- Henry Clay Smith
Henry Clay Smith was born February 7, 1874 in
Santa Clara, California , one of 12 children born to German immigrants Charles Christian Smith (1838-1927) and Maria Pfieffer (1845-1916). Charles, a co-founder, with his brother of the town of Evergreen, California, now part ofSan Jose , was a blacksmith, who found success in real estate (Smith Phelps Realty) and lumber (President of Union Mill and Lumber, Co.)Henry was able to study at the
University of Pennsylvania , where he was mentored by James Hamilton Windrim (1840-1919). Upon graduation, Smith would spend four years working with the firm of James H. Windrim & Son (John Torrey Windrim, 1866-1934), returning to theSan Francisco bay area to set up practice with a partner, Louis S. Stone, in 1900. The partners would specialize in schools, apartments and houses until they dissolved their partnership in 1909. He subsequently practiced solo, continuing the development of a signature talent in the siting of buildings on San Francisco's hilly terrain, and became known as "The Hillside Architect." Smith was adept at many architectural styles; there are fine examples in Spanish, Mission and Tudor Revival, Italian Renaissance and Neo-Classicism, often informed with an Arts and Crafts sensibility. He was awarded the Jury Prize "for schoolhouse architecture" at the 1915Panama-Pacific International Exposition .Smith was married in Philadelphia on April 25, 1900, to Lillian Troth. They had a son, John Windrim Smith, and a daughter, Elizabeth Clay Smith. They made a home in
Los Gatos, California , "Far Hills," where Smith could indulge his artistic imagination and love of landscape architecture.Henry Clay Smith died on December 10, 1945, resident in his Cloister Apartments in San Francisco. [http://www.hillsidearchitect.ning.com] ["The Architect and Engineer of California," vol.XXVIII, No. 1. February, 1912.pp 35-71: Unique Hillside Buildings, by Horatio F. Stoll. ["The Architect and Engineer of California," vol. XLIV, No.1. January, 1916.pp. 39-79: Architectural Creations of Mr. Henry C. Smith, A.I.A., by B.J.S. Cahill, Architect.] [Clark, Benjamin F., The Work of Henry C. Smith, Architect, Crandall Press, ca. 1928.]
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