Resting place Cave Hill Cemetery Residence Lincliff Name William Belknap | Home town Louisville, Kentucky Occupation Businessman Children William Burke Belknap | |
Born March 28, 1849 ( 1849-03-28 ) Louisville, Kentucky Known for President Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company Spouse(s) Alice Trumbull Silliman, Juliet Davison Rathbone Parent(s) William Burke Belknap, Mary Richardson Died June 2, 1914, Jefferson County, Kentucky, United States Alma mater Sheffield Scientific School | ||
William Richardson Belknap (March 28, 1849 – June 2, 1914), for 28 years was president of the Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company based in Louisville, Kentucky, one of the largest hardware manufacturing companies and wholesale hardware companies of its time.
Biography
William R. Belknap was born in Louisville, the son of William Burke Belknap the elder and Mary Richardson. He graduated from Yale's Sheffield Scientific School in 1869, and in 1873 he spent a year traveling in Europe with his younger brother Morris Burke Belknap. In 1880, following the death of his father, founder of the Belknap company, he became president of the giant hardware enterprise. After his retirement as president of Belknap Hardware, he became the company's Chairman of the Board. He was the brother of Morris B. Belknap and father of William Burke Belknap the younger and Eleanor Silliman Belknap Humphrey.
In 1911 he built his home, Lincliff, hiring two architects of McDonald Brothers, Kenneth McDonald and William J. Dodd, to carry out its design. The Olmsted Brothers were hired by Belknap to create plans for the estate grounds. Lincliff was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
Lincliff is currently owned by mystery writer Sue Grafton and her husband, Stephen F. Humphrey, who have worked on restoration of the building and grounds.
Belknap was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. The William R. Belknap School in the Belknap neighorhood of Louisville was named for him. He was a charter member of the Salmagundi Club and served for three years as its secretary. He was a trustee of Berea College, and the namesake and founder of the William R. Belknap Prizes awarded for excellence in the fields of geology and biology in Yale's Sheffield Scientific School.
In 1898 Belknap lived at 406 Ormsby Avenue, Louisville. and died in Jefferson County, Kentucky. At his death in 1914 after building Lincliff in 1911, his estate was estimated at $3,000,000 to $5,000,000. He is buried in the Belknap family plot at Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville.