William Channing Whitney

William Ellery Channing Whitney [ [http://www.whitneygen.org/archives/extracts/pierce/p541-545.htm Frederick Clifton Pierce, "The Descendants of John Whitney, Who Came from London, England, to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1635." (Chicago) 1895:541-45] ] (11 April 1851 — 23 August 1945) was an American architect who practised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. [He was named for the Unitarian minister Dr. William Ellery Channing (1780-1842).]

Born in Harvard, Massachusetts, the son of Benjamin F. Whitney, he was educated at Lawrence Academy at Groton, Connecticut, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received his B.S. from the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1872. After working in the Boston architectural office of William Ralph Emerson and Carl Fehmer for several years, he moved to Minneapolis in 1877-78, where he formed an architectural partnership with James C. Plant, 1879-85. He married Alma C. Walker on 6 October 1881 [They had two daughters, Marion (19 August 1882- ) and Katherine (16 March 1888- ). (Pierce 1895)] In 1885 he becan to practise on his own and soon gained a reputation among the manufacturing and milling elite for his residential designs; he built residences for Frank Peavey, J.F. Bell, William Dunwoody and others. The house he built in St. Paul for Thomas Irvine, 1911-12, is now the Minnesota Governor's Residence.

He is credited with introducing neo-Georgian architecture to Minneapolis, in his design for the William J. Hinkle House (1886-87). Within the tasteful exteriors that appealed to his upper-class patrons, Whitney's houses were full of modern innovations, such as central vacuum-cleaning plants, electrical refrigeration, intercom systems. With the reduced household staffing of the post-World War era, his efficient houses retained their value.

During the height of his career he served on the Board of Trustees of the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts from 1888 to 1896. As a prominent architect of Minneapolis, he was selected to design the Minnesota Building at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893, in a Belgravia manner very like his redsdential structure; [ [http://columbus.iit.edu/dreamcity/00044067.html The Dream City: Minnesota's Building] ] under the impetus of the City Beautiful movement whose esthetic was expressed at the Exposition's "White City", he was a strong proponent of city parks and ennobling urbanistic schemes. Whitney was a member of the American Institute of Architects.

He trained a younger generation of architects in his office [C.B. Chapman, Adam L. Dorr, and Serenus Colburn, his head draftsman until 1895, are mentioned at Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota: William Channing Whitney archives website.] and retired from active practice in 1925.

elected houses, all in the Minneapolis-St Paul area

*Eugene A. Merrill House, 1884 (National Register of Historic Places)
*H. Alden Smith House, 1886. Richardsonian Romanesque (National Register of Historic Places)
*William H. Hinkle House, 1886-87. Neo-Georgian (National Register of Historic Places)
*Frank Heffelfinger House, 1902.
*Charles J. Martin House, 1903 Renaissance Revival (National Register of Historic Places)
*William Dunwoody House, 1905
*Elbert L. Carpenter House, 1906 Neo-Georgian (National Register of Historic Places)
*John Lind House, 1907 Neo-Georgian
*Horace Hills Irvine House, 1910-1911. English Tudor style. Since 1965 the Minnesota Governor's Mansion. (National Register of Historic Places)

Other commissions

*Dyer Music Store, 1884
*The Minneapolis Club, 1892
*The Minnesota Building at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893
*Handicraft Guild Building, 1907

Notes

External links

* [http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/hpc/landmarks/William_Channing_Whitney.asp Heritage Preservation Committee, Minneapolis: William Channing Whitney]
* [http://special.lib.umn.edu/findaid/xml/naa013.xml Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota: William Channing Whitney archives]