Willoughby James Edbrooke (1843–1896) was an American architect and a bureaucrat who remained faithful to a
Richardsonian Romanesque style into the era of
Beaux-Arts architecture in the United States, supported by commissions from conservative federal and state governments that were spurred by his stint in 1891-92 as
Supervising Architect of the
U.S. Treasury Department.
Life and career
Edbrooke was born in
Evanston, Illinois. He first practiced in Chicago in 1868 and in 1879 formed a partnership with
Franklin Pierce Burnham (died 1909). The partnership was dissolved in 1892.[1] Among their major joint commissions were the
Georgia State Capitol,[2] and buildings for
University of Notre Dame, and the
Mecca Flats in Chicago, where Edbrooke served as superintendent of construction. The division of responsibilities and credit for constructions at the
World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893, may have finalized the dissolution of the partnership. Edbrooke resided in Washington DC, where in his position as supervising architect of the
Treasury Department, he initiated the design of at least forty buildings.[3]
The monumentally classical Georgia State Capitol shows Burnham's design sensibility rather than Edbrooke's, as Edbrooke's late constructions show. At the turn of the twentieth century, fire destroyed many of the documents in storage at the Capitol, including the original plans and specifications for the building.[2] The competition for the capitol's design was judged by New York architect,
George B. Post, who remarked its "beauty, strength and harmony" in justifying his selection of the Edbrooke and Burnham classicizing design, that it was more academically correct, simple and elegant, and monumental in its appearance.[4]
At the
World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893, the Government Building was ascribed to Willoughby J. Edbrooke.[5] Its classicizing design fit in harmoniously with the "White City" that ushered in the
American Renaissance movement and the age of Beaux-Arts architecture. At the Exposition, Franklin P. Burnham was officially credited only with the Cold-Storage Warehouse, while "Willoughby J. Edbrooke, Washington" is credited with the United States Government Building and the other official federal exhibits.[6]
Christ Episcopal Church, Waukegan, Illinois (1887–1889). Co-architect Franklin P. Burnham. Done in classic Richardsonian Romanesque style, its interior has been updated but preserves much of the original aesthetic. It also features an excellent collection of stained glass windows, including one from the studios of Louis Comfort Tiffany. Located at 410 Grand Ave, it continues to be an active Episcopal parish.
U.S. Court of Appeals, San Francisco, California (1897–1905)
Milwaukee Federal Building,
Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1892–1899).[14] Its five-bay entrance loggia virtually repeats the three-bay entrance loggia for the Old Post Office Building, Washington DC, being erected at the same time.
Federal Archive Building, New York (1899). A full city block between
Greenwich Street and
Washington Street, its interior has been renovated as studios and loft apartments, as The Archive.
^The American Indian School, Army Hospital, Government Lighthouse, Heliograph and Transit House, Life-saving Station, Naval Observatory and Weather Bureau, in addition to the Government Building. (
"The Architects and Their Buildings").
^Francis J. Pierson, Dennis J. (FRW) Gallagher, Getting to Know Denver: Five Fabulous Walking Tours 2006:16.