One of New Jersey’s
most influential architects, Fred Wesley Wentworth, hailed from Dover, NH. The
Dover Public Library is pleased to host, on Monday, February 25 at 7pm, Richard
Polton, the author of a new book about this forgotten architect who is buried
at Pine Hill Cemetery in Dover. Polton’s
new book is entitled “The Life &
Times of Fred Wesley Wentworth: The Architect Who Shaped Paterson, NJ and Its
People”.
Wentworth, born in 1864, attended Dartmouth College and became a highly influential architect in Paterson. However, very little has been publicly known about him until now. Wentworth designed approximately 40 buildings in Paterson from 1890 through 1940 — everything from hospitals, schools, hotels, beautiful homes and commercial buildings to original, groundbreaking designs for the burgeoning movie palaces of the era. During this time, Paterson was a place of movers and shakers — it was home to a vice president of the United States, a governor who became U.S. Attorney General, manufacturing and retail entrepreneurs, innovators, and captains of industry — and they were all clients of Fred Wesley Wentworth.
“If you lived in Paterson during the 20th century, you lived in a city built by Wentworth,” says Polton, who grew up in Paterson. “Yet I had never heard of him until I stumbled across a book of his on eBay. The more I researched his life and work, the more I was fascinated by the breadth and quality of his career, the relationships he formed with his clients, and the enormous changes he witnessed in Paterson during his lifetime.”
Born in Boxborough, Mass. in 1864, Wentworth was raised and educated in Dover. His father, William Trickey Wentworth, was born in Hiram, Maine in 1822, but spent most of his adult life in Dover. He owned Long Hill Farm, a successful dairy farm a mile outside of town. The elder Wentworth was active in politics, serving as selectman, school commissioner, councilman, alderman and state legislator. Fred Wesley Wentworth’s mother was Lucinda Phipps (MacDonald) Wentworth, born in New Hampshire and from a well-established local family.
Early in his career, Wentworth designed the Lucius Everett Varney residence on Arch Street in Dover, which still stands today. Built in 1905, it is among the grandest homes in Wentworth’s portfolio. Lucius was a classmate of Wentworth’s at Dartmouth and practiced patent law in New York City, but called Dover home. Both men were members of the Casque & Gauntlet Society at Dartmouth, and both are buried in Pine Hill Cemetery in Dover.
Among Wentworth’s most significant clients was Jacob Fabian, a Jewish entrepreneur and entertainment industry mogul. Together the two men pioneered the design of movie palaces, building six in New Jersey, including the Stanley Theater in Jersey City, still intact today. Their longstanding collaboration also resulted in a major synagogue and social buildings that formed Jewish life in Paterson in the early 1900s, helping a generation of immigrants become the Americans they yearned to be.
Author Richard Polton, who lives in New Jersey, is a founding principal of Value Research Group, a real estate valuation and consulting firm and specializes in issues of affordable housing and urban redevelopment. He studied American history at Columbia, architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design and city planning at MIT. He is also on the board of trustees of the Hamilton Partnership for Paterson, a non-profit organization helping to launch the Paterson Great Falls National Park.
With more than 130 photos detailing Wentworth-designed buildings and events during his lifetime, “The Life and Times of Fred Wesley Wentworth” uncovers a forgotten history of one of the most overlooked, but influential, architects in New Jersey’s past.
Wentworth, born in 1864, attended Dartmouth College and became a highly influential architect in Paterson. However, very little has been publicly known about him until now. Wentworth designed approximately 40 buildings in Paterson from 1890 through 1940 — everything from hospitals, schools, hotels, beautiful homes and commercial buildings to original, groundbreaking designs for the burgeoning movie palaces of the era. During this time, Paterson was a place of movers and shakers — it was home to a vice president of the United States, a governor who became U.S. Attorney General, manufacturing and retail entrepreneurs, innovators, and captains of industry — and they were all clients of Fred Wesley Wentworth.
“If you lived in Paterson during the 20th century, you lived in a city built by Wentworth,” says Polton, who grew up in Paterson. “Yet I had never heard of him until I stumbled across a book of his on eBay. The more I researched his life and work, the more I was fascinated by the breadth and quality of his career, the relationships he formed with his clients, and the enormous changes he witnessed in Paterson during his lifetime.”
Born in Boxborough, Mass. in 1864, Wentworth was raised and educated in Dover. His father, William Trickey Wentworth, was born in Hiram, Maine in 1822, but spent most of his adult life in Dover. He owned Long Hill Farm, a successful dairy farm a mile outside of town. The elder Wentworth was active in politics, serving as selectman, school commissioner, councilman, alderman and state legislator. Fred Wesley Wentworth’s mother was Lucinda Phipps (MacDonald) Wentworth, born in New Hampshire and from a well-established local family.
Early in his career, Wentworth designed the Lucius Everett Varney residence on Arch Street in Dover, which still stands today. Built in 1905, it is among the grandest homes in Wentworth’s portfolio. Lucius was a classmate of Wentworth’s at Dartmouth and practiced patent law in New York City, but called Dover home. Both men were members of the Casque & Gauntlet Society at Dartmouth, and both are buried in Pine Hill Cemetery in Dover.
Among Wentworth’s most significant clients was Jacob Fabian, a Jewish entrepreneur and entertainment industry mogul. Together the two men pioneered the design of movie palaces, building six in New Jersey, including the Stanley Theater in Jersey City, still intact today. Their longstanding collaboration also resulted in a major synagogue and social buildings that formed Jewish life in Paterson in the early 1900s, helping a generation of immigrants become the Americans they yearned to be.
Author Richard Polton, who lives in New Jersey, is a founding principal of Value Research Group, a real estate valuation and consulting firm and specializes in issues of affordable housing and urban redevelopment. He studied American history at Columbia, architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design and city planning at MIT. He is also on the board of trustees of the Hamilton Partnership for Paterson, a non-profit organization helping to launch the Paterson Great Falls National Park.
With more than 130 photos detailing Wentworth-designed buildings and events during his lifetime, “The Life and Times of Fred Wesley Wentworth” uncovers a forgotten history of one of the most overlooked, but influential, architects in New Jersey’s past.
This program is free and open to the public. Copies of
Mr. Polton’s book will be available for sale. Please
call the Library, 516-6050, for more information.
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