Frederic Rhinelander King, was an American architect, and the co-founder with Marion Sims Wyeth of the architecture firm Wyeth and King.
Early life
Frederic Rhinelander King was born in 1887. He was the son of LeRoy King and the former Ethel Ledyard Rhinelander of New York and Newport, Rhode Island. His siblings included LeRoy King, Jr., who married Mary Isabel Lockwood, Katharine Bulkeley Lawrence, and Pamela Anne Sutherland Woodbury ; and art collector Ethel Marjory King, who married Charles Howland Russell. The Kings' Newport residence was designed for his father by Stanford White, at the corner of Berkeley and Bellevue Avenues. His paternal grandparents were Edward King and Mary Augusta King. Through his father, he was a direct descendant of both Nicholas Fish and Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch Director-General of New Netherland. His great-aunt, Elizabeth Stuyvesant Dresser was the mother of D. LeRoy Dresser and Edith Stuyvesant Dresser, who was married to George Washington Vanderbilt II and, later, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island, Peter Goelet Gerry. His maternal grandparents were Frederic William Rhinelander, trustee and the president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Frances Davenport Rhinelander. King's mother was Edith Wharton's first cousin and King served as the executor of Wharton's American estate. He was educated at St. George's School, Newport after which he entered Harvard College, where he graduated from in 1908 with a Bachelor of Arts cum laude. He then studied architecture at Columbia University from 1908-1911, followed by studies at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, in Paris, from 1912-1914.
Career
King apprenticed at the prominent beaux-arts architecture firm McKim, Mead & White from 1914–1917, and was associated with architect Lawrence Grant White between 1915 and 1917. His career was interrupted by the First World War. He served with the American Red Cross Commission in 1917, and following America's entry into the war, served as First Lieutenant in the US Army from 1918 until 1919. Following the war, King continued his apprenticeship at the architecture firm Carrère and Hastings from 1919-1920. He formed an association in 1920 with the architect Marion Sims Wyeth, a friend from his student days in Paris. They formally joined in partnership in 1932, known as Wyeth and King and after 1944 as Wyeth, King and Johnson. Generally speaking, Wyeth and Johnson were responsible for the work in Florida, while King was responsible for the work in Newport and New York City.
Principal architectural works
;Designed by King
Leroy King House, Indian Spring, Newport, Rhode Island.
Rev. Jonathan LeRoy King, who married Jacqueline Patricia Esmerian in 1958. Jaqueline was the daughter of Raphael Esmerian, who lived at 988 Fifth Avenue, and was president of R. Esmerian Inc., jewelers. Jonathan was the canon at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
King died at his residence in New York City on March 20, 1972. His funeral was held at the Church of the Epiphany in New York City.
Descendants
Through his son David, he was the grandfather of Nicholas Rhinelander King, who was married to Colleen Ellen Dunphy, the daughter of Joanne and Edward P. Dunphy, in 2000; Elizabeth Parsons King; and Melissa Morgan King. Through his son Jonathan, he was the grandfather of four, including Cynthia Bayard King, who married Lee Gregory Vance, a son of Lee N. Vance, in 1986.
