Herbert W. Congdon Papers Collection

Architect, photographer and pioneer Vermont historic preservationist, Herbert Wheaton Congdon was born in West Brighton, New York on May 9, 1876, the son of Henry and Charlotte Greenleaf Congdon. After earning a B.A. at Columbia University's School of Architecture in 1897 (with an M.A. eight years later), Congdon joined his father's New York City architectural firm. He worked actively as an architect for twenty- five years, specializing in Episcopal churches along the eastern seaboard. Congdon also served in the New York State National Guard for much of this period, and participated in the 1916 Army expedition against Pancho Villa along the Mexican border as a Captain in company A, 23rd New York Infantry. Congdon moved to Arlington, Vermont in August 1923, and made his home there the remaining forty-two years of his life. He served in the Vermont Commission on Country Life in 1928, as a trustee of the Green Mountain Club for many years, and as a trustee of the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont. However, Congdon's main interest after moving to Vermont was in photographing and documenting the early architectural heritage of the state. He began as official photographer of the University of Vermont's Old Buildings Project in 1936-1938, and when the Old Buildings Project ended Congdon continued the work on his own until his death in 1965. The result was a unique collection of hundreds of photographs and notecards on early Vermont structures, as well as several related books and monographs-- Old Vermont Houses, The Covered Bridge, Dake of Castleton, and Early American Homes for Today. Herbert Wheaton Congdon died on August 14, 1965, at the age of eighty-nine, survived by his wife, Helen Warrington Jones Congdon (m. June 28, 1927), and two sons.