Ellery L. Davis (1887 – March 21, 1956) 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 ...

based in

Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United Sta ...

Early life

Davis was born in 1887 in

Lake City, Florida Lake City is a city in northern Florida. It is the county seat of Columbia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 12,329. It is the principal city of the Lake City Micropolitan Statistical Area, which ...

. He graduated from Lincoln High School in 1903 and the

University of Nebraska–Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a public land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the Morrill Act of 1862, the school was known as the Universit ...

in 1907.

Career

From 1911 to 1917, he worked in partnership with George A. Berlinghof in the firm of George Berlinghof and Ellery Davis. Following the dissolution of that partnership, he worked on his own until 1920 when he formed a partnership with Walter Wilson. The firm of Davis and Wilson is credited with the design of some of the most important buildings in the city of Lincoln, including Gold's department store, the Stuart Building and Theater, the Grainger Brothers building, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Rudge Memorial Chapel, several public schools, and numerous buildings on the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

campus.Davis & Wilson Architects
University of Nebraska Lincoln website Nebraska State Historical Society bldg center from S 1

Davis' son, Ellery H. Davis joined him in the Davis and Wilson firm in the years after

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 ...

. Ellery L. Davis died in 1956, and the firm used the name Davis & Wilson until 1968, when it was renamed Davis, Fenton, Stange and Darling. It has operated under the name Davis Design since 1995. Davis designed the

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

-style

Nebraska State Historical Society Building The Nebraska State Historical Society Building is a historic two-story building in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was built by Olson Construction in 1953 to house the Nebraska State Historical Society, founded in 1878. With It was designed in the Moderne ...

at 1500 R St.

Lincoln, NE Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United Sta ...

(Davis, Ellery Lothrop), which is listed on the U.S.

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 ...

Personal life and death

Davis married Mary Camille Hall; they had a son and a daughter. He died on March 21, 1956, in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Ellery L. 1887 births 1956 deaths Artists from Lincoln, Nebraska University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni Architects from Nebraska 20th-century American architects