The purpose of this section of
this web site is to photographically document as many of the extant architectural projects of
Wiley G. Clarkson as possible with information from his surviving files, and some
historical facts. If the project is no longer extant, if an old
photo has been located, it is shared here. Mike Nichols, who writes about Fort Worth's
history made the following observation in an
email:
"I dare say more of
Wiley Clarkson's work is still standing than that
of any other local architect of the first half of the twentieth
century."
His work was not limited to the Fort Worth area. It covered the northern
half of Texas from Longview to Lubbock, and from Amarillo in the
panhandle to Beaumont on the Gulf Coast.
Projects have also been located in Oklahoma and Mississippi. Maps of known project locations in
Texas and in Fort Worth can be viewed below. Some of his most
amazing work was done outside of Fort Worth. From 1914 until possibly
1920, he and E. Stanley Fields, his partner until 1917, had two offices
and employed possibly nine additional men to handle the work load.
In 1914, Fields moved to Wichita Falls, Texas and opened a 2nd office.
Out of that office, they handled many jobs in Wichita Falls and the
surrounding area for about 75 miles. In 1917, after the completion
of the Wichita County Courthouse, Fields pulled out of the partnership
and moved to Kansas City to partner with an architect in that city.
Wiley then formed a partnership with A. W. Gains which would last until
around 1920 when Gains suddenly passed away. After that, closed the Wichita Falls office and became the
sole owner of his firm. He had seven men working under him
following his directions for projects during the 1920's, including
several who would later have architectural firms of their own and leave
their mark on Fort Worth as well.
Wiley's early buildings were characterized by historical revival
styles: Neoclassicism, Gothic, and Italianate.
During the late 1920s, however, he began to
experiment with the new Modern or Art Deco idiom.
Over the course of the next decade he produced
many of the city's best examples of that style.
Some of those buildings are shown on the web
site
Fort Worth Architecture, which is one of the
finest web sites on Fort Worth architecture bith
past and present. Among them are the Sinclair Building (1929),
the Masonic
Temple (1930), the Collins Art Company (1932),
the
United States Courthouse (1933, with associate
architect Paul Philippe Cret), the Municipal Airport
Administration Building (1936),
North Side Senior
High School (1937), W. C. Stripling Department Store
(1937), Tarrant County Building and Loan Association
(1938), and the City-County Hospital (1938–39).
Most of his work was centered in Fort Worth. Fort Worth was the
center of
his work. However, like a rock hitting the
surface of a pond, the ripples of his work
stretched out across Texas. Fort worth was
the center of the vast number of projects in his
life and Fort Worth architectural history felt
the full impact of this work. His architectural designs are
found in many of Texas' towns and school
districts, with many still in use with state
historical markers describing the historical
owners or the architecture itself. He was known for his
fine homes, church buildings, and school
buildings which are found in many smaller towns
across Texas.
During the 1930's Great Depression, he was
appointed the supervising architect for the FHA
and designed many projects for the WPA.
The FHA job led to the bringing a couple of
coalitions together which he headed up.
One coalition designed the first two public
housing projects in Fort Worth. During World War II, he
formed and headed up another coalition with the
architectural firms of Joseph R. Pelich, Preston
M. Geren, Sr., and Joe Rady on projects for the
United States Housing Authority and the United
States Army Corps of Engineers, including Liberator
Village, Fort Worth; McCloskey Army Hospital,
Temple; and Harmon Army Hospital, Longview.
One of
the finest examples of his architectural design is the
First United Methodist Church in Ft. Worth in
1930. He continued to design houses into the
mid 1930's when he seems to have shifted to
mostly larger commercial structures starting
around 1940. This seems to coordinate with the
increase in work load form government projects.
There are no records
for houses he
may have designed after 1935 except for one complete set
of blueprints for a house that he designed for
his son and daughter-in-law in 1951. The house was
a one story ranch style home in his records and
he designed for my parents was a vastly
different design from most of his housing work.
It was a large, one story ranch style home. The house
was never built because of the involvement of
troops in Korea. They had picked out a lot in Ridglea in
Fort Worth for
their house but the estimated cost of the house
more than doubled in a very short time as Korea
escalated.
The links below are to short
descriptions of projects and photo galleries with both old and new photos
and scans of information pertaining to the projects in that gallery. Some photos are scans from the only
known portfolio and publications remaining from that time period. Black and White photos are scans of
early 20th century photos have been obtained. The newest color photos are done in a
style that is called High Dynamic Range photography. This
style of photography for architecture because it brings up seldom seen details and it gives
the photos a slightly hand painted picture.
1912 thru 1927
Architectural Catelog
The different projects
represent a very good cross section of the different types of jobs he
did and also some of his favorite design projects of the first 15 years
of his work in Fort Worth.
