A partner in the architectural firm Purcell and Elmslie, of Minneapolis, MN.
Chief draftsman for Louis Sullivan for almost 20 years previous to moving to Minneapolis.
During the last months of 1909 Louis Sullivan could no longer pay George Elmslie because of declining business fortunes, and Elmslie was forced to find a more reliable situation. For some time Purcell and Elmslie had talked of working together, and the time was right. By 1910 Elmslie had left the Sullivan office and moved to Minneapolis as a full partner in Purcell, Feick & Elmslie.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Immigration
23 Jun 1882 • New York Port, New York, New York, USA
On ship State Of Florida, sailing from Glasgow to New York, in cabins with children, pp. 9-10 of passenger list, immigration at Castle Garden.
===========================
George Grant Elmslie was born in 1869 on a farm called Foot O' Hill near the town of Huntly in northeast Scotland. (Some writers give a birth year for Elmslie of 1871. While definitive documentation has yet to be published, Purcell related that Elmslie was actually born in 1869. However, he declared his birth year to be two years later than that when arriving in the United States to join his father at Chicago. Had Elmslie given his real date of birth, he would have been too old to enter as a dependent child.) Elmslie remained in school until he was sixteen when he and the rest of the family emigrated to America in 1884 to join his father, who had left a year earlier and found work at a meat packing plant in Chicago.
After taking courses for a year at a business school, Elmslie began the study of architecture. By 1887 he was at work in the office of Joseph Silsbee. Also in the Silsbee office at the time were Cecil Corwin, George H. Maher, and, most importantly, Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright soon left to work for the office of Adler & Sullivan, and in 1889 he asked Elmslie to join him there.
When business in the Sullivan firm waned after the turn of the century, Elmslie looked for a source of more regular income. He had been acquainted with William Gray Purcell since August of 1903 and the two had discussed the possiblity of joining forces in an architectural practice. Elmslie was reluctant to leave Chicago, since he would not abandon the ongoing work of clients. This and other personal reasons kept him from moving to Minneapolis until November, 1909.
[Elmslie's collaboration with Purcell and Feick are detailed in the following Historical Note.]
Elmslie returned to Chicago in 1912 after the death of his wife, Bonnie Hunter Elmslie, but continued practicing architecture from what then became the Chicago office of Purcell, Feick & Elmslie. After the Woodbury County Court House was completed in 1918, the business of the firm entered a decline. Purcell requested the dissolution of the Purcell & Elmslie partnership in 1921.
From the 1920s to the late 1930s, Elmslie obtained fewer than fifty commissions on his own. The practice that he established after the breakup of Purcell & Elmslie was known as George Grant Elmslie & Associates, representing an informal partnership with several draftsmen from the earlier partnership including Lawrence A. Fournier and Frederick A. Strauel. The largest related group of buildings that Elmslie designed during these years consisted of seven various structures, some built and others only projected, for a small college in Yankton, South Dakota. Elmslie also served as associate architect on several commercial and industrial structures with Herman V. von Holst, particularly a series of train stations and power company buildings. Among the last works recorded on his office accounting system were several schools built in Indiana from 1935 to 1938 in association with William S. Hutton. In 1947 Elmslie was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects.
Elmslie maintained a voluminous correspondence with Purcell from the 1920s until his death. Beginning in the late 1940s Elmslie suffered from increasingly ill health. Due to arteriosclerosis his physical and mental capacities weakened gradually until he rarely had the strength to do even the smallest amount of work. He died at the age of eighty three on April 23, 1952.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Purcell, Feick and Elmslie/Purcell and Elmslie Firms: Historical Note
Early in 1907, Purcell and George Feick traveled by train from Chicago and after arriving in Minneapolis they took rooms in a boardinghouse, rented an office on the tenth floor of the New York Life Building, and mailed out engraved cards announcing the new architectural partnership of Purcell & Feick. For the next two and a half years, they worked to establish their credentials as earnest practitioners of the Sullivan derived "function and form," or organic, architecture. In December 1908 Purcell married Edna Summy, a Wellesley graduate whose father owned a music publishing business in Chicago.
Many early business relations sprang from contacts with friends of his father or grandfather. This growing network of small town businessmen, especially bankers, would eventually broaden opportunities for commissions in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and the Dakotas. From contacts in his home town of Sandusky, George Feick, Jr., brought business to the office from Ohio, particularly speculative houses and an office building done for his father, a construction contractor.
During the last months of 1909 Louis Sullivan could no longer pay George Elmslie because of declining business fortunes, and Elmslie was forced to find a more reliable situation. For some time Purcell and Elmslie had talked of working together, and the time was right. By 1910 Elmslie had left the Sullivan office and moved to Minneapolis as a full partner in Purcell, Feick & Elmslie.
George Elmslie brought important business contacts that resulted in a growing number of commissions from former Sullivan clients. George Feick followed leads for projects in his hometown and handled small buildings for friends and acquaintances. Purcell continued to develop productive friendships with men who lived in small towns throughout the Midwest, which created a network of sympathizers who kept the firm advised of potential jobs. During these years of success, personal events brought substantial changes to the lives of both Purcell and Elmslie. Profoundly affected by the death of his wife in 1912 , Elmslie left Minneapolis in March, 1913 and returned to Chicago where he opened a second Purcell, Feick & Elmslie office. George Feick did not completely share the intense dedication of Purcell and Elmslie to the new architecture, and in 1913 left Minneapolis to rejoin his father's business in Sandusky, Ohio.
