Wood's parents were Stephen C. Wood and Mary Crist Wood.[3] Wood is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Bethel.
Wood established his practice in
Poughkeepsie by 1863.[3] The buildings he designed in the area include several on and around the
Vassar College campus. He also did work in Kingston, including the
New York State Armory (1878) and, at the end of his career, the
Stuyvesant Hotel (1910).[3] He also designed the Tremper House by
Mount Tremper (constructed for wholesale grocery businessmen Thomas and Jacob Tremper), one of the earliest railroad resorts in the
Catskill Mountains. It was located by the Phoenicia stop of the
Ulster and Delaware Railroad.[4]
Hotel design became his specialty and Wood achieved a reputation for his architectural style, especially his use of
Moorish Revival style. The Tampa Bay Hotel is his most famous work, a striking five-storied, 511-room building with ornate
Victorian architecture features (sometimes referred to as gingerbread), as well as Moorish architectural features including
minarets,
cupolas, and
domes. The resort was built for
Henry B. Plant, a railroad and shipping tycoon. It is now part of the
University of Tampacampus and is known as Plant Hall. It contains the
Henry B. Plant Museum.
Wood stated his dislike for
Queen Anne style in the Thomasville Times in 1886: "Dear Sir – Please correct the statement in Saturday’s Times that the ‘Piney Woods Hotel is built in the Queen Anne style.’ Neither the Piney Woods nor any other hotel that I have ever designed is in that beastly style, which is at best no style at all."[2]
The summer home of Effingham Brown Sutton in West Islip, New York (ca. 1870)consisted of a mansion and several fine cottages. The main house, Woodruff Sutton cottage, and gate house were razed by railroad magnate Edwin Hawley. The last original building, owned by George Nicholas in later years, was demolished in the 1950s.