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] He reportedly served in the Canadian military and was later referred to as a military engineer, perhaps reflecting early training or experience in that area. [61][52][a] In 1883 at age 20, he immigrated to the U.S., and in 1884, married Agnes Lanctat of Montreal.[5] His earliest known work in the field of architecture was as a draftsman from 1883 to 1886 [6][8][10][a][b] 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.[13][c] 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]
In 1896 Fitzpatrick joined the office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury in Washington, D.C., 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 and providing illustrations for Inland Architect and Building News, The Cosmopolitan, and other periodicals.[19][20] His family may have remained in Duluth initially, but by the turn of the century Francis, Agnes, and their eight children resided in the nation’s capital.[5][d]
Fitzpatrick resigned from the Treasury Dept. in 1903 in the imbroglio over the firing of Cobb as the “special architect” for the Chicago Federal Building.[70] Fitzpatrick established his own practice in Washington, D.C. as a consulting architect, renderer, and executive officer for the “International Association of Building Inspectors.” He took a particular interest in fireproof construction and wrote on that topic and many others for several architectural periodicals.[9][39][e] He also wrote on a wide range of non-architectural topics, from Canadian politics to women’s fashion, and advocated for causes such as the establishment of a national system of savings accounts through post offices.
His watercolor renderings, typically incorporating vibrant street scenes with horses, automobiles, and fashionably dressed people, were commissioned by architects across the country, especially for competitions.[40][f] Around 1916 Fitzpatrick became the head of the architectural department of the Bankers Realty Investment Company of Omaha, Nebraska, which developed hotels and other commercial buildings in the Great Plains.[11][14][75][g] This connection was short-lived, as was the company. 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][71] His friends remembered him as bilingual (French and English) and as a polymath—a gifted artist, architect, athlete, author, and advocate. His passion for the cause of fireproof construction, and his lively watercolor renderings, brought him international recognition. He was survived by many children and 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 page for more information on the compilation and page organization.
Contents
Professional Associations
Pre-1883: service in Canadian military.[52][61][a]
1883-1886: draftsman, Leroy S. Buffington, Architect, Minneapolis, Minnesota.[6][8][10][b]
1884: founding secretary, Architectural League of Minneapolis, Minnesota.[12]
1887: partner with Charles E. Joy (?), St. Paul, Minnesota.[81][o]
1888-1889: draftsman, Fremont and George Orff, Architects, Minneapolis, Minnesota.[1][7][8]
1889: manager, Minnesota Decorating Company.[13][c]
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][70]
1896-1905: special contributor, consultant on fireproofing, Inland Architect & News Record.[19][20][33][34][h]
1897-1901: frequent contributor of articles and illustrations to The Cosmopolitan magazine, Rochester, N.Y.: Schlicht and Field.
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]
1905-1906: renders perspective of Brandeis Department Store for Omaha architect John Laternser. (SEE Visual Arts, below.)
1907-1914: associate editor (concerning fireproof construction), frequent contributor to The Architect and Engineer of California.[9]
1909: renders perspective of Nebraska State Historical Society building for Lincoln architect George A. Berlinghof. (SEE Visual Arts, below.)
1910: renders perspective of Grace Methodist Episcopal Church for Lincoln architect F. C. Fiske. (SEE Visual Arts, below.)
1911-1916: renders multiple watercolor perspectives for Lincoln architects Berlinghof & Davis. (SEE Visual Arts, below.)
1912: renders perspective of Lincoln Telephone & Telegraph Company building for Lincoln architect F. C. Fiske. (SEE Visual Arts, below.)
1915: recommended (editorially) for appointment as Supervising Architect of the Treasury.[53][k]
1917-1919: head of architectural department, Bankers Realty Investment Company (BRIC), Omaha, Nebraska.[11][29][30][31][76][97][g]
1920-1931: consulting architect, Chicago, Illinois.[3][21][32]
1923, 1925: renders perspectives of two proposals for Lincoln architect George A. Berlinghof. (SEE Visual Arts, below.)
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).[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.[24][25]
Piedmont Court (1891-1892), a.k.a. Munger Terrace Residences, 405 Mesabi Ave, Duluth, Minnesota.[23][24][72][73]
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][59][j]
1903-ca. 1916
Francis W. Fitzpatrick, Consulting Architect, Washington, D.C. (1903-ca. 1916).
Pittsburg Plate Glass Company Warehouse (1904), Cincinnati, Ohio.[48]
Municipal Building, Preliminary Competition Design (1908), Springfield, Massachusetts.[62]
Southern States Exposition (1913), New Orleans, Louisiana, consulting architect; Stevens & Nelson, Architects.[63]
1917-1919
Head of Architectural Department, Bankers Realty Investment Company, Omaha, Nebraska (1917-1919).
That company was a vertically integrated construction and investment firm organized around 1910 in Omaha which offered architectural, financial, and construction services. North American Hotel Company was a closely affiliated subsidiary intended to be the operational arm for the enterprise's hotels. Projects were announced in numerous Nebraska communities as well as in Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri. Rapid expansion met sharp wartime restrictions during World War One and in 1918 the Hotel arm was barred from issuing additional stock in Nebraska. In 1919 North American Hotel Company sued Bankers Realty, even though the two firms had overlapping boards of directors. The enterprise went bankrupt in 1920. Fitzpatrick was announced as Bankers Realty's architectural head in 1917 and became a company director. He resigned and relocated to the Chicago area in 1919. This listing includes known projects in the 1915-1919 period of Bankers Realty/North American Hotel; whether Fitzpatrick had involvement in projects preceding 1917 is unclear.[99][g][w]
Blackstone Hotel (1915-1916), 302 S 36th, Omaha, Nebraska.[14][43][101][106][113][117][118][119][g][z] (DO09:0319-006)
Architectural contract for $35,000 school building (1916), Ewing, Nebraska.[107]
Architectural contract for $20,000 school building (1916), Yutan, Nebraska.[107]
St. Regis Apartments (1916), 617 S 37th, Omaha, Nebraska.[14][47][106] (DO09:0317-013)
Architectural contract for $20,000 school for St. Patrick's Academy (1916-1917), Sidney, Nebraska.[103][107]
30-unit apartment building (1916-1917), Plattsmouth, Nebraska.[105][106]
Hartington Hotel (1916-1917), Hartington, Nebraska.[95][96][97][106][w]
Bluffs Hotel (1917-1918), construction begun but project not completed, Scottsbluff, Nebraska.[31][77][112][113][x][z]
"figuring on the plans for the new school buildings," (1917), York, Nebraska.[115][aa]
High School (1917), Springfield, Nebraska.[104]
North American Hotel Company hotel (1917-1918), project not completed, Sioux City, Iowa.[108][112][113][z]
North American Hotel Company hotel (1917), project not completed, Kearney, Nebraska.[109][112][113][z]
North American Hotel Company hotel (1917-1918), project not completed, Ottawa, Kansas.[112]
North American Hotel Company hotel (1917-1918), Ogallala, Nebraska.[112][113][z]
Blackstone Hotel (1917), unbuilt project at Linwood Blvd. and Passe, Kansas City, Missouri.[110][113][z]
Red Cloud High School (1917-1918), Red Cloud, Nebraska.[100][y]
Yancey Hotel (1917-1923), 123 N Locust, Grand Island, Nebraska.[14][44][112][113][z] (HL06-014)
Project for North American Hotel (1917-1918), Norfolk, Nebraska.[80][112][113][n][z]
Hotel Coonley (1917-1918), Second Avenue and First Street Northwest, Hampton, Iowa.[111][112]
Project for North American Hotel Company (1918), Eldorado, Kansas.[46][112]
Project for North American Hotel Company (1918), Topeka, Kansas.[112]
Atlas Bank & office building, (1918), Neligh, Nebraska.[14][87][97][s] Exterior (2016) severely compromised by window replacement. (AP04-168)
Masonic Temple, stores, & office building, (1918), 107 S Broadway, Riverton, Wyoming.[14][87][t]
Elkhorn Valley State Bank & office building (1918-1919), Stanton, Nebraska.[46][87][p] (ST02-047)
1920-1931
F. W. Fitzpatrick, Consulting Architect, Chicago, Illinois (1920-1931).
Johnston Memorial Hall (1921), Wallace, Nebraska.[45][78][l] (LN09-002) National Register narrative
Visual Arts
Rendering of Chicago Federal Building (1896).[27]
Rendering of U. S. Courthouse (1898), St. Paul, Minnesota.[18]
Illustrations for magazine article “The United States Treasury Department” by Lyman J. Gage, Secretary of the Treasury, in The Cosmopolitan, 25:4 (August, 1898): 354-368; including portraits, sketches of lighthouses, FWF rendering of Chicago Post Office. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?num=354&u=1&seq=364&view=2up&size=100&id=uva.x001139841&q1=fitzpatrick#view=2up;seq=362 Accessed May 15, 2013.