The only expression of the organically based architecture in a major public building occurred in the Woodbury County Court House completed in Sioux City, Iowa in 1916 and designed in partnership with William L. Steele, an architect who had developed a strong friendship with George Elmslie while working in the Sullivan office.
With the World War bringing architectural commissions to a near-standstill, Purcell looked for employment through former business connections. In 1915 Purcell had met Charles O. Alexander, the president of the Alexander Brothers Leather Belting Company of Philadelphia. Purcell's desire to participate in the war effort led him, in 1916, to begin working for Alexander Brothers Corporation (later known as International Leather Belting Corporation) in the dual capacities of architect and advertising manager. From 1916 until his resignation in 1919, he created a systematized and coordinated series of campaigns to sell Alexander products using artwork and graphic designs commissioned from some of the finest artists of the progressive movement, such as Charles S. Chapman, Charles Livingston Bull, and John W. Norton. As well, the Purcell & Elmslie firm oversaw a complete remodeling of the executive offices of Alexander Brothers and designed two unbuilt projects for C. O. Alexander personally. The most important of the architectural designs for Alexander Brothers was a standardized factory plan that was intended to be built in three locations. Only two units, those in Chicago and New Haven, were constructed. Purcell resigned in 1919, but eventually was forced to sue to recover architectural fees due Purcell & Elmslie as well as his own salary.
Purcell left the East Coast in November, 1919 heading for Portland, Oregon. At first, Purcell did not intend to continue in architectural practice. His original purpose in coming west was to join his cousin, Charles H. Purcell, in a bridge building company called the Pacific States Engineering Corporation (PSEC). However, under the old firm name of Purcell & Elmslie, the W. G. Purcell residence was built in 1920, but beyond one bank and a few other, fruitless inquiries, the effort to generate new business was a failure. Citing poor economic circumstances, Purcell formally requested that the Purcell & firm be dissolved in 1921.
Purcell, Feick and Elmslie/Purcell and Elmslie Firms: Historical Note
Biographical information and historical notes adapted from the online publication, Guide to the William Gray Purcell Papers, 1985, by Mark Hammons.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--From The Scottish American History Club Newsletter,
October 2000
George Grant Elmslie
Someone You Should Know
One of the least celebrated Chicago architects of the twentieth century is George Grant Elmslie. He was a disciple of Louis Sullivan and did more than anyone to promote the Sullivanesque ideal in architecture. Elmslie was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, near the town of Huntly.
His formal education began in the Riggens School in Gartly and continued in the famous and highly disciplined duke of Gordon School in Huntly. In 1884, he and his mother left Scotland to join their father in Chicago who was employed by the Armour Company. After a brief period in a local business school, George Elmslie followed his parents advice and began the study of architecture.
Those of you who live in Chicago will know of the Carson Pirie Scott store on State Street and the beautiful ironwork entrance. That ironwork is the product of Elmslie who also did the interior finish. Among his other work in the Chicago area includes the People's Gas Light and Coke Company at 4839 Irving Park Road, Healy Chapel in Aurora, and the First Congregational Church in Western Springs. His office was in the People's Gas Company building on Michigan Avenue across from the Art Institute.
Perhaps the most Scottish inspired of his buildings is the Maxwelton Braes Resort Hotel in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin. He also designed The Airplane House at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The house is now being restored and should be completed by 2004. Pictures of his work are now on the Internet. You can see the Airplane House, the Purcell-Cutts House in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the Merchant's Bank of Winona, Minnesota. Most of the search engines will take you to George Grant Elmslie.
There is no known evidence that Elmslie was a member of our St. Andrew society, but his office was in the same building with John Williamson and other Scots employed by the People's Gas company. He is shown to be one of the donors to the building of The Scottish Home.
George Elmslie died in 1952 and is buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago along with his mentor, Louis Sullivan.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some writers give a birth year for Elmslie of 1871. While definitive documentation has yet to be published, Purcell related that Elmslie was actually born in 1869. However, he declared his birth year to be two years later than that when arriving in the United States to join his father at Chicago. Had Elmslie given his real date of birth, he would have been too old to enter as a dependent child.
The 1871 Scottish census enumerates George at 2 years of age, corroborated by the 1881 which has him at 12. So confirming he was born about 1869. I will leave the birth year as 1871 as that is what is on his monument.
KG
==========================
I find it ironic that for all the many designs he did- in many media- he did not design his own tomb stone as Purcell did, but simple has his name added to Bonnie's family slab. KG
=============================
Name: John Elmslie
Birth Year: abt 1833
Age: 72 Yr
Death Date: 15 Apr 1905
Death Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois
SOURCE- Illinois, U.S., Select Deaths Index, 1877-1916
NOTE- I have found no death certificate, as yet.
