Stanford White

Birth Name:

Stanford White

Birth Date:

November 9, 1853

Birth Place:

New York, New York

Death Date:

June 25, 1906

Place of Death:

Rooftop cabaret, Madison Square Garden, New York, New York

Age:

Cause of Death:

Gunshot wounds

Cemetery Name:

Saint James Episcopal Church Graveyard

Claim to Fame:

Crime and their Victims

Stanford White was a celebrated American architect and a partner in the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, one of the most significant Beaux-Arts firms at the turn of the 20th century. White designed many houses for the wealthy, in addition to numerous civic, institutional and religious buildings. When White was 25 years old, he embarked on a year-long tour of Europe, gaining inspiration and honing his techniques. Upon his return to New York in 1879, White entered into an architectural partnership with Charles Follen McKim and William Rutherford Mead to form “McKim, Mead & White.” The firm would go on to produce such iconic structures as the Washington Square Arch (1892), the Brooklyn Museum (1895), the Morgan Library (1903), the Rosecliff Mansion in Newport, Rhode Island and the original Madison Square Garden where he would suddenly and violently lose his life.

The Rest of the Story …

Stanford White had been carrying on an affair with the underaged actress Evelyn Nesbitt since 1900 (the relationship began when White plied Nesbit with drugs and alcohol and then proceeded to rape her while she was unconscious). She was now the wife of Pennsylvania millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw. After leaving his son, White went to Madison Square Garden’s Roof Garden to enjoy the premiere of the musical Mam’zelle Champagne. While the chorus sang “I Could Love a Million Girls,” Harry Thaw walked to White’s table and fired a gun three times into White’s temple. According to one witness Thaw uttered, “You’ll never go out with that woman again.”

White must have seen Thaw approaching. But he made no move. Thaw placed the pistol almost against the head of the sitting man and fired three shots in quick succession. White’s elbow slid from the table, the table crashed over, sending a glass clinking along with the heavier sound. The body then tumbled from the chair.” –New York Times, June 26, 1906

After White was killed, newspapers began to investigate his life, continuing through “The Trial of the Century” of Henry Thaw. It was quickly discovered (and to no surprise to anyone) that the married, wealthy architect engaged in sexual relations with numerous women, both legal and underaged.

Mark Twain, who was acquainted with White, included an evaluation of his character in his autobiography. It reflected Twain’s deep immersion in the testimony of the Thaw murder trial. Twain said that New York society had known for years preceding the incident that the married White was “eagerly and diligently and ravenously and remorselessly hunting young girls to their destruction. These facts have been well known in New York for many years, but they have never been openly proclaimed until now. On the witness-stand, in the hearing of a court room crowded with men, the girl [Evelyn Nesbit] told in the minutest detail the history of White’s pursuit of her, even down to the particulars of his atrocious victory—a victory whose particulars might well be said to be unprintable...

And if you thought Sanford White was bad, Harry Thaw was much, much worse. After the trial (found “not guilty”, he spent less than 2 years in a mental institution before being released) he was found guilty of kidnapping, beating, and sexual assault of nineteen-year-old Frederick Gump and was known to beat and rape his wife Evelyn Nesbit as well as feed his addiction to cocaine, morphine and copious amounts of alcohol.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Saint James Episcopal Church Graveyard

490 North Country Rd (Rt 25A)

Saint James, New York, 11780

USA

North America

Grave Location:

White Family Plot

Grave Location Description

As you enter the cemetery off Northern Blvd. (behind the church) drive to the end of the road and turn right. Drive 200 feet and park (a wooden fence and private homes will be on your left) walk 40 feet into the cemetery grounds on your right and look for a 14 foot narrow stone with 2 smaller matching monuments of the grave of celebrated architect, murder victim and rapist Stanford White.