Son of Roswell Button (d.1856) and Lydia (Avery) Button.He married, first, Maria Pinto.He married, second, Maria Goodwell∼Architect - Apprenticed to his uncle as a carpenter at the age of sixteen, he moved to New York City at the age of twenty-one and became an assistant to the architect George Purvis. After two years, he moved to Hoboken and worked independently in northern New Jersey for a decade. In the mid-1840's he moved south and worked in Florida and Georgia. During that time, he won a competition for the design of the Alabama State Capitol building in Montgomery, which burned on December 14, 1849. In 1848, he moved to Philadelphia and formed a partnership with his brother-in-law Joseph C. Hoxsie. That highly successful partnership lasted until 1852 when it was dissolved by mutual agreement. His architectural style was very popular in the mid-nineteenth century and is referred to by the architectural historian Winston Weisman as "Philadelphia Functionalism." It is characterized by metal frame construction for masonry buildings, which eventually led to Louis Sullivan's skyscraper constructions. In addition to his pioneering modern style, he also designed in the Romanesque and Italianate styles. He designed many commercial buildings, government buildings, school, churches, and private homes in Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey; but today, he is most remembered for over forty buildings that he designed in the Victorian community of Cape May, New Jersey. After a devastating fire destroyed much of that shore community in 1878, he designed and built several resort hotels and homes there. In 1854 he moved to Camden, New Jersey where he lived next door to the poet Walt Whitman until the poet's death in 1892.
Son of Roswell Button (d.1856) and Lydia (Avery) Button.He married, first, Maria Pinto.He married, second, Maria Goodwell∼Architect - Apprenticed to his uncle as a carpenter at the age of sixteen, he moved to New York City at the age of twenty-one and became an assistant to the architect George Purvis. After two years, he moved to Hoboken and worked independently in northern New Jersey for a decade. In the mid-1840's he moved south and worked in Florida and Georgia. During that time, he won a competition for the design of the Alabama State Capitol building in Montgomery, which burned on December 14, 1849. In 1848, he moved to Philadelphia and formed a partnership with his brother-in-law Joseph C. Hoxsie. That highly successful partnership lasted until 1852 when it was dissolved by mutual agreement. His architectural style was very popular in the mid-nineteenth century and is referred to by the architectural historian Winston Weisman as "Philadelphia Functionalism." It is characterized by metal frame construction for masonry buildings, which eventually led to Louis Sullivan's skyscraper constructions. In addition to his pioneering modern style, he also designed in the Romanesque and Italianate styles. He designed many commercial buildings, government buildings, school, churches, and private homes in Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey; but today, he is most remembered for over forty buildings that he designed in the Victorian community of Cape May, New Jersey. After a devastating fire destroyed much of that shore community in 1878, he designed and built several resort hotels and homes there. In 1854 he moved to Camden, New Jersey where he lived next door to the poet Walt Whitman until the poet's death in 1892.
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