Philip Hooker

Philip Hooker
Born	October, 28, 1766
Died	January, 31, 1836
Occupation	Architect
Buildings	Hyde Hall, Albany City Hall, Hart-Cluett Mansion

Philip Hooker was at one time the leading architect of New York State outside of New York City. He designed Hyde Hall, the facade of the Hamilton College Chapel, The Albany Academy, Albany City Hall, Hart-Cluett Mansion and the original New York State Capitol building. He is believed to have designed the Gen. John G. Weaver House at Utica, New York. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

Philip Hooker, was born on October 28, 1766, in the town of Rutland, Worcester County, Massachusetts, the first son of Samuel Hooker, and Rachel Hines.

An existing National Register of Historic Places building that he designed, with John H. Lothrop, is:

• Hamilton College Chapel on the Hamilton College campus.

Two other National Register of Historic Places that are also National Historic Landmarks which he designed are:

• Hyde Hall, at Otsego Lake,and
• Roscoe Conkling House, in Utica, New York

Other Notable Buildings include:

• Albany Academy Building (now Board of Education Bldg.), North Dutch Reformed Church (1797)
• New York State Arsenal (1799),
• St. Peter's Episcopal Church (1802),
• New York State Bank (1803),
• Early New York State Capitol Building (1806),
• Bank of Albany (1809),
• Mechanics and Farmers Bank (1811),
• First Church in Albany (Reformed), Albany, NY (1811)
• Aiken House, Rensselaer, New York (1816)
• Hart-Cluett Mansion (1827), in Troy, NY
• St. Paul's Episcopal Church (Troy, New York), (1828),
• St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church (1829),
• Albany City Hall (1832, destroyed by fire in 1880),

He also designed many private residences for wealthy Albanians including the Van Rensselaers, Cornings, Pruyn's, Lansings, William James and others. One mansion, built for Samuel Hill, is now the Fort Orange Club at 110 Washington Avenue.

He was also a politician and a member of the "Albany Regency."

He was originally buried in the State Street Burial Grounds in Albany; his body was reinterred in the 1860s at the Albany Rural Cemetery, in lot 12, section 49, in Menands, New York.

Philip Hooker Grave Site, "Died Jan. 31st, 1836, Aged 69 Yrs. 3 Mons. 6 Days, In Full Hope of A Blessed Eternity"

Two monographs have been written on Hooker's work:

Edward W. Root. Philip Hooker: A Contribution to the Study of the Rensaissance in America (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons), 1929. Douglas G. Bucher and Walter Richard Wheeler. A Neat Plain Modern Stile: Philip Hooker and His Contemporaries, 1796-1836 (Amherst, Mass.:University Of Massachusetts Press), 1993.

External links

• Philip Hooker, at Find-a-grave