Litchfield family photograph collection, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library
The Litchfield family descended from Lawrence Litchfield, who emigrated from England to Massachusetts in the 1630s. Edwin Clark Litchfield was a lawyer, railroad magnate, and real estate developer who owned much of what is now known as Park Slope and Gowanus, Brooklyn. Litchfield's estate, "Grace Hill," named for Litchfield's wife, Grace Hill Hubbard, was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis and built between 1855-1857. Previously, the property had belonged to Jacques Cortelyou. In 1868, Litchfield sold the villa to the Brooklyn Parks Commission to be incorporated with Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmstead's revised design for Prospect Park. Edwin's son, Edward Hubbard Litchfield, was a lawyer and financier, as well as a founder of the Arms and Armor Club
The collection contains photographs dating from 1870-1910 of Edwin Clark Litchfield's "Grace Hill" house, and of Edward Hubbard Litchfield's residences at 2 Montague Terrace in Brooklyn Heights and 8 E. 65th Street in Manhattan. Some of the photographs were taken by architectural photographer B. J. Smith. Many of these images depict Edward Litchfield's collection of art and armor.
Presented to the New York Biographical & Genealogical Society in 1950 by Marion Litchfield.
