William Ellsworth Fisher (1871 – 1937) was an architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 who founded the Denver, Colorado

Denver, Colorado

The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

 firm that became Fisher & Fisher

Fisher & Fisher

Fisher & Fisher was an architectural firm in Colorado named for partners William Ellsworth Fisher and Arthur Addison Fisher . The firm was founded in 1892 by William Ellsworth Fisher as William Fisher, Architect...

.

Fisher's father, Allen S. Fisher, moved to Denver from Clinton, Ontario

Clinton, Ontario

Clinton is a community in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in the municipality of Central Huron. Established in 1831, Clinton first began when Jonas Gibbings, Peter and Stephen Vanderburg cleared out a small area to start. Clinton started to grow in 1844 when William Rattenbury laid out...

, Canada, with his family in 1885. William became a draftsman for Balcomb & Rice in Denver in 1890 and then studied briefly with C. Powell Karr in New York. In 1892 he went into business in Denver as William Fisher, Architect. After ten years in solo practise, mainly designing starter homes, he partnered from 1901 to 1905 with Daniel Riggs Huntington, who had also worked for Balcomb & Rice. During this time the firm designed increasingly expensive residences and also commercial buildings. After returning to solo practice for a couple of years, he then partnered with his younger brother Arthur Addison Fisher from 1907 until his death in 1937. His son Alan B. Fisher also worked for the firm and became a partner after William's death.

The Fisher firm was extremely prestigious and has left a unique legacy in Colorado; 50 of 67 remaining buildings in Denver are either eligible for listing by the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 or are listed either individually or as part of historic districts. Most of these, including residences, schools, churches, hospitals and commercial buildings, are from the period when William Fisher was in partnership with his brother. One assessment of the brothers' work is that because of their unusual originality and creativity, "Their contribution to Denver's early stylistic independence is enormous."

In 1908–09, Fisher was one of ten architects invited by The Delineator magazine to design a $3,000 country house; however, he did not place. In the mid-1920s Fisher and his brother planned the oil company town of Parco, Wyoming (now Sinclair

Sinclair, Wyoming

Sinclair is a town in Carbon County, Wyoming, United States. The town was originally called Parco, after the Producers & Refiners Corporation which founded the refinery and the company town. It was renamed Sinclair after PARCO was acquired during the Great Depression by Sinclair Consolidated Oil...

) and designed many buildings there, in a uniform Spanish Colonial style intended to encourage community spirit. The original town (Parco Historic District) centering on the plaza and Parco Inn (formerly Parco Hotel and Sinclair Hotel) is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Notable works

• City Park
  City Park, Denver
  City Park is an urban park and neighborhood in Denver, Colorado. The park is and is located in east-central Denver. The park contains the Denver Zoo, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Ferril and Duck Lakes, and a boathouse. City Park is also the name of the neighborhood that contains the...
  
   Pavilion (Denver, 1896), Spanish Colonial style. With John J. Humphreys.
• Frank L. Smith House (Denver, 1902), French Eclectic style. With Daniel Huntington.
• St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church / Church of the Holy Redeemer (Denver, 1910), Gothic revival, one of only 3 churches known to have been designed by William E. and Arthur A. Fisher.
• A.C. Foster Building (Denver, 1911): 12-story office building with art Nouveau elements, one of the first tall Denver buildings after repeal of an ordinance limiting heights to 9 stories. "[P]ossibly the most exciting and original skyscraper to appear in Denver prior to World War I." Now University Building. With Arthur A. Fisher.
• Tramway Building (Denver, 1911): office building and streetcar barn, now Teatro Hotel. With Arthur A. Fisher.
• Lorraine Lodge / Charles Boettcher Summer Home (Lookout Mountain
  Lookout Mountain (Colorado)
  Lookout Mountain is one of the larger foothills which overlooks Golden, Colorado. The Denver metropolitan area can be seen clearly from the mountain. It is known for its natural scenery and has played a major role in area recreation, transportation, water supply and telecommunications...
  
  , 1916–18), Rustic and Tudor styles, now Jefferson County Conference and Nature Center. With Arthur A. Fisher.
• Foster-Buell Estate
  Foster-Buell Estate
  The Foster-Buell Estate is a home located at 2700 E. Hampden Ave. in Cherry Hills Village, Colorado. It is an example of Colonial revival architecture built in 1920. The architects were William Ellsworth Fisher and his brother Arthur Addison Fisher . The grounds were landscaped by Saco DeBoer. It...
  
   (Cherry Hills Village, 1920), Colonial Revival style. With Arthur A. Fisher.
• U.S. National Bank, later Guaranty Bank and Trust
  Bank Lofts
  - History :Originally the US National/Guaranty Bank Building, the Bank Lofts were designed by Arthur Addison Fisher and William Ellsworth Fisher and built in 1921...
  
   (Denver, 1921): 10-story office building with neo-classical and neo-Renaissance detailing, now Bank Lofts. Fisher & Fisher.
• Neusteter Building (Denver, 1924): 5-story department store, "one of the finest examples of Commercial Style architecture in Denver," now Neusteter Lofts. Fisher & Fisher.
• South High School
  South High School (Denver)
  South High School is a high school in the Washington Park neighborhood on the south side of Denver, Colorado. It is part of Denver Public Schools.-History:...
  
   (Denver, 1924), Romanesque style, "one of Denver's most distinctive schools," with a clock tower based on that at Santa Maria in Cosmedin
  Santa Maria in Cosmedin
  The Basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin is a minor basilica church in Rome, Italy. It is located in the rione of Ripa.- History :The church was built in the 8th century during the Byzantine Papacy over the remains of the Templum Herculis Pompeiani in the Forum Boarium and of the Statio annonae, one...
  
  , with the zodiac instead of numbers on the clock face. With Arthur A. Fisher.
• Beth Jacob / Isaac Solomon Synagogue (Lakewood
  Lakewood, Colorado
  Lakewood is a Home Rule Municipality that is the most populous city in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. Lakewood is the fifth most populous city in the State of Colorado and the 172nd most populous city in the United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that in April 1, 2010...
  
  , 1926), Moorish style, serving the Jewish Consumptives' Relief Society tuberculosis sanatorium and replacing a 1911 building destroyed by fire. With Arthur A. Fisher.
• St. Thomas Episcopal Church (Alamosa, 1926, extended 1930), Mission Revival style. With Arthur A. Fisher.
• Ideal Building (Denver, 1927): Adaptation and extension of office building by Montana Fallis to bank (now Colorado Business Bank), with complete reworking of interior including creation of a bank vault (now a restaurant) and stylistic conversion adding detail to the Chicago-style exterior, including main entrance with marble buffalo heads and cast bronze doors weighing one ton each recalling those of Lorenzo Ghiberti
  Lorenzo Ghiberti
  Lorenzo Ghiberti , born Lorenzo di Bartolo, was an Italian artist of the early Renaissance best known for works in sculpture and metalworking.-Early life:...
  
   for the Florence Baptistery and featuring bas reliefs of American Indian dancing. With Arthur A. Fisher.
• Tower of Memories
  Tower of Memories
  The Tower of Memories is a mausoleum located at Crown Hill Cemetery in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. The seven story building is tall; its entrance is at 29th Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard....
  
   (Wheat Ridge, (1928–): continuation in Modernist style of Gothic tower designed by Charles A. Smith
  Charles A. Smith (architect)
  Charles Ashley Smith , was an American architect who worked mainly in Kansas City, Missouri.He is given credit for architectural innovations in schools that improved ventilation and cleanliness, and which were adopted widely elsewhere....
  
  . Fisher & Fisher. Completed by John Monroe.
• Belcare / Phipps House
  The Phipps Mansion
  The Phipps Mansion is a historical mansion located in Denver, Colorado, specifically in the southeast Belcaro, Denver neighborhood at the corner of Madison Street and Belcaro Drive...
  
  (Denver, 1932), Georgian style. Fisher & Fisher.