DeWitt Harvey Fessenden was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 architect, critic, sketch artist, and author of The Life and Works of Claude Deruet (1952). He received a bachelor's degree in architecture from Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

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Biography

DeWitt Fessenden’s father was Harvey George Fessenden (July 26, 1844–Feb. 19, 1901) of Ithaca, New York. Harvey married Isabelle Tichenor Atwater (Sept. 26, 1850–May 10, 1937) of Van Eltenville, New York. The wedding was at Waverly, New York. The roots of the Fessenden family lay in Chilam, Kent, England. They were Puritan

Puritan

The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...

s, arriving at Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

 sometime before 1677. Dewitt’s great-great-grandfather was born in Franklin, Connecticut

Franklin, Connecticut

Franklin is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 1,835 at the 2000 census. The town also includes the village of North Franklin.-Geography:...

 and emigrated into northeastern Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 when that territory was claimed by Hartford

Hartford, Connecticut

Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...

. The Fessendens settled at South Montrose, Pennsylvania

Montrose, Pennsylvania

Montrose is a borough in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, United States, north by west of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Montrose was laid out in 1812 and incorporated as a borough on March 19, 1824. Its name is a combination of "mont", the French word for “mountain” and Rose, for Dr. L R. Rose, a...

 and married into the Lathrops of Bridgewater

Bridgewater, Pennsylvania

Bridgewater is a borough in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 739 at the 2000 census. It is best known as the home of the Bruster's Ice Cream chain. A few scenes in the 1986 movie Gung Ho were also shot in Bridgewater...

, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. Harvey’s great-grandfather moved the family into the Ithaca valley sometime before 1839, settling at the village of Candor, New York

Candor (village), New York

Candor is a village located in the Town of Candor in Tioga County, New York. The population was 855 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Binghamton Metropolitan Statistical Area....

. When Fessenden arrived at Cornell, he joined the New York Alpha Chapter of Phi Kappa Psi. Fessenden was among the members of this fraternity that rendered comfort to dying members of Chi Psi when that group's lodge caught on fire. He was also a member of the Irving Literary Society. Fessenden joined the freshman baseball team, and was considered part of a strong infield.

Academically, Fessenden worked from Samuel F.B. Morse Hall, now the site of the Johnson Museum of Art, in a bachelors’ architecture program known for its practical exercises.

Writing

Within a decade of graduating from Cornell, DeWitt’s work as an architect gained regional notice. As the Cornell Daily Sun noted,

D. H. Fessenden '05, architect and etcher, has been spoken of in the April issue of the International Studio, as a "serious etcher who is plodding along the difficult road to success and not trying to cut corners by eccentric methods."

Fessenden after leaving Cornell traveled considerably in France and Italy, where he made a special study of the old churches and cathedrals. The International Studio says:

"Mr. Fessenden grasps essentials, is a capital draughtsman and handles his etching needle with great sensitiveness."

Fessenden lived at the Cornell Club, 145 Madison Avenue, New York, New York during the 1930s.

Published works

For both marketing purposes and as a means of expressing his artistic interests, Fessenden began to write professionally after he graduated. Generally, his architectural designs and later writings showed an understanding of the discipline that urban and suburban living would require of an industrialized society. But he was also very conscious of the need to use design to define one’s own space, separate from the outside world.
He adored “high style”, trying to bring its essence down to scale for the average homeowner.
In December 1914, The International Studio published Fessenden's sketches of Rheims Cathedral; In 1922, the Architectural Record featured Fessenden’s art work.

Magazines and journals

Fessenden's work was published in the magazines Good Housekeeping,, House & Garden,, The International Studio, and The Architectural Record.

By 1937, DeWitt was working in the architectural trade press, notably with Sketch Book Magazine. Among DeWitt’s writings in Sketch Bookwas the “Pageant of French Architecture”.

Books

Fessenden's sole published book was an architectural professional's biography of his favorite artist, Claude Deruet

Claude Deruet

Claude Deruet was a famous French Baroque painter of the 17th century, from the city of Nancy.-Biography:Deruet was an apprentice to Jacques Bellange, the official court painter to Charles III, Duke of Lorraine. He was in Rome between ca. 1612 and 1619, where - according to André Félibien - he...

. The Life and Works of Claude Deruet was published late in Fessenden's life, and is now included among the Rare Books departments of academic libraries.
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