Talk:Richard W. Grant (1862-1939), Architect

A single reference in "Improvement Bulletin" to a project by "Grant & Sommers" opened a series of small but interesting lines of inquiry.

The Lincoln directory of 1899 lists the firm of Grant & Somers, and identifies Richard W. Grant and Elbert S. Somers as the partners. I've begun to assemble some information on Somers, learning that like Grant, he was an Illinois native but grew up in Beatrice. So far it appears that 1899 was his sole year of architectural practice in Nebraska and a commercial building/hall in Republican City is his only known project. By the time of the 1900 census he was in Minneapolis, then appears in Chicago in a couple of partnerships in the '10s, before moving to LA, CA to die in 1933.

A Grant & Somers page would be very brief, but a Elbert S. Somers (1868-1933), Architect page raises questions. He certainly has Nebraska architectural roots, but almost all of his fruit was elsewhere. He had at least two Chicago partnerships, producing some very substantial works--churches, Masonic lodge, theater, houses.

Somers certainly was a "Place Maker." The remaining question, perhaps, is whether he was "of Nebraska."

E. F. Zimmer