NOTE- I have an inquiry in to Rosehill cemetery to find out if his father John Elmslie, 1833-1905, is also interred there beside wife Jane. 26 Apr 2021 KG
Chief draftsman for Louis Sullivan for almost 20 years previous to moving to Minneapolis.
During the last months of 1909 Louis Sullivan could no longer pay George Elmslie because of declining business fortunes, and Elmslie was forced to find a more reliable situation. For some time Purcell and Elmslie had talked of working together, and the time was right. By 1910 Elmslie had left the Sullivan office and moved to Minneapolis as a full partner in Purcell, Feick & Elmslie.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Immigration
23 Jun 1882 • New York Port, New York, New York, USA
On ship State Of Florida, sailing from Glasgow to New York, in cabins with children, pp. 9-10 of passenger list, immigration at Castle Garden.
===========================
George Grant Elmslie was born in 1869 on a farm called Foot O' Hill near the town of Huntly in northeast Scotland. (Some writers give a birth year for Elmslie of 1871. While definitive documentation has yet to be published, Purcell related that Elmslie was actually born in 1869. However, he declared his birth year to be two years later than that when arriving in the United States to join his father at Chicago. Had Elmslie given his real date of birth, he would have been too old to enter as a dependent child.) Elmslie remained in school until he was sixteen when he and the rest of the family emigrated to America in 1884 to join his father, who had left a year earlier and found work at a meat packing plant in Chicago.
After taking courses for a year at a business school, Elmslie began the study of architecture. By 1887 he was at work in the office of Joseph Silsbee. Also in the Silsbee office at the time were Cecil Corwin, George H. Maher, and, most importantly, Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright soon left to work for the office of Adler & Sullivan, and in 1889 he asked Elmslie to join him there.
When business in the Sullivan firm waned after the turn of the century, Elmslie looked for a source of more regular income. He had been acquainted with William Gray Purcell since August of 1903 and the two had discussed the possiblity of joining forces in an architectural practice. Elmslie was reluctant to leave Chicago, since he would not abandon the ongoing work of clients. This and other personal reasons kept him from moving to Minneapolis until November, 1909.
[Elmslie's collaboration with Purcell and Feick are detailed in the following Historical Note.]
Elmslie returned to Chicago in 1912 after the death of his wife, Bonnie Hunter Elmslie, but continued practicing architecture from what then became the Chicago office of Purcell, Feick & Elmslie. After the Woodbury County Court House was completed in 1918, the business of the firm entered a decline. Purcell requested the dissolution of the Purcell & Elmslie partnership in 1921.
From the 1920s to the late 1930s, Elmslie obtained fewer than fifty commissions on his own. The practice that he established after the breakup of Purcell & Elmslie was known as George Grant Elmslie & Associates, representing an informal partnership with several draftsmen from the earlier partnership including Lawrence A. Fournier and Frederick A. Strauel. The largest related group of buildings that Elmslie designed during these years consisted of seven various structures, some built and others only projected, for a small college in Yankton, South Dakota. Elmslie also served as associate architect on several commercial and industrial structures with Herman V. von Holst, particularly a series of train stations and power company buildings. Among the last works recorded on his office accounting system were several schools built in Indiana from 1935 to 1938 in association with William S. Hutton. In 1947 Elmslie was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects.
Elmslie maintained a voluminous correspondence with Purcell from the 1920s until his death. Beginning in the late 1940s Elmslie suffered from increasingly ill health. Due to arteriosclerosis his physical and mental capacities weakened gradually until he rarely had the strength to do even the smallest amount of work. He died at the age of eighty three on April 23, 1952.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Purcell, Feick and Elmslie/Purcell and Elmslie Firms: Historical Note
Early in 1907, Purcell and George Feick traveled by train from Chicago and after arriving in Minneapolis they took rooms in a boardinghouse, rented an office on the tenth floor of the New York Life Building, and mailed out engraved cards announcing the new architectural partnership of Purcell & Feick. For the next two and a half years, they worked to establish their credentials as earnest practitioners of the Sullivan derived "function and form," or organic, architecture. In December 1908 Purcell married Edna Summy, a Wellesley graduate whose father owned a music publishing business in Chicago.
Many early business relations sprang from contacts with friends of his father or grandfather. This growing network of small town businessmen, especially bankers, would eventually broaden opportunities for commissions in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and the Dakotas. From contacts in his home town of Sandusky, George Feick, Jr., brought business to the office from Ohio, particularly speculative houses and an office building done for his father, a construction contractor.
During the last months of 1909 Louis Sullivan could no longer pay George Elmslie because of declining business fortunes, and Elmslie was forced to find a more reliable situation. For some time Purcell and Elmslie had talked of working together, and the time was right. By 1910 Elmslie had left the Sullivan office and moved to Minneapolis as a full partner in Purcell, Feick & Elmslie.
George Elmslie brought important business contacts that resulted in a growing number of commissions from former Sullivan clients. George Feick followed leads for projects in his hometown and handled small buildings for friends and acquaintances. Purcell continued to develop productive friendships with men who lived in small towns throughout the Midwest, which created a network of sympathizers who kept the firm advised of potential jobs. During these years of success, personal events brought substantial changes to the lives of both Purcell and Elmslie. Profoundly affected by the death of his wife in 1912 , Elmslie left Minneapolis in March, 1913 and returned to Chicago where he opened a second Purcell, Feick & Elmslie office. George Feick did not completely share the intense dedication of Purcell and Elmslie to the new architecture, and in 1913 left Minneapolis to rejoin his father's business in Sandusky, Ohio.
