Stanford White

From relatively humble beginnings, Stanford White's architectural career blossomed when he joined Charles McKim and William Rutherford Mead as a junior partner.  They quickly secured a series of summer houses for the rich and very rich.  He could draw easily and enjoyed designing interiors, two qualities which helped him to succeed.  His personal life was very colorful.  Though married, he seems to have enjoyed the attentions of young teenage girls who came from fragile social and financial situations.  There was a room in his multistory apartment painted green with a red velvet swing where he would take them.  He did belong to a sex club of wealthy gentlemen which organized frequent secret orgies. He may also have been gay which didn't seem to have bothered his firm.  One night at Madison Square Garden which he designed, while entertaining chorus girl Elinor Nesbitt, he was murdered by her husband Harry K. Thaw.