William G. Preston

rdf:langString William G. Preston

rdf:langString William Gibbons Preston

rdf:langString William Gibbons Preston

rdf:langString Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.

rdf:langString Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

rdf:langString See below.

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rdf:langString right

rdf:langString "Gardencourt" Charles H. Pope house, 1888

rdf:langString Boston Terra Cotta Company, 1885

rdf:langString Central Exchange Building, 1896

rdf:langString Charles H. Bradshaw house, 1878

rdf:langString Charles M. Russell house, 1890

rdf:langString Chatham County Courthouse, 1889

rdf:langString George Henry Fales residence, 1873

rdf:langString George Johnson Baldwin house, 1887

rdf:langString Greene's Inn, 1887

rdf:langString Hotel DeSoto, 1890

rdf:langString Hotel Vendome, 1871, before additions by others

rdf:langString International Exposition Building, 1880

rdf:langString International Trust Company Building, 1906

rdf:langString Lincoln Public Library, 1884

rdf:langString New England Natural History Museum, 1865

rdf:langString Savannah Cotton Exchange, 1886

rdf:langString Savannah Volunteer Guards Armory, 1893

rdf:langString St. Luke's Lutheran Church, 1890

rdf:langString The Hotel Aubry, 1883

rdf:langString Thomas-Webster Estate, 1878

rdf:langString World's Peace Jubilee Coliseum, 1872

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rdf:langString vertical

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rdf:langString left/right/center

rdf:langString Buildings in Boston, Massachusetts

rdf:langString Buildings in Massachusetts outside of Boston

rdf:langString Buildings in New York, Ohio and Rhode Island

rdf:langString Buildings in Savannah, Georgia

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rdf:langString International Trust Company Building Boston Architectural Club year book 1909 p.95.png

rdf:langString Boston Natural History Museum 1904.jpg

rdf:langString Central Exchange Building_1896.png

rdf:langString Chas. H Bradshaw House.png

rdf:langString Chatham County Courthouse 1893.png

rdf:langString Coliseum-Worlds-Peace-Jubilee.jpeg

rdf:langString George Johnson Baldwin house 1887.png

rdf:langString Green's Inn 1909 The Rhode Island News Co.png

rdf:langString Hotel Aubry 1895 Historic New England.png

rdf:langString Hotel DeSoto Savannah 1900 alt. view.png

rdf:langString Hotel Vendome.png

rdf:langString Residence of Geo. H. Fales.jpg

rdf:langString Savannah Cotton Exchange.png

rdf:langString Thomas-Webster Estate.png

rdf:langString William G. Preston March 1885.png

rdf:langString Savannah Volunteer Guards Armory Art Work of Savannah and Augusta, Part 5.jpg

rdf:langString Charles M. Russell house Lincoln Way E & 4th St. NE.jpg

rdf:langString Gardencourt 1888 Narraganseett Pier, Illustrated.png

rdf:langString Lincoln public library 1884 George Nelson, photographer.png

rdf:langString American

rdf:langString William Gibbons Preston (September 29, 1842 – March 26, 1910) was an American architect who practiced during the last third of the nineteenth century and in the first decade of the twentieth. Educated at Harvard University and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris., he was active in Boston, New York, Rhode Island, Ohio, New Brunswick and Savannah, Georgia, where he was brought by George Johnson Baldwin to design the Chatham County courthouse. Preston stayed in Savannah for several years during which time designed the original Desoto Hotel (1890, demolished 1965), the Savannah Volunteer Guards Armory and 20 other distinguished public buildings and private homes. He began his professional career working for his father, the builder and architect Jonathan Preston (1801–1888), upon his return to the United States from the École in 1861, and was the sole practitioner in the office from the time his father retired c. 1875 until he took John Kahlmeyer as a partner in about 1885. The drawings of the Preston firm, now owned by the Boston Public Library, make up "...one of the most complete sets of architectural graphics preserved from the nineteenth century." Many of his buildings were pictured as prints in American Architect and Building News. He is credited with the introduction of the bungalow to the United States through a house loosely of the type that he designed in Monument Beach, Massachusetts in 1879. Preston was an early historic preservationist. He was influential in the successful 1896 effort to prevent the Massachusetts state legislature from demolishing Boston's historic State House, which had been designed by the noted architect Charles Bulfinch and built in 1798. Bulfinch was also an architect of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Preston ran his practice for many years from a commercial and office building located at 186 Devonshire Street. He designed Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Rogers Building in 1864, located on Boylston Street near Boston's Copley Square, which housed the school's architecture department. Floor plans for the building show a large, centrally located space devoted to an architectural library and museum. Drawings from the Study Collection were hung on the studio walls and numerous casts and other artifacts also lined the walls and picture rails. Preston married Estelle M. Evans (1847–1920), whose father was the wealthy real estate developer Brice S. Evans, on December 6, 1866, and the couple had one son, Evans (1867–1900). William was an active member and fellow of the American Institute of Architects and served that organization in the office of first vice-president at the end of the 1890s. He was for many years a member of the Boston Society of Architects, and for thirty years served as its treasurer. He died at his home at 1063 Beacon Street in Brookline in 1910.