Illustration for poem “Disappointment” by Florence Radcliffe, in The Cosmopolitan, 31:6 (October, 1901): 660; signed “FWF.” http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?num=660&u=1&seq=666&view=1up&size=100&id=mdp.39015013734440&q1=fitzpatrick#view=1up;seq=666 Accessed May 15, 2013.
Rendering of J. L. Brandeis & Sons "New Store Building" (1905-1906), 16th & Douglas Streets, Omaha, Nebraska, for John Latenser, architect. Omaha Bee (January 1, 1906).
Watercolor rendering for George A. Berlinghof (1858-1944), Architect, Nebraska State Historical Society Building (1909), Lincoln, Nebraska.[55]
"Rendered Drawing" for Bellevue Baptist Church (ca. 1909), Memphis, Tennessee, John Gaisford, architect.[88][u]
"Rendered Drawing" for Stock Exchange Building (ca. 1909), Memphis, Tennessee, John Gaisford, architect.[88][u]
"Rendered Drawing" for Hotel Randolph (pre-1909), Washington, DC, probably for Vogt & Morrill, architects.[88][u]
"Rendered Drawing" for Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church (ca. 1909), Hagerstown, Maryland.[88][u]
"Rendered Drawing" for Whitney Bank Building (ca. 1909), New Orleans, Louisiana.[88][u]
"Pen Sketches of Chateau de Blois [France] by F. W. Fitzpatrick" (ca. 1909).[88]
Rendering of Grace Methodist Episcopal Church (1910) for architect F. C. Fiske, 27th & R Streets, Lincoln, Nebraska.[94]
Rendering of “long span arch” bridge (1911), illustration for article on “Esthetics of Bridge Design” by noted engineer C. A. P. Turner.[56]
Rendering for Berlinghof & Davis, Architects, Auburn (Nebraska) High School (1911).[86][r]
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, proposal for University Place High School (circa 1912), University Place, Nebraska.[55,84,85][q]
Rendering for Ferdinand Comstock Fiske (1856-1930), Architect, Lincoln Telephone & Telegraph Company headquarters (1912), 14th & M Streets, Lincoln, Nebraska.[93]
Aerial perspective for Southern States Exposition at New Orleans, 1913, [63] http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015012331446;view=2up;seq=224 Accessed May 26, 2013
“Future city congestion. How the American Architect, F. W. Fitzpatrick, would solve the problem of tall buildings and their stability,” book illustration (1914) in Town planning for Australia. [60] http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b5108101#view=1up;seq=104 Accessed May 15, 2013.
Watercolor rendering for Berlinghof & Davis, Architects, Miller & Paine Department Store (1914), Lincoln, Nebraska.[89]
Watercolor rendering for Ellery L. Davis, Floral Court Apartments, (1915), Lincoln, Nebraska.[90][v]
Watercolor rendering for Berlinghof & Davis, Architects, Security Mutual Life Insurance Building, (1915), Lincoln, Nebraska.[91]
Watercolor rendering for Berlinghof & Davis, Architects, McCloud Hotel Competition (ca. 1916), York, Nebraska.[55]
Watercolor rendering for Berlinghof & Davis, Architects, Yavapai County Courthouse Competition (ca. 1916), Prescott, Arizona.[55]
Watercolor rendering for Berlinghof & Davis, Architects, Deutsche Evangelisch Lutherische Zion Kirche (1916), Staplehurst, Nebraska. (SW00-052)
Rendering for George A. Berlinghof (1858-1944), Architect, proposal for enlarged Elks Club (1923), NW corner 13th & P Streets, Lincoln, Nebraska.[114]
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), for 21st and Washington Streets, Lincoln, Nebraska.[55]
Rendering for Layton, Hicks & Forsyth, architects, Telephone Building (published 1928), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.[54]
Rendering “A Study in Masses of the Willoughby Tower,” Samuel N. Crown Assocs., architects (published 1928), Chicago, Illinois.[54].
Rendering for Paul Monaghan, architect, “Roman Catholic Girls College, Philadelphia,” originally Mount Saint Joseph College, now Fournier Hall of Chestnut Hill College, (published 1928).[54][69].
Rendering for C. L. Monnat, architect, “Roman Catholic Church and Schools at San Antonio, Texas,” Basilica of the Little Flower, (published 1928).[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 a school building (no location).[55]
Writings
F. W. Fitzpatrick, “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.
_____________, “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 glance at the dark arts,” The Cosmopolitan 24:1 (November, 1897), 89-99; illustrated with drawings.
_____________, “Ramblings in the realm of woman’s dress,” The Cosmopolitan 24:4 (February, 1898), 355-364, accessed May 15, 2013; broad scope in time and place, richly illustrated with drawings, http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?num=355&u=1&seq=351&view=1up&size=100&id=mdp.39015013722726&q1=fitzpatrick#view=1up;seq=351
_____________, “On the Great Lakes,” The Cosmopolitan 25:1 (May, 1898), 2-14, accessed May 15, 2013; illustrated with photographs and drawings. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?q1=fitzpatrick;id=uva.x001139841;view=2up;seq=13;start=1;size=10;page=search;num=3#view=2up;seq=12
_____________, “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.
_____________ and B. C. Church, “Flour and flour milling: Great problems in organization,” The Cosmopolitan 26:5 (March, 1899), 495-504, accessed May 15, 2013; illustrated with photographs and drawings. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?num=495&u=1&seq=493&view=1up&size=100&id=mdp.39015039632917&q1=fitzpatrick#view=1up;seq=493
_____________, “French Canadian Liberalism,” The Arena 23: 2 (August, 1899), 150-165; lengthy article on Canadian politics, esp. on Wilfrid Laurier, signed F. W. Fitzpatrick, Washington, D.C., accessed March 19, 2013, http://archive.org/stream/ArenaMagazine-Volume22/189907-arena-volume22#page/n155/mode/2up See Note [i]
_____________, “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.”
_____________, “Centennial of the Nation’s Capital,” The Cosmopolitan 30:2 (December, 1900), 108-120, accessed May 15, 2013; illustrated with photographs. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015030757101;view=1up;seq=131
_____________, “Canadians and annexation,” The Washington Post (April 27, 1902), 19; debunking common misconception that Canadians must be “most anxious for annexation to us,” especially by quoting advocates of an independent French nation in Canada.
_____________, “America’s great activity in acquiring mountains of fire,” The Washington Times (July 13, 1902), 3, accessed November 17, 2014; satirical article on U. S. acquisition of Alaska, Hawaii, Philippines, and other volcanic areas. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87062245/1902-07-13/ed-1/seq-29/#date1=1836&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=F+FITZPATRICK+W&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=3&state=&date2=1922&proxtext=%22F.+W.+Fitzpatrick%22&y=9&x=10&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=2
_____________, 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 this magazine in its 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 sarcastic 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.
