[[File:William G. Preston March 1885.png|thumb|left|475px|Image of "Study for House at Brookline" by William B. Preston which appeared in the March 21, 1885 edition of ''American Architect and Building News''.]]
[[File:William G. Preston March 1885.png|thumb|left|475px|Image of "Study for House at Brookline" by William B. Preston which appeared in the March 21, 1885 edition of ''American Architect and Building News''.]]
'''William G. (Gibbons) Preston''' (September 29, 1842 – March 26, 1910) was an American architect. Educated at [[Harvard University]] and the [[Ecole des Beaux-Arts|École des Beaux-Arts]] in [[Paris, France|Paris]].,<ref>{{cite journal |author= |date= April 8, 1910 |title=Mechanic's Hall Designer Dies |journal=Boston Journal |volume= |issue= |pages=9 |doi=}}</ref> he was active in Boston, Ohio, and Savannah Georgia where he was brought by George Johnson Baldwin to design the [[Chatham County, Georgia|Chatham County]] courthouse. Preston stayed in Savannah for several years during which time designed the [[De Soto Hotel]] (1890, demolished 1965<ref>{{cite book |last=Triplett |first=Whip Morrison |title=Postcard History Series - Savannah |year=2006 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |location=Charleston |isbn=0-7385-4209-1 |pages=10–14}}</ref> ), the [[Savannah Volunteer Guards Armory]] and 20 other distinguished public buildings and private homes.<ref>{{cite book |last=Caldwell |first=Wilber W. |title=The Courthouse and the Depot: The Architecture of Hope in an Age of Despair - A Narrative Guide to Railroad Expansion and its Impact on Public Architecture in Georgia - 1833-1910 |year=2001 |publisher=Mercer University Press|location=Macon |isbn=0-86554-748-3 |pages=64}}</ref> He began his professional life working for his father Jonathan Preston (1801-1888) upon his return to the United States from the École in 1862, and remained the sole practitioner in the office after his father retired c. 1875.<ref>{{cite book |last=O'Gorman |first=James F. |title=On the Boards: Drawings by Nineteenth-Century Boston Architects|year=1989 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location=Philadelphia |isbn=0812212878 |pages=376–377}}</ref> The drawings of the Preston firm, now owned by the [[Boston Public Library]], make up "...one of the most complete sets of architectural graphics preserved from the nineteenth century." <ref>ibid</ref> Many of his buildings were pictured as prints in ''American Architect and Building News''. He is credited with the introduction of the [[bungalow]] to the United States through a house of the type that he designed in [[Monument Beach, Massachusetts]] in 1879.<ref>{{cite journal |author= Barbara Mayer - The Associated Press|date=June 20, 1997 |title=The Bungalow Makes a Comeback |journal=[[The Salina Journal|The Salina [Kansas] Journal]]|volume= |issue= |pages=A5 |doi=}}</ref>
'''William G. (Gibbons) Preston''' (September 29, 1842 – March 26, 1910) was an American architect who practiced in the last third of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth. Educated at [[Harvard University]] and the [[Ecole des Beaux-Arts|École des Beaux-Arts]] in [[Paris, France|Paris]].,<ref>{{cite journal |author= |date= April 8, 1910 |title=Mechanic's Hall Designer Dies |journal=Boston Journal |volume= |issue= |pages=9 |doi=}}</ref> he was active in Boston, Ohio, and Savannah Georgia where he was brought by George Johnson Baldwin to design the [[Chatham County, Georgia|Chatham County]] courthouse. Preston stayed in Savannah for several years during which time designed the [[De Soto Hotel]] (1890, demolished 1965<ref>{{cite book |last=Triplett |first=Whip Morrison |title=Postcard History Series - Savannah |year=2006 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |location=Charleston |isbn=0-7385-4209-1 |pages=10–14}}</ref> ), the [[Savannah Volunteer Guards Armory]] and 20 other distinguished public buildings and private homes.<ref>{{cite book |last=Caldwell |first=Wilber W. |title=The Courthouse and the Depot: The Architecture of Hope in an Age of Despair - A Narrative Guide to Railroad Expansion and its Impact on Public Architecture in Georgia - 1833-1910 |year=2001 |publisher=Mercer University Press|location=Macon |isbn=0-86554-748-3 |pages=64}}</ref> He began his professional life working for his father Jonathan Preston (1801-1888) upon his return to the United States from the École in 1861, and remained the sole practitioner in the office after his father retired c. 1875<ref>{{cite book |last=O'Gorman |first=James F. |title=On the Boards: Drawings by Nineteenth-Century Boston Architects|year=1989 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location=Philadelphia |isbn=0812212878 |pages=376–377}}</ref> until he took John Kahlmeyer as a partner in about 1885.<ref>{{cite journal |author=|date=July, 1910|title=Obituary - William Gibbons Preston|journalThe Western Architect |volume=XVI |issue=1 |pages=76 |doi=}}</ref>
