Benjamin Stanley Simmons (March 10, 1871 – September 8, 1931) was an American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Life

Born in

Charles County, Maryland Charles County is a county in Southern Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population was 166,617. The county seat is La Plata. The county was named for Charles Calvert (1637–1715), third Baron Baltimore. Charles County is part of the Wash ...

, in 1872, Simmons came as a child came to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, where he would later establish his career in architecture. He received his architecture degree at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

, and continued his study at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...

. He started designing and building houses in the 1890s, before he moved on to bigger commissions. In 1902, the '' Evening Star'' described Simmons as "an architect who has added to the beauty and growth of this city." He established himself as an extremely prolific architect, ultimately designing more than 280 buildings in the city. Simmons worked with every major developer, and appears to have had a particularly close working relationship with Lester A. Barr and later his son, John L. Barr, with whom he designed some of his best-known commissions. Simmons was versatile, designing a variety of building types including row houses, fraternal clubs, and commercial and institutional buildings. He seems to have had a proclivity for apartment buildings, of which he designed more than 60. Among his other works are the

National Metropolitan Bank Building The National Metropolitan Bank Building is an historic structure located at 655 15th Street, NW in Downtown Washington, D.C. History B. Stanley Simmons of the architectural firm of Gordon, Tracy & Swartout designed the Beaux-Arts style building. ...

at 15th and G Streets NW (1905), the

Elks Club The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE; also often known as the Elks Lodge or simply The Elks) is an American fraternal order founded in 1868, originally as a social club in New York City. History The Elks began in 1868 as a soci ...

at 919 H Street NW (1908, demolished); and the

Fairfax Hotel The Fairfax at Embassy Row was a historic luxury hotel located at 2100 Massachusetts Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It opened in 1927 and closed permanently in 2021. The Fairfax is designated as a contributing property to the ...

at 21st and Massachusetts Avenue NW (1921). His earlier Hume School, built in 1891, is on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

, along with the National Metropolitan Bank Building, the

Wyoming Apartments Wyoming Apartments is an historic apartment building, located at 2022 Columbia Road, Northwest, Washington, D.C. in the Kalorama neighborhood. History The Beaux-Arts luxury apartment building was designed by B. Stanley Simmons, for Lester A. B ...

, and the Barr Building. National Metropolitan Bank, DC

Although he never studied at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...

, Simmons became a student of the Beaux Arts tradition and the City Beautiful Movement. While his 19th-century speculative row houses reflect Victorian styles of architecture, his early 20th-century buildings are grander and more monumental structures that reflect a variety of academic styles inspired the

City Beautiful movement The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy of North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of introducing beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. It was a part of the ...

, including the Classical Revival style and

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

. Simmons died in 1931 at 60. He was survived by a son, B. Stanley Jr., and 11 grandchildren. Many of his buildings were recognized in the late 20th century.

References

1871 births 1931 deaths People from Charles County, Maryland 19th-century American architects MIT School of Architecture and Planning alumni Architects from Washington, D.C. University of Maryland, College Park alumni 20th-century American architects Architects from Maryland {{US-architect-stub