_____________, “Local Fire Traps; The need of more rigid official supervision,” Washington, D.C. Evening Star (Dec. 5, 1903), 7, accessed July 6, 2013; in Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress. A column length letter to editor. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1903-12-05/ed-1/seq-19/ See Note [m]
_____________, “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, accessed February 25, 2013; 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
_____________, “Lessons of the Baltimore Fire,” Scientific American Supplement 57:27530-1, March 12, 1904.
_____________, “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, accessed March 19, 2013, http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/27899507.pdf?acceptTC=true
_____________, “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.” [sic, fictitious?]
_____________, “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,” 209-211.
_____________, “Architects and Architects,” Inland Architect and News Record 45:3 (April, 1905), 23-26, accessed May 27, 2013; on the sorry state of the architectural profession, and critique of Washington, D. C. buildings, with photos. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015009401277;view=1up;seq=160
_____________, “Chicago,” Inland Architect and News Record 45:5 (May, 1905), 46-48, accessed May 27, 2013. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015009401277;view=1up;seq=314
_____________, “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 46:4 (November, 1905), 45-47, accessed May 27, 2013; with proposed fire code legislation. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015009400758;view=1up;seq=25
_____________, “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.
NB: Volume 8 of Fireproof Magazine, January-June 1906, has not yet been found nor 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.
_____________, “San Francisco lesson,” Scientific American Supplement 62 (August 18-25, 1906), 25604-5, 25620-1.
_____________, “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.
_____________, “The great earthquake,” The (Richmond, Va.) times dispatch (Sept.16, 1906), 4; ruminating on San Francisco earthquake, concluding “While scientists may debate as to their [earthquakes’] cause, the fact remains that our crust is an exceedingly thin one and far from stable, and that our tenure or leasehold upon its surface is one that can be wiped out at any moment, literally extinguished, rendered null and void, and with that nullification may also go our little lives, so very dear to us, but to which we are attached by oh, so slender a thread.”
_____________, “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, accessed April 29, 2013; lengthy article on need for fireproof houses, 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
_____________, “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, accessed through Google Books on April 29, 2013; author is listed as the Executive Officer of the International Society of Building Inspectors, http://books.google.com/books?id=tohIAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22international+Society+of+Building+inspectors%22&q=fitzpatrick#v=snippet&q=fitzpatrick&f=false
_____________, “Necessary Protections,” and “Perfect Fire Protection,” in Earthquake & fire, 1906, San Francisco: Concerning the fire resistance of building materials tested in San Francisco, 1906 56, (Mississippi Wire Glass Company, New York: Press of J.E. Hetsch, 1907), 56; 76-77. In praise of wire glass.
_____________, “January ruminations,” Fireproof Magazine 10: 1 (January, 1907), 12-18.
_____________, “The year’s retrospect,” Fireproof Magazine 10:2 (February, 1907), 66-73.
_____________, “The Devil,” The Open Court 20:609 (February, 1907), 69-84, accessed July 29, 2013. A semi-serious “biography” of Satan through history and in various cultures, illustrated with drawings by FWF, for a magazine dedicated to reform of religion through science, http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3058175;view=1up;seq=201
_____________, “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, accessed April 12, 2013. 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
_____________, “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,” American Architect and Building News 92:1646 (July 13, 1907), 15-16; account of his work for Buffington, debunking latter’s claim of invention of skyscraper.
_____________, “The Origination of the Steel Skeleton Idea,” The Architect and Engineer of California (August, 1907), 45-46; reprint of American Architect and Building News letter published July 13, 1907.
_____________, “Architecture: Some Wholesome Criticism that Should Benefit the Profession,” The Architect and Engineer of California (September, 1907), 35-43, illustrated.
_____________, Executive Officer of the International Society of State and Municipal Building Commissioners and Inspectors, “Fire Prevention in Cities,” Ohio Architect 10:3 (September, 1907), 29-33, accessed May 27, 2013. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433082119219;view=2up;seq=204
_____________, “Random Shots and Philosophic Cogitation,” Fireproof Magazine 11:3 (September, 1907), 106-113.
_____________, “How certain columns were protected from rust,” letter to the editor, The American Architect 92:1656 (September 21, 1907), 95; another account of rust-proofing steelwork for Chicago Post Office. _____________, “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.
_____________, “The ‘consulting architect’ and the ‘ghost’,” letter to the editor, The American Architect 92:1659 (October 12, 1907), 119; responding to prior criticism in magazine (Sept. 28) by British writer of American consulting architects as “what the English call ‘ghosts’,” explains that his role `as “one of the comparatively few ‘consulting architects’ in this country,” explains his practice. (See Note e.)
_____________, “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],” 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.
Fitzpatrick, F. W., “Building against fire,” Outlook 88 (April 25, 1908), 937-945.
_____________, “Why?” The Western Architect 12:2 (August, 1908): 14-16; criticizing architects for using domes where not needed, including on Chicago Post Office.
_____________, “Urban and Civic Improvements,” The Western Architect 12:5 (November, 1908), 61; focusing on Minneapolis, complimentary of “home city,” offers advice for improvements.
_____________, “The paucity of ideas in American architecture,” The Architectural Record 24 (November, 1908), 395-396.
_____________, “Architectural Possibilities of Brick,” Ohio Architect and Builder 13:3 (March, 1909), 47-50, accessed May 27, 2013, http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433082119243;view=1up;seq=223
_____________, “Fire—an American extravagance,” McClure 32 (November, 1908), 99-105.
_____________, “What fires cost us,” The Washington Post (November 8, 1908), SM9; citing “F. W. Fitzpatrick, in McClure’s Magazine.”
_____________, “A plea for the architects,” The Open Court 22:631 (December, 1908), 760-766, accessed July 29, 2013. A plea that architects be included in textbooks as contributors to history, from ancient times through Chicago’s Columbian Exposition. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3058176;view=1up;seq=796
“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.
Fitzpatrick, F.W., “National department of public works,” The Architectural Record 25 (February, 1909), 93-94.
_____________, “Fire’s havoc a senseless waste,” Popular Science 74 (March, 1909), 259-270.
_____________, “Too much education,” The Nation 89 (August 19, 1909), 158-159, accessed June 3, 2013; letter to the editor decrying academic emphasis in free public education, saying “…it [the State] is pulling people away from the farm and the workbench and fitting them exclusively for work requiring scholastic attainments.” http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.78323930;view=1up;seq=172
_____________, “Red plague,” World To-Day 17 (September, 1909), 924-928.
_____________, “Style,” The Western Architect 14:4 (October, 1909), 31-32, accessed May 25, 2013. Decrying architectural profession’s imitative designs, whether imitating Richardson, classical, or Sullivan. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015012331453;view=2up;seq=204
“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.”
F. W. Fitzpatrick, “Loss from fire,” Lincoln County leader (Toledo, Lincoln County, Oregon, December 31, 1909),accessed November 17, 2014; advocates for proposal by International Society of Building Commissioners that all public and semi-public buildings be rated and advertised as “fireproof, ordinary, or dangerous.” Illustrated with sketch of fire scene and firefighters, probably by Fitzpatrick. Source cited as Utica Globe. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85033162/1909-12-31/ed-1/seq-6/#date1=1836&index=16&rows=20&words=F+Fitzpatrick+W&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1922&proxtext=%22F.+W.+Fitzpatrick%22&y=9&x=10&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
_____________, “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.”
_____________, “Ruminations and Cogitations,” The Architect and Engineer of California 19:3 (January, 1910), 53-54, accessed June 4, 2013; beginning with “It’s flattering to have The Architect and Engineer ask for and insist upon a line or two from ‘Old Man Fitz’ regularly for every issue….” and going on to decry diversity of designs in business streets and monotony in residential sections. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d00319696s;view=2up;seq=24
_____________, “Ruminations and Cogitations,” The Architect and Engineer of California 20:1 (February, 1910), 71-74, accessed May 26, 2013; includes musing that peace might be achieved “…when whole cities may be destroyed by the touching of a button…” “by pushing this war thing to the very limit, adopting all the latest and newest devices and awe-inspiring weapons that we may ultimately acquire real and universal peace, the possibilities of a fight becoming so terrible that every one not directly in it will bend his every energy toward preventing it.” http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d00319696s;view=2up;seq=108
_____________, “Ruminations and Cogitations,” The Architect and Engineer of California 20:2 (March, 1910), 64-66, accessed May 26, 2013; decrying French art nouveau—“Indeed, if a boy of mine would evince any desire to go to France now in order to brush up on the art architectural I would spank him.” http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d00319696s;view=2up;seq=168
_____________, “The place of burnt clay in our architecture,” Ohio Architect and Builder 15:3 (March, 1910), 29-33, accessed May 27, 2013; arguing for clay tile for fireproofing, and against concrete. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433082116645;view=1up;seq=197
_____________, “Ruminations and Cogitations,” The Architect and Engineer of California 21:1 (May, 1910), 85, accessed May 26, 2013. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d00319696s;view=2up;seq=322
_____________, “Ruminations and Cogitations,” The Architect and Engineer of California 21:2 (June, 1910), 66-69, accessed May 26, 2013. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d00319696s;view=2up;seq=370
_____________, “Fifty Years from Now in the Pathfinder,” The Architect and Engineer of California 21:3 (July, 1910), 26, accessed February 22, 2013. 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
