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

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater D ...

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 ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...

in 1870. He received "formal training" at Troy Polytechnic School of New York. Williams was employed in 1873 as a civil engineer on the

Northern Pacific Railroad The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly of land grants, whi ...

. 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 is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

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.Augustus Waldo Drur
History of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio
Volume 2 S.J. Clarke Publishing Company (Original from Harvard University, Digitized Jan 24, 2008)

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) A National Register of Historic Places building * Algonquin Hotel, Dayton, Ohio * Sacred Heart Church (1887) (still standing) a three floor

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

church with a limestone facade 37-45 South Wilkinson Street / 217 West Fourth Street *

Reibold Building The Reibold Building in Dayton, Ohio was the area's tallest building from the time of its completion in 1896 until 1904 (when the first part of the Centre City Building, then known as the United Brethren Building, was completed). The Reibold ...

( 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 The Pretzinger name belongs to a family of architects and engineers in Dayton, Ohio. Albert Pretzinger (born February 28, 1863) started the family's architectural legacy. In 1892 he was with Peters, Burns & Pretzinger. He established his own f ...

'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 *

Olive Branch High School Olive Branch High School may refer to: *Olive Branch High School (Olive Branch, Mississippi) *Olive Branch High School (New Carlisle, Ohio) Olive Branch High School was a public high school near New Carlisle, Ohio. History In 1873, a brick struc ...

in New Carlisle

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Charles Insco 1853 births 1923 deaths 19th-century American architects 20th-century American architects