The only expression of the organically based architecture in a major public building occurred in the Woodbury County Court House completed in Sioux City, Iowa in 1916 and designed in partnership with William L. Steele, an architect who had developed a strong friendship with George Elmslie while working in the Sullivan office.
With the World War bringing architectural commissions to a near-standstill, Purcell looked for employment through former business connections. In 1915 Purcell had met Charles O. Alexander, the president of the Alexander Brothers Leather Belting Company of Philadelphia. Purcell's desire to participate in the war effort led him, in 1916, to begin working for Alexander Brothers Corporation (later known as International Leather Belting Corporation) in the dual capacities of architect and advertising manager. From 1916 until his resignation in 1919, he created a systematized and coordinated series of campaigns to sell Alexander products using artwork and graphic designs commissioned from some of the finest artists of the progressive movement, such as Charles S. Chapman, Charles Livingston Bull, and John W. Norton. As well, the Purcell & Elmslie firm oversaw a complete remodeling of the executive offices of Alexander Brothers and designed two unbuilt projects for C. O. Alexander personally. The most important of the architectural designs for Alexander Brothers was a standardized factory plan that was intended to be built in three locations. Only two units, those in Chicago and New Haven, were constructed. Purcell resigned in 1919, but eventually was forced to sue to recover architectural fees due Purcell & Elmslie as well as his own salary.
Purcell left the East Coast in November, 1919 heading for Portland, Oregon. At first, Purcell did not intend to continue in architectural practice. His original purpose in coming west was to join his cousin, Charles H. Purcell, in a bridge building company called the Pacific States Engineering Corporation (PSEC). However, under the old firm name of Purcell & Elmslie, the W. G. Purcell residence was built in 1920, but beyond one bank and a few other, fruitless inquiries, the effort to generate new business was a failure. Citing poor economic circumstances, Purcell formally requested that the Purcell & firm be dissolved in 1921.
Purcell, Feick and Elmslie/Purcell and Elmslie Firms: Historical Note
Biographical information and historical notes adapted from the online publication, Guide to the William Gray Purcell Papers, 1985, by Mark Hammons.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--From The Scottish American History Club Newsletter,
October 2000
George Grant Elmslie
Someone You Should Know
One of the least celebrated Chicago architects of the twentieth century is George Grant Elmslie. He was a disciple of Louis Sullivan and did more than anyone to promote the Sullivanesque ideal in architecture. Elmslie was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, near the town of Huntly.
His formal education began in the Riggens School in Gartly and continued in the famous and highly disciplined duke of Gordon School in Huntly. In 1884, he and his mother left Scotland to join their father in Chicago who was employed by the Armour Company. After a brief period in a local business school, George Elmslie followed his parents advice and began the study of architecture.
Those of you who live in Chicago will know of the Carson Pirie Scott store on State Street and the beautiful ironwork entrance. That ironwork is the product of Elmslie who also did the interior finish. Among his other work in the Chicago area includes the People's Gas Light and Coke Company at 4839 Irving Park Road, Healy Chapel in Aurora, and the First Congregational Church in Western Springs. His office was in the People's Gas Company building on Michigan Avenue across from the Art Institute.
Perhaps the most Scottish inspired of his buildings is the Maxwelton Braes Resort Hotel in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin. He also designed The Airplane House at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The house is now being restored and should be completed by 2004. Pictures of his work are now on the Internet. You can see the Airplane House, the Purcell-Cutts House in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the Merchant's Bank of Winona, Minnesota. Most of the search engines will take you to George Grant Elmslie.
There is no known evidence that Elmslie was a member of our St. Andrew society, but his office was in the same building with John Williamson and other Scots employed by the People's Gas company. He is shown to be one of the donors to the building of The Scottish Home.
George Elmslie died in 1952 and is buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago along with his mentor, Louis Sullivan.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some writers give a birth year for Elmslie of 1871. While definitive documentation has yet to be published, Purcell related that Elmslie was actually born in 1869. However, he declared his birth year to be two years later than that when arriving in the United States to join his father at Chicago. Had Elmslie given his real date of birth, he would have been too old to enter as a dependent child.
The 1871 Scottish census enumerates George at 2 years of age, corroborated by the 1881 which has him at 12. So confirming he was born about 1869. I will leave the birth year as 1871 as that is what is on his monument.
KG
==========================
I find it ironic that for all the many designs he did- in many media- he did not design his own tomb stone as Purcell did, but simple has his name added to Bonnie's family slab. KG
=============================
Name: John Elmslie
Birth Year: abt 1833
Age: 72 Yr
Death Date: 15 Apr 1905
Death Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois
SOURCE- Illinois, U.S., Select Deaths Index, 1877-1916
NOTE- I have found no death certificate, as yet.
NOTE- I have an inquiry in to Rosehill cemetery to find out if his father John Elmslie, 1833-1905, is also interred there beside wife Jane. 26 Apr 2021 KG
A partner in the architectural firm Purcell and Elmslie, of Minneapolis, MN.