_____________, “Conserving our grain supply,” World To-Day 19 (August, 1910), 831-838.
_____________, “Ruminations and Cogitations,” The Architect and Engineer of California 22:2 (September, 1910), 71-73, accessed May 26, 2013. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d00319696s;view=2up;seq=564
_____________, “Ruminations and Cogitations,” The Architect and Engineer of California 22:3 (October, 1910), 67-69, accessed May 26, 2013; arguing for “home-rule” in architecture—work going to local practitioners. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d00319696s;view=2up;seq=626
_____________, “The City Beautiful,” The Western Architect 17:1 (January, 1911), 13; urging municipal review of buildings to promote greater design harmony in cities:“…we bar certain smells, unnecessary noises, why limit our authority to the prevention of offenses against our noses and our ears. Surely our eyes deserve some consideration too.” Also in The Architect and Engineer of California (January 1911), 88-90. For The Western Architect http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015082454649;view=1up;seq=58 Accessed May 26, 2013. For The Architect and Engineer of California http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433060463332;view=2up;seq=372 Accessed May 27, 2013.
_____________, “The ‘Tarnsey’ Act,” The Architect and Engineer of California (July, 1912), 114-115.
_____________, “More about the Lincoln Memorial,” The Western Architect 18:4 (April, 1912), 41-42, accessed May 26, 2013; “In print and every other way I have combated the Greek temple idea for a monument to Lincoln, the great Commoner, the plainest of men and truest of Americans…” http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015016731534;view=1up;seq=240
_____________, “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.
_____________, “Early Christian Art,” The Architect and Engineer of California 30:3 (October, 1912), 79-83, accessed May 27, 2013; http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433060463373;view=1up;seq=387 and “Early Christian Art II,” The Architect and Engineer of California 31:1 (November, 1912), 79-80; http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433060463373;view=1up;seq=535
_____________, “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.
_____________, “NO!” The Washington Star Sunday Magazine (February 18, 1912), 13; humorous story; also published in New-York Tribune (February 18, 1912), 13.
_____________, “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., “Fire—A Crime,” The Architect and Engineer of California 31:2 (December, 1912), 76-77, accessed May 27, 2013. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433060463373;view=2up;seq=672
_____________, “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.”
_____________, “Sanitary Horse Troughs,” Scientific American 107 (December 21, 1912), 531.
_____________, 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), accessed May 24, 2013. (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.”) http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006559426/Home
_____________, “Unaccountable,” The Western Architect (March, 1913), 27-30, accessed May 26, 2013; illustrated with photos and plans, urging stringent building codes, especially for fire safety. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015012331446;view=1up;seq=78
_____________, “Cities unburnable!” Cassier 43 (June, 1913), 25-30.
_____________, “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.
_____________, “American Architecture,” The Western Architect 20:9 (September, 1913), 75-77, accessed May 26, 2013; praising Chicago architecture, and especially Louis Sullivan, for “truth” in architectural style. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015012331446;view=1up;seq=288
_____________ and Theodore L. Condon, Fireproof Construction: an authoritative presentation of the fire prevention problem, giving the historical development of the art of safe `building, and the best modern practice in fireproof and fire-resisting construction (Chicago: American school of correspondence, 1914), accessed May 24, 2013, http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006587992
F. W. Fitzpatrick, “The Thrall of the Axis,” The Architect and Engineer of California (April, 1914), 91.
_____________, “Just a Kick,” The Architect and Engineer of California 37:1 (May, 1914), 87, accessed May 27, 2013, http://archive.org/stream/architectenginee3714sanf#page/n95/mode/2up/search/fitzpatrick
_____________, “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.
_____________, “Unburnable schools,” The Architect 10 (1915), 136.
_____________, “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 neighbor’s view of the war,” letter to the editor of The Nation 100 (January 28, 1915), 109-110, accessed June 3, 2013. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015086365148;view=1up;seq=151
_____________, “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.
_____________, “On things of common concern,” The Western Architect 21:6 (June, 1915), 45-48; urging originality in design based on serving specific needs of clients, decries “templesque or cathedralesque or any expression of ‘style’ intended to recall these by use of derived forms.”
_____________, “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.”.
_____________, “Federal buildings to be standardized,” The Architect and Engineer of California 43:3 (September, 1915), 77-78, accessed May 27, 2013. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433060466004;view=2up;seq=396
_____________, “Artless Architecture: Some current, errant tendencies in a noble profession,” The Architect and Engineer of California 44:3 (March, 1916), 69-71, accessed May 27, 2013. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433060466012;view=2up;seq=384
_____________, “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. Listed under Western Architect and Engineer, v. 52-53 (1918) on-line by Hathi Trust, accessed August 7, 2018, at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433060466053;view=1up;seq=2
_____________, “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, accessed August 12, 2013; reminiscence about 1880s winter fun in Minneapolis. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433060466087;view=1up;seq=243
_____________, “Dog in the manger: Opening the Great Lakes to the sea,” New Republic, 22:285, (April 28, 1920).
_____________, “Cutting Steps in the Skyscraper,” The Architect and Engineer of California (October, 1920), 93-96, accessed May 26, 2013; illustrated article suggesting and diagramming step-backs in tall buildings to allow light to reach streets, includes futuristic rendering with elevated sidewalk at 30-story level, published in 1908 in Australian planning book.[62] http://books.google.com/books?id=BGIoAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=architect+and+engineer+of+California&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xEmWUeyMBNLy0QHH4IDYDQ&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Fitzpatrick&f=false
_____________, “A Sermonette,” The Architect and Engineer of California (November, 1920), 80-81, accessed May 26, 2013; decrying impractical architects who will not vary their specifications in times of rising costs and scarce materials. http://books.google.com/books?id=BGIoAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=architect+and+engineer+of+California&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xEmWUeyMBNLy0QHH4IDYDQ&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Fitzpatrick&f=false
_____________, “Scheme to Tunnel San Francisco Bay,” The Architect and Engineer of California (December, 1920), 93-96.
_____________, “Approves Mr. Mullgardt’s Criticism,” The Architect and Engineer of California 71:3 (December, 1922), 107, accessed May 26, 2013; praising magazine for publishing criticism of Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Japanesque aberration,” saying Louis Sullivan “deserves credit for getting away from the orthodox styles, doing something original if merely frankly clothing or covering the brute and actual structure with ornament that left the structural intent perfectly evident,” but that “His disciples in the most part have not proven worthy of carrying on in the way it started….And of all those disciples Wright has sinned the most and the worst.” http://books.google.com/books?id=UJRDAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA98&dq=western+architect&hl=en&sa=X&ei=r72iUZaQFonNywHy9oDYCw&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Fitzpatrick&f=false
_____________, “Fire risks in department stores,” American City 28 (June, 1923), 615.
_____________, “Fool-proof grade crossing,” American City 30 (June, 1924), 656-657.
_____________, “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. An article of 1912 in The Washington Post, cited as “From the Chicago Evening Post,” offered effusive praise for Fitzpatrick as a 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.
b. 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.
