Charles Q. Clapp Explained

Charles Q. Clapp
Birth Date:May 26, 1799
Birth Place:Portland, District of Maine, Massachusetts, U.S.
Significant Buildings:Charles Q. Clapp House
Charles Q. Clapp Block
Printers' Exchange Block

Charles Quincy Clapp (May 26, 1799 – March 1, 1868) was an American merchant and architect in Portland, Maine. He was active in the first half of the 19th century.

Early life

Clapp was born in Portland, Maine, as the second known child of Asa Godfrey Clapp and Elizabeth Wendell Quincy.[1] His younger brother, Asa Jr., became a United States representative.[2]

Career

Fourteen of Clapp's designs were lost in the 1866 great fire of Portland. By October of that year, he had eleven brick buildings in the process of construction.

Selected notable works

Personal life

Clapp married Julia Octavia Wingate, granddaughter of General Henry Dearborn, in the early 1820s. His father gave the newlyweds the former Hugh McLellan House, at the corner of Portland's Spring Street and High Street, as a wedding gift. The couple had two known children: daughters Julia and Georgianna.[3] Julia married John Carroll. They lived adjacent to Victoria Mansion, on Park Street. Julia died in 1893; she is interred in Portland's Evergreen Cemetery.

In 1832, Clapp designed and built his home at today's 97 Spring Street in Portland, having sold the adjacent McLellan House to his father-in-law. What is known as the Charles Q. Clapp House is now owned by the Portland Museum of Art.[4] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.[5] The Clapps only lived in the new structure for a few years: in 1837, they returned to the McLellan House to live with Julia's widowed mother.

Death

Clapp died in 1868, aged 68. He is interred in Portland's Eastern Cemetery. His wife survived him by nine years; she died on February 13, 1877.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Greater Portland Landmarks - Blog . 2022-09-30 . Greater Portland Landmarks . en-US.
  2. Web site: Bioguide Search . 2022-09-30 . bioguide.congress.gov.
  3. Book: The Maine Historical and Genealogical Recorder, Volume 3 . 1886 . 6.
  4. Web site: Charles Q. Clapp House . 2022-09-30 . Maine Memory Network . en.
  5. Web site: Charles Q. Clapp House, 97 Spring Street, Portland, Cumberland County, ME . 2022-09-30 . Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.