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Olin Wesley Cutter
Born(1851-09-01)September 1, 1851
Charlestown, Massachusetts
DiedMarch 10, 1921(1921-03-10) (aged 69)
Brookline, Massachusetts
NationalityUnited States
OccupationArchitect
PracticeWait & Cutter (1879-1896); Olin W. Cutter (1897-1921)
The Middlesex County Courthouse in Lowell, Massachusetts, designed by Wait & Cutter in 1895 and completed in 1897.

Olin W. Cutter (1851-1921) was an American architect from Boston best known for his designs for large public buildings.

Life and career

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Olin Wesley Cutter was born September 1, 1851 in Charlestown, Massachusetts to Marshall Ney Cutter and Lauranna (Johnson) Cutter.[1] He was a draftsman in the office of Samuel J. F. Thayer by 1872.[2] In 1879 he formed a partnership with R. Pote Wait,[a] another Thayer employee, which was known as Wait & Cutter. Though many of their early projects were small scale public and private buildings, in 1885 they were selected to design the new City Hall of Richmond, Virginia in competition.[5] However, the award was overturned and given over to Elijah E. Myers in 1886.[6] In 1888, they participated in the competition to design the Lowell City Hall and Lowell City Library, though their proposals were not accepted. These two losses were quickly followed by a series of state armories and county courthouses.

Wait & Cutter were selected as architects of many of the armories built in Massachusetts in the 1880s and 1890s. These were authorized by the Massachusetts General Court in 1888 in what was commonly called the Armory Act. The Act created the Armory Commission, which built the armories, and the Armory Loan Fund, which funded them. Built in response to the perceived threat of the labor unrest of the 1870s and 1880s, these buildings were typically built in a crenellated style to assert authority.[7] In contrast, their courthouses were all inspired by Beaux-Arts architecture. Wait and Cutter worked together for over fifteen years, but dissolved their partnership effective January 1, 1897 when Wait retired due to his failing health.[8][9] This may have been exacerbated by investigations into potential political corruption surrounding the reconstruction of the courthouse in Dedham.[10]

After Wait's retirement and death, Cutter continued the practice under his own name for another twenty five years. He designed one more armory, in New Bedford, as well as courthouses in Malden and Utica, New York. In 1903 Cutter was chosen architect of the new Oneida County Courthouse in Utica in association with Ward & Turner, also Boston architects. By the time construction began in 1905, the partnership of Ward & Turner had been dissolved, with junior partner Alfred C. Turner continuing as Cutter's associate. Like his other courthouses, Cutter looked to Beaux-Arts architecture for inspiration. After construction got underway, Ward and Turner also were chosen as architects of a local department store. The former project was completed in 1909, the latter in 1907. Cutter designed fewer buildings after the completion of the courthouse, possibly as a result of further corruption allegations as well as litigation with Middlesex County. He designed a few more projects towards the end of his life, including an unbuilt tuberculosis hospital in Waltham for Middlesex County.[11] Just before his death in 1921 he was chosen as architect for a new district courthouse in Malden,[12] but due to his death the project was carried out by his former employee, Charles R. Greco.[13]

Personal life

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Cutter married Ida Gist Kingsley in 1879. They had one child, Harold Francis Cutter, a civil engineer who commited suicide in 1910 at the age of 28.[14]

From about 1882 until 1888 Cutter and his family lived in Newton, and then in Boston. About 1900 they moved to Brookline, where they lived for the remainder of Cutter's life.[2] The family moved frequently, but from about 1908 to 1912 they lived in a Colonial Revival house at 16 Emerson Street which Cutter had designed for George P. Davis in 1893. After 1913, they lived in an apartment on Gorham Avenue.Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).

Legacy

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The architect Charles R. Greco worked for Wait & Cutter from 1893 to 1899,[15] and received Cutter's full support in 1902 when Cambridge Mayor John H. H. McNamee attempted to appoint Greco to the office of Superintendent of Buildings in place of William H. Gray.[16] After his death, Greco took over Cutter's unfinished work.

At least five buildings designed by Cutter have been listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places, and many others contribute to listed historic districts.

Architectural works

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Notes

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  1. ^ Robert Pote Wait was born August 17, 1844 in Reading, Massachusetts to Windsor Bruce Wait and Hannah (Adams) Wait.[3] He attended the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University, graduating in 1863.[4] He worked for Hartwell & Swasey and Samuel J. F. Thayer before establishing his partnership with Cutter in 1879.[2] He died at home, March 12, 1898.[4] His son, Charles R. Wait, was also an architect and was a member of the firms of E. M. Parsons & Company and Parsons & Wait.
  2. ^ A contributing property to the Salem Common Historic District, NRHP-listed in 1976.
  3. ^ A contributing property to the Brookfield Common Historic District, NRHP-listed in 1990.
  4. ^ Designed in association with consulting engineer Edward S. Shaw.
  5. ^ a b c A contributing property to the East Cambridge Historic District, NRHP-listed in 1983.
  6. ^ A contributing property to the Monument Park Historic District, NRHP-listed in 1978.
  7. ^ Addition of a large southern wing and new dome.
  8. ^ A contributing property to the Cypress–Emerson Historic District, NRHP-listed in 1985.
  9. ^ In association with supervising architects Gardner, Pyne & Gardner of Springfield. Partially destroyed in the 2011 Springfield Tornado, later restored.
  10. ^ In association with supervising architect Louis G. Destremps of Fall River. A contributing property to the Downtown Fall River Historic District, NRHP-listed in 1983.
  11. ^ A contributing property to the South Common Historic District, NRHP-listed in 1982.
  12. ^ A contributing property to the North Bedford Historic District, NRHP-listed in 1979.
  13. ^ a b Designed in association with Alfred C. Turner of Boston. A contributing property to the Downtown Genesee Street Historic District, NRHP-listed in 2016.

