Charles Follen McKim was a renowned American architect and a founding partner of the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, which was influential in shaping American architecture during the Gilded Age. McKim’s designs emphasized classical elegance and were commissioned by many prominent figures of the era, including those in the Gilder family’s social and cultural circles. Though Charles Follen McKim was not directly connected to Four Brooks Farm by family ties, his work and influence were integral to the aesthetic and cultural environment embraced by Helena de Kay Gilder and Richard Watson Gilder. The artistic and architectural values he championed contributed to the historic atmosphere that surrounds Four Brooks Farm and its preservation today.