Charles Howard Walker (January 9, 1857 – April 12, 1936) was an architect, designer and educator in Boston, Massachusetts, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Boston Almanac. 1883, 1884 He was associated with the architecture department at the Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMIT Museum and was affiliated with Boston's Society of Arts and Crafts.American Federation of Arts. American art directory, Volume 14. R.R. Bowker, 1918New York Times. January 6, 1907
Biography Walker was born January 9, 1857, in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, to George S. Walker and Mary L. Damorell.WALKER, Charles Howard, in Who's Who in America (1901-1902 edition); via archive.org In 1875 at the age of 18, Walker worked at the architectural office of Sturgis and Brigham, where he had opportunities to study architecture in New York, Europe, and Asia Minor.
In 1885, Walker partnered with Thomas Rogers Kimball and formed the firm Walker & Kimball. This partnership continued until 1899 when it ended after Walker and Kimball were architects in chief for the Trans-Mississippi Exposition and Greater America Exposition in Omaha, Nebraska.Brochure series of architectural illustration. Boston: Bates & Guild Co., June 1898 Walker practiced architecture solo until 1911 when he formed with his son, Harold D. Walker, the firm C. Howard Walker and Son. In 1925, architect Frederick S. Kingsbury joined the firm and was renamed to Walker and Walker and Kingsbury. Shortly after in 1930, the firm was renamed to Walker and Walker.
Walker was a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was associated with their department of architecture for forty-nine years. He also lectured at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and Lowell Institute.
Walker was a member of the Boston Art Commission, National Fine Arts Commission, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Institute of Arts and Letters, American Federation of Arts, and the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts. Walker was one of six delegates for the United States at the International Congress of Architects in 1930 in Budapest.
Walker died April 12, 1936, in West Roxbury, Massachusetts.
Designed by Walker
Mount Vernon Church, Beacon St., Boston, ca.1892 Trans-Mississippi Exposition, Omaha, Nebraska, 1898Omaha Public Library Bancroft Memorial Library, Hopedale, Massachusetts, ca. 1898 Electricity building, St. Louis World's Fair, 1903Library of Congress Stony Brook Bridge, Back Bay Fens, BostonSylvester Baxter. Boston park guide: including the municipal and metropolitan systems of greater Boston. Boston: Small, Maynard and Co., 1898 William Fogg Library, Eliot, Maine, 1907 Rye Public Library, Rye, New Hampshire, 1910 Stratham Historical Society building, Stratham, New Hampshire, 1912 originally the George A. and Emma B. Wiggin Memorial Library building
References
Further reading By Walker Architecture of the Library. In: Handbook of the new Public library in Boston. Boston: Curtis & Co., 1895. Theory of mouldings. 1926.
About Walker American Federation of Arts. American art annual. MacMillan Co., 1905. Who's who in New England. A.N. Marquis & Company, 1915. William Emerson. Charles Howard Walker (1857–1936). Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 72, No. 10 (May, 1938), pp. 396–397.
External links
WorldCat. Walker, Charles Howard 1857-1936 Google news archive. Articles about C. Howard Walker. Flickr. Photo of nos. 493, 495, and 497 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston; "built in 1895, and designed by architects Arthur H. Vinal and Charles Howard Walker" Flickr. Bancroft Memorial Library in Hopedale, Massachusetts MIT Museum. Portrait by Emil Pollak-Ottendorf of 5 architects: William Felton Brown, Charles Howard Walker, Harry Wentworth Gardner, John Osborne Sumner, William Henry Lawrence.