Rotch & Tilden was an American architectural firm active in Boston, Massachusetts from 1880 through 1895. The firm was founded by partners Arthur Rotch and George Thomas Tilden. Both had studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Both had worked at the architectural firm of Ware and van Brunt.
History They were called "society architects” because of their families and their clientele.Owens, Carole. "Rotch and Tilden, the High Society architects", The Berkshire Edge, August 8, 2017 The firm was perhaps best known for lavish summer houses in Bar Harbor, Maine and for townhouses lining Commonwealth Avenue in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston.
According to architectural historian Harry Katz, Rotch and Tilden developed an "increasingly sophisticated blending of Georgian and Federal forms.” Two private residences in Montreal display an exhibit an eclectic blend of Jacobean and Richardsonian Romanesque styles.
For fifteen years, until Rotch's death in 1894, theirs was one of the most active architectural offices in New England."Rotch, Arthur", Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada
Tilden continued to work until he retired in 1914. Notable architects who worked for the firm include Ralph Adams Cram and Harold Van Buren Magonigle.
List of works
Saint Saviour's Episcopal Church and Rectory, Bar Harbor, Maine, 1877 Bennett Building, Billerica Public Library, Billerica, Massachusetts, 1881 211 Commonweath Ave. Boston, Massachusetts, 1883 Built for William Powell Mason, and later inherited by Fanny Peabody Mason Belvoir Terrace, Lenox, Massachusetts, 1884 For Morris Ketchum Jesup, who served on the board of directors of the J.S. Morgan Bank."Belvoir Terrace", Archiseek Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, Milton, Massachusetts, 1885 Church of the Holy Spirit, Mattapan, Boston, Massachusetts, 1886"Mattapan Square", Dorchester Atheneum, accessed 11/10/10 The Tides, Bar Harbor, Maine, 1887 Farnsworth Art Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, 1887–1889 (razed 1958)On the boards: drawings by nineteenth-century Boston architects By James F. O'Gorman, Wellesley College Cambridge Manual Training School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1889 Chapel of the Ascension (now Grant A.M.E. Church), Boston, Massachusetts, 1890The Boston Daily Globe, 8 February 1890, p. 4 Whippany Farm, Frelinghuysen Arboretum, Morristown, New Jersey, 1891"The Frelinghuysen Arboretum" Ventfort Hall, Lenox, Massachusetts, 1891–1893 For Sarah Morgan, sister of J. P. Morgan; the house was used as the Orphanage in the movie The Cider House Rules.
287 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, Massachusetts, 1892 Built for Herbert M. Sears. Peavey Memorial Library, Eastport, Maine, 1893 Dublin Town Hall, Dublin, New Hampshire, 1883 Old Public Library, Exeter, New Hampshire, 1894 Now the Exeter Historical Society. Sea Urchins, Bar Harbor, Maine Mansion for Burton Harrison and now part of the College of the Atlantic.
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Selection of works with photos