After the end of the war, the family settled in New York City, but Root remained in England a bit longer, studying drawing at Oxford College and continuing his musical studies. By this time Root had become a talented organist.
His family lost their fortune almost as quickly as it had been gained, and Root's choices for college, when he returned to America, were limited. He enrolled at the University of the City of New York, and earned a degree in civil engineering in 1869. The first in his class, he delivered the commencement speech, but did not plan on a career in civil engineering. Instead he harbored a desire to design buildings. Since there were no graduate training programs in architecture at the time, he apprenticed with James Renwick, the designer of St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue. It was an unpaid internship. After a year Root was able to find a paid post with John Butler Snook, whose Brooklyn firm enjoyed a working relationship with the Vanderbilt family. During Root's tenure at the firm, Snook was completing a commission for New York's Grand Central Station-a building later destroyed to make way for the present one.
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