Francis Willford Fitzpatrick (1863-1931), Architect and Artist
DFB: F. W. Fitzpatrick, Consulting Architect
Francis Willford Fitzpatrick was born in Montreal on April 9, 1863, the son of John X. and Mary Razor Fitzpatrick.[1][2] In 1883, he immigrated to the U.S., and in 1884, married Agnes Lanctat of Montreal.[5] His earliest known work was as a draftsman from 1883 to 1886 [6][8][10][a][h] for Leroy S. Buffington in Minneapolis, whose architectural office of thirty draftsmen was the largest in the region.[7]
In 1884 Fitzpatrick was a founding member and secretary of the Architectural League of Minneapolis, an “association of draughtsmen.”[12] From 1888-1889 he worked as a draftsman for the brothers George and Fremont Orff. Fremont Orff had also worked in Buffington’s office.[1][7][8] In 1889, Fitzgerald was also identified as the manager of the Minnesota Decorating Company.[[#References[13]]][b] He relocated to Duluth in 1889 and entered into a seven-year partnership with well-established Oliver Traphagen, collaborating on dozens of commercial, institutional, and residential projects.[15][22][23][25][26]
Fitzpatrick joined the office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury in 1896, serving until 1903. During that time, he was first assistant to Henry Ives Cobb in the supervision of construction of the Chicago Federal Building, as well as working as a freelance draftsman and writing columns for Inland Architect and Building News.[19][ 20] In 1903, he established his own practice in Washington, D.C. as a consulting architect, renderer, and executive officer for the “International Association of Building Inspectors,” with a particular interests in fireproof construction and in writing for several architectural periodicals.[9][39]
His watercolor renderings, typically incorporating vibrant street scenes, were commissioned by architects across the country, especially for competitions.[40][e] Around 1917 he became the head of the architectural department of the Bankers Realty Investment Company, Omaha, Nebraska.[11][14] This connection was short-lived, and by 1920 Francis and Agnes resided in a boardinghouse in Evanston, Illinois.[3] He remained an active author and architectural renderer until his death in Evanston on July 11, 1931.[1][2] He was survived by his widow Agnes, who died in Evanston in 1940.[4]
This page is a contribution to the publication, Place Makers of Nebraska: The Architects. See the Format and contents of Nebraska architect entries page for more information on the compilation and page organization.
Contents
Professional Associations
1883-1886: draftsman, Leroy S. Buffington, Architect, Minneapolis, Minnesota.[6][8][10][a]
1884: founding secretary, Architectural League of Minneapolis, Minnesota.[12]
1888-1889: draftsman, Fremont and George Orff, Architects, Minneapolis, Minnesota.[1][7][8]
1889: manager, Minnesota Decorating Company.[[#References[13]]][b]
1889-1896: partner, Traphagen & Fitzpatrick, Architects, Duluth, Minnesota.[15][22][23][25][26]
1896-1903: renderer and superintendent of construction, Chicago Federal Building, Office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury, Washington, D.C.[19][20]
1896-1905: special contributor, consultant on fireproofing, Inland Architect & News Record.[19][20][33][34][f]
1902-1907: frequent contributor to Fireproof Magazine, Chicago, Illinois; Peter B. Wight, editor.[49]
1903-c. 1916: consulting architect and artist, Washington, D. C.[9]
1904-c. 1914: secretary/executive officer, International Association of Building Inspectors. [9][35][50]
1907-1914: associate editor (concerning fireproof construction), The Architect and Engineer of California.[9]
1915: recommended (editorially) for appointment as Supervising Architect of the Treasury.[53]
1916-1919: head of architectural department, Bankers Realty Investment Company, Omaha, Nebraska.[11][29][30][31][d]
1919-1931: consulting architect, Chicago, Illinois.[3][21][32]
Buildings & Projects
Dated
Assistant/draftsman for West Hotel (1884), Minneapolis, designed by L. S. Buffington.[6][10].
1889-1896
Traphagen and Fitzpatrick, Duluth, Minnesota (1889-1896) .[[#References [26]]]
Fire Station No. 1 (1889), north corner of 1st Avenue E and Third Street, Duluth, Minnesota. [23]
August J. Fitger's Brewery (1890), 600 E Superior Street, Duluth, Minnesota.[23]
Chester Terrace (1890), 1210–1232 E First Street, Duluth, Minnesota. [23][24]
First Presbyterian Church (1891), 300 E Second Street, Duluth, Minnesota. [23][24]
Lyceum Theatre and Office Building (1891), 423-431 West Superior Street, Duluth, Minnesota.[[#References [24][25]]]
Munger Terrace Residences (1891-1892), 405 Mesabi Ave, Duluth, Minnesota.[23][24]
Oliver G. Traphagen House (1892), 1511 E Superior St, Duluth, Minnesota.[23][24]
Torrey Building (1893), 314-316 W Superior Street, Duluth, Minnesota.[15][16][23][24]
Duluth Board of Trade (1894-1895), 301 W First Street, Duluth, Minnesota.[23][24]
Project for Minnesota State Capitol (1895).[17][37]
1896-1903
First assistant to Henry Ives Cobb, “special architect” for Chicago Federal Building, Office of Supervising Architect of the Treasury, Washington, DC (1896-1903) .
Chicago Federal Building (1896-1903), Dearborn and Adams Streets, Chicago, Illinois. [19][27][28][36][c]
1903-ca. 1916
Francis W. Fitzgerald, Consulting Architect, Washington, D.C. (1903-ca. 1916) .
Pittsburg Plate Glass Company Warehouse (1904), Cincinnati, Ohio.[48]
ca. 1916-1919
Head of Architectural Department, Bankers Realty Investment Company, Omaha, Nebraska (ca. 1916-1919) .
Blackstone Hotel (1916), 302 S 36th, Omaha, Nebraska.[14][43] (DO09:0319-006)
St. Regis Apartments (1916), 617 S 37th, Omaha, Nebraska.[14][47] (DO09:0317-013)
Yancey Hotel (1917-1923), 123 N Locust, Grand Island, Nebraska.[14][44] (HL06-014)
North American Hotel Company Hotel (1918), Eldorado, Kansas.[46]
Design for a Bank Building (1918), Omaha, Nebraska.[14]
Masonic Temple (ca. 1918), 107 S Broadway, Riverton, Wyoming.[14]
1920-1931
F. W. Fitzpatrick, Consulting Architect, Chicago, Illinois (1920-1931) .
Johnston Memorial Hall (1921), Wallace, Nebraska.[45]
Visual Arts
Rendering of Chicago Federal Building (1896).[27]
Rendering of U. S. Courthouse (1898), St. Paul, Minnesota.[18]
Watercolor rendering for George A. Berlinghof (1858-1944), Architect, Nebraska State Historical Society Building (1909), Lincoln, Nebraska.[55]
Rendering of “long span arch” bridge (1911).[56]
Rendering for Walter Parker, “Design for a Bank and Office Building” (1911).[57]
Rendering for W. D. Shea, “Birdseye View of the New Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, Cal.” (1911).[58]
Watercolor rendering for Berlinghof & Davis, Architects, Lincoln High School (1912), Lincoln, Nebraska.[55]
Watercolor rendering for Berlinghof & Davis, Architects, Lincoln Commercial Club (1912), Lincoln, Nebraska. ***
Watercolor rendering for Berlinghof & Davis, Architects, Howard County Courthouse (1912), St. Paul, Nebraska.[55]
Watercolor rendering for Berlinghof & Davis, Architects, Miller & Paine Department Store (1914), Lincoln, Nebraska. ***
Watercolor rendering for Berlinghof & Davis, Architects, McCloud Hotel competition (1916), York, Nebraska.[55]
Watercolor rendering for Berlinghof & Davis, Architects, Yavapai County Courthouse competition (ca. 1916), Prescott, Arizona.[55]
Watercolor rendering for George A. Berlinghof (1858-1944), Architect, proposal for Schuyler Presbyterian Church (1923), Schuyler, Nebraska.[55]
Watercolor rendering for George A. Berlinghof (1858-1944), Architect, proposal for a twelve-story office building (ca. 1925), southeast corner of 12th & N Streets, Lincoln, Nebraska.[55]
Watercolor rendering for George A. Berlinghof (1858-1944), Architect, proposal for an apartment building (1925), perhaps for 21st and Washington Streets, Lincoln, Nebraska.[55]
Rendering for Layton, Hicks & Forsyth, architects, Telephone Building (published 1927), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.[54]
Rendering “A Study in Masses of the Willoughby Tower,” Samuel N. Crown Assocs., architects (published 1927), Chicago, Illinois.[54].