The drawings of the Preston firm, now owned by the [[Boston Public Library]], make up "...one of the most complete sets of architectural graphics preserved from the nineteenth century." <ref>ibid</ref> Many of his buildings were pictured as prints in ''American Architect and Building News''. He is credited with the introduction of the [[bungalow]] to the United States through a house of the type that he designed in [[Monument Beach, Massachusetts]] in 1879.<ref>{{cite journal |author= Barbara Mayer - The Associated Press|date=June 20, 1997 |title=The Bungalow Makes a Comeback |journal=[[The Salina Journal|The Salina [Kansas] Journal]]|volume= |issue= |pages=A5 |doi=}}</ref>
He designed [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]'s Rogers Building in 1864, located on Boylston Street near Boston's [[Copley Square]], which housed the school's architecture department. Floor plans for the building show a large, centrally located space devoted to an architectural library and museum. Drawings from the Study Collection were hung on the studio walls and numerous casts and other artifacts also lined the walls and [[picture rail]]s.<ref>[http://web.mit.edu/museum/ware/architecture.html Architecture at MIT], accessed August 12, 2010, includes photos</ref>
He designed [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]'s Rogers Building in 1864, located on Boylston Street near Boston's [[Copley Square]], which housed the school's architecture department. Floor plans for the building show a large, centrally located space devoted to an architectural library and museum. Drawings from the Study Collection were hung on the studio walls and numerous casts and other artifacts also lined the walls and [[picture rail]]s.<ref>[http://web.mit.edu/museum/ware/architecture.html Architecture at MIT], accessed August 12, 2010, includes photos</ref>
Image of "Study for House at Brookline" by William B. Preston which appeared in the March 21, 1885 edition of American Architect and Building News.
William G. (Gibbons) Preston (September 29, 1842 – March 26, 1910) was an American architect who practiced in the last third of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth. Educated at Harvard University and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.,[1] he was active in Boston, Ohio, and Savannah Georgia where he was brought by George Johnson Baldwin to design the Chatham County courthouse. Preston stayed in Savannah for several years during which time designed the De Soto Hotel (1890, demolished 1965[2] ), the Savannah Volunteer Guards Armory and 20 other distinguished public buildings and private homes.[3] He began his professional life working for his father Jonathan Preston (1801-1888) upon his return to the United States from the École in 1861, and remained the sole practitioner in the office after his father retired c. 1875[4] until he took John Kahlmeyer as a partner in about 1885.[5]
The drawings of the Preston firm, now owned by the Boston Public Library, make up "...one of the most complete sets of architectural graphics preserved from the nineteenth century." [6] Many of his buildings were pictured as prints in American Architect and Building News. He is credited with the introduction of the bungalow to the United States through a house of the type that he designed in Monument Beach, Massachusetts in 1879.[7]
He designed Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Rogers Building in 1864, located on Boylston Street near Boston's Copley Square, which housed the school's architecture department. Floor plans for the building show a large, centrally located space devoted to an architectural library and museum. Drawings from the Study Collection were hung on the studio walls and numerous casts and other artifacts also lined the walls and picture rails.[8]
Preston married Estelle M. Evans (1847-?), whose father was the wealthy real estate developer Brice S. Evans,[9] on December 6, 1866, and the couple had one son, Evans (1867-1900). William was an active member of the American Institute of Architects and served that organization in the office of first vice-president at the end of the 1890s.[10] He died at his home in Boston in 1910.[11]
Projects
The Boston Coliseum The Boston Coliseum, Boston (1872, demolished)[12]
Charles H. Bradshaw House Chas. H. Bradshaw house, (1878, extant) 175 Summer Street, Spring Hill (Somerville), MA[13]
Massachusetts State Prison - Third Place winning entry, (1874)[14]
^"Mechanic's Hall Designer Dies". Boston Journal: 9. April 8, 1910.