Chief draftsman for Louis Sullivan for almost 20 years previous to moving to Minneapolis.
During the last months of 1909 Louis Sullivan could no longer pay George Elmslie because of declining business fortunes, and Elmslie was forced to find a more reliable situation. For some time Purcell and Elmslie had talked of working together, and the time was right. By 1910 Elmslie had left the Sullivan office and moved to Minneapolis as a full partner in Purcell, Feick & Elmslie.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Immigration
23 Jun 1882 • New York Port, New York, New York, USA
On ship State Of Florida, sailing from Glasgow to New York, in cabins with children, pp. 9-10 of passenger list, immigration at Castle Garden.
===========================
George Grant Elmslie was born in 1869 on a farm called Foot O' Hill near the town of Huntly in northeast Scotland. (Some writers give a birth year for Elmslie of 1871. While definitive documentation has yet to be published, Purcell related that Elmslie was actually born in 1869. However, he declared his birth year to be two years later than that when arriving in the United States to join his father at Chicago. Had Elmslie given his real date of birth, he would have been too old to enter as a dependent child.) Elmslie remained in school until he was sixteen when he and the rest of the family emigrated to America in 1884 to join his father, who had left a year earlier and found work at a meat packing plant in Chicago.
After taking courses for a year at a business school, Elmslie began the study of architecture. By 1887 he was at work in the office of Joseph Silsbee. Also in the Silsbee office at the time were Cecil Corwin, George H. Maher, and, most importantly, Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright soon left to work for the office of Adler & Sullivan, and in 1889 he asked Elmslie to join him there.
When business in the Sullivan firm waned after the turn of the century, Elmslie looked for a source of more regular income. He had been acquainted with William Gray Purcell since August of 1903 and the two had discussed the possiblity of joining forces in an architectural practice. Elmslie was reluctant to leave Chicago, since he would not abandon the ongoing work of clients. This and other personal reasons kept him from moving to Minneapolis until November, 1909.
[Elmslie's collaboration with Purcell and Feick are detailed in the following Historical Note.]
Elmslie returned to Chicago in 1912 after the death of his wife, Bonnie Hunter Elmslie, but continued practicing architecture from what then became the Chicago office of Purcell, Feick & Elmslie. After the Woodbury County Court House was completed in 1918, the business of the firm entered a decline. Purcell requested the dissolution of the Purcell & Elmslie partnership in 1921.
From the 1920s to the late 1930s, Elmslie obtained fewer than fifty commissions on his own. The practice that he established after the breakup of Purcell & Elmslie was known as George Grant Elmslie & Associates, representing an informal partnership with several draftsmen from the earlier partnership including Lawrence A. Fournier and Frederick A. Strauel. The largest related group of buildings that Elmslie designed during these years consisted of seven various structures, some built and others only projected, for a small college in Yankton, South Dakota. Elmslie also served as associate architect on several commercial and industrial structures with Herman V. von Holst, particularly a series of train stations and power company buildings. Among the last works recorded on his office accounting system were several schools built in Indiana from 1935 to 1938 in association with William S. Hutton. In 1947 Elmslie was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects.
Elmslie maintained a voluminous correspondence with Purcell from the 1920s until his death. Beginning in the late 1940s Elmslie suffered from increasingly ill health. Due to arteriosclerosis his physical and mental capacities weakened gradually until he rarely had the strength to do even the smallest amount of work. He died at the age of eighty three on April 23, 1952.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Purcell, Feick and Elmslie/Purcell and Elmslie Firms: Historical Note
Early in 1907, Purcell and George Feick traveled by train from Chicago and after arriving in Minneapolis they took rooms in a boardinghouse, rented an office on the tenth floor of the New York Life Building, and mailed out engraved cards announcing the new architectural partnership of Purcell & Feick. For the next two and a half years, they worked to establish their credentials as earnest practitioners of the Sullivan derived "function and form," or organic, architecture. In December 1908 Purcell married Edna Summy, a Wellesley graduate whose father owned a music publishing business in Chicago.
Many early business relations sprang from contacts with friends of his father or grandfather. This growing network of small town businessmen, especially bankers, would eventually broaden opportunities for commissions in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and the Dakotas. From contacts in his home town of Sandusky, George Feick, Jr., brought business to the office from Ohio, particularly speculative houses and an office building done for his father, a construction contractor.
During the last months of 1909 Louis Sullivan could no longer pay George Elmslie because of declining business fortunes, and Elmslie was forced to find a more reliable situation. For some time Purcell and Elmslie had talked of working together, and the time was right. By 1910 Elmslie had left the Sullivan office and moved to Minneapolis as a full partner in Purcell, Feick & Elmslie.
George Elmslie brought important business contacts that resulted in a growing number of commissions from former Sullivan clients. George Feick followed leads for projects in his hometown and handled small buildings for friends and acquaintances. Purcell continued to develop productive friendships with men who lived in small towns throughout the Midwest, which created a network of sympathizers who kept the firm advised of potential jobs. During these years of success, personal events brought substantial changes to the lives of both Purcell and Elmslie. Profoundly affected by the death of his wife in 1912 , Elmslie left Minneapolis in March, 1913 and returned to Chicago where he opened a second Purcell, Feick & Elmslie office. George Feick did not completely share the intense dedication of Purcell and Elmslie to the new architecture, and in 1913 left Minneapolis to rejoin his father's business in Sandusky, Ohio.
