From the pedestal supporting the Statue of Liberty, to the façade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to the Biltmore, the largest private home ever built in the United States, Richard Morris Hunt's designs dominated the architectural scene in the second half of the nineteenth century. Hunt, the first American to attend the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, was responsible for popularizing a distinctive style we recognize today as "Châteauesque." Here, in this essay by Ormonde de Kay Jr., is Hunt's surprising and little-told story.