Carpenter was born on January 7, 1867, in
Columbia, Tennessee. He studied at the
University of Tennessee and at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he graduated in 1884. He then studied at the
École des Beaux Arts in
Paris. When working in Virginia and partnered with
John Kevan Peebles, he designed the
Epworth Methodist Episcopal Church at Norfolk (1894–1896). Working independently, he also designed Trinity United Methodist Church in
Newport News, Virginia (1900). Carpenter's first New York commission, in 1909, was for 116 East 58th Street, a nine-story apartment house, since demolished. His designs in
Tennessee include the Columbia military
arsenal (later the
Columbia Military Academy), the
Maury County courthouse in
Columbia, Tennessee, the Kirkland Tower at
Vanderbilt University, the
Hermitage Hotel, Lynmeade Mansion and the
Stahlman Building in Nashville, the
Hurt Building in
Atlanta, the
American National Bank Building (Pensacola, Florida), and several noteworthy buildings in New York City, including
907 Fifth Avenue,
620 Park Avenue,
625 Park Avenue,
640 Park Avenue,
655 Park Avenue,
825 Fifth Avenue, 819 Park Avenue,
550 Park Avenue, completed in 1917, the neo-Italianate 1030 Fifth Avenue, built in 1925, and 1060 Park Avenue and the
Lincoln Building (42nd Street, Manhattan), completed in 1930. One distinctive aspect of Carpenter's work is his pairing of buildings: sibling structures facing each other across a side street, like 1115 and 1120 Fifth, at 93rd Street; 1148 and 1150 Fifth, at 96th Street; and 1165 and 1170 Fifth, at 98th Street. Carpenter's work was described in a
New York Times ad in 1930 as having a "quiet, restful feeling about [his] apartments — in their large, high-ceiling rooms, the careful finish of detail, the skilled but unobtrusive service." ==Personal life==