During 1875 and 1876, Pottter also served as Supervising Architect of the Treasury. Under his supervision designs were produced for Custom houses, Court houses, and Post Offices in Kentucky, Indiana, Massachusetts, Georgia, and Tennessee. During his partnership with Robertson from 1875 to 1881, the firm produced summer "cottages" at Newport, Long Island, and the Jersey shore, and the brown University Library (1875). Potter also designed several churches, including the South Congregational Church in Springfield, Massachusetts, (1871-1875), Christ Church in Poughkeepsie, New York (1887-1889), and the First Reformed Dutch Church in Somerville, New Jersey (1896-1897).
William Appleton Potter
( 1842 - 1909 )
Charles H. Baldwin House in Newport, Rhode Island
A young architect from New York, William Appleton Potter, had his design selected for the new Athenaeum.
Alexander hall culminated the work of architect William Appleton Potter on the Princeton campus. Potter was not a Princeton alumnus - was the former Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury (in effect, the official architect of the United States). In Princeton, Potter had designed Chancellor Green Library, Stuart Hall at the Princeton theological seminary, and several other University buildings. He also collaborated with Robert H. Robertson on Witherspoon Hall. After Alexander Hall was completed, Potter also designed Pyne Library, now known as east Pyne Hall,
Alexander Hall - Princeton University
William Appleton Potter was the son of Bishop Alonzo Potter and a half-brother of Edward Tuckerman Potter, who was also an architect. Born in Schenectady, Potter grew up in Philadelphia and attended Union College. His collegiate background distinguished him from most of the architects of the first half of the nineteenth century, who received their training through apprenticeship in the building trades and then sometimes in the offices of practicing architects. The apprenticeship tradition was still strong, however, and Potter received his professional training in his half-brother's office.
Chancellor Green Library was Potter's first major commission. In it, he took the High Victorian Gothic vocabulary and octagonal form used by his half-brother for the Nott Memorial at Union College, and elaborated it into a complex interplay of octagons of various sizes and shapes. For the college, retaining Potter represented a shift from dependence on Philadelphia architects to a New York practitioner. Potter would go on to design several other buildings on the campus: the John C. Green Science building (1873-1875) (demolished), Alexander Hall (1891-1894), East Pyne Building (1896-1897), and, with his partner R.H. Robertson, the University Hotel (1875-1877) (demolished), Witherspoon Hall (1875-1877), and Stuart Hall (1875-1877) at Princeton Theological Seminary.Type your paragraph here.
Built in 1877-78, this early Shingle Style home was designed by the architectural firm of William Appleton Potter and Robert Anderson Robertson. According to a Historic American Building Survey report, a later 20th century owner named it "Gamir Doon", Armenian for "Red House", built for William Morris, and one of the seminal works of the English Arts and crafts Movement. Like other Shingle Style houses, Potter and Robertson's design is an American interpretation of the Queen Anne and "Old English" styles of richard Norman Shaw, the early American Colonial styles of New England and the avant garde philosophy of the aforementioned English Arts and Crafts Movement.
William Appleton Potter (1842-1909) was an American architect who designed numerous buildings for Princeton University, as well as municipal offices and churches. he served as a Supervising architect of the Treasury.
U.S. Custom House, Post Office & Courthouse, 1885, Memphis, Tennessee
Supervising Architect: William Appleton Potter, James G. Hill & Mifflin E. Bell
Potter Family History