William Labarth Steele is perhaps one of Sioux City's most famous architects. He was born May 1875 in Springfield, Illinois. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1896. Much of his training was in Chicago under famed architect Lewis Sullivan, father of Sullivanesque architecture, who also trained with Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1904 Steele moved to Sioux City to work for, and later form a partnership with W. W. Beach. Steele designed dozens of homes and buildings, and many of these structures are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A few of his designs include the Woodbury County Courthouse, the Willeges building in downtown Sioux City, and several of the city’s Branch Libraries. For a time he lived at 2512 Jackson Street. In 1928 Steele moved to Omaha and died in 1949.
William Steele was the 3rd generation of Prairie School style architecture. It was created by Frank Lloyd Wright, the 2nd generation was Lewis Sullivan who incorporated his own style into it creating Sullivanesque style architecture and from there continued by William L. Steele.
Looking at several fo Steele's buildings it is obvious where he got his influences from.
Here is a brief description of Prairie Style architecture:
Prairie Style (1900 – 1920)
• Low, long appearance
• Low-pitched roof, gently sloping
• Widley overhanging eaves
• Often massive square porch supports
Foursquare (a sub category)
• Simple square or rectangular plan
• Low pitched roof symmetrical façade
• Entrance may be centered or off-centered
• Front porch usually extends full length of house
This post is a first in the series about William Labarth Steele designed buildings in the Sioux City area. Next will be buildings I had already posted about that were designed by Steele, starting with commercial buildings, then churches and finally houses. I have also been doing research on the other buildings Steele designed and will post about the commercial buildings first, then churches and finally houses. There will also be a post about the buildings he designed that are no longer standing. Please note not all of these buildings were soley designed by William L. Steele, some of them he helped and others he was given credit for because he had the highest influence on the design. Such info. will be posted as it becomes known to me during my research.
I think it is safe to say while men like Jon Cook founded Sioux City and men like John Peirce and William Gordon helped promote Sioux City it was men like William Labarth Steele who helped design and build Sioux City.
Thank you for reading and please enjoy this next series of Sioux City History and Culture by Bicycle.
Greetings,
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting about William Steele, one of the more unjustly obscure architects who studied under Louis H. Sullivan and George Elmslie. Not to offer too much of a corrective, but aside from your spelling of Sullivan's first name, it is he, not Wright, who helped originate the so-called Chicago style in the late 1880s (and from which developed the “Prairie Style” associated with Wright and others in the early 1900s.) "Sullivanesque" merely refers to a confectionary imitation of Sullivan's ornament, isolated and frozen as a "look" rather than accepted as a inseparable, functioning esthetic of his original, very individual buildings.
Steele is a surprising architect, and the Charles Mix Courthouse in Lake Andes, South Dakota an unsung masterpiece of the Prairie era. You're lucky to live in a city with so many of his other buildings.
Very best wishes,
C. Ware.
Thank you for the correction. I appreciate the feedback, if I am incorrect in what I post please by all means post a comment about it. I would rather be corrected on something then have everyone think what I post is 100% accurate. All of the info. I have is from the Pearl St. Research Center and the Sioux City Public Museum. I obtain the info. from what they have. It is possible what they have is inaccurate, which likely came that way to them from the original source.
ReplyDeleteAs far as my spelling and grammar let me apoligize for that. I am not the best at correct spelling and grammar. I try to catch all of the mistakes. Thank you for the clarification on the spelling of Sullivan's first name. Though I have seen it spelled both ways on the info. I have here in Sioux City.
Right now I am working on gathering all of info. about the Steele structures I have already posted about. Some of them I had no idea until recently he designed them. They are scattered through out this blog. As soon as I have some sort of organization to the info. I will create new blog posts about the structures.