Rendering for Paul Managhan, architect, “Roman Catholic Girls College, Philadelphia” (published 1927).[54].
Rendering for C. L. Monnat, architect, (Basilica of the Little Flower) “Roman Catholic Church and Schools at San Antonio, Texas” (published 1927).[54]
Undated Artistic Works
Watercolor rendering for Berlinghof & Davis, Architects, proposal for Nebraska State University, farm campus, Lincoln, Nebraska.[55]
Watercolor rendering for Berlinghof & Davis, Architects, proposal for Nebraska State University, city campus, Lincoln, Nebraska.[55]
Watercolor rendering, for Berlinghof & Davis, Architects, proposal for University Place High School, University Place, Nebraska.[55]
Watercolor rendering for Berlinghof & Davis, Architects, proposal for a school building (no location).[55]
Writings
Fitzpatrick, F. W., “The Architectural League of Minneapolis,” American Architect & Building News (February 16, 1884): 81; letter (as Secretary of the League) to editor, announcing formation of “association of draughtsmen,” including classes of membership and purposes of organization.
_____________,“Architectural Journals,” American Architect & Building News (January 8, 1888): 11; letter to editor, asking assistance as “a student” for names of architectural publications in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Russia.
“Traphagen & Fitzpatrick, Architects,” Duluth News Tribute (January 1, 1896); advertisement listing 24 buildings by “this Pioneer Firm of Architects in Duluth.”
Fitzpartrick, F. W.,“A Rambler,” Inland Architect and News Record (March, 1896): 15-17; inaugural column, with the Fitzpatrick byline.
_____________, “A Rambler,” Inland Architect and News Record (May, 1896): 36-37; sharing this issue with Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan.
_____________, “A Rambler,” Inland Architect and News Record (October, 1896): 20-22.
_____________, “An Improved Skeleton Construction,” American Architect and Building News (January 16, 1897): 24; letter to the editor regarding the Torrey Building in Duluth..
_____________, “A Rambler: The National Library,” Inland Architect and News Record (March, 1897): 14-16, illus.
_____________, “A Rambler,” Inland Architect and News Record (August, 1898): 2-8, illus.; on Washington, D.C.’s governmental buildings.
_____________, “A Rambler,” Inland Architect and News Record (September, 1898): 12; on Washington, D.C.’s residential architecture.
_____________, “Not Chicago Construction,” Washington Evening Star (September 23, 1898): 12; letter to the editor decrying description of brick and wood building that recently burned (“Robinson & Chery fire”) as “Chicago construction.” Fitzpatrick followed with description of “thin veneer-brick outer walls, supported upon steel framing, columns and beams of steel, floors and partitions of burnt clay tiles and every bit of steel thoroughly covered with fire clay; such, and such only, nothing less, is ‘Chicago construction.’”
_____________, “The Modern Woman and Domestic Architecture,” Inland Architect and News Record (February, 1899): 2-3.
_____________, “French Canadian Liberalism,” The Arena XXIII: 2 (August, 1899): 150-165; lengthy article on Canadian politics, esp. on Wilfrid Laurier, signed F. W. Fitzpatrick, Washington, D.C. Online: http://archive.org/stream/ArenaMagazine-Volume22/189907-arena-volume22#page/n155/mode/2up Accessed 3/19/13.[g]
_____________, “The New York Customhouse Competition,” Inland Architect and News Record (November, 1899): 28-29.
“Recognition for Architects, From the Chicago Record,” The Washington Post (November 20, 1899): 6; citing article entitled “An Architect’s Plaint,” by F. W. Fitzpatrick, “in the current issue of the Self-Culture magazine,” “points out that while architects in return for their labors may receive substantial rewards in the form of cash payments, they generally fail to get the recognition which is their due as artists.”
Fitzpatrick, F. W., “The Department of Justice: More about the scheme to locate future government buildings,” The Washington Post (January 22, 1900): 10; long column defending Supervising Architect Taylor’s criticism of planned site for Dept. of Justice building and offering suggestions on Washington D. C. urban planning.
_____________, (as “A Rambler”), “Historic Houses [of Washington, D. C.],” Inland Architect and News Record (August, 1900): 3-5; largely drawn from and credited to the Washington Star, illus.
_____________, “A States’ Building at Washington,” Inland Architect and News Record (September, 1900): 10-12; illustrated with elevation and interior perspectives. Article is reported and quoted at length in The Washington Post (March 10,1901): 13, as “Structure for the States, Architect Fitzpatrick’s Plan for a Grand Building in Washington.” Fitzpatrick quoted his own article at length in a letter to The Washington Post ( December 9, 1904): 12, however he cited it as “an article written by me for the Inland Architect in 1898.”
_____________, “Canadians and annexation,” The Washington Post (April 27, 1902): 19; addressing common misconception that Canadians must be “most anxious for annexation to us,” especially by quoting advocates of an independent French nation in Canada.
_____________, Assistant Architect, U. S. Building at Chicago, “The Chicago Federal Building,” Fireproof Magazine 1: 3 (September, 1902): 12-18; illustrated with photos and watercolor sketches of interior finishes. Fitzpatrick’s first appearance in magazine, 3rd month of publication.
_____________, “At Random,” Fireproof Magazine 1: 4 (October, 1902): 15-17; outlining educational and advocacy purpose of magazine.
_____________, “Here and there,” Fireproof Magazine 1: 5 (November, 1902): 19-21; arguing for building and fire codes, noting “We have a powerful ally at hand—Necessity. We have ruthlessly devastated our forests, believing our timber supply to be inexhaustible. We went through it ‘like very rakes, dissipating our substance, sowing to the wind,’ and to-day we are confronted with a demand far ahead of our means of meeting it.”
_____________, “Scraps,” Fireproof Magazine 1: 6 (December, 1902): 29-32; begins with saucy recounting of recent fires, nationwide.
_____________, “Says architects must lie: Protest against conditions of competition such as for Municipal Building,” The Washington Post (December 22, 1902): 10; letter to the editor criticizing architectural competitions in general, and the competition for the Washington municipal building in particular, as the combination of budget and square footage stipulated “could only build a vary plain, barn-like structure.”
_____________, “Labor and Hawaii: Conditions vastly different there from those in this country,” The Washington Post (December 29, 1902): 10; letter to the editor commenting on recent editorial and discussing unsuitability of various ethnic groups to “supplant the coolie laborer,” especially on sugar plantations.
_____________, “Comparative cost—fireproof building vs. building not fireproofed,” Fireproof Magazine 2: 3 (March, 1903): 24-27; detailed cost figures from several buildings, rendered into Fitzpatrick’s preferred estimating method of price per cubic foot.
_____________, “Whittlings,” Fireproof Magazine 2: 4 (April, 1903): 31-34; arguing that fireproof commercial construction is more profitable, even if slightly more expensive, considering lower insurance rates, lesser repairs, etc. Includes sketches of traditional fire-prone factory and model fireproof factory, and detail of fireproofing timber construction (when steel is not available).
_____________, “Whittlings,” Fireproof Magazine 2: 5 (May, 1903): 28-31.
_____________, “Whittlings,” Fireproof Magazine 2: 6 (June, 1903): 19-21; reporting on gathering bids for fireproof vs. ordinary construction from several cities.
_____________, “Whittlings,” Fireproof Magazine 3: 1 (July, 1903): 39-42; reporting again on fireproofing of Chicago Federal Building, etc.
_____________, “Whittlings,” Fireproof Magazine 3: 2 (August, 1903): 13-15; mentions Harvey Ellis watercolor rendering for Buffington of 25-story, steel-frame building, and subsequent patent suits. “Twenty years ago I had charge of Architect Buffington’s office in Minneapolis. Times were flush and the office was doing, for those days, an enormous business.”
_____________, “American Architecture,” Inland Architect and News Record (August, 1903): 2-4; illustrated, scathing critique of most of the buildings, as well as the overall layout, of the St. Louis Exposition.[38]
_____________, “Whittlings,” Fireproof Magazine 3: 3 (September, 1903): 21-24; condemnation of automatic sprinklers and slab-concrete construction, etc. _____________, “Whittlings,” Fireproof Magazine 3: 4 (October, 1903): 16-19; statistics on fire losses, etc.