The only expression of the organically based architecture in a major public building occurred in the Woodbury County Court House completed in Sioux City, Iowa in 1916 and designed in partnership with William L. Steele, an architect who had developed a strong friendship with George Elmslie while working in the Sullivan office.
With the World War bringing architectural commissions to a near-standstill, Purcell looked for employment through former business connections. In 1915 Purcell had met Charles O. Alexander, the president of the Alexander Brothers Leather Belting Company of Philadelphia. Purcell's desire to participate in the war effort led him, in 1916, to begin working for Alexander Brothers Corporation (later known as International Leather Belting Corporation) in the dual capacities of architect and advertising manager. From 1916 until his resignation in 1919, he created a systematized and coordinated series of campaigns to sell Alexander products using artwork and graphic designs commissioned from some of the finest artists of the progressive movement, such as Charles S. Chapman, Charles Livingston Bull, and John W. Norton. As well, the Purcell & Elmslie firm oversaw a complete remodeling of the executive offices of Alexander Brothers and designed two unbuilt projects for C. O. Alexander personally. The most important of the architectural designs for Alexander Brothers was a standardized factory plan that was intended to be built in three locations. Only two units, those in Chicago and New Haven, were constructed. Purcell resigned in 1919, but eventually was forced to sue to recover architectural fees due Purcell & Elmslie as well as his own salary.
Purcell left the East Coast in November, 1919 heading for Portland, Oregon. At first, Purcell did not intend to continue in architectural practice. His original purpose in coming west was to join his cousin, Charles H. Purcell, in a bridge building company called the Pacific States Engineering Corporation (PSEC). However, under the old firm name of Purcell & Elmslie, the W. G. Purcell residence was built in 1920, but beyond one bank and a few other, fruitless inquiries, the effort to generate new business was a failure. Citing poor economic circumstances, Purcell formally requested that the Purcell & firm be dissolved in 1921.
Purcell, Feick and Elmslie/Purcell and Elmslie Firms: Historical Note
Biographical information and historical notes adapted from the online publication, Guide to the William Gray Purcell Papers, 1985, by Mark Hammons.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--From The Scottish American History Club Newsletter,
October 2000
George Grant Elmslie
Someone You Should Know
One of the least celebrated Chicago architects of the twentieth century is George Grant Elmslie. He was a disciple of Louis Sullivan and did more than anyone to promote the Sullivanesque ideal in architecture. Elmslie was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, near the town of Huntly.
His formal education began in the Riggens School in Gartly and continued in the famous and highly disciplined duke of Gordon School in Huntly. In 1884, he and his mother left Scotland to join their father in Chicago who was employed by the Armour Company. After a brief period in a local business school, George Elmslie followed his parents advice and began the study of architecture.
Those of you who live in Chicago will know of the Carson Pirie Scott store on State Street and the beautiful ironwork entrance. That ironwork is the product of Elmslie who also did the interior finish. Among his other work in the Chicago area includes the People's Gas Light and Coke Company at 4839 Irving Park Road, Healy Chapel in Aurora, and the First Congregational Church in Western Springs. His office was in the People's Gas Company building on Michigan Avenue across from the Art Institute.
Perhaps the most Scottish inspired of his buildings is the Maxwelton Braes Resort Hotel in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin. He also designed The Airplane House at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The house is now being restored and should be completed by 2004. Pictures of his work are now on the Internet. You can see the Airplane House, the Purcell-Cutts House in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the Merchant's Bank of Winona, Minnesota. Most of the search engines will take you to George Grant Elmslie.
There is no known evidence that Elmslie was a member of our St. Andrew society, but his office was in the same building with John Williamson and other Scots employed by the People's Gas company. He is shown to be one of the donors to the building of The Scottish Home.
George Elmslie died in 1952 and is buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago along with his mentor, Louis Sullivan.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some writers give a birth year for Elmslie of 1871. While definitive documentation has yet to be published, Purcell related that Elmslie was actually born in 1869. However, he declared his birth year to be two years later than that when arriving in the United States to join his father at Chicago. Had Elmslie given his real date of birth, he would have been too old to enter as a dependent child.
The 1871 Scottish census enumerates George at 2 years of age, corroborated by the 1881 which has him at 12. So confirming he was born about 1869. I will leave the birth year as 1871 as that is what is on his monument.
KG
==========================
I find it ironic that for all the many designs he did- in many media- he did not design his own tomb stone as Purcell did, but simple has his name added to Bonnie's family slab. KG
=============================
Name: John Elmslie
Birth Year: abt 1833
Age: 72 Yr
Death Date: 15 Apr 1905
Death Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois
SOURCE- Illinois, U.S., Select Deaths Index, 1877-1916
NOTE- I have found no death certificate, as yet.
