While doing a little bit of research into Guilbert & Betelle’s New Rochelle High School, I came upon this postcard of Isaac E. Young High School, also in New Rochelle.

Isaac E. Young Middle School, as it is called now, is quintessential Collegiate Gothic, featuring red brick, a central tower with octagonal corners in the classic Princeton mode, and a sprawling, asymmetrical profile. Needless to say I wanted to find out it’s architect. I was pretty sure it wasn’t Betelle, but my records of his buildings is far from complete, so you never know.

It took a bit of searching, but I found who it was, via an obituary in the New York Times digital archive. His name was Herbert M. Hathaway, of Montclair, New Jersey.

What jumped out immediately in the obit was this sentence:

Born in Herndon, Va., Mr. Hathaway was graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1902. He then became associated with the architectural firm of Gilbert & Bettle [sic] in Newark. In 1914 he joined Starrett & Van Vleck.

Gilbert & Bettle. Aside from the satisfying coincidence, it was a bit frustrating seeing that typo. How many other potentially important articles am I missing due to misspellings?

Hathaway was born in 1878–a year before Betelle–and died at 66 in 1944. G&B formed in 1910, so he worked for the firm only a brief time in its early, struggling days. With works such as the New Rochelle school, most all of Montclair’s schools, halls at Columbia University and others, his time under Betelle clearly held influence.

Now to start searching for “Bettle” everywhere…