Later descriptions of Fitzpatrick ascribe to him a larger role in the development of skyscrapers that Fitzpatrick’s own 1907 account. A 1912 article in The Washington Post [52] describes Fitzpatrick 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.” An announcement in 1918 of Fitzpatrick’s election as a director of the Bankers’ Realty Investment Company claimed “He is widely known throughout the United States and Canada, not only as the architectural engineer who invented the skyscraper, but as special architect to the United States government for many years.” [76] An obituary in the Omaha World-Herald in 1931stated “Mr. Fitzpatrick was credited with being one of the first to propose the building of skyscrapers.”[71]
c. 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].
d. The U. S. Census of 1900 listed Francis and Agnes Fitzpatrick in both Duluth and Washington, with eight children cited in the Minnesota record, including one-year-old Frances, born in Washington. The 1910 U. S. Census lists the family as Fritzpatrick [sic], with Francis listed as “Architect” and “Consulting.” In 1910 the household included six of the Fitzpatrick children, a 19-year-old niece, and three African American servants.[5][74]
e. Fitzpatrick referenced his consulting practice in several of his writings, at some length in “The ‘consulting architect’ and the ‘ghost’” of 1907.[65] In response to an earlier criticism by an English writer of American consulting architects, Fitzpatrick describes “my own practice—and I doubt if it differs much from that of any other consulting architect in the country—it is not merely a case, as our English friends seem to believe, of my turning the work entrusted to me over to various specialists as would an employment agent, ‘farming out the work,’ as it were, but of my actually and personally doing the designing, the artistic part of that commission and then having all the other branches, the structural work, plumbing, etc., done by specialists, true, but all conforming to the general scheme laid down, working harmoniously together and to the one end of supplying a perfect, well-balanced entity.” He goes on to say of architects “Why can he not, if he feels at all dubious about it himself, employ someone to do the artistic part of the programme?”
Fitzpatrick is rather less charitable about the consulting architect’s relationship with “practicing architects” when discussing a model building code in 1913. [66]. He mentions a “Model Code the Building Inspectors’ Society is urging for uniform use,” and states “In writing that Code I might have been less exacting had I been in the active practice of architecture instead of consulting advisory. Twenty-five years of the latter work, the constant revision of other architects’ plans, the checking over of their contemplated and executed construction, the inspection of buildings burned, or collapsed, or sinking, or proven a poor investment, have made me a bit pessimistic as to the discretionary ability of the average practitioner.”
There probably is some hyperbole in the mention of 25 years, as a quarter century preceding 1913—1888--was approximately when Fitzpatrick left draftsman status. The span encompasses both the period in Duluth when he partnered with Traphagen, and his stint with the Supervising Architect of the Treasury. More likely by 1913 Fitzpatrick’s consulting practice was a decade old, since 1903 when he left the government, but his distinction between his own consulting and the “active practice of architecture” is telling.
In advertisements for his practice, Fitzpatrick offered the services of “his Associated Specialists in Steel-Framing, Heating, Sanitation, etc.” while specifying “Mr. Fitzpatrick’s personal work is limited to plan-problems, fire-prevention, design and the artistic rendering, ‘working-up’ of perspectives, etc. from designs made in collaboration with the Architects or entirely of their own conception.”[67]
f. 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 in Chicago, 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 many years earlier, 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.”
g. This page includes Bankers Realty projects carried out before Fitzpatrick was "engaged" by the company as a staff architect, such as the St. Regis Apartments, because his renderings include a beautiful watercolor of that project and Fitzpatrick is known to have worked for at least three Lincoln, Nebraska architects as a renderer, beginning as early as 1909. SEE VISUAL ARTS above.
The Bankers Realty Investment Company (BRIC) was described in a long article in the Sunday Omaha World-Herald of 1916 (identified as “Publicity Advertising”). BRIC originated in 1912 and grew by 1916 to build projects such as the St. Regis Apartments and Blackstone Hotel.[75] E. F. Morearty of Omaha provided a similar description of the company in 1917, also tracing its origins to 1912 in Omaha. 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….”[29]
Fitzpatrick continued his active writing for publication while with BRIC, in Nebraska newspapers [116] and architectural magazines. In 1918 Inland Architect published an exuberant, richly illustrated profile of BRIC by Fitzpatrick, 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. (The Blackstone Hotel was commenced before Fitzpatrick joined BRIC and is firmly attributed by other sources to W. V. Kernan, who worked for BRIC from 1914-1920 and was listed as the firm's "chief architect" in 1916.[117][118]) Fitzpatrick concluded “With the architectural end of the work in competent hands, 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.” [14]
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] Fitzpatrick resigned as one of the four directors of BRIC and moved to the Chicago area by May 1919. The Omaha Bee reported in May 1919 that the company president, Peter Elvad, also relocated to Chicago and that "War restrictions on building operations affected the business of Bankers' Realty Investment company, as well as the North American Hotel company."[102] The two "interwoven" companies engaged each other in litigation in 1919 and filed for bankruptcy in 1920. In 1920,F. W. Fitzpatrick was listed in the U. S. Census in Evanston, Illinois, where Francis and his wife, Agnes, were among nineteen residents of a boarding house.[3]
h. 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.
i. 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), states that Laurier vigorously refuted Fitzpatrick’s report “in which Mr. Fitzpatrick asserted that…Laurier had stated to him he would not accept an invitation to the Chicago autumn festival.”
j. 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 Chicago Post Office 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] That architect 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.[24]
His interest in the project remained strong and his description of his contribution may have expanded over the years. “The Western Architect” cited Fitzpatrick in 1908 in an editorial discussion of the relative sizes of various post office buildings, claiming “Chicago’s mammoth structure that we have always supposed was the largest building of that character in the world….The following data…has been given us by its designer and deputy-architect, Mr. F. W. Fitzpatrick, now of Washington.”[59]
k. 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]
l. John R. Johnston (1867-1920) was active in the “flat” or building glass industry as president of Johnston Brokerage Company. Industry friends memorialized him in his favorite hunting and fishing venue by building a community building in Wallace, Nebraska. Capt. Charles W. Brown, president of Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co., chaired the building committee and attended the 1921 dedication in Nebraska.
By the time of Johnston’s death, Fitzpatrick had relocated from Omaha to Evanston, Illinois, but perhaps his recent connection with Nebraska and earlier work for Pittsburgh Plate Glass (See 1904 PPG Co. Warehouse in Cincinnati.) together resulted in this unusual commission for Fitzpatrick.[45][78]
m. John Stephen Sewell, a Captain in the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, wrote a strong response to Fitzpatrick’s letter to the editor of the Washington Evening Star. He described advantages and disadvantages of concrete vs. terra cotta tile for fireproofing, and pointed out Fitzpatrick’s role as “a prominent contributor” to Fireproof Magazine which he described as “published…for the purpose of promoting the use of hollow terra cotta and combating the use of any other…fireproofing.” Sewell cited the November 1903 “Whittlings” column by Fitzpatrick in Fireproof as “written in such a strain as to expose him to the suspicion of being a partisan, rather than an earnest seeker after the truth.”[79]
n. Hotel Norfolk in Norfolk, Madison County, Nebraska, began construction in 1920 and was not completed until 1925. The project had its origins in 1917 when North American Hotel Company of Omaha, affiliated with Bankers Realty Investment Company, purchased a site in downtown Norfolk and announced intentions to build “one of the most beautiful hotel buildings in the state.” In 1918 Bankers Realty developed plans for the project and excavation began, but halted by 1919 with the serious financial troubles of both related firms. Norfolk investors managed to obtain possession of the site and resumed the project under new plans by the hotel architects H. L. Stevens Company. A postcard view of the earlier design shows Fitzpatrick’s typically lively rendering style.[80]
o. Hess and Larson’s magisterial St. Paul Architecture indicates in a note that F. W. Fitzpatrick was a partner with Charles E. Joy in 1887.[81] However, Mark Fitzpatrick (1886-1956) is indicated in a “Biographical Note” connected with the “Mark Fitzpatrick collection (N64)” in the Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis, to have been “For a time…a partner of Charles E. Joy…” with an implication that time was in the late 1880s. Further investigation may clarify which Fitzpatrick, or whether both men, partnered with Joy in that time period.[82]
p. American Contractor of February 9, 1919 includes: "Contracts Awarded...Bank & Office Bldg.: $20,000. 1 sty. 22x100 & 2 sty. Stanton, Nebr. Archt. F. W. Fitzpatrick, care contr. Gen. contr. let on percentage basis to Bankers Realty Co., Bee bldg., Omaha."[83] Bankers' Monthly of June 1918 notes: "Work has been commenced on the excavation for the Elkhorn Valley State Bank, at Stanton, Neb., by the Bankers Realty Investment Co., of Omaha, Neb. It will be of classic style, and constructed of brick and stone. The building will be 22 x 100 ft..."[87]
q. American School Board Journal reported in March 1912 that the board of education of University Place, Nebraska was "contemplating erection of a school building." In May 1912, American Carpenter and Builder published a competition design for the University Place high school by Chicago architect G. W. Ashby, implying it would be built. Instead, in July the Journal reported that A. H. Dyer & Co. of Fremont "have plans for 2-story high school; $50,000" for University Place and in August noted "Bids have been received" for the school.[84,85]
r. Fitzpatrick's perspective for the proposed Auburn High School was displayed in the local post office prior to the public vote on a bonds to finance the construction.[86]
s. Fitzpatrick published a rendering in 1918 captioned "Design for a Bank Building, Omaha" depicting a long, narrow, two- story building with a sculpture of Atlas at the center of the front parapet, bending beneath a globe.[14] The rendering closely matches Atlas Bank in Neligh, Nebraska, where another publication of 1918 indicates Bankers' Realty Investment Co. built a bank that year, designed by Fitzpatrick.[87] Probably the caption in the first publication was simply erroneous, but it is possible the building was first planned for Omaha, then built instead in Neligh.
