In 1906, Mabel paid $1,250 for Lambdin House, a modest one-and-a half-storey frame dwelling in Water Street, St Michaels, Maryland, where she continued to live.12 Mabel had secured her financial future through her marriage and subsequently had no further contact with the Porter family.
The finalizing of his father’s will insured that Kingsley, now aged 18, became an enormously wealthy man. Finally he was free from the peculiarities of his father’s lifestyle, from the stress of legal battles and the shame of family scandal. Louis, as the eldest son, inherited the family home at Blachley Lodge that had been part of Louisa’s estate, as well as $10,000 that had been willed to him. Throughout their lives the brothers maintained a strong bond of unity and affection. When Louis married Miss Ellen Marion Hatch of New York, on 3 October 1901, Kingsley was best man.13 The newlyweds moved into Blachley Lodge to begin married life.
The effect on Louis after years of litigation against his father finally caught up with him. In December 1901 he became seriously ill with appendicitis,14 and an emergency operation had to be performed by Dr Bull of New York. Louis was then allowed to convalesce at home, under the care of doctors Bull, Tiffany and Hurlbut.15
Louis’s illness had seriously weakened him and he was unfit for some time to return to work. Although Kingsley was in his second year at Yale, he proposed that they take a cruise around the world so that Louis could recover his health. On 8 January 1902, Kingsley applied for a US passport, stating that he planned to return to the US in September. On his passport application, Kingsley stated that he was six feet one inch in height; he had blue eyes, light hair and a fair complexion; he had a high forehead, a long face, a small mouth and chin, and he possessed a Greek nose.16
At the age of 18, Kingsley possessed many advantages, including a strong, slender physique. His love of the outdoors was insatiable and he went on frequent hunting expeditions to Canada and Newfoundland.17He was shy and reserved with the look of a poet,18 but he was also friendly and modest which brought him a close circle of friends.19 For the handsome young millionaire with the keenest intellect and a congenial though sensitive disposition, the world was indeed his oyster.
On 22 January 1902, Kingsley and Louis boarded the twin-screw express SS Auguste Victoria in New York.20 The luxury seventy-three-day world cruise to the Orient had recently been introduced by the Hamburg-American Line. The cruise itinerary included stops at Funchal (Madeira), Gibraltar, Granada and Malaga (Spain), Tangiers (Morocco), Algiers (Algeria), Genoa (Italy), Villefranche and Nice (France), Monte Carlo (Monaco), Malta, Alexandria, Cairo, Luxor and Assouan (Egypt), Beirut and Baalbek (Lebanon), Damascus (Syria), Jaffa (Palestine), Jerusalem, Constantinople (now Istanbul), the Bosphorus, the Black Sea, Piraeus and Athens (Greece), Taormina, Messina, Palermo, Naples and Genoa (Italy). The cruise was to return to New York from Genoa. However, the Porters continued their travels to India and the Far East.21 They re-entered the US via the West Coast and travelled across the Rockies, before reaching the East Coast.
Kingsley, now aged 19, must have been incurably infected with the yearning for travel and adventure after witnessing all the delights, tastes, sights and experiences that a world tour provided. It certainly opened him to the richness and diversity of art and culture and to the incredible marvels of nature across continents and oceans.
8. Arthur Kingsley Porter’s room at Yale College, photograph, c. 1904.
Harvard University Archives, HUG 1706.194.
Kingsley finally returned to Yale in September 1902 and continued his studies, graduating with a degree of Bachelor of Arts on 27 June 1904.22 Out of a total of 195 men who graduated that year, Kingsley was one of the twelve who received the highest award of philosophical oration.23 This elite group also included William Pickens from Little Rock, Arkansas, an African-American who later became an author and civil-rights campaigner.24 Overall, Kingsley finished fourth in his class.25
Although Kingsley possessed a fortune, he immediately set about finding a suitable career. Men who had inherited their wealth from the old families of New England were reared with a work ethic that life was only meaningful if they had a vocation to nurture. This was unlike the ethos of rich European aristocrats or the young American nouveau riche who were happy to spend their lives indulging all the sensual pleasures that money could buy. It had always been his mother’s wish that Kingsley would study law and work in his brother’s firm. Finally, though, Kingsley had gained a positive legacy from his family and this great wealth allowed him to carve out a life of his own choosing. During the summer of 1904 he postponed a decision about further studies and instead sailed to France.26
It was during his tour of Normandy that Kingsley experienced a mystical conversion at Coutances Cathedral.27 While staring up at the Gothic turrets and superb ornamentation on the cathedral’s facade, Kingsley was enveloped in a shining light and fell into a trance, totally enraptured by the structure’s exquisite symmetry.28 This mystical experience convinced the 21-year-old Kingsley Porter that his path lay in the study of architecture.29
There is little doubt that Kingsley, after the extraordinary family misfortunes he had suffered, was ripe for spiritual transformation and in great need of a meaningful vocation. In architecture, Kingsley had found a marvellous escape from the cares and the ugliness of a chaotic world. The study of architecture meant he could revel in beauty, design and symmetry, each based on eternal principles. As with all great art, Kingsley could admire the romantic aspirations of the artist and the inner passion and spirit of the craftsman that had given the work its power. The simple truth was that Kingsley loved architecture: the way it made him feel when he visited a magnificent cathedral; the sense of freedom he found in travelling to foreign lands to explore ancient monuments; the joy he derived from imaging the lives of artists who crafted such glorious structures. All of these elements converged and clearly surfaced on that momentous day in Coutances.
9. Coutances Cathedral, France.
Stanley Parry.
On his return to New York, Kingsley enrolled at the Columbia Architectural School.30 Initially he began studying beaux-arts with a view to becoming a practising architect but midway through the course he switched to the study of architectural history.31 While at Columbia he began researching medieval architecture. After graduating in 1906, Kingsley immediately set sail for Europe to continue his research of medieval architecture in France and Italy.32
By December, Kingsley was back in New York. On 4 December 1906 he attended the wedding of Blakeman Quintard Meyer,33 a friend from his days at Yale,34 and on 6 February 1907 he celebrated his twenty-fourth birthday. Although he continued to remain on friendly terms with his old college mates, Kingsley was a serious, studious scholar who had little interest in gaiety or frivolity. His greatest excitement derived from travel abroad where he could indulge his fascination with the origins of stone monuments. He also loved going on frequent expeditions to the mountains and lakes, particularly the Adirondacks, where he could be alone to ponder and reflect.
Throughout 1907, Kingsley’s sole occupation was the research and writing of his mammoth book, entitled Medieval Architecture: Its Origins and Development.35 Although he had little formal training to write such a book, he had a deep inner confidence and conviction that his personal travels, studies and observations would lead him to discover significant, previously unexplored medieval monuments.
The 1,000-page book was completed at Kingsley’s apartment at 320 Central Park West, New York City, on 24 September 1908.36 In the preface, Kingsley
