Fiske Kimball

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Photo of Kimball ca. 1915

Fiske (Sidney) Kimball (1888 – 1955) was an American architect, architectural historian and museum director. Kimball was a pioneer in the field of architectural preservation in the United States. As an architect, he played a leading part in the restoration of Monticello and Stratford Hall Plantation in Virginia.

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Biography [edit]

Kimball was born in Newton, Massachusetts on December 8, 1888.

He was educated at Harvard University, where he took both his bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture. He then taught at the University of Illinois and the University of Michigan.

Thomas Jefferson's drawing of original front elevation of Monticello. Illustration in Fiske Kimball's Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies and of the Early Republic, 1922

In 1919, Kimball was appointed to head the newly-formed department of art and architecture at the University of Virginia. While at the University of Virginia, he served as the supervising architect for Memorial Gymnasium (built in 1924),[1] and the McIntire Amphitheatre on grounds at the university.[2]

In 1923, Kimball left the University of Virginia[3] to establish the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. In 1925, he was appointed director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where he served until his retirement in January 1955.

Kimball continued to work on projects in Virginia. Kimball designed his own home, Shack Mountain, in Albemarle County, Virginia, not from far Monticello.[4] Kimball used Jefferson's architectural principles as the basis of his design of Shack Mountain, short for Shackelford Mountain, the surname of a branch of Jefferson's descendants. Built in 1935-1936, Shack Mountain is a Jefferson-style pavilion, like Monticello, that is considered Kimball's masterpiece.[5][6]Shack Mountain was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1992.[7] Kimball advised on the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg as well.

Kimball's wife Marie Goebel Kimball (1889–1955), the winner of two Guggenheim Fellowships, served as Monticello's first curator. She also wrote a three-volume biography of Jefferson.[8]

Fiske Kimball died in Munich, Germany, on August 14, 1955. He and his wife are buried at Monticello Memorial Gardens on Monticello Mountain, about a mile from Monticello.

He is commemorated by the Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library at the University of Virginia.

Works [edit]

  • Thomas Jefferson, architect, Original Designs in the Collection of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, Junior, 1916
  • A History of Architecture, 1918 (with George Harold Edgell )
  • Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies and of the early Republic, 1922
  • American Architecture, 1928
  • Mr. Samuel McIntire, Carver : The architect of Salem, 1940
  • The Creation of the Rococo, 1943

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Memorial Gymnasium National Register Nomination". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Retrieved 13 June 2012. 
  2. ^ "Shack Mountain National Historic Landmark Nomination". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. 1992. Retrieved 13 June 2012. 
  3. ^ "Fiske Kimball: Master of the Diverse Arts". Exhibit. University of Virginia Library. Retrieved 16 June 2012. 
  4. ^ Fiske Kimball:Shack Mountain, lib.virginia.edu
  5. ^ Calder Loth, The Virginia Landmarks Register, By Virginia Department of Historic Resources, University of Virginia Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8139-1862-6
  6. ^ K. Edward Lay, The Architecture of Jefferson Country: Charlottesville and Albemarle County, University of Virginia Press, 2000
  7. ^ "Fiske Kimball, Shack Mountain", University of Virginia library
  8. ^ "Marie Kimball". The Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2010-08-02. 

Further reading [edit]

External links [edit]

Authority control
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