This collection is available for use by appointment in the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. For further information, please email avery-drawings@library.columbia.edu.
This collections includes architectural drawings, files and photographs of projects designed by Woodbridge and his various firms, circa 1928-1960s. These include buildings at Presbyterian Church, Savoonga, St. Lawrence Island, Ala.; Cole Memorial Chapel, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL; Amherst College, Mass.; Smith College, Mass.; St. Mary the Virgin Church, Chappaqua, N.Y.; St. John's Chapel and Library, Hobart College, Geneva, N.Y.; the Keene Valley Congregational Church, Keene Valley, N.Y.; and the Brick Presbyterian Church and the Episcopal Church Center, both in New York City; as well as other churches, residences, and miscellaneous projects. Also, included are drawings done by Woodbridge while a student at the Columbia School of Architecture, early 1920s; photographs of some of Woodbridge's buildings taken mostly by the architectural photographer Samuel H. Gottscho; a small sample of Woodbridge's correspondence, 1941-1942, documenting his role as chairman of the American Institute of Architects Committee on Architectural Services, relating to the role architects could play in the war effort; sketchbooks of various international locations; and photographs and documents relating to archaeological excavations at Antioch in Pisidia, Turkey.
This collection is arranged in four series: Project Drawings, Project Files, Project Photographs, and General Files. The files in the first three series are arranged in alphabetical order by state, and therein alphabetically by city and then by client name. The last series is arranged alphabetically by folder title.
This collection is available for use by appointment in the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. For further information, please email avery-drawings@library.columbia.edu.
Frederick J. Woodbridge architectural records and papers. Dept. of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York, N.Y.
Source of acquisition--Gift. Accession number--1971.005.
Columbia University Libraries, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
Fredrick J. Woodbridge was born on May 18, 1900 in New York. He was the son of Prof. Frederick J. E. Woodbridge, who served as dean of the Graduate Faculties of Columbia from 1912-1929. Woodbridge was a graduate of Amherst College, earning a B.A. in 1921, and also of Columbia University's School of Architecture, where he graduated in 1923 with B.A. in architecture. Woodbridge received an honorary M.A. in architecture from Amherst in 1951. From 1921 to 1925, Woodbridge was affiliated with the prominent New York City architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White and for a short period after with the firm of G.W. Trofast, Gillette & F.J. Woodbridge. Woodbridge left the last firm in 1928 to become a partner in Evans, Moore & Woodbridge. During his tenure at Evans, Moore & Woodbridge, he completed several projects on the campus of his alma mater, Amherst. In 1945, Woodbridge formed the firm Adams & Woodbridge with Lewis G. Adams, formerly of the New York firm Adams & Prentice.
From his offices in New York City, Woodbridge designed residential, institutional, ecclesiastical structures along the East Coast, working largely in traditional and colonial vernacular styles. In Manhattan, his commissions included the chapel and parish house of the Brick Presbyterian Church and the Episcopal Church Center. Other prominent work included residences for several professors at Princeton University and the Alumnae House at Smith College.
Woodbridge maintained ties to Columbia University throughout his career, serving on the faculty of the Extension School of Architecture from 1934 to 1942, as a lecturer at Teachers College from 1938 to 1942, and as consulting university architect beginning in 1956. Woodbridge was awarded a Fulbright grant to be architect in residence at the American Academy in Rome from 1951 to 1952, where, among other projects he made detailed drawings of buildings in the ancient port city of Ostia. He was also a member of the faculty of the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies in 1956.
Active in the wider professional community, Woodbridge was an architect member of the Art Commission of the City of New York from 1956 to 1959 and served as vice chairman of the New York Landmarks Commission from 1962 to 1965. Woodbridge was also a member and former director of the Architectural League of New York, director of the National Institute of Architectural Education, president of the Fine Arts Federation of New York, a president of the School of Art League of New York, and a member of the National Academy of Design. Woodbridge was elected to the College of Fellows of the A.I.A. and served as the president of the New York City chapter from 1961 to 1962. He died in New York City on January 17, 1974.
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