John Merven Carrère (1858-1911)

He was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France, before gaining employment with New York's pre-eminent firm of the period, McKim, Mead & White. There, he met Thomas Hastings and they went into practice together as Carrère & Hastings from 1885 until his death in 1911. Their first success was the Ponce de León Hotel in St. Augustine, Florida, which they designed for Henry Flagler. They rose to national prominence when they won the competition for the New York Public Library in 1897, beating their old firm, McKim, Mead & White. They designed commercial buildings, elaborate residences, and prominent public buildings in New York and Washington, but also in Toronto, London, Paris, Rome, and Havana. In 1886, he married Marion Dell and they were the parents of two surviving daughters. They lived at 288 Richmond Terrace on Staten Island before moving to 101 East 65th Street, NYC, and building "Red Oaks" in Harrison, Westchester County. He was killed in a car crash in January, 1911, survived by his wife and daughters, the eldest of whom, Anna, became a noted landscape architect.