Edmund M. Wheelwright

Wheelwright was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, educated at Roxbury Latin School and graduated from Harvard University in 1876. He studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later in Europe, after which he worked in the offices of Peabody and Stearns and of firms in New York and Albany.

In 1883, he started a business of his own and afterwards became a member of the firm of Wheelwright & Haven, later known as Wheelwright, Haven & Hoyt. The firm operated until c. 1930 as Haven & Hoyt.

In 1893, Wheelwright and R. Clipston Sturgis were chosen by the trustees of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston to spend a year studying art museums throughout Europe; they later contributed to the ongoing design of the museum's building on Huntington Avenue.

Wheelwright, who designed the Harvard Lampoon Building, also oversaw the construction. It was first opened on February 19, 1909. Wheelwright while attending Harvard University was one of the founders of the Harvard Lampoon.{{cite book|title=The American Educational Review|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UpWgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA365|volume= 31|year= 1910|publisher= American Educational Co | page = 365}} Wheelwright's design was inspired in part by an old church in Jamestown, Virginia,{{cite book| title= The Brickbuilder| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=boVHAQAAIAAJ&pg=PP188 | volume = 19 | year = 1910|publisher=Rogers & Manson|page=82}} and by the Flemish Renaissance details of Auburn Street buildings in its vicinity.

He was a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, serving on its board of directors from 1892 to 1894 and 1898 to 1900, as well as a fellow of the Boston Society of Architects. He published two books on school architecture: "The American Schoolhouse" and "School Architecture."

Charles Donagh Maginnis had been his apprentice.

Wheelwright was nominated for the office of City Architect on March 30, 1891, by mayor Nathan Matthews Jr., the same day he fired the incumbent, Harrison H. Atwood."Atwood Removed," Boston Daily Advertiser, March 31 1891, 1. Wheelwright was confirmed by the city council on April 6, and for the next four years had control of all of the city's architectural work."Wheelwright Wins," Boston Daily Globe, April 7 1891, 10. Nonetheless Wheelwright believed that the city should be free to choose architects on a project-by-project basis, and after the election of Edwin Upton Curtis to succeed Matthews, advised him to abolish the office."The Probable Abolition of the Office of the Boston City Architect," [https://books.google.com/books?id=6wNaAAAAYAAJ American Architect and Building News] 48, no. 1010 (May 4 1895): 45. The office was abolished later that year as part of a revision of the city charter, and Wheelwright returned to full-time private practice."Many Changes," Boston Daily Globe, July 2 1895, 1.

Wheelwright's most visible work as city architect was the former central fire station. In 1892, Wheelwright designed and built a 156 foot tall tower in the South End of Boston, Massachusetts, which was originally designed as part of this building and was used as a fire lookout. Since Wheelwright wanted the building to stand out, it was modeled after the 14th century Torre del Mangia in Siena, Italy, and made of brick like the Italian original. It is the city's only Florentine-inspired building.Chandler, F. W. (Francis Ward), ed. Municipal architecture in Boston, from designs by Edmund M. Wheelwright, city architect, 1891-1895. Boston : Bates & Guild company, 1898.[https://books.google.com/books?id=8gZZAAAAYAAJ The Brochure series of architectural illustration], Volume 4, Bates & Guild Publishers, 1898. Cf. [https://books.google.com/books?id=8gZZAAAAYAAJ&dq=boston+fire+tower+wheelwright&pg=PA123 p.123]{{Cite news |last=Ralli |first=Tania |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30774213/ma-boston-pine-street-inn-tower-2005-1/ |title=And Now A Word From Our Shelter: Ads Atop Pine Street Inn Help Pay To Restore It, But Some Ask Where It Will End |newspaper=The Boston Globe |pages=221, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30774270/ma-boston-pine-street-inn-tower-2005-2/ 229] |date=October 9, 2005 |access-date=2022-06-19 |via=Newspapers.com}}[http://wikimapia.org/12650498/Pine-Street-Inn Pine Street Inn (Boston)] - Wikimapia Since 1980, the building has housed the Pine Street Inn, a shelter for homeless people.{{Cite web |last=Mightyspark |title=Pine Street Inn {{!}} History |url=https://www.pinestreetinn.org/about-us/history |access-date=2024-04-09 |website=www.pinestreetinn.org |language=en}}

In June 1887, Wheelwright married Elizabeth Boott Brooks. His son was the poet John Brooks Wheelwright.

After suffering a nervous breakdown from overwork, he lived at a Thompsonville, Connecticut sanitarium for two years before dying on August 14, 1912, at age 57.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/104028424/noted-architect-dead/ |title=Noted Architect Dead |newspaper=The New York Times |location=Boston |page=9 |date=1912-08-16 |access-date=2022-06-19 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Wheelwright designed the following:

• Boston Opera House (1909)
• Harvard Lampoon BuildingWheelwright and his brother John Tyler Wheelwright were among The Lampoon{{'s}} founders
• Horticultural Hall
• Larz Anderson Auto MuseumBuilt as carriage house for William Fletcher Weld in 1889, became a museum in 1949
• Longfellow Bridge
• Massachusetts Historical Society building
• New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall
• Anderson Memorial BridgeCredited to Wheelwright, Haven and Hoyt
• Oak Square School
• Margaret Fuller School, Jamaica Plain, Boston (1891–1892) [http://www.jphs.org/victorian/bowditch-school.html "Bowditch School"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060208095240/http://www.jphs.org/victorian/bowditch-school.html |date=February 8, 2006}}, Jamaica Plain Historical Society
• Forest Hills station{{cite web |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/master/pnp/habshaer/ma/ma1200/ma1288/data/ma1288data.pdf |title=Written Historical and Descriptive Data |date=July 1986 |publisher=National Park Service / Historic American Engineering Record |last=Zaitzevsky |first=Cynthia R. |accessdate=26 June 2015}}

In addition, he was a consulting architect for:

• Boston Museum of Fine Arts
• Bulkeley Bridge in Hartford, Connecticut
• Cleveland Museum of Art

The Haven and Hoyt Collection at the Boston Public Library holds a variety of materials related to Wheelwright, including renderings and photographs.

• Wheelwright, Edmund March, [https://archive.org/details/schoolarchitect01wheegoog School architecture; a general treatise for the use of architects and others], Boston : Rogers & Manson, 1901.
• Wheelwright, Edmund March, [https://archive.org/details/lampysearlydays00whee Lampy's early days], The Harvard Lampoon Society, 1909

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928044018/http://www.mot.org/Museum/tour.pdf Walking Tour Guide for Larz Anderson Auto Museum in PDF format]
• [http://www.bpl.org/research/special/collections.htm#h Boston Public Library Special Collections Department] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130705115712/http://www.bpl.org/research/special/collections.htm#h |date=July 5, 2013}}
• Obituary, Quarterly Bulletin Containing an Index of Literature from the Publications of Architectural Societies and Periodicals on Architecture and Allied Subjects, V. 1–12, V. 13, No. 1-3; January 1, 1900 – October 1, 1912, American Institute of Architects, page 251.
• Marquis, Albert Nelson (ed.), Who's who in New England, Chicago: A. N. Marquis & Company, 1909.

{{Peabody & Stearns}}{{Authority control}}

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Category:1854 births

Category:1912 deaths

Category:Architects from Boston

Category:The Harvard Lampoon alumni

Category:People from Roxbury, Boston

Category:Roxbury Latin School alumni

Category:Peabody and Stearns people

Category:Fellows of the American Institute of Architects