_____________, “Whittlings,” Fireproof Magazine 3: 5 (November, 1903): 37-40.
_____________, “Fireproof Column Coverings,” Fireproof Magazine 3: 6 (December, 1903): 19-22; detailed description and drawings of fireproofing and rust-proofing of columns for Chicago Federal Building.
_____________, “Whittlings,” Fireproof Magazine 4:1 (January, 1904): 50-51; advocating against wooden construction of residences and concrete construction of apartment houses in Washington.
_____________, “Whittlings,” Fireproof Magazine 4: 2 (February, 1904): 47-52; notes on a tour of southern cities, and responses to criticisms of his comments on construction in Washington, D. C.
_____________, “Lessons of the Baltimore Fire,” Fireproof Magazine 4: 3 (March, 1904): 35-59; extensively illus., major article in issue devoted to devastating fire of Feb. 7, 1904. Fitzpatrick begins article with mention of Hinkley Fire in Minnesota ten years before, “a combination of forest fire and cyclone,” of which he was in a relief party “and never shall I forget the scene of utter desolation that unfolded itself before us that night.” Online: http://epfl.mdch.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/mdbf/id/931/rec/7 Acessed February 25, 2013.
_____________, “Architecture with the Laity,” Inland Architect and News Record (May, 1904): 26; urging architectural education for children, or at least schooling them in buildings of good taste: “…how long does it take our little maidens to know what is becoming, even what is stylish, in dress and colors? And how old does a boy grow before he knows that tan shoes and a green necktie are not worn with evening dress. Yet much of our architecture is on the tan-shoe-and-green-necktie order…”
_____________, “Postal Savings Bank: Benefit that, it is declared, would result from it,” The Washington Post (June 19, 1904): A2; advocating for legislation that would authorize post offices to be branches of saving bank, with “Postal Insurance Its Natural Outgrowth.”
_____________, “Evolution of building methods,” Fireproof Magazine 5: 1 (July, 1904): 55-56; reminiscences about the evolution of steel construction and the skyscraper, while describing a consulting visit to a burned building.
_____________, “Justice,” The Monist 14: 4 (July, 1904): 541-561. Online: http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/27899507.pdf?acceptTC=true Accessed March 19, 2013.
_____________, “Retrospective and prophecy,” Fireproof Magazine 5: 2 (August, 1904): 60-64; decries greed blocking implementation of known safe building techniques, costing lives as well as buildings, opines that only catastrophe will bring change.
_____________, “Jottings about municipal art commissions, combustible government buildings, frenzied technical journalism and engineers’ opinions of concrete fireproofing,” Fireproof Magazine 5: 5 (November, 1904): 35-39.
_____________, “A lost art: A tale of Old Egypt,” Fireproof Magazine 5: 6 (December, 1904): 7-13; story, with illustrations by author “taken from fragments of Egyptian pottery, carvings upon recently discovered tombs, drawings upon leather found in these tombs and other such authentic sources, while the story is woven from some exceedingly valuable fragmentary inscriptions on papyrus lately unearthed by Professor Stanislas Boboff Kcirtapstif.”
_____________, “A Chat anent things pertinent, wise and otherwise,” Fireproof Magazine 6: 1 (January, 1905): 27-31; including criticism of concrete construction, and of concrete journal for referring to President Roosevelt as “Teddy,” and of insurance industry, while praising American fire departments.
_____________, “Mecca, the holy city,” Fireproof Magazine 6: 1 (January, 1905): 49-56; illustrated by Fitzpatrick, highly disrespectful account of pilgrimages to Mecca, epidemic risks posed thereby, etc.
_____________, “A Chat with the Ladies,” Fireproof Magazine 6: 2 (February, 1905): 86-100; arguing for building fireproof homes.
_____________, A Chat with the Ladies about House Building, booklet; “Reprinted from Fireproof Magazine (February, 1905).”
_____________, “A Chat with Business Men,” Fireproof Magazine 6: 3 (March, 1905): 150-156; urging fireproof construction in excess of insurance industry requirements, arguing that buildings which cannot burn do not need to be insured. “As an executive officer of the International Society of State and Municipal Building Commissioners, one of whose main efforts is the improving of building methods and the adoption of more thoroughly fire-resisting construction the world over, I find, paradoxical as it may seem, that one of the greatest drawbacks to really first-class construction is the regulations anent construction adopted by the insurance people, well-meant regulations, undoubtedly, but generally misunderstood by even by astute business men. These regulations, which, after all, simply cover the risk the insurance people are willing to take, are generally believed to be descriptive of the most perfect building ingenuity can devise. The result is that when you suggest absolutely fireproof construction to cities or individuals you are confronted with the everlasting underwriters’ regulations which permit of this, that and the other thing that are far from fulfilling the ideal conditions, but beyond which people do not feel compelled to go.”
_____________, “Beautifying the Nation’s Capital,” Inland Architect and News Record (March, 1905): 10-16, illus.
_____________, “A Chat with Business Men (Concluded),” Fireproof Magazine 6: 4 (April, 1905): 173-177; describes fundamentals of fireproof construction; also, “Our Fire Bill a Million and a half a day,” pp. 209-211.
_____________, “Architects and Architects,” Inland Architect and News Record (April, 1905): 23-26; on the sorry state of the architectural profession, and critique of Washington, D. C. buildings, with photos.
_____________, “Chicago,” Inland Architect and News Record (May, 1905): 46-48.
_____________, “A word about high-service waterworks,” Fireproof Magazine 6: 5 (May, 1905): 239-241; arguing against sprinklers for poorly built structures that are beyond protection.
_____________, “Our annual ash-heap,” American Architect and Building News 89 (May 5, 1906): 151-152.
_____________, “Regulating fire risks by taxation,” Fireproof Magazine 6: 6 (June, 1905): 277-279; also “Random Notes,” pp.282-283, advocating asbestos products for interior finishes.
_____________, “Ramblings among architects, fire protection conventions, lawyers and editors, with good advice to all,” Fireproof Magazine 7: 2 (August, 1905): 63-67.
_____________, “More Ramblings,” Fireproof Magazine 7: 3 (September, 1905): 109-112.
_____________, “Taxes Upon Buildings,” American Architect and Building News 88 (September 23, 1905): 100; Extracts from a paper by Mr. F. W. Fitzpatrick, Secretary of the International Society of Building Commissions, read before the Convention of the American Society of Municipal Improvement, at Montreal, P. Q.
_____________, “Jottings about fires as misdemeanors—inconsistent editors—Washington architecture, and prospects for fireproofing in the Far East,” Fireproof Magazine 7: 4 (October, 1905): 143-147.
_____________, “Chicago’s Federal Building,” Inland Architect and News Record (October, 1905): 18-20, illus.
_____________, “Further Ramblings,” Fireproof Magazine 7: 5 (November, 1905): 189-191.
_____________, “State Fire Protection,” Inland Architect and News Record (November, 1905): 45-47; with proposed fire code legislation.
_____________, “Plea for the enactment of state building laws,” Fireproof Magazine 7: 6 (December, 1905): 233-236; including model law.
_____________, “Revise tax system: Sliding scale of rates on buildings is urged,” The Washington Post (May 13, 1906): 16; urging incentives for fireproof buildings of artistic merit, points to Paris as example.
Note: Volume 8 of Fireproof Magazine, January-June 1906, has not yet been seen and abstracted for this resume.
____________, “The San Francisco Calamity: Report of investigations made by F. W. Fitzpatrick, Executive Officer of the International Society of Building Commissioners, on behalf of that society, the United States government, many technical journals, etc.,” Fireproof Magazine 9: 1 (July, 1906): 13-53; concluded in 9: 2 (August, 1906): 67-83; extensively illustrated with before and after photographs of general views and specific buildings, detailed interior photos of many buildings, discussion of condition and fireproofing methods of approximately fifty buildings, concludes with lengthy recommendations on “perfect fireproofing of buildings.”
_____________, “Noted architect points way to city beautiful: F. W. Fitzpatrick says Washington is getting to be as boxy, as monotonously ugly as Baltimore and Philadelphia—He advocates a more open system of building,” The Washington Post (July 22, 1906): F9; arguing against row houses and for detached houses.
