William Nowland Van Powell

William Nowland Van Powell (1904–1977), sometimes known professionally as William Van Powell or Nowland Van Powell was an architect, painter, and historian from Memphis, Tennessee.

Architect

In the 1930s, the Greyhound Lines bus company built many bus stations in the then-popular Streamline Moderne style. William Nowland Van Powell designed at least four of them. Working with George Mahan, Jr. in 1939, he was the architect of the Greyhound Bus Station in Jackson, Mississippi. Working with Ben Watson White, he designed the Blytheville Greyhound Bus Station in 1937.

He is also credited as the designer of two nearly-identical Greyhound Half-Way Stations: the Greyhound Half-Way House in Waverly, Tennessee, that has been preserved, and another in Flat River, Missouri that has been substantially remodeled into a laundromat.

Van Powell worked in other architectural styles for other clients. In 1927, he was the architect of the Venetian-inspired ''Memphis Steam Laundry'' building, formerly at 941 Jefferson Ave., Memphis, demolished in 2009.

Along with Henry Ehrensing, he was the architect of the Grand Palace Hotel, New Orleans (built originally as Claiborne Towers), and promoted by its developer as "likely to be one of the greatest buildings the South has ever seen." At the time, Claiborne Towers was the South's largest apartment project, with a planned 1036 units that included air conditioning.

He was also the architect of Memphis' ''Farnsworth Building'' (now the ''Memphis Business Journal Building''), which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Buildings designed

Image:Greyhound Bus Station, December 22, 1939. (8758710403).jpg, Old Greyhound Bus Station (Jackson, Mississippi) December 1939, showing George Mahan, Jr. and Nowland Van Powell, Architects
MDAH Photo

Image:Blytheville Greyhound Bus Station.jpg, Blytheville Greyhound Bus Station
Image:Greyhound Erie PA West Ridge Postcard.png, Greyhound and West Ridge bus station, Erie PA (postcard c. 1940)
Image:Greyhound Half-Way House.jpg, Greyhound Half-Way House, Waverly, Tennessee (2014 photo)
Image:Greyhound Waverly Half-Way House 1943.png, A Greyhound bus stops at the Half-Way House, September 1943
Image:Greyhound_Flat_River_Missouri_Postcard.png, Greyhound Half-Way Station, Flat River, Missouri. 1940s postcard view.
Image:Jackson Greyhound Bus Station.JPG, Greyhound Half-Way Station, Jackson, Tennessee
Image:The_Fairview_Junior_High_School.jpg, Fairview Junior High School, Memphis, designed c. 1930 while employed a
Firm of Edward Lee Harrison
br />NRH
87000447
Image:Claiborne Towers Dec 2011 Canal Derbigny 2.jpg, Claiborne Towers, New Orleans, during its December 2011 demolition
Image:Memphis Steam Laundry, Memphis, Tennessee (Postcard c. 1930).png, Postcard view (c. 1930) of the Memphis Steam Laundry, 941 Jefferson Ave, Memphis TN, shortly after its completion in 1927

Painter, Historian, Author

Van Powell was the author of ''The American Navies of the Revolutionary War'', a collection of his paintings, with descriptive notes by the artist published in 1974 by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York.

Image:ContinentalNavyShipColumbus.jpg, Continental Navy Ship Columbus signed WNVP)
Image:USS Confederacy.jpg, USS Confederacy signed WNVP
Image:NH 85212-KN.jpg, Lieutenant John Paul Jones raising the "Grand Union" flag as Alfred was placed in commission at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 3 December 1775 by W. Nowland Van Powell
Image:Continental Sloop Providence (1775-1779).jpg, Continental Sloop Providence (1775-1779) signed WNVP
Image:USSAlliance.png, USS Alliance (1778)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Powell, William Nowland
1904 births
1977 deaths
Architects from Tennessee
Art Deco architects
American marine artists
Streamline Moderne architects