William H. Willcox (1832-1929), Architect
William H. Willcox designed a trio of significant buildings in Lincoln, Nebraska between 1879 and 1885, while practicing in Chicago, Illinois and Saint Paul, Minnesota. Those were just two stops on a career in architecture that extended a half century and across the breadth of the U.S. Willcox was born in England in 1832, immigrated to New York State with his family as a child, and married Henrietta Malloy (or Mallory) around 1854.[1][2] They were living in Morrisania, New York at the time of the 1860 census and he was already listed as an architect. He served in the 95th New York Infantry in the Civil War as a topographical engineer.[3][4] The family lived in Brooklyn in 1870, but before 1880 relocated to Chicago, where Willcox was residing when he designed the second Nebraska State Capitol.[5][6] In the early 1880s he married Mary Prescott and moved to Minnesota, settling in Saint Paul for a productive partnership with Clarence H. Johnston through 1889. Then he successively relocated to and practiced in Seattle, Washington; Los Angeles and San Francisco, California. He died in a Veterans Home in Yountville, California on February 1, 1929. [7][8][9][17][a]
This page is a contribution to the publication, Place Makers of Nebraska: The Architects. See the format and contents page for more information on the compilation and page organization.
Contents
Nebraska Directory Listings
Willcox does not appear to have ever been listed in a Nebraska directory as a resident or architect, instead he resided in Illinois and Minnesota at the time of his known Nebraska commissions.
Educational & Professional Associations
by 1860: architect, Morrisania, Westchester County, New York.[1]
1861-1863: topographical engineer, U. S. Army.[4]
1863-1870: architect and partner with Gameliel King, New York City, New York.
1871: architect employed by Dankmar Adler, Chicago, Illinois.
1872-1874: architect, Chicago, Illinois.
1875-1877: architect and partner with Willcox & Miller, Chicago, Illinois.
1878-1882: architect, Chicago, Illinois.[6]
1882-1885: architect, Saint Paul, Minnesota.[20]
1885-1889: architect and partner, Willcox & Johnston, Saint Paul, Minnesota.[7][20][21][22]
1889: architect, Saint Paul, Minnesota.[20]
1890-1892: architect and partner with William E. Boone, Seattle, Washington.[20][23]
1895: architect, Los Angeles and San Francisco, California.[23]
1896-1898: architect and partner, Haggerty & Willcox, San Francisco, California.
1900: architect and partner, Willcox & Curtiss, San Francisco, California.
1901-1910s: architect, Alameda County, California.
by 1920: retired in Alameda, California.
Buildings & Projects
Second Nebraska State Capitol (1879-1888), 15th & J, Lincoln, Nebraska.[5][10][11][24][26][b][d]
Congregational Church (1880-1882), Winona, Minnesota.[13][14][c]
St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church (1883-1885), Lincoln, Nebraska.[14][15]
University of Nebraska Chemistry Laboratory (1885), 12th & R Street, Lincoln, Nebraska.[25]
Undated
First Presbyterian Church (n.d.), Clinton, Iowa. [16]
Episcopal Church (n.d.), Emmetsburg, Iowa. [16]
State Journal Building (n.d.), Lincoln, Nebraska. [16]
State Reform School (n.d.), Kearney, Nebraska. [16]
Notes
a. Willcox was most frequently listed in censuses and other primary records as born in England, but occasionally New York was noted instead. The record of his birth family in the 1850 census identifies his parents, William, and one younger sibling as all born in England, and four more siblings born in New York (between 1838 and 1846). The 1920 Census noted his age as 87 and his year of immigration as 1834.[1][12]
b. The cornerstone of the second Nebraska State Capitol was retained upon demolition of the building, and installed at the northeast corner of the current (third) State Capitol, alongside a new cornerstone. The old stone identifies William H. Willcox as "Architect & Superintendent" and provides a date of 1884--the commencement of the central portion of the building. The Chicago Daily Tribune noted with a dateline "Lincoln, Neb., Aug. 27 [1879] "that the plans submitted by Mr. Wilcox, of Chicago, for the new State-House have been adopted..." The Tribune describes that "The Wilcox plan provides for a building the extreme length of which is 290 feet; extreme breadth, 130 feet; the hight [sic] of cornice from water-table, 66 feet; hight [sic] of roof, 86 feet; of dome, 200 feet." Some modern sources misidentify the architect as B. H. Wilcox.[5][10][11]
c. The Saint Paul Globe advertisement of 1886 for the partnership of Willcox and Johnston lists twenty of "our recent buildings." The list clearly includes Willcox projects preceding the partnership, such as "State House, Lincoln, Neb." and "M. E. Church, Lincoln, Neb." "Congregational Church, Winona" is another example thereof.[9]
d. Luebke's succinct description of the Willcox Capitol in A Harmony of the Arts: The Nebraska State Capitol opines: “Not an ugly building like its predecessor, this capitol was reasonably attractive, given the haphazard character of its evolution. In terms of its architectural style, it may be judged at best as competent. Designed by another Chicago architect, B. H. Wilcox [sic], it was another unimaginative manifestation of the neoclassical style patterned on the national capitol with its dominating dome.”[26]
References
1. Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. S. V. “Samuel Wilcox.” Accessed February 18, 2017.
2. Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. S.V. “William H. Wilcox” with “Henrietta Wilcox.” Accessed February 18, 2017.
3. Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. S.V. “William H. Wilcox.” Accessed February 18, 2017.
4. Francis Bernard Heitman,Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903, 1039. Online: http://books.google.com/books?id=iIUiAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA56#v=onepage&q&f=false Accessed May 21st, 2013.
5. "Nebraska Notes. Description of the New State-House Soon to Be Put Up," Chicago Daily Tribune (August 29, 1879), 3.
6. Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 1880 U.S. Census Index provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Copyright 1999 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. S. V. “William H. Wilcox,” with “Henrietta Wilcox.”
7. Announcement of partnership of Willcox & Johnston, Saint Paul Daily Globe (December 10, 1885), 8.
8. Ancestry.com. California, Death Index, 1905-1939 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. Age 96, date of death Feb. 1, 1929.
9. Burial at Veterans Memorial Grove Cemetery, Yountville, Napa County, California, USA “Findagrave” http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Willcox&GSfn=William&GSmn=H.&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=7522206&df=all& Accessed February 18, 2017.
10. Oliver, Richard. Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue (American Monograph Series, ed. Robert A. M. Stern). New York: The Architectural History Foundation, and Cambridge & London: The M.I.T. Press, 1983, 184.
11. Pollak, Oliver B., Nebraska Courthouses: Contention, Compromise, and Community. (Images of America Series) Chicago: Arcadia Publishing, 2002, 11.
12. 1920 U.S Census, Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. S.V. "Will H. Willcox" with "Mary P. Willcox."
13. Alan K. Lathrop, Churches of Minnesota: an Illustrated Guide, (University of Minnesota Press, 2003), 228-229.
14. "Willcox & Johnston, Architects," advertisement in Saint Paul Globe (January 10, 1886), 2.
15. A. B. Hayes & Sam D. Cox, History of the City of Lincoln, (Lincoln: State Journal Company, 1889), 248-249, 251.
16. William H. Wilcox, Hints to Those Who Propose to Build, (St. Paul, Minnesota: The Pioneer Press Publishing Company, 1884).
17. “Willcox, William H.” in Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994), 354.
18. Minnesota Missionary vol. 1 (August 1881).
19. Minnesota Missionary vol. 5 (June 1882).
20. Saint Paul (Minnesota) city directories, 1883-1891. Willcox is listed in solo practice in 1883-1885, with Clarence H. Johnston 1886-1889, solo in 1890, and "removed to Tacoma, Wash." in 1891.
21. ”Architects’ Biographies: William H. Willcox (1832-1929),” in Alan K. Lathrop, Churches of Minnesota: an Illustrated Guide, University of Minnesota Press, 2003, 306.
22. Jeffrey A. Hess and Paul Clifford Larson, St. Paul’s Architecture: A History, U of Minnesota Press, 2006, 57-60 and subsequent footnotes. Online: (http://books.google.com/books?id=XJpU3PKUiG8C&dq=willcox%2Bsaint+Paul%2Barchitect&source=gbs_navlinks_s Accessed January 27th, 2013.
23. Pacific Coast Architectural Database: “William H. Willcox (Architect)”, http://pcad.lib.washington.edu/person/2497/ Accessed February 19, 2017.
24. "History of Nebraska's Capitols," Nebraska State Capitol, http://Capitol.org/building/history/nebraska-capitols Accessed January 27th, 2013.
25. Kay Logan-Peters, "Chemistry Laboratory (Old)," UNL Historic Buildings, http://historicbuildings.unl.edu/building.php?b=45 Accessed February 27, 2017.
26. Frederick C. Luebke, “The Capitals and Capitols of Nebraska,” in A Harmony of the Arts: The Nebraska State Capitol, Lincoln & London: University of Nebraska Press, 1990, 10.
Other Sources
John Bullock, The American Cottage Builder: A Series of Designs, Plans, and Specifications. (New York: Stringer & Townshend, 1854), 239f.[3]
Ira L. Bare and Will H. McDonald. Illustrated History of Lincoln County, Nebraska and Her People. (Chicago and New York: American Historical Society, 1920), 375-376.
A. E. Sheldon, Semi-Centennial History of Nebraska: Historical Sketch (Lincoln: Lemon Publishing, 1904).
Page Citation
E. F. Zimmer and D. Murphy, “William H. Willcox (1832-1929), Architect,” in David Murphy, Edward F. Zimmer, and Lynn Meyer, comps. Place Makers of Nebraska: The Architects. Lincoln: Nebraska State Historical Society, February 27, 2017. http://www.e-nebraskahistory.org/index.php?title=Place_Makers_of_Nebraska:_The_Architects Accessed, November 24, 2024.
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