^Triplett, Whip Morrison (2006). Postcard History Series - Savannah. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing. pp. 10–14. ISBN0-7385-4209-1.
^Caldwell, Wilber W. (2001). The Courthouse and the Depot: The Architecture of Hope in an Age of Despair - A Narrative Guide to Railroad Expansion and its Impact on Public Architecture in Georgia - 1833-1910. Macon: Mercer University Press. p. 64. ISBN0-86554-748-3.
^O'Gorman, James F. (1989). On the Boards: Drawings by Nineteenth-Century Boston Architects. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 376–377. ISBN0812212878.
^"Obituary - William Gibbons Preston". XVI (1). July, 1910: 76. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Text "journalThe Western Architect" ignored (help)
^Herndon, Richard and Edwin M. Bacon (1896). Men of Progress: One Thousand Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Leaders in Business and Professional Life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Boston: New England Magazine. pp. 960–61.
^"MEN WHO MAKE PLANS - AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS HERE - PROTRACTED PRELIMINIARY SESSIONS YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY - Contentions to be Adjudicated before Convention Can Meet". Detriot Free Press. 63 (4): 7. September 28, 1897.
^The Boston Globe (April 4, 1872). "The Boston Coliseum". [Topeka] Kansas Weekly Commonwealth. 3 (48): 2.
^"House for Charles H. Bradshaw, Esq., Spring Hill, Mass. W.G. Preston, Architect". American Architect and Building News. III (108): 22. January 19, 1878.
^"The New State Prison". Boston Post. LXXXVI (68): 3. March 20, 1874.
^"Moody and Sankey in Boston". Fitchburg [Massachusetts] Daily Sentinel. IV (188): 2. October 16, 1876.
^"Summary: Henry Parfitt; Jonathan Preston; James Jackson Jarves, lately deceased - The Lockout of the Iron-Workers - The Congressional Library - Architects and Engineers". American Architect and Building News. XXIV (65): 13. July 14, 1888.
^Multiple print spread including main entrance, dining room, and exterior May 2, 1896, American Architect and Building News
^"Police Station at St John, N.B.". American Architect and Building News. 3 (123): 157. May 4, 1878.
^"Our Architectural Illustrations". The Engineering and Building Record and Sanitary Engineer. 22 (8): 114, 114a. June 26, 1890.
^"The C.M. Russell Mansion...will be razed". The [Massillon] Evening Independant. CII (297): 3. June 22, 1965.
^"Chadwick Lead Works - Boston - Mr. W.G. Preston, Architect - Boston, Mass". American Architect and Building News. XXI (193): 223. May 7, 1887.
^"Mason Building, Liberty Sq., Boston W.G. Preston, Architect". American Architect and Building News. VIII (238): 30. July 17, 1880.
^"THE FOURTEENTH EXHIBITION OF THE MECHANIC ASSOCIATION - History of the Association - Its work and Its Prosperity - Previous Exhibitions - Its Officers for Eighty-Seven Years - Present Membership, Etc". Boston Post. CI (64): 5. September 13, 1881.
^Toledano, Roulhac (1997). National Trust Guide to Savannah - Architectural and Cultural Treasures. New York: Preservation Press. p. 66. ISBN0-471-15568-3.
^"BUILDERS FOR ALL TIME - AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS IN ANNUAL SESSION - HON. A.J. CALDWELL VOICES THE CITY'S WELCOME - Many Interesting Papers and Reports Read and Discussed - The Programme - Some of the People Here". The Nashville American. XXI (7287): 3. October 21, 1896.