References

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  1. ^ Benjamin Cutter, A History of the Cutter Family of New England, ed. William Richard Cutter (Woburn: William Richard Cutter, 1871)
  2. ^ a b c Boston and Brookline directories
  3. ^ Vital Records of Reading, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850, ed. Thomas W. Baldwin (1912)
  4. ^ a b "Necrology," Harvard Graduates Magazine 6, no. 24 (June 1898): 612.
  5. ^ "The Richmond Court-house Competition," American Architect and Building News 18, no. 502 (August 8 1885): 37.
  6. ^ City Hall NRHP Registration Form (1969)
  7. ^ Nancy L. Todd, New York's Historic Armories (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006)
  8. ^ "Business Changes," Boston Daily Advertiser, January 1 1897, 5.
  9. ^ "Death of R. P. Wait, Architect," American Architect and Building News 60, no. 1162 (April 2 1898): 2.
  10. ^ "It Is Over," Boston Daily Advertiser, June 4 1896, 1 and 2.
  11. ^ "Cutter as Architect," Cambridge Chronicle, May 19 1917, 10.
  12. ^ "Iron & Steel Construction News" in Bridgemen's Magazine 21, no. 3 (March 1921): 159.
  13. ^ Historic Building Detail: MAL.489
  14. ^ "Says Suicide Was His Son," Boston Daily Globe, December 5, 1910, 17.
  15. ^ Samuel Atkins Eliot, "Charles R. Greco" in A History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1913, Together With Biographies of Cambridge People (Cambridge: Cambridge Tribune, 1913): 270.
  16. ^ "The New Apointee," Cambridge Tribune, February 8 1902, 4.
  17. ^ "Proposals," American Architect and Building News 9, no. 286 (June 18 1881): xiii.
  18. ^ "SAL.2659", mhc-macris.net, Massachusetts Historical Commission, n. d. Accessed April 30 2021.
  19. ^ "Proposals," Sanitary Engineer 7, no. 15 (March 15 1883): 352.
  20. ^ a b "Obituary" in Architecture and Building 28, no. 14 (April 2 1898): 118.
  21. ^ "BKF.153", mhc-macris.net, Massachusetts Historical Commission, n. d. Accessed April 30 2021.
  22. ^ "WAK.253", mhc-macris.net, Massachusetts Historical Commission, n. d. Accessed April 30 2021.
  23. ^ "Wait & Cutter" in Illustrated Boston: The Metropolis of New England (New York: American Publishing and Engraving Company, 1889): 205.
  24. ^ Hall Memorial Library NRHP Registration Form (1978)
  25. ^ "The Roof of the South Armory Drill-hall," Engineering and Building Record 19, no. 21 (April 20 1889): 272.
  26. ^ "CAM.380", mhc-macris.net, Massachusetts Historical Commission, n. d. Accessed April 30 2021.
  27. ^ "FIT.4", mhc-macris.net, Massachusetts Historical Commission, n. d. Accessed April 30 2021.
  28. ^ Report of the Auditor of Accounts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the Year Ending December 31, 1892 (Boston: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1893)
  29. ^ Report of the Auditor of Accounts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the Year Ending December 31, 1893 (Boston: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1894)
  30. ^ "DED.385", mhc-macris.net, Massachusetts Historical Commission, n. d. Accessed April 30 2021.
  31. ^ Historic Building Detail: BKL.1634
  32. ^ "SPR.204", mhc-macris.net, Massachusetts Historical Commission, n. d. Accessed April 30 2021.
  33. ^ "FLR.3", mhc-macris.net, Massachusetts Historical Commission, n. d. Accessed April 30 2021.
  34. ^ "LOW.393", mhc-macris.net, Massachusetts Historical Commission, n. d. Accessed April 30 2021.
  35. ^ "CAM.379", mhc-macris.net, Massachusetts Historical Commission, n. d. Accessed April 30 2021.
  36. ^ "CAM.331", mhc-macris.net, Massachusetts Historical Commission, n. d. Accessed April 30 2021.
  37. ^ "NBE.2297", mhc-macris.net, Massachusetts Historical Commission, n. d. Accessed April 30 2021.
  38. ^ "Construction News" in Engineering News 53, no. 23 (June 8 1905): 216
  39. ^ Charles L. Hubbard, "The Heating and Ventilating of Stores" in Engineering Review 18, no. 1 (January 1908): 2-5.
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