Charles Boss Clarke
{{Short description|American architect}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Charles B. Clarke
| birth_date = April 6, 1836
| birth_place = Norwich, Connecticut, US
| death_date = January 4, 1899 (aged 63)
| burial_place = Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis
}}
File:Randolph county courthouse 1877-1882, Huntsville Missouri.png
Charles Boss Clarke (1836–1899), commonly known as Charles B. Clarke, was an American architect working in St. Louis.
Career
Charles was born in 1836 in Norwich, Connecticut.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}} He came to St. Louis around 1859{{citation needed|date=December 2023}} and began practicing architecture. The majority of his commissions were in out-state Missouri, where his penchant for designing exotic victorian buildings made him well-known.{{Cite web |last=Simmons |first=David J. |date=Winter 1998 |title=Three Victorian Architectural Aberrations |url=https://www.stlouisarchitecture.org/pdf/1998%20Winter.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125022707/https://www.stlouisarchitecture.org/pdf/1998%20Winter.pdf |archive-date=January 25, 2022}} Characteristics of his work included elaborate rooflines and powerful massing.{{Cite journal |last=Ross |first=Benjamin Levi |date=2009 |title=Charles B. Clarke’s Fagin Building: Aberration or Innovation? |journal=Arris |volume=20 |pages=65, 67–69, 71, 73}} Within his lifetime, his work received negative evaluation as well, drawing criticism for his abilities as a superintendent and designer on buildings which required enormous repairs within three years of construction.{{Cite web |last=Monroe |first=Dona |date=Fall 2000 |title=Charles B. Clarke and the Lebanon Public School |url=https://www.stlouisarchitecture.org/pdf/2000%20Fall.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231210204415/https://www.stlouisarchitecture.org/pdf/2000%20Fall.pdf |archive-date=December 10, 2023 |page=2}} In 2004, his last remaining known work was demolished.{{Cite web |last=Hamilton |first=Esley |date=Summer 2005 |title=Charles B. Clarke: a St. Louis Original |url=https://www.stlouisarchitecture.org/pdf/2005%20Summer.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220130153247/https://www.stlouisarchitecture.org/pdf/2005%20Summer.pdf |archive-date=January 30, 2022}}
= John Pierce Mansion =
= Fagin Building =
Clarke's Fagin Building, constructed in St. Louis, was commissioned by Aaron W. Fagin, the vice president of the Merchant's Exchange of St. Louis. Fagin wished, upon returning from a worldwide trip, to furnish St. Louis with a unique and original building. The Fagin building, when completed, was described by one newspaper with lavish praise in 1890. In 1893, the building was described by one critic in the Architectural Record as the "most discreditable piece of architecture in the United States". In the same review, it was described to embody "all the vices and crudities that we call 'western', though in fact the geography has nothing to do with them."{{Cite book |url=https://usmodernist.org/AR/AR-1893-04-06.pdf |title=The Architectural Record, 1893 April-June |year=1893 |pages=472 |chapter="Architectural Aberrations No. 7- the Fagin Building"}}
More recent scholarship has placed the building within the struggle to define the appropriate architecture for the tall office building as an emerging building type.
Personal life
Known works
Clarke has at least 33 known works credited to his authorship by a published list.{{Cite web |date=Fall 2005 |title=Charles B. Clarke: Known Works by location |url=https://www.stlouisarchitecture.org/pdf/2005%20Fall%20Special.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210424221029/https://www.stlouisarchitecture.org/pdf/2005%20Fall%20Special.pdf |archive-date=April 24, 2021}} Notable entries include:
- State Normal School, Cape Girardeau, Missouri{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}
- Central High School, Chillicothe, 1875 (razed 1923){{citation needed|date=December 2023}}
- Third Baptist Church, St. Louis{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}, 1867
- St. Luke's Hospital, St. Louis, 1870
- Randolph County Courthouse remodeling, Huntsville, Missouri, 1877 (burned 1882){{Cite web |last=Ohman |first=Marian M. |date=August 1980 |title=Missouri Courthouses Randolph County |url=https://extension.missouri.edu/media/wysiwyg/Extensiondata/Pub/pdf/countypubs/ued6087.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231212081251/https://extension.missouri.edu/media/wysiwyg/Extensiondata/Pub/pdf/countypubs/ued6087.pdf |archive-date=December 12, 2023}}
- Fagin Building, St. Louis, 1888 (Demolished)
- John Pierce Mansion, St. Louis, 1868 (Destroyed)
- Clusky-Elms House, Jennings, 1871{{Cite web |title=Jennings Survey, Office of Historic Preservation, P.O. Box 176. Jefferson City, Historic Inventory SL-AS-011-029 |url=https://mostateparks.com/sites/mostateparks/files/Jennings%20Survey.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220303205739/https://mostateparks.com/sites/mostateparks/files/Jennings%20Survey.pdf |archive-date=March 3, 2022 |page=91}} (Demolished 2004)
See also
References
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Charles Boss}}
Category:19th-century American architects
Category:Architects from St. Louis