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Elias Willard Smith (1814/1816–1886) was an American architect and 
In 1865, Smith designed the
civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...
. He was born in 1814 or 1816 (sources differ) in Albany, New York, and died in 1886 in Washington, DC. He was educated as an engineer, at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Van ...
. As a graduation present from his father, he undertook a trip from St. Louis to the Rocky Mountains and back (1839–1840). During this trip, he recorded his observations in a journal, which was handed down in his family and later published in various scholarly venues.
After returning from the Rocky Mountains expedition and until the Civil War, Smith practiced engineering, having some connection with the water works in Detroit and Chicago. While living in Detroit, Smith practiced architecture, and notably Dankmar Adler studied with him before 1861. After the Civil War, he moved to Virginia, first to Williamsburg
Williamsburg may refer to:
Places
*Colonial Williamsburg, a living-history museum and private foundation in Virginia
*Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood in New York City
*Williamsburg, former name of Kernville (former town), California
*Williams ...
and then to Georgetown. During this period he performed some work for the Washington Gas Works.
In 1865, Smith designed the Daniel S. Schanck Observatory
The Daniel S. Schanck Observatory is an historical astronomical observatory on the Queens Campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States, and is tied for the seventh oldest observatory in the US alongside the Vassar Co ...
for Rutgers College (now Rutgers University).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Elias Willard 19th-century American architects American civil engineers 1814 births 1816 births 1886 deaths Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alumni Architects from Albany, New York Year of birth uncertain