Donald Barthelme Sr. (August 4, 1907 – July 16, 1996) was an

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 ...

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, a teacher of architecture as a professor at the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

and

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

, and the father of novelists Donald Barthelme Jr,

Frederick Barthelme Fredrick Barthelme (born October 10, 1943) is an American novelist and short story writer, well-known as one of the seminal writers of minimalist fiction. Alongside his personal publishing history, his position as Director of The Center For Write ...

, and

Steven Barthelme Steven Barthelme (born 1947) is the author of numerous short stories and essays. His published works include ''And He Tells the Little Horse the Whole Story'', ''Double Down: Reflections on Gambling and Loss'' (with brother Frederick Barthelme), ...

. Barthelme was born on August 4, 1907, in

Galveston, Texas Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

. After studying at the

Rice Institute The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is an international agricultural research and training organization with its headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna, in the Philippines, and offices in seventeen countries. IRRI is known for its work ...

in Houston for two years, in 1926 he transferred to the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, graduating in 1930. That same year he married Helen Bechtold of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. After graduation, he worked as an architect in Philadelphia until late in 1932, when he returned to Texas.Donald Barthelme Sr. Architectural Papers, 1924–1997
University of Houston A highlight of Barthelme's early career in Texas was his work on the

Texas Centennial Exposition The Texas Centennial Exposition was a world's fair presented from June 6 to November 29, 1936, at Fair Park, Dallas, Texas. A celebration of the 100th anniversary of Texas's independence from Mexico in 1836, it also celebrated Texas and Western Am ...

, for which he was the lead designer of the exposition's centerpiece building, the

Hall of State The Hall of State (originally the State of Texas Building) is a building in Dallas's Fair Park that commemorates the history of the U.S. state of Texas and is considered one of the best examples of Art Deco architecture in the state. It was desig ...

, which is considered a masterpiece of the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style and is now the home of the

Dallas Historical Society The Dallas Historical Society is an organization dedicated to the history of Dallas, Texas (USA). It was organized on March 31, 1922, by citizens who wished to encourage historical inquiry. In 1938, the Society assumed the management of the Hall o ...

. After the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he worked on war-related projects. He was a designer on the Avion Village Housing Project near

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

and later was supervising architect for the Big Spring Air Base in

West Texas West Texas is a loosely defined region in the U.S. state of Texas, generally encompassing the arid and semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Wichita Falls, Abilene, and Del Rio. No consensus exists on the boundary betwee ...

and war-related

housing project Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authorities, government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the d ...

s in Galveston and

Sweeny, Texas Sweeny is a city in Brazoria County, Texas, United States, the westernmost incorporated town in the county. The population is 3,626 as of 2020. The city's motto is "A City with Pride". The city was once known as Adamston. Geography and transpor ...

. Beginning in 1942 and continuing through his retirement from architecture practice in 1963, he designed many

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compuls ...

buildings for the West Columbia Independent School District in

Brazoria County, Texas Brazoria County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population of the county was 372,031. The county seat is Angleton. Brazoria County is included in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metropolitan statis ...

. His school designs, the best known of which was the West Columbia Elementary School (1951), earned national and international awards and were featured in numerous publications. He came to be considered an expert on school design, wrote and lectured extensively on the subject, and was elected a Fellow of the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...

(AIA) in 1955 in recognition of his work in school architecture. His other notable projects included the St. Rose of Lima Church and School (1948), which was the first

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

church in Houston and the first building in the city to win an award of merit from the AIA. From 1946 to 1973 Barthelme served on the faculty of the Architecture Department at the University of Houston, where he was influential in helping to shape the program in its early years. He also was William Ward Watkin Professor and chairman of the Architecture Department at Rice University from 1959 to 1961, and spent time as a visiting professor at both the

and

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

. Barthelme and his wife had five children. The eldest,

Donald Barthelme Donald Barthelme (April 7, 1931 – July 23, 1989) was an American short story writer and novelist known for his playful, postmodernist style of short fiction. Barthelme also worked as a newspaper reporter for the ''Houston Post'', was managing ...

Jr. (1931–1989), became famous as a writer and novelist and another son,

(1943- ), became a prominent exponent of minimalism in American fiction. A third son,

, is also a prominent novelist. Donald Barthelme Sr. died on July 16, 1996.

References

External links

Donald Barthelme Sr., Architectural Drawings and Photographs
Special Collections, University of Houston Digital Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Barthelme, Donald Sr. Architects from Texas American ecclesiastical architects 1907 births 1996 deaths Rice University alumni University of Pennsylvania School of Design alumni Rice University faculty Architects from Houston University of Houston faculty Fellows of the American Institute of Architects People from Galveston, Texas Architects of Roman Catholic churches 20th-century American architects