Robert D. Farquhar Explained

Robert David Farquhar
Nationality:American
Birth Date:23 February 1872
Birth Place:Brooklyn, New York
Death Date:6 December 1967
Death Place:Berkeley, California
Alma Mater:Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, École des Beaux-Arts
Practice:Robert D. Farquhar
Significant Buildings:1906 Fenyes House
1916 Clark Library
1923 Canfield-Moreno Estate
1928 Beverly Hills High School
1930 California Club

Robert David Farquhar (23 February 1872 – 6 December 1967) was an architect working in California from 1905 to 1940.

Early life

Farquhar was born in Brooklyn, the son of David Webber Farquhar (1844–1905) [1] [2] and Sarah Malvina Joslyn. He attended Phillips Exeter and Harvard (class of 1893). Farquhar completed an architectural degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1893–1895), and then attended École des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1896–1901), where he organized the first ever American football game played in Europe.[3] He returned to New York and worked in the office of Hunt & Hunt, and of Carrère and Hastings.

Los Angeles practice

Farquhar moved to Los Angeles in 1905 and practised architecture there. He was appointed a member of the architectural commission of the Panama-Pacific Exposition, held in San Francisco in 1915, and designed Festival Hall.[4] He went to Italy with the American Red Cross in 1918, and re-opened his office in Los Angeles in 1919.[5] [6] The Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects awarded Farquhar its Distinguished Honor Award for the William Andrews Clark Mausoleum, and Certificates of Honor for the design of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library and the California Club. He worked with chief architect George Edwin Bergstrom on design of the Pentagon in 1941.[7] The archives of his architectural studies and drawings are maintained at the UCLA Department of Special Collections.[8]

Some projects

Project DateAddressLocation
Adelbert and Eva Fenyes Residence[9] 1906 170 N. Orange Grove BoulevardPasadena
Dr. R.P. McReynolds House1908 Los Angeles
Gorham House 1910 336 Adelaide Drive Santa Monica
Orrin Higgins House ("Villa Del Sol")1910 1350 S. Center StreetRedlands
Henry Weyse/Charles Morris House1910 401 Ocean AvenueSanta Monica
Dwight C. Lefferts Home 1910 1210 W. Highland Ave. Redlands
R.D. Farquhar Residence1911 147 Georgina AvenueSanta Monica
Charles Eaton House[10] 1913 1161 Virginia RoadSan Marino
Festival Hall (1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition)[11] 1915 San Francisco
William Andrews Clark Mausoleum 1916 5950 Santa Monica Boulevard
Thomas C. Marlowe Residence1921 1241 Oak Knoll Avenue Pasadena
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library1922 2520 Cimarron Street Los Angeles
1923 1923 Micheltorena Street Silver Lake
Alice McManus Clark Library[12] 1927 1664 N. Virginia Street Reno
1928 241 Moreno Drive Beverly Hills
1930 538 South Flower Street Los Angeles
Owlwood Estate[13] 1936 South Carolwood DriveLos Angeles
Harold McCormick House1939 Beverly Hills
William Garland House 1940 Pebble Beach

Family life

Farquhar married Marion Jones (daughter of John Percival Jones) in New York City, in 1903. They had three children: David Farquhar (1904 -), John Percival Farquhar (1912 -) and Colin Farquhar (1913 -). The family lived first in Santa Monica, then moved to Pasadena in 1929. Farquhar retired in 1953 and lived with his half brother Francis P. Farquhar in Berkeley.[14]

Notes and References

  1. http://www.tombomedia.com/DWF.html David Webber Farquhar
  2. Oliver Aver Roberts, 1901, History of the Military Company of the Massachusetts, Alfred Mudge& Sons, Boston, MA.
  3. Web site: Brooklyn Life from Brooklyn, New York on December 11, 1897 · Page 21. 11 December 1897 .
  4. http://www.books-about-california.com/Pages/Architecture_Landscape_Garden/Architect_Essay.html The Architecture and Landscape Gardening of the Exposition
  5. Class of 1893 Secretary's Seventh Report, Harvard College (1780-). 1907
  6. https://digital.lib.washington.edu/architect/architects/212/ Architects Farquhar, Robert
  7. American Architects Directory, American Institute of Architects, Second Edition, R. R. Bowker Company, 1962, New York, N.Y
  8. http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt6q2nd0gq Robert D. Farquhar Architectural Drawings, 1920-1940
  9. http://www.pasadenahistory.org/thingstosee/fenyesmansiontours.html Fenyes Mansion
  10. http://www.1161virginiaroad.com/images/1161_virginia_history.pdf Charles Eaton House - History
  11. http://www.lib.umd.edu/digital/worldsfairs/essay.jsp?pid=umd:1015 Festival Hall
  12. http://www.unr.edu/tour/ca.html Clark Administration Building
  13. http://wikimapia.org/4535817/Owlwood-Roland-Arnall-mansion Owlwood Estate
  14. Robert D. Farquhar; Retired Architect, Obituary, Los Angeles Times, December 8, 1967, p. 28