NOTE- I have an inquiry in to Rosehill cemetery to find out if his father John Elmslie, 1833-1905, is also interred there beside wife Jane. 26 Apr 2021 KG
Chief draftsman for Louis Sullivan for almost 20 years previous to moving to Minneapolis.
During the last months of 1909 Louis Sullivan could no longer pay George Elmslie because of declining business fortunes, and Elmslie was forced to find a more reliable situation. For some time Purcell and Elmslie had talked of working together, and the time was right. By 1910 Elmslie had left the Sullivan office and moved to Minneapolis as a full partner in Purcell, Feick & Elmslie.
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Immigration
23 Jun 1882 • New York Port, New York, New York, USA
On ship State Of Florida, sailing from Glasgow to New York, in cabins with children, pp. 9-10 of passenger list, immigration at Castle Garden.
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George Grant Elmslie was born in 1869 on a farm called Foot O' Hill near the town of Huntly in northeast Scotland. (Some writers give a birth year for Elmslie of 1871. While definitive documentation has yet to be published, Purcell related that Elmslie was actually born in 1869. However, he declared his birth year to be two years later than that when arriving in the United States to join his father at Chicago. Had Elmslie given his real date of birth, he would have been too old to enter as a dependent child.) Elmslie remained in school until he was sixteen when he and the rest of the family emigrated to America in 1884 to join his father, who had left a year earlier and found work at a meat packing plant in Chicago.
After taking courses for a year at a business school, Elmslie began the study of architecture. By 1887 he was at work in the office of Joseph Silsbee. Also in the Silsbee office at the time were Cecil Corwin, George H. Maher, and, most importantly, Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright soon left to work for the office of Adler & Sullivan, and in 1889 he asked Elmslie to join him there.
When business in the Sullivan firm waned after the turn of the century, Elmslie looked for a source of more regular income. He had been acquainted with William Gray Purcell since August of 1903 and the two had discussed the possiblity of joining forces in an architectural practice. Elmslie was reluctant to leave Chicago, since he would not abandon the ongoing work of clients. This and other personal reasons kept him from moving to Minneapolis until November, 1909.
[Elmslie's collaboration with Purcell and Feick are detailed in the following Historical Note.]
Elmslie returned to Chicago in 1912 after the death of his wife, Bonnie Hunter Elmslie, but continued practicing architecture from what then became the Chicago office of Purcell, Feick & Elmslie. After the Woodbury County Court House was completed in 1918, the business of the firm entered a decline. Purcell requested the dissolution of the Purcell & Elmslie partnership in 1921.
From the 1920s to the late 1930s, Elmslie obtained fewer than fifty commissions on his own. The practice that he established after the breakup of Purcell & Elmslie was known as George Grant Elmslie & Associates, representing an informal partnership with several draftsmen from the earlier partnership including Lawrence A. Fournier and Frederick A. Strauel. The largest related group of buildings that Elmslie designed during these years consisted of seven various structures, some built and others only projected, for a small college in Yankton, South Dakota. Elmslie also served as associate architect on several commercial and industrial structures with Herman V. von Holst, particularly a series of train stations and power company buildings. Among the last works recorded on his office accounting system were several schools built in Indiana from 1935 to 1938 in association with William S. Hutton. In 1947 Elmslie was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects.
Elmslie maintained a voluminous correspondence with Purcell from the 1920s until his death. Beginning in the late 1940s Elmslie suffered from increasingly ill health. Due to arteriosclerosis his physical and mental capacities weakened gradually until he rarely had the strength to do even the smallest amount of work. He died at the age of eighty three on April 23, 1952.
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Purcell, Feick and Elmslie/Purcell and Elmslie Firms: Historical Note
Early in 1907, Purcell and George Feick traveled by train from Chicago and after arriving in Minneapolis they took rooms in a boardinghouse, rented an office on the tenth floor of the New York Life Building, and mailed out engraved cards announcing the new architectural partnership of Purcell & Feick. For the next two and a half years, they worked to establish their credentials as earnest practitioners of the Sullivan derived "function and form," or organic, architecture. In December 1908 Purcell married Edna Summy, a Wellesley graduate whose father owned a music publishing business in Chicago.
Many early business relations sprang from contacts with friends of his father or grandfather. This growing network of small town businessmen, especially bankers, would eventually broaden opportunities for commissions in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and the Dakotas. From contacts in his home town of Sandusky, George Feick, Jr., brought business to the office from Ohio, particularly speculative houses and an office building done for his father, a construction contractor.
During the last months of 1909 Louis Sullivan could no longer pay George Elmslie because of declining business fortunes, and Elmslie was forced to find a more reliable situation. For some time Purcell and Elmslie had talked of working together, and the time was right. By 1910 Elmslie had left the Sullivan office and moved to Minneapolis as a full partner in Purcell, Feick & Elmslie.
George Elmslie brought important business contacts that resulted in a growing number of commissions from former Sullivan clients. George Feick followed leads for projects in his hometown and handled small buildings for friends and acquaintances. Purcell continued to develop productive friendships with men who lived in small towns throughout the Midwest, which created a network of sympathizers who kept the firm advised of potential jobs. During these years of success, personal events brought substantial changes to the lives of both Purcell and Elmslie. Profoundly affected by the death of his wife in 1912 , Elmslie left Minneapolis in March, 1913 and returned to Chicago where he opened a second Purcell, Feick & Elmslie office. George Feick did not completely share the intense dedication of Purcell and Elmslie to the new architecture, and in 1913 left Minneapolis to rejoin his father's business in Sandusky, Ohio.
