Alfred died of typhoid in Philadelphia on August 15, 1873.[4] Sarah later married C. George Currie, a rector of
St. Luke's Church in Philadelphia.[5]
Clarence attended private school in Germany, then
St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. He matriculated at
Yale University's Sheffield Scientific School, where he was a member of the senior S.S.S. Society[6] and graduated with a degree in civil engineering in 1892. Three years later, he earned a B.S. in Architecture at the
University of Pennsylvania. He then spent two years at the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he worked under
Paul Blondel and
Henri Grisors and graduated in 1901.[7]
He returned to Philadelphia, set out his shingle, and soon received his first commission: a building to house the West Philadelphia branch (today, the Walnut Street West branch) of the
Free Library of Philadelphia.[8] By 1905, he and Charles L. Borie, Jr. (a fellow graduate of St. Paul's School) had launched a firm of their own with offices at 251 South 4th Street in Philadelphia. They were joined in 1910 by
Milton Bennett Medary, and the firm was renamed
Zantzinger, Borie & Medary, which specialized in institutional and civic projects.[7]
In 1903, Zantzinger joined the
American Institute of Architects; eight years later, the group made him a
fellow. He served for years on the group's National Committee on Foreign Relations and Education; he also served as president of the Philadelphia chapter. Zantzinger was also a member of the
T-Square Club; he directed its atelier and served on its education committee.[7]
In 1917, Zantzinger became a diplomat: President
Woodrow Wilson appointed him to represent the U.S. on the War Trade Board in Sweden as a member of the U.S. legation in Stockholm.[7]
In 1903, Clarence married Margaret Shippen Buckley (d. Jan. 16, 1958[14]),[10] part of a
prominent Philadelphia family that descended from John Buckley (1664-1732), of Wiltshire, England, who in 1681 became one of the first people to purchase land in the colony of Pennsylvania from
William Penn.[15] She was a daughter of iron manufacturer Edward Swift Buckley[15] and granddaughter of Matthew Brooke Buckley (1794-1856),[16] a president of the
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad from 1842[17] to 1846.[18][19] Matthew was the son of Daniel Buckley (1761-1827), a lawyer and former member of the Assembly of Pennsylvania.[20]
In 1922, Clarence and Margaret lived at "Greenacre", their house at Seminole and Highland Avenues in
Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania.[21]
They had at least four children:
1 Clarence Clark Zantzinger Jr. (1904-1993), who followed his father to St. Paul's, Yale, Penn, and the Ecole des Beaux Arts; then joined Zantzinger, Borie & Medary as a draftsman; and finally struck out on his own as an architect. His firm, Kneedler, Mirick & Zantzinger, "designed office buildings, hospitals, churches, museums, schools and houses in the Philadelphia area," according to his New York Times obituary.[22] He served as director or other corporate officer in several organizations, including the
Fairmount Park Art Association, for which he served as president from 1969 to 1980.[23] He married Mary Amory Cook, a daughter of Navy Vice Admiral Arthur Byron Cook (1881-1952), an early naval aviator.
2 Alfred Zantzinger (1907-1972), who also attended St. Paul's, married Mary Geist in 1937. Alfred worked stints at the
E.W. Clark & Co. financial house, the Philadelphia Suburban Water Company, and as vice-president of the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.[24]
3 Sarah Clark Zantzinger married Harry C. Groome Jr.,[25] who went on to become a senior vice-president of
N. W. Ayer & Son, the country's oldest advertising agency.[26]
4 Mary Vaux Zantzinger (1910-1987), who married John Wister Wurts (1907-1972).[25] Wurts, who lived as a child on Philadelphia's
Portico Row, graduated from
Princeton University in 1931[27] and served in Europe during World War II, winning the
Legion of Merit.[28]
^"Alfred Zantzinger, M.D."Transactions of the 27th Session of the American Institute of Homeopathy. American Institute of Homeopathy: 93. 1875.
Archived from the original on 2023-09-26. Retrieved 2023-09-26.
^"1842 (May 2004 Edition)"(PDF). PRR CHRONOLOGY. The Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society. May 2004.
Archived(PDF) from the original on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
^"1846 (April 2005 Edition)"(PDF). PRR CHRONOLOGY. The Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society. April 2005.
Archived(PDF) from the original on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
^"Philadelphia". Social Register Philadelphia Including Wilmington. 37 (3): 295. November 1922.
Archived from the original on 2023-09-26. Retrieved 2023-09-26.