_____________, “How to save millions by preventing fires,” The Washington Post (August 5, 1906): E2.
_____________, “Tear down the barriers, Build up greater city,” The Washington Post (August 19, 1906): E2; identifying Fitzpatrick as “Secretary of International Society of State and Municipal Building Commissioners and Inspectors, urging commercial and industrial development of Washington.
_____________, “His monthly chat,” Fireproof Magazine 9: 4 (October, 1906): 148-152; responding to criticisms of his San Francisco reports. _____________, “Critic of the Capital: Says Washington buildings are disappointing,” The Washington Post (October 14, 1906): R6; criticizing quality of private buildings of the national capital.
_____________, “Make City Beautiful: Washington could be Paris of America, architect says,” The Washington Post (October 21, 1906): R5; praises Congressional control of Washington, D.C., advocates for favorable tax and insurance rates for fireproof buildings, prizes for best designs for buildings.
_____________, “November leaves,” Fireproof Magazine 9: 5 (November, 1906): 198-201.
_____________, “Home for the States: Mammoth building suggested here in Washington,” The Washington Post (November 4, 1906): R5; reviving his idea of a building with offices for each state to assist visitors.
_____________, “Fire-Insurance Evils: System in vogue encourages cheap construction,” The Washington Post (November 11, 1906): RE6; lengthy article arguing that insurance rates encourage cheap construction by not sufficiently reducing rates for fireproof buildings; recommends lower taxation on fireproof structures.
_____________, “Builders should pay: Plan to make them employ licensed superintendents,” The Washington Post (November 18, 1906): R6; lengthy article advocating licensing of construction superintendents and requiring that builders employ them on construction sites.
_____________, “December gleanings,” Fireproof Magazine 9: 6 (December, 1906): 241-247.
_____________, “Better Homes Needed: Flimsy Construction used in Washington,” The Washington Post (December 2, 1906): R6; lengthy article on need for fireproof houses. Online: http://books.google.com/books?id=tohIAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA195&lpg=PA195&dq=%22international+Society+of+Building+inspectors%22&source=bl&ots=ETviilsb1U&sig=8dcNGZrScfAdniwJ8sxYe7ivoFw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=03QgUabRKOrQ0wG91YCoDA&ved=0CEcQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=%22international%20Society%20of%20Building%20inspectors%22&f=false Accessed April 29, 2013.
_____________, “Improvements in Building Construction from the point of view of Fire protection,” in Official proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual convention of the American Society of Municipal Improvements (1907): 195-203; author is listed as the Executive Officer of the International Society of Building Inspectors. Online: http://books.google.com/books?id=tohIAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22international+Society+of+Building+inspectors%22&q=fitzpatrick#v=snippet&q=fitzpatrick&f=false Accessed April 29, 2013.
_____________, “January ruminations,” Fireproof Magazine 10: 1 (January, 1907): 12-18.
_____________, “The year’s retrospect,” Fireproof Magazine 10:2 (February, 1907): 66-73.
_____________, “Here and there and everywhere,” Fireproof Magazine 10:3 (March, 1907): 90-95.
_____________, “One year after the San Francisco conflagration,” Fireproof Magazine 10: 4 (April, 1907): 138-143.
_____________, “The confessions of an architectural reformer,” Fireproof Magazine 10: 5 (May, 1907): 188-192; decries reinforced concrete as false fireproofing, describes instance of rigged architectural competition, etc.
_____________, “Fire Prevention” Metropolitan Magazine 26:11 (May, 1907): 149-158, illustrated with photos. Article is reported in The Washington Post (April 14, 1907): R2. Online: http://books.google.com/books?id=YnvNAAAAMAAJ&q=Fitzpatrick#v=snippet&q=Fitzpatrick&f=false Accessed April 12, 2013.
_____________, “The morale of the architectural profession,” Fireproof Magazine 10: 6 (June, 1907): 225-230; discussing Pennsylvania Capitol graft scandal, states “I did have something to do with the building at its very inception,” presumably during his association with Henry Ives Cobb, whose design of 1897 was partially constructed; discusses problems with architectural competitions, citing instance in which he was asked “to look over the plans in order to collect the best ideas there illustrated by the different competitors, condense them and put them into shape to be handed to the architect who has already been selected to do the work, but is not much of a designer!”
_____________, “In a Critical Vein,” Fireproof Magazine 11:1 (July, 1907): 30-34.
_____________, “The taxation problem and others,” Fireproof Magazine 11:2 (August, 1907): 65-70; advocating higher taxes on combustible buildings; also urging a national “Secretary of Fine Arts.” See also “Mr. Fitzpatrick before a foreign audience,” pp. 71-72, quoting at length from FWF article in The Engineer, (London), of Dec. 28, 1906.
_____________, “The Origination of the Steel Skeleton Idea,” The Architect and Engineer of California (August, 1907): 45-46; account of his work for Buffington, debunking latter’s claim of invention of skyscraper.
_____________, “Architecture: Some Wholesome Criticism that Should Benefit the Profession,” The Architect and Engineer of California (September, 1907): 35-43, illustrated.
_____________, “Random Shots and Philosophic Cogitation,” Fireproof Magazine 11:3 September, 1907 106-113.
_____________, “About Building Departments—The rebuilding of San Francisco and the government report,” Fireproof Magazine 11:4 (October, 1907): 141-145; especially addressing concerns about reinforced concrete construction and the danger of collapse during construction.
_____________, “Another view of the skyscraper question—Also other reflections,” Fireproof Magazine 11:5 (November, 1907): 194-198; advocating building codes and inspections; “The Fire Chiefs’ Late Convention, from our Washington Correspondent [F. W. Fitzpatrick],” pp. 198-200.
_____________, “Muckrakers—broken idols—bad economies—foreign criticisms of American skyscrapers,” Fireproof Magazine 11:6 (December, 1907): 233-238; final edition of magazine.
_____________, “Shoddiness of American building construction,” The Architectural Record 23 (January, 1908): 52-54. “The Great Fire Tax,” The Washington Post (March 5, 1908): 9; cites Fitzpatrick in estimating annual cost of fires in U.S. as $500,000,000.
_____________, “The paucity of ideas in American architecture,” The Architectural Record 24 (November, 1908): 395-396.
_____________, “What fires cost us,” The Washington Post (November 8, 1908): SM9; citing “F. W. Fitzpatrick, in McClure’s Magazine.” “Cites Heavy Fire Tax: Expert says outlay in Country is $600,000,000 a year,” The Washington Post (November 22, 1908): R6; article consists almost entirely of quotation from Fitzpatrick.
_____________, “Style,” The Western Architect 13 (1909): 31.
“The Senseless Fire Waste,” The Washington Post (November 22, 1909): 6; cites facts and quotes from “an article recently published by F. W. Fitzpatrick, of this city, in a current magazine.”
“For Better Buildings: Municipal authorities asked to increase inspectors’ pay,” The Washington Post (March 20, 1910): R1; reports on an effort by “International Society of State and Municipal Building Commissioners and Inspectors” to urge cities to attract “best men” to building inspection by increasing salaries; mentions and quotes from letter sent by Fitzpatrick to “the mayor of every important city in the country.”
Fitzpatrick, F. W., “Fifty Years from Now in the Pathfinder,” The Architect and Engineer of California (July, 1910): 26. Satirical column looking 50 years forward. Online: http://books.google.com/books?id=0WtDAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA2-PA76&dq=F.+W.+Fitzgerald+Western+Architect&hl=en&sa=X&ei=vasnUd3VM6qK2QX2rICQDA&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=F.%20W.%20Fitzgerald%20Western%20Architect&f=false Accessed February 22, 2013.
_____________, “Statues an Eyesore: Washington’s shafts too numerous, says contractor” The Washington Post (September 24, 1911): E7; based on article in “American Contractor” discussing and criticizing plans of art commission for neo-classical Lincoln memorial, preferring a memorial highway or memorial in the form of a permanent exhibition and office building for states.
_____________, “School System Assailed: Radical reform is urged, F. W. Fitzpatrick, of Washington, writes magazine article calling average product ‘a lot of superficial, cigarette-smoking, frivolous youngsters,’” The Washington Post (October 29, 1911): S14; based on article in “Life and Science” arguing against emphasis on high school for most students, who will leave school after 8th grade.
_____________, “Advocates Spanish Lessons: F. W. Fitzpatrick against French and German in public Schools,” The Washington Post (February 26, 1912): 12; letter to the editor, advocating “…that, everything considered, Spanish is by all odds the most useful language any of us can acquire.”
