Charles Insco Williams (December 12, 1853 - February 13, 1923) was an artist and architect in Dayton, Ohio

Dayton, Ohio

Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...

.

Biography

He was born on December 12, 1853 to Mary Forman and John Insco Williams. His father seems to have been an accomplished painter. At sixteen he moved with his parents to Cincinnati and graduated from the Chickering Institute of Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

 in 1870. He received "formal training" at Troy Polytechnic School of New York.

Williams was employed in 1873 as a civil engineer

Civil engineer

A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...

 on the Northern Pacific Railroad. He later returned to Dayton and worked as an artist for seven years, and worked in his brother-in-law William H Best's jewellery shop. Then he worked for John Rouzer Co., a lumber

Lumber

Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....

 dealer for two years.

Architectural career

He opened his own architectural office in 1882, becoming "one of the most prominent representatives of this calling not only in Dayton, but in the state.

Personal life

He married Susan Dorothy Boyer on June 26, 1879. She was the daughter of D.K. Boyer, and they had four sons: Howard Insco v, Louis Boyer Williams , Dick K. Williams, and Roger Williams. He was part of the Masonry, Commandery, Consistory, and Mystic Shrine, as well as part of the Dayton City Club and Christ Episcopal Church. According to a 1909 account of Dayton's history he exercised "his right of franchise in support of the Republican Party, manifesting intelligent appreciation of its sterling principles and the policy pursued in the management of government affairs."

Projects in Dayton

• Stivers Manual Training High School (1908) on east Fifth Street (which became Stivers High School and is now Stivers School for the Arts
  Stivers School for the Arts
  Stivers School for the Arts is a magnet school in the Dayton City Schools in Dayton, Ohio, USA, located in the St. Anne's Hill Historic District neighborhood. It is a public middle- and high school that focuses on education in the visual and performing arts. U.S...
  
  ) A National Register of Historic Places building
• Algonquin Hotel, Dayton, Ohio
• Sacred Heart Church
  Sacred Heart Church (Dayton, Ohio)
  Sacred Heart Church is a historic structure at 217 West 4th Street in Dayton, Ohio. Renowned Dayton architect Charles Insco Williams designed it in 1888. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 22, 1987....
  
   (1887) (still standing) a three floor Romanesque Revival church with a limestone facade 37-45 South Wilkinson Street / 217 West Fourth Street
• Reibold Building
  Reibold Building
  The Reibold Building in Dayton, Ohio was the area's tallest from 1896 until 1904 ....
  
   (Elder Dry Goods Store) (1896) an 11-story building at 117 S. Main Street 155 that was the tallest building in the city when it was built. Albert Pretzinger's Peters Burns and Pretzinger firm is also credited as an architect of the building. 101-121 South Main Street. The building was renovated in 2002 and is used as a government office.
• Insco Apartment Building
• Bellevue Apartment House
• YMCA building, Dayton, Ohio Fourth Street
• Trinity Reformed Church Jefferson Street
• Dayton City Club
• Callahan Bank Building

Other projects

• Two school houses in Riverdale
• School building in North Dayton
• Methodist Episcopal Church in North Dayton