Charles Millard Pratt
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Charles Millard Pratt (November 2, 1855 - 1913) was an American oil industrialist and philanthropist.
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[edit] Early life
Pratt was born in Brooklyn, New York, the eldest son of Charles Pratt and Lydia Ann Richardson. He graduated from Amherst College in the class of 1879.
[edit] Career
Pratt joined Standard Oil in 1879 and was later Company Secretary. He was a trustee of Amherst College and Vassar College. He was president of the board of trustees, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. He was a director of the Long Island Rail Road, Brooklyn City Railroad, American Express and other corporations.
[edit] Personal life
Pratt married Mary Seymour Morris on 8 May 1884 and they had five children:
- Morris,
- Theodore,
- Margaret Richardson,
- Katherine Eugenia and
- Richardson.
[edit] Architectural legacy
William Tubby designed the Charles Millard Pratt House at 241 Clinton Avenue, Brooklyn in 1893. Located in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill Historic District it is one of the city’s finest examples of Romanesque revival architecture, and is now the home of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Brooklyn.
Pratt had a winter home (also known as Charles Millard Pratt House) designed by architects Greene and Greene in Nordhoff (Ojai), California from 1908-11.
Pratt was a trustee of Vassar College, his wife's alma mater, from 1896-1920. Pratt House, a residence for the Warden, was completed in 1915 by architects York and Sawyer.
[edit] Amherst College legacy
He was the first alumnus to donate a building to Amherst College - the Pratt Gymnasium was erected in 1883, and was reconstructed as the Pratt Museum in 1942. Following further rebuilding, it is scheduled to reopen in August 2007 as the Charles M Pratt Dormitory, housing 118 freshmen students.
Pratt was also responsible for the enormous Pratt Dormitory on Pratt Quad at Amherst College. This five-story building was designed by Charles Alonzo Rich in 1911, in memory of their son Morris Pratt who died at Amherst while an undergraduate student.