t. Bankers' Monthly of June 1918 credits Bankers' Realty Investment Co., and Fitzpatrick as "Chief Architect," with "a building for the Riverton, Wyoming Masons, which besides its lodge and club rooms and 22 suites of modern offices, will contain several stores, and one of the most attractive banking rooms in the State of Wyoming."[87]
u. Construction magazine of August 1909 includes an article on Fitzpatrick's work as a renderer, illustrated with at least nine of his renderings, only some of which have been linked to specific projects or architects.[88]
v. Two of four building perspectives in a Lincoln Sunday Star feature of August 1, 1915 are illustrated through reproductions of Fitzpatrick watercolor renderings, the Miller & Paine Department Store by architects Berlinghof & Davis and the Floral Court apartments by E. L. Davis.[89][90]
w. Omaha newspapers announced the hiring of three architects by Bankers Realty in 1916 and 1917. Percy P. Lewis (1885-1962) from Wilkes, Barre, Pennsylvania joined the company in February 1916 and was mentioned in connection with visits by Bankers Realty representatives to various communities in connection with Bankers Realty projects in 1916-1918.[97] The Hartington Hotel was one such project. In 1916 two company representatives visited Hartington to view hotel sites. One was "Architect P. Lewis." Lewis is listed in the 1916 Omaha city directory as an architect with Bankers Realty.[95][96][97]
In March 1916 it was reported that T. P. Bialles "until recently of Chicago, has joined the architectural staff of Bankers' Realty Investment company." He was said to have studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and Chicago Technical college and "has many years experience in large building designs."[98] Further references to Bialles have not yet been found. A year later, in February 1917, Omaha Bee reported Fitzpatrick's engagement "by the Bankers Realty Investment company as head of its construction department." Sparing no superlatives, the Bee noted that the Canadian-born Fitzpatrick "has fought his way to the very front rank of the architects of America." His years with the Supervising Architect of the Treasury were called "distinguished service...in charge of the government's most important building operations." And once again, in artfully couched terms, he was credited with developing "a scheme for constructing tall, steel or iron frame buildings. In fact, it is perhaps true that he was the first to originate and make possible the plan upon which present day skyscrapers are built."[99] SEE Notes [a] and [b].
x. 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][77]
y. A newspaper in Red Cloud, Nebraska noted in 1917 that plans by P. P. Lewis of Omaha had been selected for a high school building and that he had been contracted to prepare specifications based on "Scheme B," provided the assembly room could be enlarged to accommodate 150 students. In January 1918 "paraphernalia" was being moved into the new building. "P. P. Lewis of the "Bankers Realty and Investment Co. of Omaha, the architects in charge" was in Red Cloud and planned to return when "the next cold snap" would provide an opportunity to test the heating plant.[100]
z. Hotel Monthly magazine commented on "Two Chains of Hotels in Nebraska" in August 1917, mentioned North American Hotel Company in Omaha and Nebraska Hotel Company in Lincoln. The former "started with The Blackstone" in Omaha" and reportedly had five hotels "under construction at Kearney, Grand Island, Scottsbluff, Neb." and Hampton, Iowa. In addition, the Omaha firm was "promoting hotels in Sioux City,, Iowa; Norfolk, Neb, and Kansas City, Mo."[113]
aa. A brief note in a York, Nebraska newspaper in 1917 reported: "Makin [sic] Plans--P. W. Rathburn representing F. W. Fitzpatrick, former supervising architect of the United States, was in the city yesterday figuring on the plans for the new school buildings."[115]
York voters approved a large bond to build a new high school and three elementary schools in early 1917; Berlinghof and Davis were their architects. Perry W. Rathburn was listed as a draftsman for an Omaha lumberyard in 1910. His connection with Fitzpatrick is not clear. Perhaps Bankers Realty Investment Company was preparing to bid on the construction. Fitzpatrick also prepared watercolor renderings for several Berlinghof and Davis projects, sometimes in support of bond elections.
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, accessed February 16, 2013, http://umnlib.oit.umn.edu/F/48I49UNC7GJH58AT1T4HXYIDQA82VXDRPCLQDA7LXVSA4K8B4S-04766?func=full-set-set&set_number=006690&set_entry=000002&format=999
2. “Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916-1947,” index, FamilySearch, accessed February 17, 2013, https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/NQ29-HJF Francis W. Fitzpatrick, 10 Jul 1931; citing reference cn 27947, FHL microfilm 1653850.
3. “United States Census, 1920," index and images, FamilySearch, accessed February 17, 2013, https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MJW7-QK9 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, accessed February 17, 2013, https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N388-R5T Agnes Fitzpatrick, 24 Nov 1940; citing reference 43872, FHL microfilm 1832436.
5. “United States Census, 1900," index and images, FamilySearch, accessed February 17, 2013, https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M93P-18F 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, accessed April 22, 2013, https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MMX1-YZC Frank W Fitzpatrick, 1900 (in Washington, D. C.).
6. West Hotel ca. 1884 by L. S. Buffington, accessed February 16, 2013, http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/largerimage.php?irn=10088254&catirn=10695975
7. “Leroy Sunderland Buffington (1847-1931),” in MNopedia/Minnesota Encyclopedia accessed February 16, 2013, 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.
