Kirtland Cutter: Architect in the Land of Promise (McLellan by Henry C. Matthews PDF

In the early years of the 20th century, Spokane was once singled out for compliment within the West for the standard of its structure and the amazing manner it had rebuilt after the devastating fireplace of 1889. significant credits for the city's certain personality was once prolonged to Kirtland Kelsey Cutter for his "rare architectural strength and genius for design." His amazing occupation, stretching from the Gilded Age to the nice melancholy, permits a desirable examine of the evolution of an eclectic kind of structure that used to be an inevitable reaction to wealthy nearby and old affects in the course of a time of transition from frontier settlements to fashionable city.

Cutter's effect was once felt past Spokane--in Seattle, different parts of Washington, and in Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. He used to be additionally accountable for constructions within the East or even for one in England. After monetary difficulties ended his profession within the Northwest, he all started anew at age sixty-three in southern California, and labored there as an architect till his demise in 1939 at age seventy-nine.

Henry Matthews provides a entire examine of the complete physique of Cutter's paintings, with abundant pictures and illustrations. The booklet is predicated on exhaustive learn in either the Northwest and California, revealing the affects on Cutter and his affiliates, the methods at paintings within the layout and development of the structures, and the kin among the architect and the various those that commissioned his paintings. rather necessary to Matthews's study used to be a set of 290 units of drawings, in addition to workplace debts, letters, and books from Cutter's library--materials received through the jap Washington kingdom historic Society. He additionally used to be capable of interview former assistants and consumers, who supplied useful insights at the architect and how Cutter labored. moreover, some of the architect's apartments, lodges, golf equipment, and advertisement constructions are nonetheless standing.

This ebook provides considerably to an figuring out of Western city and neighborhood background. yet Cutter's experimentation in lots of kinds and the imaginitive nature of his paintings make for a examine that is going past nearby limits and sheds mild on nationwide trends.

Winner of the 1999 Washington nation ebook Award