Birge Malcolm Clark (April 16, 1893 – April 30, 1989) 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 ...

, called “

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was estab ...

's best-loved architect” by the

Palo Alto Weekly The ''Palo Alto Weekly'' is a weekly community newspaper in Palo Alto in the U.S. state of California. Owned by Embarcadero Media, it serves Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, Stanford, East Palo Alto and Los Altos Hills. It was e ...

; he worked largely in the

Spanish Colonial Revival The Spanish Colonial Revival Style ( es, Arquitectura neocolonial española) is an architectural stylistic movement arising in the early 20th century based on the Spanish Colonial architecture of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. In the ...

style.

Biography

Early life

Clark was born April 16, 1893, in the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, California, though his birth certificate was destroyed in the

San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...

. He was the son of Hanna Grace Birge and Arthur Bridgman Clark, a professor of art and architecture at

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

and the first mayor of

Mayfield, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was estab ...

, later part of Palo Alto. He graduated from

Palo Alto High School Palo Alto Senior High School, commonly referred to locally as "Paly", is a comprehensive public high school in Palo Alto, California. Operated by the Palo Alto Unified School District, the school is one of two schools in the district, the other b ...

in 1910. He received an

A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree in Graphic Design from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1914, and received a Bachelors degree in Architecture from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1917. He served in the United States Army, as an observation balloon pilot in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

; he was shot down by a German pilot and won the

Silver Star The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against an e ...

for gallantry.

Career

His principal architectural works at Stanford University are the

Lou Henry Hoover House The Hoover House, formally known as the Lou Henry Hoover House or the Lou Henry and Herbert Hoover House, is a historic house located on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California, United States. Completed in 1920, it is the form ...

(assisting his father and now the residence of the university President), the three John Stauffer laboratories (1960’s), and the

Seeley G. Mudd Seeley Greenleaf Mudd, M.D. (April 18, 1895 – March 10, 1968) was an American physician, professor, and major philanthropist to academic institutions. Early life Mudd was born in Denver, Colorado in 1895, and was the son of noted mining engine ...

Chemistry Building (1977). His principal works in Palo Alto include the old Police Station and Fire station (now the senior citizen’s center), the Lucie Stern Community Center, the President Hotel, the Palo Alto Post Office (1932), the Palo Alto Medical Clinic, and much of the 500 block of Ramona Street in downtown Palo Alto. Some of the notable and historic homes Clark built in Palo Alto include the Norris House at 1247 Cowper Street, the Dunker House at 420 Maple Street and Lucie Stern’s house at 1990 Cowper Street.

Personal life

He was married to the former Lucile Townley, daughter of Stanford mathematician and astronomer

Sidney Dean Townley Sidney Dean Townley (April 10, 1867 – March 18, 1946) was an American astronomer and geodeticist. He was a professor at Stanford University from 1911 until 1932. Among many other posts, Townley served as an instructor of astronomy at the Uni ...

for sixty-three years, until her death in 1986. They had four sons: Richard Townley Clark, Dean Townley Clark, Birge Gaylord Clark, and Malcolm Mallory Clark, along with 18 grandchildren.

Notable buildings by Birge Clark

Publications

* *

References

External links

*
Sound recording of Birge Clark
(May 1984), from the Stanford University audio collection
Birge Clark Oral History
(October 1985), fro
Palo Alto Historical Association
Moving Image and Audio Collection

Research resources

Birge Malcolm Clark Papers, 1914-1985
(5 linear ft.) are housed in th

a
Stanford University Libraries
** XM
catalog
of correspondence with

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

.
Guide to the Birge Malcolm Clark, Lou Henry Hoover House Papers, 1921- 1949
from the

Online Archive of California The California Digital Library (CDL) was founded by the University of California in 1997. Under the leadership of then UC President Richard C. Atkinson, the CDL's original mission was to forge a better system for scholarly information management a ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Birge 1893 births 1989 deaths 20th-century American architects Palo Alto, California Recipients of the Silver Star People from Palo Alto, California Palo Alto High School alumni Stanford University alumni