page_title: Henry Bacon
section_title: Mature work
hierarchical_section_title: Henry Bacon / Mature work
context_page_description: Henry Bacon was an American Beaux-Arts architect who is best remembered for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., which was his final project.
context_section_description: Bacon was very active as a designer of monuments and settings for public sculpture. He designed the Court of the Four Seasons for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, and the World War I Memorial at Yale University. He collaborated with sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens on the Sen. Mark Hanna Monument in Cleveland, Ohio, and with Daniel Chester French on numerous monuments, notably the Lincoln Memorial's pensive colossal Lincoln. Olin Memorial Library, one of Bacon's buildings at Wesleyan University, houses many of Bacon's documents and blueprints of the Lincoln Memorial.
  Bacon rarely found time to design private residences. There are three known residential projects that are clearly his work. The first is the La Fetra Mansion in Summit, New Jersey, designed and built by the firm of Brite & Bacon from 1897 to 1900. Bacon skillfully integrated into a residential setting many of his signature Greek Revival and Roman Renaissance elements and proportions. The resulting elegance was astoundingly masterful. The La Fetra Mansion was commissioned by industrialist Harold A. La Fetra of the Royal Baking Powder Company, which later merged with RJR Nabisco. The second is the rustic resort "Donald McRae House" in Wilmington, North Carolina, for his close friend Donald McRae.
  The third Bacon-designed private residence is Chesterwood House, which he designed for his friend, the noted sculptor Daniel Chester French, as his summer home and studio at Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Its exterior bears similarity to the La Fetra Mansion.
  Bacon served as a member of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts from 1921 until his death in 1924. In May 1923, President Warren G. Harding presented Bacon with the American Institute of Architects's Gold Medal, making him the 6th recipient of that honor. Bacon died of cancer in New York City, and he is buried at Oakdale Cemetery in Wilmington, North Carolina.
  
  During World War II, a US Navy Liberty Ship was named after Bacon: the SS Henry Bacon, which was commissioned on November 11, 1942.
caption: Program from the AIA Gold Medal presentation to Henry Bacon in 1923
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