George Archer
Oct 18th, 2007 by admin
1848-1920
George Archer was born March 7, 1848 at his family’s farm, “Allendale,” which still stands near Churchville, Harford County, Maryland. The Archer family had long been in Harford County, many of its members being lawyers and physicians, and it is so remembered to this day. The family’s church was, and is, the Churchville Presbyterian Church. His father, Thomas, was a farmer and schoolmaster for his and his neighbors’ children in those days before the establishment of public schools. The stone schoolhouse still stands behind the dwelling house and a stone addition has a carved inscription:
G.A.
1868
…perhaps George’s first architectural work.
Like many others in his family before and after him, George Archer entered the College of New Jersey at Princeton (which we now know as Princeton University) in 1867 as a sophomore. His Princeton record indicates that his father prepared him for college. The records include his application and graduation photographs and one submitted for his twentieth year reunion, his place of residence, the courses he took, and his grades. He graduated in 1870 with a 94.5 grade point average and he received his Master’s degree by examination in 1873.
After Princeton, he entered the employment of George A. Frederick, where he remained until March 1875 when he opened his office in the same building, the former Lorman house, at the southeast corner of Charles and Lexington, which Frederick had remodeled for the Central Savings Bank and offices. Several architects and the Baltimore Chapter of the AIA were there. He joined the AIA in 1875–the year he opened his office.
Several early commissions were in his native Harford County, but he soon received Baltimore commissions as well as commissions in other counties. He was among several local architects who implemented Cabot and Chandler’s plans for Johns Hopkins Hospital under John R. Niernsee. Johns Hopkins remained an important client for the rest of his life; he designed several later buildings including the School of Medicine, the Hunterian Laboratories and the Brady Wing which still stands.
Other clients included Episcopal and Presbyterian churches, residences, banks, educational and institutional facilities, business and industrial structures. Archer’s design competence put him at ease in all the styles of the day: the Gothic, the Renaissance, the Romanesque, the Queen Anne, the Colonial, the Palladian. He maintained his office in the Central Savings Bank building for the rest of his life. Raymond Allen joined him as a partner about 1904, perhaps as a result of increased business due to the Baltimore fire.
In an 1893 interview, Archer stated that “architects, like poets, are born, not made.” He apparently regretted an absence of architectural courses at Princeton for he said “[the] colleges are paying much more attention to the study of architecture each year and there are some … which pay particular attention to it,” naming the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He continued, “drafting is, of course, very essential, and the knowledge of mathematics is one of the greatest qualifications,” combined with a knowledge of engineering and with practical experience.
Archer never married. He lived on Division Street and later at the Albany Apartments, E. Centre Street, and he maintained ownership of his grandfather’s farm “Paradice,” near Churchville, as a country residence.
In his will he left his estate to his brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces, and his business to his partner Raymond Allen who continued to practice architecture for another 15 or 20 years. His estate was about $33,000 in securities and savings, his farm “Paradice” and the furnishings of his office, his apartment at the Albany and at the farm. He died January 6, 1920, and he is buried at the Churchville Presbyterian Church in Harford County among dozens of his family on all sides in many generations.
Irma Walker and James T. Wollon, Jr., AIA.