8. Eileen Michels, “Leroy Sunderland Buffington,” The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art Joan M. Marter (ed) (Oxford University Press, 2001), I:363-364, accessed through Google Books on February 16, 2013. 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
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,” The American Architect 92:1646 (July 13, 1907), 15-16, and reprinted 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, The American Architect accessed through Google books on May 26, 2013 http://books.google.com/books?id=NoxMAAAAYAAJ&q=Fitzpatrick#v=snippet&q=Fitzpatrick&f=false and The Architect and Engineer of California accessed through Google books on February 17, 2013, 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
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 E. P. Bassford, St. Paul, Inland Architect and News Record 26:4 (November 1885), accessed February 18, 2013, www.artic.edu/aic/libraries/research/specialcollections/digitalcollections/allcollections.html
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 accessed February 17, 2013, https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XS51-X6S 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” Wikipedia, accessed February 21, 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_G._Traphagen
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,” accessed February 21, 2013, http://www.perfectduluthday.com/2012/04/15/traphagen-fitzpatrick-one-sweet-resume/
24. “Woodlawn-University Avenue Documentation, Architect Biographies,” accessed February 21, 2013, http://woodlawnaveinjeopardy.org/pdf_documents/Architect_Biographies.pdf
25. Lost Duluth: Landmarks, Industries, Buildings, Homes, and the Neighborhoods in which they stood (Duluth: Zenith City Press, 2011), accessed February 21, 2013, http://zenithcity.com/zenith-city-history-archives/duluth-architecture/lyceum-th/
26. “Oliver Traphagen,” Zenith City History, from Lost Duluth: Landmarks, Industries, Buildings, Homes, and the Neighborhoods in which they stood, accessed February 21, 2013, http://zenithcity.com/zenith-city-history-archives/biography/traphagen-oliver/ 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), accessed February 23, 2013, https://web.archive.org/web/20160728232922/http://www.nebraskahistory.org/histpres/nebraska/scotsblf/SF11-211_Lincoln_Hotel.pdf National Register narrative
32. Theodore F. Laist, “An Able Defense of the wooden shingle properly installed,” Lumber World Review (December 10, 1921), 44, accessed through Google Books on February 23, 2013. 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. 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
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, accessed February 22, 2013, 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
39. “International Society of State and Municipal Building Commissioners and Inspectors: Report of the Society’s First Convention,” Engineering Review (April, 1904), 22-24, accessed through Google Books on February 25, 2013. 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. 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
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 accessed March 4, 2013, http://www.newberry.org/newberry-library-history-newberry-library
42. “Chicago Culture Center,” City of Chicago website, accessed March 4, 2013, http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/chicago_culturalcenter-generalinformation.html
43. Lynn Meyer, “Blackstone Hotel,” National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form (Omaha: Omaha City Planning Department, 1982), accessed March 4, 2013, https://web.archive.org/web/20160728155830/http://www.nebraskahistory.org/histpres/nebraska/douglas/DO09-Blackstone-Hotel.pdf
44. Virginia F. Duncan, “The Hotel Yancey,” National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form (Lincoln, Nebraska: Devco, Inc., August, 1984), accessed March 4, 2013, https://web.archive.org/web/20160728190434/http://www.nebraskahistory.org/histpres/nebraska/hall/HL06-014_Hotel_Yancey.pdf
45. Janet Jeffries Spenser, “Johnston Memorial Building,” National Register of Historic Places – Inventory Nomination Form (Lincoln: Nebraska State Historical Society, January, 1986), accessed March 4, 2013, https://web.archive.org/web/20160728211615/http://www.nebraskahistory.org/histpres/nebraska/lincoln/LN09-002_Johnston_MemBldg.pdf
46. The American Contractor (March 23, 1918), 60, accessed through Google Books on January 12, 2012, 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
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), accessed March 4, 2013, https://web.archive.org/web/20170108122509/http://www.nebraskahistory.org/histpres/nebraska/douglas/DO09-Gold-Coast-HD.PDF
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. C. A. P. Turner, “Aesthetics of Bridge Design,” Western Architect 17 (August, 1911), 76, accessed May 26, 2013; “In the perspective illustration of the long span arch design, the writer is indebted to Mr. F. W. Fitzpatrick, the well-known artist of Washington.” http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015082454631;view=1up;seq=106
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.
59. “Size of New York and Chicago Buildings,” The Western Architect 11:6 (June 1908), 65-66.
60. Taylor, G. B, Town planning for Australia, (Sydney: Building, limited, 1914), 101.
61. Telephone interview with Arthur Fitzpatrick II, grandson of F. W. Fitzpatrick, by E. F. Zimmer, May 14, 2013.
62. “Preliminary Competition Design for Springfield, Massachusetts, Municipal Building, F. W. Fitzpatrick, Architect, Washington, D.C.,” The Western Architect 12:2 (August 1908), illustrations between pp. 14-15; elevation and plans.
63. “The Southern States Exposition at New Orleans, F. W. Fitzpatrick Consulting Architect, Stevens & Nelson, Architects,” The Western Architect 19:7 (July, 1913), 63-64; including aerial perspective “a magnificent painting (by Mr. Fitzpatrick) showing an aeroplane-view of the completed buildings and grounds.”
64. “A Southern Exposition,” The Architectural Record 34:2 (August, 1913), 192, accessed through Google Books on May 26, 2013; including aerial perspective captioned: “Preliminary lay-out for the Southern States Exposition, New Orleans; Stevens & Nelson, Architects. F. W. Fitzpatrick, Consulting Architect.” http://books.google.com/books?id=2mwXAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA192&lpg=PA192&dq=%22Stevens+and+Nelson%22%2Barchitects&source=bl&ots=hseqA30hqC&sig=47G_THg7KsnR7mbln3cOBq33dyI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=NV2iUavKLu-kyAGf4YGgCg&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
65. F. W. Fitzpatrick, “The ‘consulting architect’ and the ‘ghost’,” letter to the editor, The American Architect 92:1659 (October 12, 1907) 119, accessed May 26, 2013, http://books.google.com/books?id=NoxMAAAAYAAJ&q=Fitzpatrick#v=snippet&q=Fitzpatrick&f=false
66. _____________, “Unaccountable,” The Western Architect (March, 1913), 27-30, accessed May 26, 2013, http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015012331446;view=1up;seq=78
67. Advertisements for “F. W. Fitzpatrick (with his Associated Specialists in Steel-Framing, Heating, Sanitation, etc.)” in Architect and Engineer of California 41:2 (May, 1915), 164, accessed through Google Books on May 27, 2013, http://books.google.com/books?id=dFlEAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=Fitzpatrick&f=false and 41:3 (June, 1915), 145, accessed through Google Books on May 27, 2013, http://books.google.com/books?id=dFlEAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=Fitzpatrick&f=false
68. Omaha City Architecture (Omaha: Landmarks, Inc. and the Junior League of Omaha, Inc., 1997), 132.
69. “Fournier Hall,” Historic Campus Architecture Project, Council of Independent Colleges, accessed July 15, 2013, http://hcap.artstor.org/cgi-bin/library?a=d&d=p353
70. Edward W. Wolner, Henry Ives Cobb’s Chicago: Architecture, Institutions, and the Making of a Modern Metropolis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), 302-4.
71. “F. W. Fitzpatrick Killed by Automobile,” Omaha World-Herald (July 14, 1931), 3.
72. “Architects might improve designs: How block houses could be made beautiful, illustration from Duluth,” The Washington Herald (May 31, 1908), 3:2, illus. with Traphagen & Fitzpatrick rendering of Piedmont Court, accessed through Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (Lib. of Congress) on July 6, 2013, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045433/1908-05-31/ed-1/seq-22/
73.Piedmont Court (Munger Terrace) is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, accessed July 27, 2013, http://nrhp.mnhs.org/nomination/76002176.pdf
74. The Fitzpatrick family of Washington, D. C. is listed as “Fritzpatrick” in the U. S. Census of 1910. See "United States Census, 1910," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MKLL-KSC : accessed 29 Jul 2013), Francis Fritzpatrick, 1910.
75. “Plan and Operation of the Bankers Realty Investment Company,” Sunday Omaha World-Herald (November 26, 1916): B8 and E5 with portraits of Company officers and interior photos of Blackstone Hotel.
76. “Fitzpatrick chosen as a director [of the Bankers Realty Investment Company],” Sunday Omaha World-Herald (February 10, 1918), 9, with portrait.
77. “Ask Bankers Realty be declared bankrupt,” Omaha World-Herald (October 9, 1920), 11; and “Creditors of two companies sign pact,” Omaha World-Herald (December 14, 1921), 17, agreement between the bankrupt Bankers Realty Investment Company and North American Hotel Company.
78. “J. R. Johnston Memorial dedication in October,” Paint, Oil and Chemical Review (September 21, 1921), 8; “Tuesday, October 25, has been selected as the date for turning over to the town of Wallace, Neb., the handsome Johnston Memorial Building…,” Ibid. (October 5, 1921), 16; “Dedicate Johnston Memorial,” Ibid. (November 9, 1921), 14, accessed through Google Books on July 29, 2013, http://books.google.com/books?id=xfZYAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA4-PA16&lpg=RA4-PA16&dq=%22Pittsburgh+Plate+Glass%22%2B%22Johnston+Memorial%22&source=bl&ots=vDC901HEU8&sig=IfdmHJ7N9YynLzGfkQ24PNXsu8Q&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hBz3UcekMuT9igLnqoGYCg&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Pittsburgh%20Plate%20Glass%22%2B%22Johnston%20Memorial%22&f=false
79. John Stephen Sewell, Captain, Corps of Engineers, “Response to ‘Local Fire Traps’,” (Washington) Evening Star (Dec. 10, 1903), accessed through Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (Library of Congress) on July 6, 2013, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1903-12-10/ed-1/seq-12/
80. Dana L. Pratt, “Hotel Norfolk,” nomination to National Register of Historic Places, NeHbs#MD06-143 (1988), 8-4,5, accessed September 3, 2013, http://www.nebraskahistory.org/histpres/nebraska/madison/MD06-143_Hotel_Norfolk.pdf National Register narrative
81. Jeffrey A. Hess and Paul Clifford Larson, St. Paul’s Architecture: A history, (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2006), note 55 on p. 251.