_____________, “The ‘Tarnsey’ Act,” The Architect and Engineer of California (July, 1912): 114-115.
“A Word of Praise for Architect Fitzpatrick,” editorial regarding progress in fireproofing, The Architect and Engineer of California (September, 1912): 114-115.
Fitzpatrick, F. W., “For Proposed Rule: Barring unlicensed architects and builders,” The Washington Star (December 20, 1912): 16; letter to editor in which “F. W. Fitzpatrick Pleads for Raising Standard of Construction—Artistic Appearance of Streets.”
_____________, Building Code: A compilation of building regulations covering every phase of municipal building activity with special emphasis on fire prevention features. Chicago: American School of Correspondence, 1913 (illus., 149 pp.). (Title page lists F. W. Fitzpatrick as “Consulting Architect [Formerly of U. S. Service], Executive Officer, International Society of State and Municipal Building Commissioners and Inspectors, etc.”)
_____________, “NO!” The Washington Star Sunday Magazine (February 18, 1912): 13; humorous story.
_____________, “Unaccountable,” The Western Architect (March, 1913).
_____________, “Modern Jury Trials unlike those when neighbors ‘Sat as Peers’: Present-day system of selection and conduct of trials compared with original forms followed in old English law,” The Washington Post (August 24, 1913): ES8; colorfully decrying the status, treatment, pay, and intelligence of typical juries.
_____________, “The Thrall of the Axis,” The Architect and Engineer of California (April, 1914): 91.
_____________, “Just a Kick,” The Architect and Engineer of California (May, 1914): 87.
_____________, “Fire prevention again,” Architect and Engineer 36 (1914): 101-103.
_____________, “Union Station Effigies: Writer pokes fun at statues, asks about awning,” The Washington Star (August 21, 1914): 19; letter to the editor.
“If Everybody Paid, Times Wouldn’t Be Half Bad,” The Architect and Engineer of California (October, 1914): 112-113; editorial quoting extensively from F. W. Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick, F. W., “Too Much Classic,” The Architect and Engineer of California (October, 1914): 75-78; with portrait.
_____________, “The High Cost of Incompetence,” The Architect and Engineer of California 40:1 (January, 1915): 105-106; preamble to article of same name by S. Kruse, builder and owner of Hotel Radisson, Minneapolis. Fitzpatrick urges architects to attend to the practical and financial interests of clients, so as to avoid remedy recommended by Kruse, that owners contract directly with construction firms, which would employ designers.
_____________, “A Uniform Building Code,” The Architect and Engineer of California 40:2 (February, 1915): 80-82.
_____________, “Marine Safety,” The Architect and Engineer of California 41: 2 (May, 1915): 86-87; suggestions on built-in buoyant compartments for unsinkable construction of ships.
_____________, “Unburnable schools,” The Architect 10 (1915): 136.
_____________, “Urges covered way at Union Station to shelter public,” The Washington Post (August 2, 1915): 5; letter to the editor, “The President and those who ride in limousines, chaises and Fords are amply protected in the carriage concourse, but the poor folks, the masses, we of the proletariat, still have to trudge through mud and rain.”.
_____________, “Patriotism and Street Cars,” The Washington Star (April 25, 1916): 7; letter to the editor, notes signs on streetcars urging “able-bodied men to move to the front,” draws parallel to similar pleas resulting in needless wars.
_____________, “Mid-West Building Activities,” The Architect and Engineer of California (March, 1918): 91-98, illus.; an account of Bankers Realty Investment Company.
_____________, “Farms for Soldiers,” The Architect and Engineer of California (October, 1918): 107.
_____________, “World’s Peace Capital,” The Architect and Engineer of California 55 (December, 1918): 49-52, 2 paged pl., plan. See also “Is Coming to promote ‘World Capital’ idea: Hendrick C. Anderson [sic] to popularize project for peace headquarters to follow war,” The Washington Star (October 11, 1917): 10, mentioning that F. W. Fitzpatrick, architect employed in Omaha, was U. S. Commissioner of Andersen’s World Conscience Society.
_____________, “Ice Palaces,” The Architect and Engineer of California (August, 1919): 79-81; reminiscence about 1880s winter fun in Minneapolis.
_____________, “Cutting Steps in the Skyscraper,” The Architect and Engineer of California (October, 1920): 93-96.
_____________, “A Sermonette,” The Architect and Engineer of California (November, 1920): 80-81.
_____________, “Scheme to Tunnel San Francisco Bay,” The Architect and Engineer of California (December, 1920): 93-96.
_____________, “Fifty years of architectural evolution,” American Architect 134: 2553 (September 20, 1928): 357-360, illustrated with four Fitzpatrick renderings of 1927 Telephone Building, Oklahoma City, Layton, Hicks & Forsyth, architects; “A Study in Masses of the Willoughby Tower, Chicago,” Samuel N. Crown & Assocs., architects; “Roman Catholic Girls College, Philadelphia,” Paul Managhan, architect; “Roman Catholic Church and Schools at San Antonio, Texas,” C. L. Monnat, architect (Basilica of the Little Flower).
Notes
a. Fitzpatrick weighed in on the controversy regarding Buffington’s patent of a “cloudscraper,” and subsequent suits against skyscraper architects, in a 1907 edition of The Architect and Engineer of California [10, stating he was hired by Buffington “as a designer” in 1883 and severed connection with him in 1886. Fitzpatrick was 20-years old in 1883. He claimed “Previous to that time I had had a lot to do with high church towers…” and so offered Buffington some ideas on metal-reinforced tall construction “but was pooh-poohed for my pains….” Most sources date Fitzpatrick’s association with Buffington between 1884 and 1887.
An article in The Washington Post of August 19, 1912, p. 7, “Cure for Fire Peril: F. W. Fitzpatrick the Pioneer of Modern Fireproofing; His work begins to tell,” cited as originally published in The Chicago Evening Post, states that Fitzpatrick’s early training was in military engineering, an assertion not found elsewhere. The same article describes him as “an architect of wide renown... as well known in Europe and in Canada as he is in this country as one of the great authorities on construction. Many contend that the inception, the invention of the steel frame, the ‘skyscraper’ construction, was his…At the same time he ranks as one of the best and most artistic designers in the land—a rare combination.”
b. An 1889 account of the construction and outfitting of the Dacotah Hotel in Grand Forks, North Dakota, identifies the architects as Henry G. Carter and W. B. Dunnell of St. Paul, “with Architect Ross of this city [Grand Forks]. “The decorations have been designed by F. W. Fitzpatrick, the manager of the above [Minnesota Decorating] company, and most of the work has been done under his personal supervision.”[13].
c. Inland Architect [19] includes lengthy description and illustration of special invitations designed and prepared by Fitzpatrick to the cornerstone ceremony for the Chicago Post Office, one of which was presented to President McKinley. The magazine describes Fitzpatrick as “its representative in Washington…the assistant architect of the Treasury Department, in charge of the Chicago building, under Architect Henry Ives Cobb.” It is also noted “Our readers must be familiar with Mr. Fitzpatrick’s designs, his illustrations and his models in clay that we have so often reproduced upon our pages; they are familiar with his very clever, breezy and interesting ‘Rambles’ with a pen in our columns, as well as the more serious matter of his in so many of our popular magazines….” The project began in 1895 and was completed in 1905.
The cornerstone laying in 1899 was celebrated by Inland Architect for President McKinley’s participation, calling the building “the first government structure designed by an architect in private practice….”[36] This was Henry Ives Cobb, while Fitzpatrick was called “his responsible assistant.” Fitzpatrick’s involvement probably was confined to his years with the Supervising Architect’s office.[[#References [24]]]
d) The Architect and Engineer of California [14] published an exuberant account by Fitzpatrick of Bankers Realty Investment Company in 1918, describing a vertically integrated group of businesses to design, construct, and operate buildings, especially hotels. The article is complete with seven photos of the company’s Blackstone Hotel in Omaha and Fitzpatrick watercolor renderings of five other Midwestern projects. He concluded “With the architectural end of the work in competent hands [his own], its construction, engineering, purchasing and general office details likewise directed by experts, the Bankers Realty Investment Company would seem to be assured so phenomenal a success that it must soon outgrow its present field of activity, the Middle West, for it is equipped to do construction along National lines.”
