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James Douglas, Architect
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James Douglas
(1823-1894) was a prolific architect who started out as a bridge and
house builder in the 1840’s and developed into one of Milwaukee’s more
respected and popular architects. He took part in the construction of
the first bridge across the Milwaukee River at
the foot of East Water
Street and later built a bridge across the river at Kinnickinnic Avenue(1).
As a master builder, he directed work on the Old City Hall, the
first St. Gall’s Church, Holy Trinity Church, St. John’s Cathedral and
other early buildings.
With his younger brother Alexander,
James Douglas established a building company in 1847 and later
established the firm of J. & A. Douglas in the late 1850’s. The brothers
listed themselves as carpenters, sometimes as builders and sometimes
as architects-builders. For sixteen years the two brothers had a
lucrative business. Douglas then left the trade and between 1863 and
1872 worked for the Northwestern Mutual life Insurance Company where
his expertise in property values enabled the company to place loans and
invest in real estate.
Douglas’ love of architecture led him to
return to that profession in 1872, and he continued as an architect
until the time of his death.
Douglas’ commissions came from both
private homeowners and investors building income properties. Although
he designed some churches and institutional buildings like the South
Baptist Church and the Protestant Orphan Home (razed), he is chiefly
known for his residential design. Much of his work consisted of
middleclass clapboard cottages and remains undocumented. The bulk of
Douglas’ projects were built on the city’s lower east side. It was
said that a part of this area was nicknamed “Douglasville” because so
many houses were of his design. Douglas popularized some of his
house design concepts by writing two articles on the subject for the
Milwaukee Monthly Magazine in 1874.
Local historians James Buck
and Howard Louis Conard credit Douglas as the founder of a distinct
architectural style called, maybe somewhat tongue-in-cheek, “Termes
Mordax” or anthill by people in the trades, because the complicated
roofs supposedly resembled the complicated cone-shaped colonies of
African termites. Douglas’ plans were said to be popular throughout the
state and from Florida to California although no out-of-state Douglas
commissions have been identified.
In his later years Douglas became
increasingly involved in real estate speculation and was known to
have a real flair in timing his purchases and sales. He founded and was
treasurer of the Savings and Investment Association, was the first
vice-president of the First Avenue Land Company and the Lincoln
Heights Land Company. Douglas owned large land holdings south of
Oklahoma Avenue called Douglasdale. He also served as the first
president of the Northwest Chapter of the American Institute of
Architects.
Douglas’ architectural practice served as a training
ground for a later generation of architects including Alfred C. Clas,
Cornelius Leenhouts, Fred Graf and Otto C. Uihling. One of his
apprentices, James W. Naughton, returned to Brooklyn, New York after
four years with Douglas and went on to become the Superintendent of
Buildings for the Board of Education of the City of Brooklyn from
1879 to 1898 where he was responsible for the design and construction
of over 100 schools.
In 1893 illness forced Douglas to take his
young son Earl J. into partnership under the name James Douglas & Co.
and another son, R. Bruce, was put in charge of handling the real
estate activities of the company. James Douglas died of spinal trouble
at the age of 71 on August 31, 1894 at his residence at 1325 N.
Jackson Street (razed) where he had lived since 1867. Earl J. Douglas
continued his father’s architectural practice through 1900 while R.
Bruce Douglas went on to successfully conduct a real estate, mortgage,
insurance and appraisal business and built over one hundred homes during
his career.
Douglas seems to have been a facile designer who
kept up with the changing architectural styles and tastes of his
clients. During the 1870’s Douglas designed in the High Victorian
Gothic and High Victorian Italianate styles. Extant examples include the
Elias A. Calkins Double house built in 1875 at 1612-1614 W. Kane
Place, a wood frame house that still retains its prominent gothic
detail. (NRHP 1/18/1990) The Collins-Elwell-Cary house is a striking
combination of Victorian Italianate and Victorian Gothic built in 1876
at 1363 N. Prospect Avenue. It is the last known Milwaukee example of
the towered and turreted style for which Douglas was famous in his
day and was prominently featured in illustrations of Prospect Avenue
that appeared in many of the city’s promotional publications of the
time. (NRHP 4/7/1990)
Of the numerous commissions he is known to
have executed in the 1880’s, only about a dozen attributable extant
examples have been identified. Most of these have been considerably
altered. A number of his large-scale houses survive from the early
1890’s, but these are less ornamented than his 1880’s work and
instead emphasize size and complex massing rather than detail. Towers
feature prominently in their design. The Willard Merrilll House at
1425 N. Prospect (NRHP 4/7/1990) is an example of Douglas’ later and
more sedate Queen Anne design from 1889. The Charles Quarles House at
2531 N. Farwell (NRHP 7/27/1979) is an example of his later towered
Queen Anne form. The Kane House is clearly the most intact and
important example of his extant buildings remaining from the 1880’s. It
is also the most richly textured and detailed of his surviving
projects. This reflects both his knowledge of the latest developments
in the Queen Anne style and perhaps the influence of one of his staff
architects such as Alfred C. Clas. Clas had worked his way up from
draftsman to architect to partner the Douglas firm between 1880 and
1886, and seems to have designed almost exclusively in the Queen Anne
style prior to the time he formed a partnership with George B. Ferry.
Douglas’ later work after Clas left the firm in 1887 tends to be
heavier handed, more boldly massed, and juxtaposes the disparate
materials and design elements in a less confident manner.
Family
Alexander Douglas (birth place and age
unknown)where he is currently living at,in or of is too faded on the OPR
married a Christian Campbell in Dorrery Jan 1774 Halkirk OPR 037/ 10 284
by being regularly proclaimed. They had 4children, Donald 1776 William
1780 Margaret 1791 Alexander 1793.
Alexander Douglass b. March
1793 Toftingall, Watten, Caithness Married Annabella McKenzie 1814
Skelbo, Dornoch, Sutherland, Alexander was a Grieve at Embo from
1815-1820? and then became Manager to Sir Benjamin Dunbar of Hempriggs
by 1823. He left Scotland 1840 with most of family, sailed to Ontario
Canada before settling in Milwaukee, Wi.
Both Alex and Anabella
are thought to have died of cholera October 1852 in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. Their 2 oldest boys James(1823) and Alexander(1827) had a
very successful Architect and building business.
Notes:
1. Milwaulkee's bridge building story is worth a read as the
competing landowners sought to maximise their profits at the expense of
the citizens convenience. Search term: The Milwaukee Bridge War
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Source
Sources for this article include:
The Milwaukee Monthly Magazine, April 1874, and May 1874
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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