The only expression of the organically based architecture in a major public building occurred in the Woodbury County Court House completed in Sioux City, Iowa in 1916 and designed in partnership with William L. Steele, an architect who had developed a strong friendship with George Elmslie while working in the Sullivan office.
With the World War bringing architectural commissions to a near-standstill, Purcell looked for employment through former business connections. In 1915 Purcell had met Charles O. Alexander, the president of the Alexander Brothers Leather Belting Company of Philadelphia. Purcell's desire to participate in the war effort led him, in 1916, to begin working for Alexander Brothers Corporation (later known as International Leather Belting Corporation) in the dual capacities of architect and advertising manager. From 1916 until his resignation in 1919, he created a systematized and coordinated series of campaigns to sell Alexander products using artwork and graphic designs commissioned from some of the finest artists of the progressive movement, such as Charles S. Chapman, Charles Livingston Bull, and John W. Norton. As well, the Purcell & Elmslie firm oversaw a complete remodeling of the executive offices of Alexander Brothers and designed two unbuilt projects for C. O. Alexander personally. The most important of the architectural designs for Alexander Brothers was a standardized factory plan that was intended to be built in three locations. Only two units, those in Chicago and New Haven, were constructed. Purcell resigned in 1919, but eventually was forced to sue to recover architectural fees due Purcell & Elmslie as well as his own salary.
Purcell left the East Coast in November, 1919 heading for Portland, Oregon. At first, Purcell did not intend to continue in architectural practice. His original purpose in coming west was to join his cousin, Charles H. Purcell, in a bridge building company called the Pacific States Engineering Corporation (PSEC). However, under the old firm name of Purcell & Elmslie, the W. G. Purcell residence was built in 1920, but beyond one bank and a few other, fruitless inquiries, the effort to generate new business was a failure. Citing poor economic circumstances, Purcell formally requested that the Purcell & firm be dissolved in 1921.
Purcell, Feick and Elmslie/Purcell and Elmslie Firms: Historical Note
Biographical information and historical notes adapted from the online publication, Guide to the William Gray Purcell Papers, 1985, by Mark Hammons.
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--From The Scottish American History Club Newsletter,
October 2000
George Grant Elmslie
Someone You Should Know
One of the least celebrated Chicago architects of the twentieth century is George Grant Elmslie. He was a disciple of Louis Sullivan and did more than anyone to promote the Sullivanesque ideal in architecture. Elmslie was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, near the town of Huntly.
His formal education began in the Riggens School in Gartly and continued in the famous and highly disciplined duke of Gordon School in Huntly. In 1884, he and his mother left Scotland to join their father in Chicago who was employed by the Armour Company. After a brief period in a local business school, George Elmslie followed his parents advice and began the study of architecture.
Those of you who live in Chicago will know of the Carson Pirie Scott store on State Street and the beautiful ironwork entrance. That ironwork is the product of Elmslie who also did the interior finish. Among his other work in the Chicago area includes the People's Gas Light and Coke Company at 4839 Irving Park Road, Healy Chapel in Aurora, and the First Congregational Church in Western Springs. His office was in the People's Gas Company building on Michigan Avenue across from the Art Institute.
Perhaps the most Scottish inspired of his buildings is the Maxwelton Braes Resort Hotel in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin. He also designed The Airplane House at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The house is now being restored and should be completed by 2004. Pictures of his work are now on the Internet. You can see the Airplane House, the Purcell-Cutts House in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the Merchant's Bank of Winona, Minnesota. Most of the search engines will take you to George Grant Elmslie.
There is no known evidence that Elmslie was a member of our St. Andrew society, but his office was in the same building with John Williamson and other Scots employed by the People's Gas company. He is shown to be one of the donors to the building of The Scottish Home.
George Elmslie died in 1952 and is buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago along with his mentor, Louis Sullivan.
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Some writers give a birth year for Elmslie of 1871. While definitive documentation has yet to be published, Purcell related that Elmslie was actually born in 1869. However, he declared his birth year to be two years later than that when arriving in the United States to join his father at Chicago. Had Elmslie given his real date of birth, he would have been too old to enter as a dependent child.
The 1871 Scottish census enumerates George at 2 years of age, corroborated by the 1881 which has him at 12. So confirming he was born about 1869. I will leave the birth year as 1871 as that is what is on his monument.
KG
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I find it ironic that for all the many designs he did- in many media- he did not design his own tomb stone as Purcell did, but simple has his name added to Bonnie's family slab. KG
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Name: John Elmslie
Birth Year: abt 1833
Age: 72 Yr
Death Date: 15 Apr 1905
Death Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois
SOURCE- Illinois, U.S., Select Deaths Index, 1877-1916
NOTE- I have found no death certificate, as yet.
NOTE- I have an inquiry in to Rosehill cemetery to find out if his father John Elmslie, 1833-1905, is also interred there beside wife Jane. 26 Apr 2021 KG
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