Charles Kirk Kirby

Portrait of Charles K. Kirby, ca.1855

Kirby's Venetian Renaissance second Boston Public Library, Boylston Street, 1858 (demolished 1899)

Charles Kirk Kirby (Boston, 1826 — 1910) was an American architect who practiced in Boston, Massachusetts,^[1] where he designed the first Boston Public Library (1858, illustration), and in San Francisco, California.

In Sandwich, Massachusetts he built the Italianate John and Mary Waterman Jarves House (18557). In Boston the Lawrence Model Lodging Houses were built in 1874 by Kirby and William F. Goodwin. They were added to the National Historic Register in 1983. His design for the new Boston Public Library was selected by vote of the trustees from a field of twenty-four, 27 April 1855.^[2]

Between 1863 and 1864, he designed and built four uniform brownstone row houses on Marlborough Street Boston, including one, 15 Marlborough Street, that he kept for himself.^[3]

His sons Charles K. Kirby, Jr. (1871 — 1936) ^[4] and Fred Washburn Kirby (1850 — 1912)^[5] collaborated on some Californian commissions^[6] with their father^[7] and later practiced in partnership and alone. In 1878 he moved his family to California and settled in San Francisco where he practiced for a time, then operated a large vineyard, the Sierra Park Vineyard near Fowler, south of Fresno, California.

Notes

1. ^ Boston Directory. 1852
2. ^ Proceedings at the Dedication of the Building for the Public Library of the City of Boston, 1 January 1858, p. 142.
3. ^ Nos. 9, 11, 13 and 15 (Marilyn Jackson, "Two spectacular sales are on Marlborough Street").
4. ^ Historic Fresno: Charles K. Kirby, Jr.: C. K. Kirby, Jr. is credited alone with designing the Fresno First National Bank Building (1888) and the Barton Opera House (1890).
5. ^ Harvard College, class of 1872; he left after his Freshman year, hampered by deafness (Harvard College Class of 1872, Tenth Report of the Secretary).
6. ^ Historic Fresno
7. ^ The O. J. Woodward and Jacob Vogel residences and the Einstein and Edgerly commercial blocks, all in Fresno (Historic Fresno).

Persondata
Name	Kirby, Charles Kirk
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Date of birth	1826
Place of birth
Date of death	1910
Place of death