Alexander McMillan Welch

Who was Alexander McMillan Welch?

Alexander McMillan Welch was an American architect trained in the Beaux-Arts tradition, who led his New York City firm of Welch, Smith and Provot, in partnership with George Provot.

Welch, a descendant of Philip Welch, who emigrated to Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1654, graduated from Columbia University and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Under the influence of his brother-in-law, Bashford Dean, Welch collected some antique swords.

The firm's trademark style of discreet brick and limestone townhouses in neo-Georgian style is embodied in 1009 Fifth Avenue, one of a row of four houses built in 1899-1901 for the speculative builders William and Thomas Hall. Number 1009 was purchased by the tobacco magnate Benjamin Newton Duke who gave it to his daughter Mary Duke Biddle. Similar rowhouses by Welch, Smith and Provot are 28 through 38 West 86th Street.

Welch was the consulting architect in restorations made to a number of designated historical landmarks, including Alexander Hamilton's Hamilton Grange in Hamilton Heights, upper Manhattan and the Dutch Colonial Dyckman House, as well as George Washington's Headquarters in White Plains, New York.