E. F. Morearty of Omaha agreed in his description of the company in 1917, tracing its origins to 1912 in Omaha.[29] He wrote, “Ten professions and forty-six trades are ordinarily required in carrying out a building enterprise of any magnitude. And, ordinarily, these numerous factors work independently of each other, to the detriment of efficient and satisfactory results. The Bankers Realty Investment Company has welded together everything incident to the construction of any building, from a simple home to a huge business enterprise.” Morearty bemoaned that he had not purchased stock in the company and recommended its purchase even “at its present advanced price….” The Nebraska State Railway Commission did not agree, denying an application of the subsidiary North American Hotel Company to sell securities in Nebraska in 1918, questioning both its reporting of assets and the interweaving of the interests of the supposedly separate corporations, to the detriment of the stockholders.[30]
In Scottsbluff, the Bankers Realty/North American Hotel interests went head-to-head with another Omaha hotel group, starting to build the Bluffs Hotel shortly after Scottsbluff boosters gave free land to the group building the Lincoln Hotel. Both projects suffered shortages of materials and capital during World War I, and both groups went bankrupt in 1921. But the Lincoln was finished and operating while the Bluffs Hotel, along with a half-dozen other hotel projects begun by North American Hotel Company in Nebraska, Kansas, and Iowa in 1917, still stood incomplete in 1921. The “Bluff” was finally finished as Scottbluff’s Methodist Hospital.[31]
Before 1920, F. W. Fitzpatrick had left Omaha for Evanston, Illinois, where the 1920 Census found Francis and his wife, Agnes, among nineteen residents of a boarding house.[3]
e. Fitzpatrick was a frequent contributor to The Architect and Engineer of California for many years and the magazine noted his passing in 1931 with a lengthy, informative notice [40]. This account should be evaluated with care as it appears inaccurate in several details, for instance noting “The Chicago post office building, the Chicago public library, and the Newberry library are three of the many buildings for which he was the architect.” Fitzpatrick was assistant to Henry Ives Cobb on the Chicago Federal Building [19][27][28][36], an important contribution to a major building. Cobb was architect also of the Newberry Library, built 1887-1893, while Fitzpatrick was in Minneapolis and Duluth, Minnesota.[41]. The Chicago Public Library (now the Chicago Culture Center) was designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge of Boston, and opened in 1897.[42]
The account is much more accurate in calling Fitzpatrick “a frequent contributor to the pages of The Architect and Engineer and other leading architectural magazines,” and in noting his strong interest in fireproofing. Renderings by Fitzpatrick were published from Washington, D. C. to California, from the 1890s through 1910s, lending credence given to the description that “[h]is delineations for different architects brought him fame from one end of the globe to the other. Many of his color perspectives for architect clients won competitions and international recognition.”[40]
Another posthumous description of Fitzpatrick, by William Gray Purcell in 1944,[51] notes “that he claimed to be ‘The winner of more competitions for public buildings than any other architect,’ a claim that was possibly true.” Purcell notes Fitzpatrick’s work as a freelance renderer, supplying watercolors to architects for competition submissions, as he is known to have done for Berlinghof & Davis, Architects. Purcell implies strongly that Fitzpatrick was author of most of those designs, which is difficult to establish.
Purcell had known Fitzpatrick years before, during the construction of the Chicago Federal Building, and states, “In 1900, Fitzpatrick had won the Chicago Post Office competition for Henry Ives Cobb, at that time really a coryphaeus in the architectural world.” Cobb had actually received that commission around the time Fitzpatrick began work in the office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury in 1896. Fitzpatrick rendered the splendid view published of the design in 1896 [27], and often wrote about the building, but in none of his own accounts did Fitzpatrick claim to be the designer. Purcell concludes “I found him a most entertaining, versatile, and capable architectural fashion expert, as practical in plastering on the French Renaissance sugar as any of the Prix de Rome boys from Paris, and with a profound respect for Louis Sullivan.”
f. Fitzpatrick was first listed in the masthead of Inland Architect in February 1897. The dozen listed “Special Contributors” were Dankmar Adler, Henry Van Brunt, Louis H. Sullivan, William S. McHarg, D. H. Burnham, P. B. Wight, Allen B. Pond, C. E. Illsley, W. L. B. Jenney, Irving K. Pond, J. R. Willett, and Fitzpatrick, who was called “W. F. Fitzpatrick” for several editions before a correction to “F. W.” was made.
g. The Washington Star (August 5, 1899): 2, describes Fitzpatrick’s visit to Canadian Premier Sir Wilfrid Laurier to invite him to cornerstone laying of Chicago Federal building. Fitzpatrick reports at length on strained relations between Canada and U. S. over Alaskan border dispute, and Laurier’s views. The Washington Post of August 11, 1899 (p. 1), reports that Laurier denied truth of interview by Fitzpatrick “in which Mr. Fitzpatrick asserted that…Laurier had stated to him he would not accept an invitation to the Chicago autumn festival.”
h. An article of 1912 in The Washington Post, cited as “From the Chicago Evening Post,” offered effusive praise for Fitzpatrick as leader for fireproofing, describing him as “a military engineer and an architect of wide renown…Mr. Fitzpatrick’s skill as an engineer was devoted at once to devising means of putting up buildings which wouldn’t burn under any conditions. His great gifts as a publicist were devoted to making popular the doctrines….He has been sort of John the Baptist, sometimes preaching in the desert, but mostly haranguing the cities and the builders, and has made them listen. The better construction of our cities has been his hobby, his ambition…His early training was as a military engineer, but he soon branched off into architecture. He is as well known in Europe and in Canada as he is in this country as one of the great authorities on construction. Many contend that the inception, the invention of the steel frame, the ‘skyscraper’ construction, was his…At the same time he ranks as one of the best and most artistic designers in the land—a rare combination.”[52]
This description of Fitzpatrick as “a military engineer” may hint at his training before his earliest known work in Minneapolis in 1883, but as he was only 20 years old at that time, it seems unlikely he had much prior experience.
i. An editorial of 1915 in The Architect and Engineer of California strongly recommended Fitzpatrick for Supervising Architect of the Treasury: “Pacific Coast friends of Mr. Fitzpatrick, though long a resident of Washington, D. C. (practicing as a consultant architect), call attention to the fact that he is really a Western man and a citizen of whom the West is most proud.”[53]
References
1. Biographical summaries of Oliver Traphagen and F. W. Fitzpatrick, in University of Minnesota Twin Cities, TC Andersen Library Mss., Northwest Architectural Archives, N 96. Online: http://umnlib.oit.umn.edu/F/48I49UNC7GJH58AT1T4HXYIDQA82VXDRPCLQDA7LXVSA4K8B4S-04766?func=full-set-set&set_number=006690&set_entry=000002&format=999 Accessed February 16, 2013.
2. “Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947,” index, FamilySearch online: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/NQ29-HJF Accessed February 17, 2013. Francis W. Fitzpatrick, 10 Jul 1931; citing reference cn 27947, FHL microfilm 1653850.
3. “United States Census, 1920," index and images, FamilySearch online: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MJW7-QK9 Accessed February 17, 2013. Francis W Fitzpatrick in household of Clara Root, Ridgeville, Cook, Illinois; citing enumeration district (ED) , sheet 14B, family 342, NARA microfilm publication T625, FHL microfilm 1820358.
4. “Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947," index, FamilySearch online: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N388-R5T Accessed February 17, 2013. Agnes Fitzpatrick, 24 Nov 1940; citing reference 43872, FHL microfilm 1832436.
5. “United States Census, 1900," index and images, FamilySearch online: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M93P-18F Accessed 17 Feb 2013), Francis W Fitzpatrick, citing enumeration district 259 District 4 Duluth city Ward 1, St. Louis, Minnesota, United States; citing sheet 24A, family 406, NARA microfilm publication T623, FHL microfilm 1240789. See also “United States Census, 1900,” index and images, FamilySearch online: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MMX1-YZC Accessed April 22, 2013. Frank W Fitzpatrick, 1900 (in Washington, D. C.).
6. West Hotel ca. 1884 by L. S. Buffington. Online: http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/largerimage.php?irn=10088254&catirn=10695975 Accessed February 16, 2013.
7. “Leroy Sunderland Buffington (1847-1931),” in MNopedia/Minnesota Encyclopedia, Online: http://www.mnopedia.org/person/buffington-leroy-sunderland-1848-1931; he is said to have employed 30 draftsmen, the largest architectural office in the region. Accessed February 16, 2013.
