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William Lightfoot Price
William Lightfoot Price (November 9, 1861 – October 14, 1916) was an American architect, a pioneer in the use of reinforced concrete, and a founder of the utopian communities of Arden, Delaware and Rose Valley, Pennsylvania.
Price was born into a Quaker family in Wallingford, Pennsylvania where his father, James Martin Price, was a moderately successful nurseryman. James had previously taught at the Quaker Westtown School and later became an insurance salesman for the Provident Life and Trust Company.
At age 17, Price began work in the offices of architect Addison Hutton. He subsequently joined his brother Frank in the offices of architect Frank Furness. The brothers opened their own office in 1881. Their first major commission came in 1888, to design suburban houses in Wayne, Pennsylvania for real estate developers Wendell & Smith. The brothers' partnership lasted until 1893. Price designed suburban houses for another Wendell & Smith development, "Overbrook Farms," including his own house, "Kelty" (1894). In 1903, he formed a partnership with M. Hawley McClanahan, that lasted until his death.
Price was a Quaker, and his early commissions may have come through religious ties. The owners of Philadelphia's Strawbridge & Clothier Department Store were investors with George W. Vanderbilt in a proposed resort hotel in Asheville, North Carolina, and may have recommended Price to design the Kenilworth Inn (1890–91, burned 1909). Price's familiarity with Vanderbilt's then-under-construction chateau and estate, "Biltmore," seems to have gotten him his next major commission, "Woodmont."
For steel magnate and former U.S. Congressman Alan Wood, Jr., Price designed "Woodmont" (1892–94), a chateauesque mansion built on the highest point in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, a bluff overlooking the Schuylkill River, the industrial town of Conshohocken, and the Alan Wood Iron & Steel Company Plant. Price would design other palatial residences, but never again on this scale.
Price experimented with new materials, especially reinforced concrete, that were cheaper for constructing hotels and industrial buildings, and allowed wide spans and soaring spaces. At Rose Valley, a utopian community he co-founded, he built new buildings and altered existing ones, creating an Arts & Crafts village.
Price's most famous building was the Marlborough-Blenheim Hotel (1905–06), on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Following the 1976 legalization of gambling in the city, architect Robert Venturi hoped to make the building the centerpiece of a casino-hotel, but its reinforced concrete had deteriorated so much that it could not be saved. It was demolished in 1979.
Will was an ardent Georgist and a believer in the economic philosophy of Henry George. The Arden, Delaware website (www.theardens.com) writes that "Arden was founded in 1900 by sculptor Frank Stephens and architect Will Price based on the Single Tax philosophy of Henry George, a political economist whose ideas were popular in America in the late 1800s. The land was and still is owned in common."
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William Lightfoot Price
William Lightfoot Price (November 9, 1861 – October 14, 1916) was an American architect, a pioneer in the use of reinforced concrete, and a founder of the utopian communities of Arden, Delaware and Rose Valley, Pennsylvania.
Price was born into a Quaker family in Wallingford, Pennsylvania where his father, James Martin Price, was a moderately successful nurseryman. James had previously taught at the Quaker Westtown School and later became an insurance salesman for the Provident Life and Trust Company.
At age 17, Price began work in the offices of architect Addison Hutton. He subsequently joined his brother Frank in the offices of architect Frank Furness. The brothers opened their own office in 1881. Their first major commission came in 1888, to design suburban houses in Wayne, Pennsylvania for real estate developers Wendell & Smith. The brothers' partnership lasted until 1893. Price designed suburban houses for another Wendell & Smith development, "Overbrook Farms," including his own house, "Kelty" (1894). In 1903, he formed a partnership with M. Hawley McClanahan, that lasted until his death.
Price was a Quaker, and his early commissions may have come through religious ties. The owners of Philadelphia's Strawbridge & Clothier Department Store were investors with George W. Vanderbilt in a proposed resort hotel in Asheville, North Carolina, and may have recommended Price to design the Kenilworth Inn (1890–91, burned 1909). Price's familiarity with Vanderbilt's then-under-construction chateau and estate, "Biltmore," seems to have gotten him his next major commission, "Woodmont."
For steel magnate and former U.S. Congressman Alan Wood, Jr., Price designed "Woodmont" (1892–94), a chateauesque mansion built on the highest point in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, a bluff overlooking the Schuylkill River, the industrial town of Conshohocken, and the Alan Wood Iron & Steel Company Plant. Price would design other palatial residences, but never again on this scale.
Price experimented with new materials, especially reinforced concrete, that were cheaper for constructing hotels and industrial buildings, and allowed wide spans and soaring spaces. At Rose Valley, a utopian community he co-founded, he built new buildings and altered existing ones, creating an Arts & Crafts village.
Price's most famous building was the Marlborough-Blenheim Hotel (1905–06), on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Following the 1976 legalization of gambling in the city, architect Robert Venturi hoped to make the building the centerpiece of a casino-hotel, but its reinforced concrete had deteriorated so much that it could not be saved. It was demolished in 1979.
Will was an ardent Georgist and a believer in the economic philosophy of Henry George. The Arden, Delaware website (www.theardens.com) writes that "Arden was founded in 1900 by sculptor Frank Stephens and architect Will Price based on the Single Tax philosophy of Henry George, a political economist whose ideas were popular in America in the late 1800s. The land was and still is owned in common."