Fred Wesley Wentworth was a highly accomplished and respected architect based in Paterson, NJ in the years between 1888 and 1943. His work and significant accomplishments are largely unrecognized and undocumented today. Wentworth’s practice included institutional, commercial and religious buildings and prototype buildings for emerging property types -- moving picture theatres, aeronautics manufacturing, downtown hotels, parking garages  and others. His work developed standards for several of these building types. In the course of his career, he was widely recognized. Wentworth was President of the New Jersey Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, a Fellow in the AIA and served on the State Board of Architects. Wentworth’s designs were always functional and often the buildings are beautifully designed.

Because of the specialized nature of many of his most significant buildings, many of Wentworth’s buildings are abandoned or underutilized today. His reputation has also suffered because the City of Paterson has struggled over the past few decades and many buildings in Paterson – including many of Wentworth’s – have fallen on hard times. Given all these factors, Wentworth is not especially well known, making the story of his life his many accomplishments and the times he lived in even more compelling.

The setting for Wentworth’s story is the City of Paterson, New Jersey. Paterson was a dynamic and vital city when Wentworth first arrived and boomed during the years of his lifetime. During the period Wentworth lived in Paterson, the city’s population nearly tripled. For a period during Wentworth’s lifetime, was the fastest growing city in America. Over time, and often in fits and starts, the city transformed itself from a “closely held”, relatively small manufacturing city to a complex mix of manufacturing, retailing, entertainment and commerce with a vibrant downtown and a wide variety of neighborhoods.  Wentworth witnessed it all and contributed to most of it. Many of the most innovative of those activities took place in Wentworth designed buildings.

Wentworth Family

The Wentworths are one of the most distinguished families in New Hampshire.  The Wentworth family has been in New Hampshire since the 1630s and Fred Wesley Wentworth’s family had been a part of the New Hampshire history for generations and a fixture in southern New England when he was born.

William Wentworth, the “founding” American ancestor, immigrated to Exeter, New Hampshire is 1638. The family roots are sunk deep in English history. Wentworth family lineage goes back to the Norman Conquest  and according to genealogies, the Wentworth family name is included in the

Doomsday Book that was compiled by William the Conqueror in 1066 for taxation purposes. The Magna Britannica, published in 1800 described the lordship of Wentworth in the Wopentake of Safford in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Well known American Wentworths include Benning Wentworth, colonial governor of New Hampshire; “Long John” Wentworth, Mayor of Chicago and Tappan Wentworth, attorney, member of Congress and benefactor of Dartmouth College.

William Trickey Wentworth, Fred Wesley Wentworth’s father, was a sixth generation New Englander, who was born in Hiram, Maine on April 11, 1822. He spent most of his adult life in Dover, New Hampshire where he was the successful owner of Long Hill Farm, a dairy farm located about a mile outside of the center of the town. Records make it clear that he was in the New Hampshire mold of citizens who participate at all levels. He was also quite entrepreneurial. The elder Wentworth was active in local politics, serving as a Selectman, School Commissioner, Councilman, Alderman in Dover and a State Legislator in New Hampshire. 

Lucinda Phipps (MacDonald) Wentworth, Fred Wesley Wentworth’s mother was born on January 13, 1829 in Chatham, New Hampshire and is also part of a well established local stock. Her father, Frederick Southgate MacDonald, was one of the leading citizens of the town of Chatham, who served as Town Clerk and Justice of the Peace. He took pride in his ancestral ties to the Scotch Clan MacDonald. Lucinda’s mother was active in a variety of social and philanthropic activities and is “a woman of exceptional ability”.  The family home was a two story wood frame house, well proportioned and simple in its design. It is located on Long Hill Road about a twenty minute carriage ride into the center of Dover. While life on a farm in New Hampshire’s rocky soils with long winters and a short growing seasons can be quite forboding, the house projects a quiet confidence.