(b New York, 17 March 1841; d Garrison-on-Hudson, NY, 8 Feb 1917). American architect. He was the son of a minister at New York’s prestigious Trinity Church. Throughout his career, Haight relied on his connections with Trinity and with New York’s Episcopal élite for major commissions. After serving in the Civil War, Haight studied with Emlen T. Littell (1840–91), opening his own office in 1867. In the 1870s he became architect for Trinity Corporation and designed many commercial and institutional buildings for that organization. Haight was an early proponent of the English-inspired collegiate Gothic style, which he used initially for Columbia College’s mid-town New York campus (1880–84; destr. c. 1900). For the Episcopal Church’s General Theological Seminary (1883–1902) at Chelsea Square, New York, he planned a pair of adjoining quadrangles enclosed on three sides by collegiate Gothic buildings of brick with stone trim. The ensemble, dominated by the library (destr. 1958), chapel and refectory, was to be reminiscent of an English academic complex. Haight made extensive use of the collegiate Gothic at Yale University, New Haven, CT, designing buildings between 1894 and 1914, most notably Vanderbilt Hall (1894) and Phelps Hall (1896) with their Tudor-inspired gatehouses leading to the main campus. Haight was also responsible for the H. O. Havemeyer Residence (1891–3; destr. c. 1948), New York, generally considered to have been one of the finest Fifth Avenue mansions. The building exemplified Haight’s preference for simple, bold forms rather than the flamboyant ornament favoured by many of his contemporaries. Haight’s most unusual work is the New York Cancer Hospital (1884–6; addition, 1889–90; later the Towers Nursing Home), Central Park West, New York, the first hospital in the USA exclusively for cancer patients. The hospital, with its five round towers, was modelled on the French Renaissance château at Le Lude, Sarthe.

• Haight, Charles C(oolidge)
  • Havemeyer, Louisine