82. Mark Fitzpatrick collection (N 64), Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis, accessed November 17, 2014, http://special.lib.umn.edu/findaid/xml/naa064.xml
83. American Contractor (February 9, 1919), 50.
84. American School Board Journal (March 1912), 49; (July 1912), 69; (August 1912), 61.
85. American Carpenter and Builder (May 1912), 70-71.
86. Nemaha County News (November 18, 1910), 1; (February 10, 1911), 1; (August 18, 1911), 1; (September 15, 1911), 1; (September 22, 1911), 1 (illustrated).
87. "Country Banks in New Buildings," Bankers' Monthly (June 1918), 55.
88. William T. Rogers, "The Art of Presentation. Importance of Artistic and Accurate Perspective Drawings of Proposed Buildings. Rendering Should Truthfully Represent Structure as it is to be.. The Work of a Canadian in the United States," Construction: a journal for the architectural and contracting interests of Canada (August 1909), 49-53.
89. "'Watch Lincoln Grow'--New Buildings Under Course of Construction...New Home of Miller & Paine," Lincoln Sunday Star (August 1, 1915), 5. Illustration with caption.
90. "'Watch Lincoln Grow'--New Buildings Under Course of Construction...Floral Court Apartments," Lincoln Sunday Star (August 1, 1915), 5. Illustration with caption.
91. Lincoln Sunday Star (August 1, 1915), 6. Illustration with caption.
92. "New Type of Apartment House For Lincoln," Lincoln Star (June 28, 1925), 12. Illustrations include rendering and site plan.
93. "New home of the Lincoln Telephone Company now nearing completion at Fourteenth and M Streets," Nebraska State Journal (Sunday, January 5, 1913), 9:1-5. Rendering.
94. The original watercolor rendering is extant (2018), signed "Fitzpatrick [19]10" and inscribed "Grace M. E. Church Lincoln F. C. Fiske, Archt." Thanks to Matthew G. Hansen, AIA, for locating the rendering with a successor congregation.
95. "To Decide Monday. Hotel Co. Officials to Return Then. Conditions Very Favorable. Architect Views Proposed Locations...," Cedar County News (Hartington, Nebraska) (May 18, 1916), 1.
96. "The Hartington Hotel, Banker Realty Investment Company, Architect and Builder," The Cedar County News (Hartington, Nebraska), (May 24, 1917), 7 (full-page, 14 photographs).
97. "Wonderful Growth of Omaha Now Attracting Builders of the East," Omaha (Nebraska) Daily Bee (February 13, 1916), 36 (with P. P. Lewis portrait); "East Watching Omaha, Declares P. P. Lewis," Omaha (Nebraska) Daily News (February 22, 1916), 12 (with portrait); "Prominent Wilkes Barre, PA., Architect Comes to Omaha," The New Nebraskan (Omaha, Nebraska) (February 24, 1916), 2; "Atlas Bank Architect Here" and "Nearing Completion," both The Neligh (Nebraska) Register respectively (December 27, 1917 and January 17, 1918), both 5; "Percy Parke Lewis" (obituary), Los Angeles Times (February 12, 1962), 52.
98. "Another Eastern Architect [T. P. Bialles] Comes to Omaha," Omaha (Nebraska) Daily Bee (March 26, 1916), 40.
99. "Noted Architect to Come to Omaha With Bankers Realty Investment Co.," Omaha (Nebraska) Daily Bee (February 18, 1917), 8 (with portrait).
100. "School Board Contracts with Omaha Architect," Weekly Advertiser (Red Cloud, Nebraska) (January 5, 1917), 1; Weekly Advertiser (Red Cloud, Nebraska) (January 4, 1918), 1.
101. "Fine New Hotel at 36th and Farnam. Three Hundred Thousand Dollar Building Planned, Bankers Realty Investment Announces," Omaha (Nebraska) Evening Bee (May 12, 1915), 7.
102. "Elvad, President of Bankers Realty Co., Goes to Chicago to Live," Omaha (Nebraska) Daily Bee (May 28, 1919), 11.
103. "Sidney, Neb.--School...St. Patrick's Academy," The American Contractor (April 29, 1916), 23.
104. "Springfield, Nebr.--High School; $25,000," The American Contractor (June 23, 1917), 25.
105. "Apt. Bldg. (30 fam): $40,000...Plattsmouth, Nebr.," The American Contractor (December 30, 1916), 60.
106. "The Most Important English Word..." (full-page advertisement for Bankers Realty Investment Company), Omaha (Nebraska) Daily News (November 26, 1916), 14. Eight projects illustrated, including 4 completed: Blackstone Hotel (Omaha), St. Patrick's Rectory (O'Neil, Nebraska), Brondersleve Garage (38th & Farnam, Omaha), Double Store Building (Atkinson, Nebraska); and 4 "Architect's Drawing" for Blackstone Hotel (Kansas City, Missouri), Hartington (Nebraska) Hotel, St. Regis Apartment Building (Omaha), and "Apartment Building, Now under Construction for a Building Client at Plattsmouth, Nebraska."
107. "The Bankers Realty Investment company today announced...," Omaha (Nebraska) Daily News (April 15, 1916), 4.
108. "Hotels...Sioux City, Iowa...$750,000," The American Contractor (July 7, 1917), 41.
109. "Hotels...Kearney, Nebr....$150,000," The American Contractor (April 21, 1917), 24.
110. "The Blackstone Hotel, Kansas City, MO. Bankers' Realty Investment Co., Architects and Builders, Kansas City, Mo. [sic, corrected as Omaha subsequently], The American Contractor (December 16, 1916), 89 (illustrated with large rendering); "Hotels...Kansas City, Missouri...$700,000," The American Contractor (1917), 36 & 10.
111. "Hotels...Hampton, Iowa," The American Contractor (January 20, 1917), 24; "The Hotel Coonley," web-page online at http://iagenweb.org/franklin/Album/Hampton_1.htm (accessed January 3, 2022).
112. "More Hotels for North American--Omaha Concern Has Many New Enterprises Now Under Course of Construction," The Omaha (Nebraska) Daily News (January 1, 1918), 13.
113. "Two Chains of Hotels in Nebraska," Hotel Monthly (August 1917), 82.
114. Photocopy in private collection, see also "Elks Planning a Great Structure--Drawing of Proposed Enlarged Building Shown at Tuesday Dinner," Lincoln (Nebraska) Star (January 3, 1923), 5.
115. "Local Brevities...Makin [sic] Plans," York (Nebraska) Daily News (February 17, 1917), 6.
116. F. W. Fitzpatrick, "Really Big Business," opinion piece advocating review of governmental systems by "Chamber of Commerce of the United States," The New Nebraskan (Omaha, Nebraska) (June 14, 1917), 7.
117. "Blackstone Architect Opens an Office Here," Omaha (Nebraska) World-Herald (August 15, 1920), 2.
118. Jim McKee, "Blackstone Hotel part of Omaha's Gold Coast," Lincoln (Nebraska) Journal Star (March 20, 2011), C2.
119. "Blackstone Hotel is Ready for Use--Omaha's Finest Family Hostelry Completed at Cost of $500,00. Built by Bankers Realty," with rendering "The New Blackstone," Omaha (Nebraska) Daily News (November 26, 1916), 13.
Page Citation
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, September 25, 2024. http://www.e-nebraskahistory.org/index.php?title=Place_Makers_of_Nebraska:_The_Architects Accessed, November 24, 2024.
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