Skip to content

Fitchen, John, III

    Full Name: Fitchen, John, III

    Other Names:

    • John Frederick Fitchen III

    Gender: male

    Date Born: 1905

    Date Died: 1990

    Place Born: Ithaca, Tompkins, NY, USA

    Place Died: Hamilton, Madison, NY, USA

    Home Country/ies: United States

    Subject Area(s): architecture (object genre) and sculpture (visual works)


    Overview

    Architect and architectural historian. Fitchen was the son of John Fitchen, Jr. and Ruth Williams (Fitchen). Fitchen graduated from Yale University with B. A. in 1927 and a Master’s Degree in architecture from Harvard University in 1932. He married Mary Elizabeth Nelson and joined the faculty of Colgate University in Hamilton, NY in 1934. He remained at Colgate his entire career. He was the construction architect for the New York Emergency Housing Project between 1946-1947. Fitchen chaired the department in 1950 (through 1965). He retired from Colgate, emeritus, in 1971. He is buried in Colgate Cemetery, Hamilton.


    Selected Bibliography

    Construction of Gothic Cathedrals: a Study of Medieval Vault Erection. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961; Building Construction Before Mechanization. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986; The New World Dutch Barn: a Study of its Characteristics, its Structural System, and its Probable Erectional Procedures. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1968.


    Sources

    Who Was Who in America, 1989-1993.New Providence, NJ: Marquis Who’s Who, 1993, p. 114; [obituary:] “John F. Fitchen, Retired Profess of Architecture.” Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY) June 5, 1990, p.




    Citation

    "Fitchen, John, III." Dictionary of Art Historians (website). https://arthistorians.info/fitchenj/.


    More Resources

    Search for materials by & about this art historian: