William M. Whidden
Encyclopedia
William Marcy Whidden was a founding member of Whidden & Lewis, a prominent architectural firm
in Portland
, Oregon
, United States
.
. He worked at the firm McKim, Mead and White from at least 1882 until 1888; projects included the Tacoma and Portland Hotels per wiki MM&W page 1-2011; then travelled to Portland, Oregon, in 1883 to work on the Portland Hotel
. Whidden returned to Boston, but came back to Portland in 1887 to finish the hotel. He married Alice McLoughlin, great-granddaughter of John McLoughlin
, in 1884 and had two sons.
and Whidden formed a professional architectural firm in Portland. Their residential buildings were mostly in the Colonial Revival
style, while their commercial buildings were primarily in the twentieth-century classical style. The commercial buildings often featured brick, along with terra cotta
ornamentation. Many of their buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places
(NRHP).
Architectural firm
An architectural firm is a company which employs one or more licensed architects and practices the profession of architecture.- History :Architects have existed since early in recorded history. The earliest recorded architects include Imhotep and Senemut . No writings exist to describe how these...
in Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Early life
William Whidden was born on February 10, 1857, in Boston, Massachusetts. He was raised there and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMassachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. He worked at the firm McKim, Mead and White from at least 1882 until 1888; projects included the Tacoma and Portland Hotels per wiki MM&W page 1-2011; then travelled to Portland, Oregon, in 1883 to work on the Portland Hotel
Portland Hotel
The Portland Hotel was a late-19th-century hotel in Portland, Oregon, United States that once occupied the city block on which Pioneer Courthouse Square now stands. It closed in 1951 after 61 years of operation.-History:...
. Whidden returned to Boston, but came back to Portland in 1887 to finish the hotel. He married Alice McLoughlin, great-granddaughter of John McLoughlin
John McLoughlin
Dr. John McLoughlin, baptized Jean-Baptiste McLoughlin, was the Chief Factor of the Columbia Fur District of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver. He was later known as the "Father of Oregon" for his role in assisting the American cause in the Oregon Country in the Pacific Northwest...
, in 1884 and had two sons.
Whidden & Lewis
In 1889, Ion LewisIon Lewis
Ion Lewis was a founding member of Whidden & Lewis, a prominent architectural firm in Portland, Oregon, United States around the beginning of the 20th century. The firm was formed with partner William M. Whidden...
and Whidden formed a professional architectural firm in Portland. Their residential buildings were mostly in the Colonial Revival
Colonial Revival architecture
The Colonial Revival was a nationalistic architectural style, garden design, and interior design movement in the United States which sought to revive elements of Georgian architecture, part of a broader Colonial Revival Movement in the arts. In the early 1890s Americans began to value their own...
style, while their commercial buildings were primarily in the twentieth-century classical style. The commercial buildings often featured brick, along with terra cotta
Glazed architectural terra-cotta
Glazed architectural terra-cotta is a ceramic masonry building material popular in the United States from the late 19th century until the 1930s, and still one of the most common building materials found in U.S. urban environments...
ornamentation. Many of their buildings are listed on 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...
(NRHP).
Further reading
- Marlitt, Richard. Matters of Proportion: The Portland Residential Architecture of Whidden & Lewis. Portland: Oregon Historical Society Press, 1989.