitken Currie, MD; 1856–1937) at 50 West Walnut Lane in the Tulpehocken Station Historic District, in Philadelphia. The district has been on the National Register of Historic Places since November 26, 1985, and is bounded by on the North by McCallum Street, on the East by West Walnut Lane, on the South by Penn Central railroad tracks, and the West by West Tulpehocken Street, in the Germantown neighborhood, bordering on the Colonial Germantown Historic District, a National Historic Landmark district. This house – named Comawaben (1899) – is a Georgian Revival mansion built in local in Wissahickon schist, that closely aligns with the original Georgian style, except for the large size of the building.
  6. 1902 – James E. Wheeler House (James Everett Wheeler; 1870–1954), lawyer, 82 Edge Hill Road, New Haven, Connecticut, in the Prospect Hill Historic District (1902). His wife, Edith Pemberton Williams (1874–1953) was a 1st cousin of Fielding's wife, Amy Reeve Williams. The house is a 21⁄2-story structure with stucco façade.
  7. 1905 – The Tuleyries, White Post, Virginia – Graham Furber Blandy (1868–1926), a nephew of Mrs. Andrew Carnegie, around 1905, acquired The Tuleyries, near White Post, Virginia, and adjacent lands totaling over 900 acres. Blandy hired Mantle Fielding to restore and improve the mansion. Upon Blandy's death, his widow, Georgette Haven Borland (maiden; 1886–1939) inherited part of the Tuleyries estate. The remainder of the estate was bequeathed to the University of Virginia for an experimental farm. (see Blandy Experimental Farm and the Virginia State Arboretum) Graham Blandy (class of 1885), his brother, Isaac Cruse Blandy (1866–1937) (class of 1883), and Fielding (class of 1884) had been students together at the Germantown Academy.
  8. 1906 – The Page Memorial Chapel, Riverside Cemetery, Oswego, New York. The Chapel was commissioned by descendants of Alanson Sumner Page (1825–1905) and Elsie A. Benson (maiden; 1835–1996). A stone structure, Fielding designed it in a Gothic Revival style. Frederick Wilson (1858–1932), a lead designer of Tiffany Studios of New York City, designed the interior windows. The chapel stands at the entrance of the cemetery. The cemetery, in 1993, was designated on the list of National Register of Historic Places.
  9. 1915 – Abington YMCA, Abington Township
  • Fielding works
  • 50 West Walnut Lane, "Comawaben," Germantown (1899) 50 West Walnut Lane, "Comawaben," Germantown (1899)
  • Fielding's residence, 28 West Walnut Lane, "The Barn," Germantown Fielding's residence, 28 West Walnut Lane, "The Barn," Germantown

Published work (chronological)

Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

Affiliations

Family

Fielding – on November 16, 1898, in Philadelphia – married Amy Reeve Williams (1872–1969). They had two children, Richard Mantle Fielding (1904–1974) and Frances (1906–1966), whose husband, Joseph Allison Scott, Jr. (1900–1959), was (i) a grandson of U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, John Scott (1824–1896) and (ii) nephew of American cricketer Walter Scott (1868–1907). Mantle Fielding and his wife lived in Germantown, Philadelphia, for many years.

Fielding, at age 75, died at his home in Chestnut Hill. His widow, Amy Fielding – on January 7, 1942, in Bala Cynwyd – re-married, to John Duncan Spaeth (1868–1954), an academician.

Bibliography

Notes

  1. Tatman & Moss, 1985, p. 266.
  2. ^ New York Times, March 28, 1941, p. 23.
  3. West Central Germantown Neighbors, September 29, 2021.
  4. ^ USTA, 2011.
  5. Orcut, 1895.
  6. Orcut, 1897.
  7. Slocum, 1890.
  8. Whittelsey, 1895.
  9. Country Life, March 1908, pp. 522–523.
  10. Philadelphia Real Estate Record, September 17, 1890, p. 562.
  11. King, 1902.
  12. ^ Bogrette, 1993.
  13. Foust, 1985.
  14. Roanoke Diamond Jubilee, June 1957, p. 69.
  15. King, 1902, p. 90.
  16. New York Times, April 23, 1981, p. 23.
  17. American Homes and Gardens, August 1909, pp. 330–332.
  18. Boxwood Bulletin, April 1964, pp. 59–60.
  19. "Alumni," Germantown Academy, 1910, pp. 287–288.
  20. Marriage, January 7, 1941.
  21. Princeton Alumni Weekly, 1954.

References

General

Tennis

External links

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