Edward T. Potter Architectural Drawings

Edward Tuckerman Potter was born on September 25, 1831 in Schenectady, New York, the son of Bishop Alonzo Potter. He began his college education in Philadelphia and, in 1851, transferred to Union College in Schenectady, where his father taught as a professor. After his graduation in 1853, he studied architecture under Richard Upjohn, one of the foremost church architects in the United States at the time. He worked for Upjohn from 1854 to 1856, when he opened his own practice in Schenectady.

An ecclesiastical specialist, Potter designed churches, particularly Episcopalian churches, in New York, New England, Florida, and other regions of the country. Among his important churches were the First Dutch Reformed Church in Schenectady, the Harvard Street Congregational Church in Boston, the Church of the Good Shepherd in Hartford, and St. John's Church in Yonkers, New York. Other well-known projects include the Union College's Nott Memorial (Graduates' Hall) in Schenectady, the Colt Parish House in Hartford, and Mark Twain's residence in Hartford. Potter retired in 1877, but resumed work in order to design the Colt Parish House.

In the early 1870s, Potter designed St. John's Episcopal Church in Jacksonville, Florida. This church was dedicated in 1877 and later burned in Jacksonville's Great Fire of 1901. In 1902 the Vestry of St. John's approved the design drawings for a new church building submitted by the firm Snelling and Potter. The cornerstone for the present Gothic Revival church, St. John's Cathedral, was laid in 1903 and the church was completed in 1906.

Potter died on October 24, 1904.

Sources: George, Carl, and Robert Uzzo, "Decoding the Nott Memorial," Union College Magazine, Winter 1999: Volume 91, Number 3. Henry F. and Elsie Rathburn Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased) (Los Angeles: Hennessey and Ingalls, Inc. 1970). Landau, Sarah Bradford. Edward T. and William A. Potter: American Victorian Architects (New York: Garland, 1979). Wodehouse, Lawrence. "Edward Tuckerman Potter" in American National Biography, v. 17, pp. 744-745 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).