Truman Dudley Allen (1829-1897), commonly known as T. D. Allen or T. Dudley Allen, was an American architect. He moved frequently throughout his career, practicing in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin, but most of his prominent works date from his residence in Minneapolis at the close of his career.

Early life and career Truman Dudley Allen was born April 16, 1829, in Greenwich, New York. In 1848 he moved to western Pennsylvania, where he began to study architecture. He continued these studies in northern Ohio, eventually starting an architectural practice in Medina. In 1872 he went to Cleveland, but soon afterwards went further west, to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and then Council Bluffs, Iowa. He remained there until 1879, when he relocated to Grand Island, Nebraska. He then went to Lincoln in 1882,"T. D. Allen," History of the State of Nebraska (Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1882) where he remained until 1885. Later that year he was in Anoka, Minnesota, and was in Minneapolis by 1886.

When he arrived in Minneapolis he associated himself with A. Leonard Haley, who had initiated his practice in Minneapolis in late 1885.Inland Architect and Builder 6, no. 7 (January 1886): 119. Haley & Allen lasted for only a few months, and by 1887 was instead associated with Homer L. Patten, though Allen & Patten too only lasted a few months. In about 1892 Allen began practicing as T. D. Allen & Company, and retired in 1893,Minneapolis City Directory for 1893-4 (Minneapolis: Minneapolis Directory Company, 1893) when ill health obligated it.Minneapolis City Directory for 1894-5 (Minneapolis: Minneapolis Directory Company, 1894) He spent a year in Florida before coming back west to Racine, Wisconsin, to live with his daughter, Wrennie, and her husband. He died in Racine, October 7, 1897."Obituary," Racine (WI) Journal, October 14, 1897.

Personal life In 1866 Allen married Harriet E. Hinckley of Warren County, Pennsylvania. They had four children, and Harriet Allen died in Grand Island in 1880. In 1882 he remarried, to Lucinda Thorspeckan of Omaha,Daily Nebraska State Journal (Lincoln, NE), December 8, 1882. though she may have died by 1885. He married a third time in 1886, to Carrie E. Mullekin of St. Paul.St. Paul (MN) Globe, May 16, 1886.

One of his sons, Glenn Allen, would go on to be a successful architect in Texas and California.

In 1891 Allen's daughter, Wrennie, married David R. Davis, an employee of her father's."David R. Davis, Architect, Dies," Racine (WI) Journal-Times, February 18, 1935. In 1892 they moved to Racine, Wisconsin, where Davis established his own practice. Allen was living with his daughter and son-in-law at the time of his death.

Legacy A number of his works are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Reception If Allen's work was ever substantially noted in the national architectural press, it is not apparent. In the twentieth century, several writers have commented on his later works in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. In their contribution to a 1978 study of American courthouse architecture, Henry-Russell Hitchcock and William Seale found Allen's courthouses of the 1880s and 1890s to be "crass and vulgar...very remote from Richardson's own work,"Henry-Russell Hitchcock and William Seale, "Notes on the Architecture," Court House: A Photographic Document, ed. Richard Pare (New York: Horizon Press, 1978): 215. which sets the tone. This is echoed by Kathryn Bishop Eckert in her 2000 study of sandstone architecture around Lake Superior, noting in particular an impression of a lack of planning.Kathryn Bishop Eckert, The Sandstone Architecture of the Lake Superior Region (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2000): 195.

In their 1993 survey of the architecture of Iowa, David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim are more diplomatic, instead calling Allen's approach "rather personal." They identify the Franklin County Courthouse (1890) as a high point.David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim, Buildings of Iowa (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993): 397-398.

Architectural works + Year Building Address City State Notes Image Reference 1871 Lincoln School 144 N Broadway St Medina Ohio Demolished. Medina County Courthouse NRHP Registration Form (1970) 1873 Medina County Courthouse 99 Public Sq Medina Ohio Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. History of Medina County and Ohio (Chicago: Baskin & Battey, 1881) 1875 German Methodist Church (former) 101 W Tenth Ave Oshkosh Wisconsin 1880 Whittier School Third Ave Kearney Nebraska Demolished. "To Contractors and Builders," Daily Nebraska State Journal (Lincoln, NE), September 2, 1880, 1. 1882 Polk County Courthouse 400 Hawkeye St Osceola Nebraska Demolished. Oliver B. Pollack, Nebraska Courthouses: Contention, Compromise and Community (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2002) 1883 Stanton County Courthouse 804 Ivy St Stanton Nebraska Demolished. 1886 Blue Earth County Courthouse 204 S 5th St Mankato Minnesota Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Blue Earth County Courthouse NRHP Registration Form (1980) 1887 Ramsey County Courthouse 524 Fourth Ave NE Devils Lake North Dakota Demolished. Inland Architect and News Record 10, no. 2 (August 1887): 15. 1887 Rock County Courthouse 204 E Brown St Luverne Minnesota Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. Rock County Courthouse and Jail NRHP Registration Form (1977) 1888 College Hall,Dakota Wesleyan University 1200 W University Ave Mitchell South Dakota Burned in 1955. Inland Architect and News Record 12, no. 5 (November 1888): xvi. 1888 Merrill City Hall 717 E 2nd St Merrill Wisconsin Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. Merrill City Hall NRHP Registration Form (1978) 1889 Hand County Courthouse 415 W First Ave Miller South Dakota Demolished. Stone 1, no. 9 (January 1889): 239. 1889 Richland County Courthouse 181 W Seminary St Richland Wisconsin Building 10, no. 8 (February 23, 1889): 3. 1890 Dickinson County Courthouse 1802 Hill Ave Spirit Lake Iowa Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981, but demolished in 2006. Dickinson County Courthouse NRHP Registration Form (1981) 1890 Franklin County Courthouse 12 1st Ave NW Hampton Iowa Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Franklin County Courthouse NRHP Registration Form (1976) 1890 Kandiyohi County Courthouse 505 Becker Ave SW Willmar Minnesota Demolished. "Proposals," Engineering and Building Record 21, no. 21 (April 26, 1890): 336. 1891 Columbus City Hall 105 N Dickason Blvd Columbus Wisconsin Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Columbus City Hall NRHP Registration Form (1979) 1892 Hardin County Courthouse 1215 Edgington Ave Eldora Iowa Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. Hardin County Courthouse NRHP Registration Form (1981) 1892 Luling School 1010 Huron Street Manitowoc Wisconsin Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2025. 1892 Old Main,Mayville State University 330 3rd St NE Mayville North Dakota History of the Red River Valley: Past and Present, vol. 1. (1909) 1892 Steele County Courthouse 111 Main St E Owatonna Minnesota Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. David Gebhard and Tom Martinson, A Guide to the Architecture of Minnesota (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1977) 1893 Walker School Washington Ave Washburn Wisconsin Burned in 1947.

Notes

External links "Truman Dudley Allen (1829-1897)," Place Makers of Nebraska: The Architects, Nebraska State Historical Society.

References