Harold Perry Erskine

Erskine was born in Racine, Wisconsin on June 5, 1879. His parents were Emma Payne and Charles E. Eskine, treasurer of the J. I. Case Plow Works in Racine. In 1892, Erskine and his father explored western North Carolina on horseback to find property for the family's summer home. After college, Erskine worked for the J. I Case Plow Works in Racine. He also studied architecture in Greece and Italy. == Career ==

Architecture Erskine was a partner in the archtectural frim Erskine & Blagden, later Hazzard, Erskine & Blagdon, in New York City. In 1927, he designed Lynncote Lodge, a Tudor Revival style lodge on his family's property in Tryon, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Erskine developed a technique for coloring stone, used for the relief. He also created the Wilton Merle-Smith Memorial for the Central Presbyterian Church in Manhattan and the Walter Travis memorial at the Garden City Golf Club. His bust of Carl Akeley is in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History. == Personal life ==

On January 17, 1914, Erskine married Coralie Coudert, a New York City and Newport socialite who had been married twice before. She divorced Erskine in Paris in 1922 and died in 1935. Erskine was a member of the Beaux Arts Society and the St. Anthony Club of New York. He was a sportsman who hunted in Kenya in 1910 and 1911, and donated big game trophy mounts to the American Museum of Natural History. He lived at the Century Club in New York City and at Lynncote, his family's summer estate in Tryon, North Carolina. Erskine died after a long illness at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, New York, on January 5, 1951, at the age of 72 years. He was buried in Tryon. == References ==