8. “Leroy Sunderland Buffington,” by Eileen Michels, Dept. of Art History, University of St. Thomas, Emerita, in The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art, Joan M. Marter, editor in chief, Oxford University Press, 2001, I:363-364. Fitzpatrick is listed among draftsmen whose published renderings of Buffington’s work in American Architect & Building News & Inland Architect established his national reputation. http://books.google.com/books?id=sPGdBxzaWj0C&pg=PA364&lpg=PA364&dq=L.+S.+Buffington&source=bl&ots=qaidDIxErn&sig=Td7C77MbG1A1dDsi0TBEUpFMH3Y&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0lMgUeDyBK230gGjvYDIAQ&ved=0CFAQ6AEwBjgK#v=onepage&q=buffington&f=false accessed 2/16/13
9. The Architect and Engineer of California 10:1 (August, 1907): 78-79, Associate Editor F. W. Fitzpatrick, Fireproof Construction. See “A Plea for Expert Supervision of Reinforced Concrete.” “Along lines which have been repeatedly outlined and advocated in this magazine the International Society of Building Inspectors, through its executive officer, Architect F. W. Fitzpatrick, has begun a vigorous campaign for competent supervision of reinforced concrete buildings throughout the United States. We agree with Mr. Fitzpatrick that not class of construction calls for greater expert authority…Commenting on a recent alarming prophecy by George W. Babb, president of the New York Board of Fire Underwriters, that it was only a matter of time when the skyscraper district of New York would be destroyed by fire, Architect Fitzpatrick, the executive officer of the International Building Inspectors’ Society, and probably the highest authority on fireproof construction in the country, says the while such a thing is not beyond the realm of possibility it is highly improbable under present conditions and could, at slight expense, be made an utter impossibility…Mr. Fitzpatrick thinks the skyscraper district of New York is about the safest place from fires in the entire country and if the owners of the buildings would but go to work and put wired glass in metal sash in the windows where they have not already done so, thus making it absolutely impossible for fire to find ingress into the tall buildings from without, that district would be so safe that little or no insurance would need be carried upon the buildings about which Mr. Babb is so perturbed.”
10. F. W. Fitzpatrick, “The Origination of the Steel Skeleton Idea,” in The Architect and Engineer of California (August, 1907): 45-46, is account of his work for Buffington, debunking latter’s claim of invention of the skyscraper. Online: http://books.google.com/books?id=wVlEAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA45&lpg=PA45&dq=Fitzpatrick%2BBuffington%2Bwestern+architect&source=bl&ots=GUdjH7coYF&sig=OtGz4A1TdrX2g9TVzo8ZMluIHJc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BxIhUegRh7rwBLDMgJAH&ved=0CEYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Fitzpatrick%2BBuffington%2Bwestern%20architect&f=false Accessed February 17, 2013.
11. Fred W. Lepper, crediting Fitzpatrick with first skyscraper ideas, calls him “formerly of Washington, now of Omaha,” in “The First Steel Frame Skyscraper,” The Architect and Engineer of California XLVIII:3 (March, 1917): 102. An article in The Washington Star (October 11, 1917): 10, notes, “F. W. Fitzpatrick, for twenty years a resident of Washington…is an architect employed in Omaha.”
12. “The Architectural League of Minneapolis,” letter to editor from F. W. Fitzgerald, American Architect & Building News (February 16, 1884): 81. 13. Grand Forks Daily Herald 15:271 (September 18, 1889): 3.
14. F. W. Fitzgerald, “Mid-West Building Activities,” The Architect and Engineer of California (March, 1918): 91-98.
15. Traphagen and Fitzpatrick papers (N 96) in Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis. Collection contains the blueprints for the Torrey Building, in Duluth, Minnesota, designed by the architectural firm of Traphagen and Fitzpatrick.
16. F. W. Fitzpatrick, “An Improved Skeleton Construction,” letter to the editor, American Architect and Building News (January 16, 1897): 24. Refers to construction of the Torrey Building “four years before,” by “Traphagen & Fitzpatrick, architects.”
17. “Third Prize Design, Minnesota State Capitol, St. Paul,” Traphagen & Fitzgerald, with F. P. Bassford, St. Paul, Inland Architect and News Record 26:4 (November 1885). Online: www.artic.edu/aic/libraries/research/specialcollections/digitalcollections/allcollections.html Accessed February 18, 2013.
18. “U. S. Post Office, Court House, Etc. St. Paul Minn., James Knox Taylor, Supervising Architect,” watercolor rendering signed “Fitzpatrick Pinxt 98,” opposite p. 44, Annual Report of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury for the Year Ending September 30, 1898. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1898.
19. “Notable Penwork by an Architect,” Inland Architect and News Record (July, 1899): 48-49.
20. F. W. Fitzgerald, “A Rambler,” Inland Architect and News Record (March, 1896): 15-17; (May, 1896): 36-37, sharing the issue with Dankmar Adler & Louis Sullivan; (October, 1896): 20-22; “The National Library,” (March, 1897): 14-16, illus.; (August, 1898): 2-8, illus. (on Washington, D.C.’s governmental buildings); and (September, 1898): 12 (on Washington, D.C.’s residential architecture).
21. “United States Census, 1930,” index and images, FamilySearch Online: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XS51-X6S : Accessed February 17, 2013. Francis W. Fitzpatrick, Evanston, Cook, Illinois; citing enumeration district (ED) 2109, sheet 4B, family 62, NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 499.
22. “Oliver G. Traphagen” in Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_G._Traphagen Accessed February 21, 2013.
23. “Traphagen & Fitzpatrick, Architects,” advertisement in Duluth News Tribune (January 1, 1896), with a list of “a few of the Structures Erected by this Pioneer Firm of Architects in Duluth.” Online: http://www.perfectduluthday.com/2012/04/15/traphagen-fitzpatrick-one-sweet-resume/ Accessed February 21, 2013.
24. “Woodlawn-University Avenue Documentation, Architect Biographies,” Online: http://woodlawnaveinjeopardy.org/pdf_documents/Architect_Biographies.pdf Accessed February 21, 2013.
25. Lost Duluth: Landmarks, Industries, Buildings, Homes, and the Neighborhoods in which they stood. Duluth: Zenith City Press, 2011. Online: http://zenithcity.com/zenith-city-history-archives/duluth-architecture/lyceum-th/ Accessed February 21, 2013.
26. “Oliver Traphagen” in Zenith City History, from Lost Duluth: Landmarks, Industries, Buildings, Homes, and the Neighborhoods in which they stood. Online: http://zenithcity.com/zenith-city-history-archives/biography/traphagen-oliver/ Accessed February 21, 2013. Lists 53 buildings by Traphagen & Fitzpatrick.
27. “Preliminary Design, The United States Government Building at Chicago, Henry Ives Cobb, Architect,” watercolor rendering signed, “Fitzgerald ’96,” Inland Architect & News Record (September, 1896): n.p.
28. F. W. Fitzpatrick, “Chicago’s Federal Building,” Inland Architect & News Record (October, 1900): 18-20, illus.
29. Edward Francis Morearty, “The Bankers Realty Investment Company,” Omaha memories: recollections of events, men and affairs in Omaha, Nebraska, from 1879 to 1917. Omaha: Swartz Printing Co., 1917, 241-243.
30. “Application 3076, In the matter of the application of the North American Hotel Company of Council Bluffs, Iowa, for permit to sell securities in Nebraska,” Annual Report of the Nebraska State Railway Commissioner to the Governor, Issue 11. Nebraska State Railway Commission, Lincoln, NE: Kline Publishing Co., 1918, 299-304.
31. Clayton B. Fraser, “Lincoln Hotel, Scottsbluff, Nebraska,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Loveland, Colorado: FraserDesign, November 3, 1997, 14-18. Online: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/histpres/nebraska/scotsblf/SF11-211_Lincoln_Hotel.pdf Accessed February 23, 2013.
