891 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10025
6:30 - 8:00 pm EST
Join us for a one-of-a-kind evening exploring how international travel shaped the thinking of Richard Morris Hunt (1827-1895), renowned American architect of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vanderbilt mansions, and our HI New York City hostel. Today, Hunt's 1880s building along Amsterdam Avenue welcomes thousands of world visitors seeking unique experiences and the enlightenment that only travel can bring.
The evening's program will be an in-conversation between historian Sam Watters, foremost author on Richard Morris Hunt, and Lisa Gurwitch, global nonprofit executive and former HI USA Board member.
Speakers
Lisa Gurwitch has decades of experience as a global nonprofit executive and volunteer. Her professional roles have included Chief Advancement Officer of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), the leading global Jewish humanitarian organization; CEO and President of Delivering Good, a nonprofit that pairs major manufacturers and retailers with national and international aid efforts; and Senior Vice President of Institutional Advancement and External Relations for World Learning, which engages in leadership development, education, and civil society-building efforts in 60+ nations. Volunteer leadership positions include chair of the HI USA Resource Development Advisory Committee, on whose board she served for over a decade, and the GW Law Public Interest Advisory Council. She is also a lawyer and recipient of GW Law School's J. William Fulbright Distinguished Public Service Award. She has applied her passion for intercultural experience by leading and making possible purpose-driven educational and philanthropic experiential travel around the world.
Sam Watters writes about American life and the arts from the Civil War to World War II. His recent work has been in association with the Library of Congress and the cataloging of its vast Richard Morris Hunt Collection. The resulting books are The Gilded Life of Richard Morris Hunt (2024), which features 891 Amsterdam Avenue, and Richard Morris Hunt: The Collector (2025). See the Hunt archive - https://guides.loc.gov/richard-morris-hunt/collection for more information.
The Gilded Life of Richard Morris Hunt
Celebrated internationally in the 19th century as America’s premier architect, Richard Morris Hunt (1827–1895) is best known for his opulent Gilded Age Vanderbilt mansions, including Biltmore, the Breakers, Marble House and other landmark works. Yet Hunt’s impact on American culture after the Civil War ranges far beyond his lavish palaces. In The Gilded Life of Richard Morris Hunt, historian Sam Watters reveals Hunt’s remarkable influence in creating institutions and conventions that transformed Old World traditions into his generation’s idea of an American civilization through architecture, interior design, sculpture, painting and the ardent advocacy of artisan trades. Watters repositions Hunt and his 40-year career in light of new discoveries and connections made through his meticulous study of the Richard Morris Hunt Collection at the Library of Congress. Featuring 200 illustrations, including Hunt’s drawings, images he collected, portraits of his privileged New York and Newport inner circle and new photographs and plans, this dynamic biography follows the contours of American thought that shaped Hunt’s life and work among the ruling one percent.
Richard Morris Hunt: The Collector
From his over forty travel sketchbooks, we know inspirations that shaped Richard Morris Hunt's approach to architecture. But these small, illustrated books also reveal that Hunt and his wife, the shipping heiress Catharine Howland, were devoted collectors of European and Middle Eastern art, jewelry, antiquities and collectables that they loaned to fundraisers and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, founded by Richard and others in 1870. This small book, in the form of a Hunt sketchbook, tells the story of the Hunts' collecting and its importance to New York's private and public art culture.
Event Host Committee
Lisa Gurwitch and Tom Sharpe
Audra Jones
Leah Moschella and Joel Barciauskas
Sponsors
Explorer Level
Lisa Gurwitch and Tom Sharpe
Sponsorships Available Starting at $1,000
View sponsorship levels and benefits
To secure your spot as a sponsor, please contact Director of Resource Development Lauren Brown at 240-650-2124 or lauren.brown@hiusa.org.
FAQ
Will there be accommodations for out-of-town guests?
Yes. You can reserve a dorm bed here.
Our three private rooms are already booked with groups staying at the hostel. We have a room block at The Lucerne Hotel, a few subway stops away. The discounted room rate starts at $349. To get the discounted rate, you must reserve your room by September 16. You can book directly with The Lucerne here.
Is the venue accessible?
Yes. There is an accessible ramp entrance to the building. The program will take place in the Ballroom, which is up one level and accessible by an elevator. However, we are in an old building that houses up to 700 guests per night with two elevators. Given that, we ask that if you will require an elevator for mobility or accessibility reasons, please indicate that when you register for the event.
How do I get to 891 Amsterdam Avenue?
We are located on Amsterdam Avenue between W. 103rd and W. 104th Streeets. We are 1 block from the 103rd Street stop on the 1 train. Ride share or taxi can drop off immediately in front of the building. Unfortunately, we will not have parking available. There is street parking and there is a parking garage two blocks away at 205 W. 101st Street.
Can I buy a book at the event?
Yes, we will have both of Sam Watters’ books about Richard Morris Hunt available for purchase: The Gilded Life of Richard Morris Hunt (2024) and Richard Morris Hunt: The Collector (2025).
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