Alfred Harral Hopkins (March 14, 1870 – May 5, 1941) was an American architect, an "estate architect" who specialized in country houses and especially in model farms in an invented "vernacular" style suited to the American elite. He was a member of the American Institute of Architects. Family and early life Hopkins was born in Saratoga Springs, New York. His parents were Alfred Hopkins (1836-1884), a captain in the United States Navy, and Mary Elizabeth Penfield (1837-1898). They soon moved to Ohio where his parents gave birth to his brother Walter (b. 1879). Hopkins married Adelaide Spenlove (1894-1865) on June 30, 1915 in London, England. Following their marriage, Hopkins and his bride settled in New York City and had two sons—Alfred Spenlove Hopkins (1916-1995) and Peter Harrel Theodore Hopkins (1918-2004). Career Hopkins studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris followed by several years in Rome completing his knowledge architecture, presumably in the early 1890s. By 1898, he returned to New York City and was practicing as an architect. Early in his career, Hopkins specialized in the design of farming complexes for the American capitalist during the Gilded Age. By 1900, he was designing a new farm group for Frederick W. Vanderbilt in Hyde Park, New York in association with Edward Burnett (1849-1925), an agricultural specialist who earlier developed and managed the farming operations for other members of the Vanderbilt family. Hopkins and Burnett maintained an office at 11 East 24th Street in New York City. Together they designed some of the country's most extraordinary farms, including Foxhollow, the Tracy Dows estate in Rhinebeck, New York, and a farm for Harry J. Fisher in Greenwich, Connecticut. Their collaboration, though not firmly documented during this time, probably resulted in several other farm projects associated with Hopkins New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Their work, particularly Hopkins architectural style, established the standard for farm architecture and influenced an entire generation of architects. In 1913, he severed his association with Burnett and established himself as Alfred Hopkins & Associates located in the Architects Building at 101 Park Avenue in New York City. Hopkins continued specializing in gentlemen's farms, quickly establishing himself as the "dean of farm group architecture," due in no small part to the success of his Modern Farm Buildings, first published in 1913 (dedicated to Edward Burnett) and two subsequent editions (with the Burnett dedication omitted). Hopkins farm groups appeared