32. Theodore F. Laist, “An Able Defense of the wooden shingle properly installed,” Lumber World Review (December 10, 1921): 44. A long letter from Laist, “architect and Chicago representative of the National Lumber Manufacturers’ Association,” replying to “a recent article in the ‘Evanston News-Index’” in which Mr. F. W. Fitzpatrick devotes a column to what purports to be an expression of his views on the use of the wood shingle, although it seems to be more an arraignment of the selfishness of mankind in general and the lumber interests in particular.” Fitzpatrick had previously attacked wood shingles on roofs, especially in congested districts, as a fire hazard. Online: http://books.google.com/books?id=ZfAwAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA5-PA44&lpg=RA5-PA44&dq=%22Evanston,Illinois%22%22F.+w.+Fitzpatrick%22&source=bl&ots=qPUcxE2siL&sig=oFq5ehhv7S_PPh4R_i1qUVHxkFs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=kzMpUeX-MILe0gHs0IGQAg&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Evanston%2CIllinois%22%22F.%20w.%20Fitzpatrick%22&f=false Accessed February 23, 2013.
33. “Architectural Measures Adopted at Washington,” Inland Architect and News Record (May, 1905): 33, refers to F. W. Fitzpatrick as “our Washington correspondent.”
34. Announcement in Inland Architect and News Record (October, 1904): 25, discussing need for fireproofing of buildings, refers to F. W. Fitzpatrick as “our Washington representative,” and states “we have made an arrangement with…Mr. F. W. Fitzpatrick, to act as our expert in the matter” and invites architects to correspond with Fitzpatrick in Washington “and for convenience may send sketch, plans and specifications, so that he may incorporate his suggestions. Of course, this service is gratis….”
35. “Uniform Building Laws,” Inland Architect and News Record (May, 1904): 31, mentions recent organization in Washington, D. C., of the “International Society of State and Municipal Building Commissioners…largely through the efforts of F. W. Fitzpatrick, of that city, who was chosen as its secretary. Under the direction of this competent architect and authority on building requirements generally, this movement is the most important to have been undertaken since the organization of the National Association of Builders.”
36. “The Cornerstone Laying of Chicago Post Office,” Inland Architect and Record News (October, 1899): 17.
37. “Minnesota State Capitol Competition,” Inland Architect and News Record (September, 1895): 31. Cass Gilbert of St. Paul won the competition. The prize to Bassford, Traphagen & Fitzpatrick was $800.
38. F. W. Fitzpatrick, “American Architecture,” Inland Architect and News Record (August, 1903): 2-4, illustrated. Online: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015009400931;view=image;q1=american%20architecture;start=1;size=100;page=root;seq=228;num=74 Accessed February 22, 2013; partially reprinted as “St. Louis Exposition Buildings,” in Electrical Worker (August, 1903): 102-103. Online: http://www.ibew.org/Journals/scans/The%20Electrical%20Worker/1903-08%20August%20Electrical%20Worker.pdf Accessed February 22, 2013.
39. “International Society of State and Municipal Building Commissioners and Inspectors: Report of the Society’s First Convention,” Engineering Review (April, 1904): 22-24. The constitution of the new society is reprinted in full. F. W. Fitzpatrick, “Consulting Engineer,” is listed among founding members and as secretary/treasurer, with correspondence directed to his address in Washington, D. C. Online: http://books.google.com/books?id=gcfmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PR9-IA6&lpg=PR9-IA6&dq=1431+welling+place,+washington,+DC&source=bl&ots=6SW5hTMaLO&sig=CSfFwBclGmAxVYRy8RgJbEFd6VU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Rz0sUY-6KePA0AHw-YCwAQ&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=1431%20welling%20place%2C%20washington%2C%20DC&f=false Accessed February 25, 2013.
40. Obituary for F. W. Fitzpatrick, in “Thumb Tacks and T-Square” section, The Architect and Engineer (September, 1931): 21.
41. “Newberry Library—History of Newberry Library,” on website “The Newberry, Chicago’s Independent Research Library Since 1887,” http://www.newberry.org/newberry-library-history-newberry-library, accessed 3/4/2013.
42. “Chicago Culture Center,” Online at City of Chicago website: http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/chicago_culturalcenter-generalinformation.html Accessed March 4, 2013.
43. Lynn Meyer, “Blackstone Hotel,” National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form. Omaha: Omaha City Planning Department, 1982. Online: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/histpres/nebraska/douglas/DO09-Blackstone-Hotel.pdf Accessed March 4, 2013.
44. Virginia F. Duncan, “The Hotel Yancey,” National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form. Lincoln, Nebraska: Devco, Inc., August, 1984. Online: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/histpres/nebraska/hall/HL06-014_Hotel_Yancey.pdf Accessed March 4, 2013.
45. Janet Jeffries Spenser, “Johnston Memorial Building,” National Register of Historic Places – Inventory Nomination Form. Lincoln: Nebraska State Historical Society, January, 1986. Online: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/histpres/nebraska/lincoln/LN09-002_Johnston_MemBldg.pdf Accessed March 4, 2013.
46. The American Contractor (March 23, 1918): 60. Found in Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=UCJYAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA10-PA64&lpg=RA10-PA64&dq=f+w+clarke,+architect,+york+hotel,+nebraska&source=bl&ots=-QV--qNAlx&sig=yQZ--Gvu9ph8VGJ7unfHB-6P9QU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=whYPT97eOov9iQLF9M3fDQ&sqi=2&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=f%20w%20clarke%2C%20architect%2C%20york%20hotel%2C%20nebraska&f=false Accessed January 12, 2012.
47. Stacey C. Pilgrim and Lynn Meyer, “Gold Coast Historic District,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Omaha: Omaha City Planning Department, November, 1996. Online: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/histpres/nebraska/douglas/DO09-Gold-Coast-HD.PDF Accessed March 4, 2013.
48. “The Pittsburg Plate Glass Company’s Cincinnati Warehouse,” Fireproof Magazine 5:6 (December 1904): 47-48, illustrated. Describes Fitzpatrick’s role as consulting architect (to architects Ball & Taylor of Cincinnati) on fireproofing.
49. Fireproof Magazine 9:1 (July 1906): 3; masthead states, “The following are among the regular and occasional contributors to FIREPROOF MAGAZINE…F. W. Fitzpatrick, Consulting Architect, Washington, D.C.” among thirteen listed. Online: http://books.google.com/books/about/Fireproof_Magazine.html?id=tvHNAAAAMAAJ Volumes 9 & 10, 1906-1907, Accessed February 25, 2013; http://books.google.com/books/about/Fireproof_Magazine.html?id=GvLNAAAAMAAJ Volume 11, 1907, Accessed February 25, 2013; and http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000058117 Volumes 1 & 2, 1902-1903, Volumes 3 & 4, 1903-1904, Volumes 5 & 6, 1904-1905, Volumes 9 & 10, 1906-1907, Volume 11, 1907. Missing only vols. 7-8 of 1905-06. Accessed February 25, 2013.
50. “The Society of Building Commissioners and Inspectors,” Fireproof Magazine 9:5 (November 1906): 216. Report of effort to reorganize the Society, encourages mayors and inspectors “should communicate directly with the secretary-treasurer, F. W. Fitzpatrick, 4200 Fourteenth street road, Washington, D. C.”
51. William Gray Purcell, “Forgotten Builders—the nation’s voice,” Northwest Architect 8:6 (1944): 4-5.
52. “Cure for Fire Peril: F. W. Fitzpatrick the Pioneer of Modern Fireproofing; His work begins to tell,” The Washington Post (August 19, 1912): 7.
53. “Fitzpatrick for Supervising Architect,” editorial in The Architect and Engineer of California 41:2 (May 1915): 105-106.
54. F. W. Fitzpatrick, “Fifty years of architectural evolution,” American Architect 134: 2553 (September 20, 1928): 357-360.
55. George A. Berlinghof Manuscript Collection, Nebraska State Historical Society, RG3134.AM: George A. Berlinghof.
56. Western Architect (June, 1911): 76.
57. Architect and Engineer of California (January, 1912): 94. The full page image of January, 1912, is labeled “F. W. Fitzpatrick Architect,” while the next issue, March, 1912 (p. 101) apologizes to Parker for failing to identify him as the designer; apparently Fitzpatrick rendered Parker’s design.
58. Architect and Engineer of California (August, 1912): frontispiece.
Page Credits
E. F. Zimmer, “Francis Willford Fitzpatrick (1863-1931), Architect and Artist,” in David Murphy, Edward F. Zimmer, and Lynn Meyer, comps. Place Makers of Nebraska: The Architects. Lincoln: Nebraska State Historical Society, April 29, 2013. http://www.e-nebraskahistory.org/index.php?title=Place_Makers_of_Nebraska:_The_Architects Accessed, May 3, 2024.
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