William Marcy Whidden (February 10, 1857 – July 27, 1929) was a founding member of

Whidden & Lewis Whidden & Lewis was an architectural firm based in Portland, Oregon, in the United States, around the beginning of the 20th century, formed by William M. Whidden and Ion Lewis. The partnership was established in 1889. Their residential building ...

, a prominent architectural firm in

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Early life

William Whidden was born on February 10, 1857, in Boston, Massachusetts.Corning, Howard M. (1989) ''Dictionary of Oregon History''. Binfords & Mort Publishing. p. 262. He was raised there and graduated from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

. He worked at the firm

McKim, Mead and White McKim, Mead & White was an American architectural firm that came to define architectural practice, urbanism, and the ideals of the American Renaissance in fin de siècle New York. The firm's founding partners Charles Follen McKim (1847–1909), ...

from at least 1882 until 1888; projects included the Tacoma and Portland Hotels per wiki MM&W page 1–2011; then travelled to Portland, Oregon, in 1883 to work on the

Portland Hotel The Portland Hotel (or Hotel Portland) was a late-19th-century hotel in Portland, Oregon, United States, that once occupied the city block on which Pioneer Courthouse Square now stands. It closed in 1951 after 61 years of operation.Turner, Wallac ...

. Whidden returned to Boston, but came back to Portland in 1887 to finish the hotel. He married Alice Wygant, great-granddaughter of John McLoughlin, in 1884 and had two sons.

Whidden & Lewis

In 1889,

Ion Lewis Ion Lewis (1858-1933) was a founding member of a Portland architectural firm Whidden & Lewis that was formed around the beginning of the 20th century. The firm was formed with partner William M. Whidden. Their residential buildings were mostly in t ...

and Whidden formed a professional architectural firm in Portland. Their residential buildings were mostly in the

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archit ...

style, while their commercial buildings were primarily in the twentieth-century classical style. The commercial buildings often featured brick, along with

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

ornamentation. Many of their buildings are listed on the

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 ...

(NRHP). The

Whidden–Kerr House and Garden The Whidden–Kerr House and Garden, also known as High Hatch Estate, is a historic property located in the unincorporated communities of Riverwood and Dunthorpe in Multnomah County, Oregon, south of Portland and north of Lake Oswego, Oregon. ...

, which was William Whidden's residence from 1901 until 1911, is also listed on the National Register.

References

1857 births 1929 deaths Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Architects from Boston Architects from Portland, Oregon {{US-architect-stub

Early life

Whidden & Lewis

Further reading

References