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T. Dudley Allen

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Truman Dudley Allen (1829-1897), commonly known as T. D. Allen or T. Dudley Allen, was an American architect. He moved frequently throughout his career, practicing in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin, but most of his prominent works date from his residence in Minneapolis at the close of his career.

Truman Dudley Allen
BornApril 16, 1829
Greenwich, New York
DiedOctober 7, 1897(1897-10-07) (aged 68)
Racine, Wisconsin
NationalityAmerican
OccupationArchitect
Blue Earth County Courthouse, Mankato, Minnesota, 1886.
Franklin County Courthouse, Hampton, Iowa, 1890.
Columbus City Hall, Columbus, Wisconsin, 1891.

Early life and career

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Truman Dudley Allen was born April 16, 1829, in Greenwich, New York. In 1848 he moved to western Pennsylvania, where he began to study architecture. He continued these studies in northern Ohio, eventually starting an architectural practice in Medina. In 1872 he went to Cleveland, but soon afterwards went further west, to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and then Council Bluffs, Iowa. He remained there until 1879, when he relocated to Grand Island, Nebraska. He then went to Lincoln in 1882,[1] where he remained until 1885. Later that year he was in Anoka, Minnesota, and was in Minneapolis by 1886.

When he arrived in Minneapolis he associated himself with A. Leonard Haley,[a] who had initiated his practice in Minneapolis in late 1885.[2] Haley & Allen lasted for only a few months, and by 1887 was instead associated with Homer L. Patten, though Allen & Patten too only lasted a few months. In about 1892 Allen began practicing as T. D. Allen & Company, and retired in 1893,[3] when ill health obligated it.[4] He spent a year in Florida before coming back west to Racine, Wisconsin, to live with his daughter, Wrennie, and her husband. He died in Racine, October 7, 1897.[5]

Personal life

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In 1866 Allen married Harriet E. Hinckley of Warren County, Pennsylvania. They had four children, and Harriet Allen died in Grand Island in 1880.[1] In 1882 he remarried, to Lucinda Thorspeckan of Omaha,[6] though she may have died by 1885. He married a third time in 1886, to Carrie E. Mullekin of St. Paul.[7]

One of his sons, Glenn Allen, would go on to be a successful architect in Texas and California.

In 1891 Allen's daughter, Wrennie, married David R. Davis, an employee of her father's.[8] In 1892 they moved to Racine, Wisconsin, where Davis established his own practice. Allen was living with his daughter and son-in-law at the time of his death.

Legacy

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A number of his works are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.[9][10]

Reception

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If Allen's work was ever substantially noted in the national architectural press, it is not apparent. In the twentieth century, several writers have commented on his later works in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. In their contribution to a 1978 study of American courthouse architecture, Henry-Russell Hitchcock and William Seale found Allen's courthouses of the 1880s and 1890s to be "crass and vulgar...very remote from Richardson's own work,"[11] which sets the tone. This is echoed by Kathryn Bishop Eckert in her 2000 study of sandstone architecture around Lake Superior, noting in particular an impression of a lack of planning.[12]

In their 1993 survey of the architecture of Iowa, David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim are more diplomatic, instead calling Allen's approach "rather personal." They identify the Franklin County Courthouse (1890) as a high point.[13]

Architectural works

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Year Building Address City State Notes Image Reference
1871 Lincoln School 144 N Broadway St Medina Ohio Demolished. [14]
1873 Medina County Courthouse 99 Public Sq Medina Ohio Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.   [15]
1875 German Methodist Church (former) 101 W Tenth Ave Oshkosh Wisconsin [16]
1880 Whittier School Third Ave Kearney Nebraska Demolished. [17]
1882 Polk County Courthouse 400 Hawkeye St Osceola Nebraska Demolished. [18]
1883 Stanton County Courthouse 804 Ivy St Stanton Nebraska Demolished. [18]
1886 Blue Earth County Courthouse[b] 204 S 5th St Mankato Minnesota Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.   [19]
1887 Ramsey County Courthouse 524 Fourth Ave NE Devils Lake North Dakota Demolished. [20]
1887 Rock County Courthouse 204 E Brown St Luverne Minnesota Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.   [21]
1888 College Hall,
Dakota Wesleyan University		 1200 W University Ave Mitchell South Dakota Burned in 1955. [22]
1888 Merrill City Hall 717 E 2nd St Merrill Wisconsin Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.   [23]
1889 Hand County Courthouse 415 W First Ave Miller South Dakota Demolished. [24]
1889 Richland County Courthouse 181 W Seminary St Richland Wisconsin   [25]
1890 Dickinson County Courthouse 1802 Hill Ave Spirit Lake Iowa Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981, but demolished in 2006.   [26]
1890 Franklin County Courthouse 12 1st Ave NW Hampton Iowa Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.   [27]
1890 Kandiyohi County Courthouse 505 Becker Ave SW Willmar Minnesota Demolished. [28]
1891 Columbus City Hall 105 N Dickason Blvd Columbus Wisconsin Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.   [29]
1892 Hardin County Courthouse 1215 Edgington Ave Eldora Iowa Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.   [30]
1892 Old Main,
Mayville State University		 330 3rd St NE Mayville North Dakota   [31]
1892 Steele County Courthouse 111 Main St E Owatonna Minnesota Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.   [32]
1893 Walker School Washington Ave Washburn Wisconsin Burned in 1947. [12]

Notes

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  1. ^ Haley's father, Joseph, was an architect who had begun practicing in Minneapolis in 1869. The younger Haley would move to Los Angeles in 1888.
  2. ^ Credited to the firm of Haley & Allen.
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References

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  1. ^ a b "T. D. Allen," History of the State of Nebraska (Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1882)
  2. ^ Inland Architect and Builder 6, no. 7 (January 1886): 119.
  3. ^ Minneapolis City Directory for 1893-4 (Minneapolis: Minneapolis Directory Company, 1893)
  4. ^ Minneapolis City Directory for 1894-5 (Minneapolis: Minneapolis Directory Company, 1894)
  5. ^ "Obituary," Racine (WI) Journal, October 14, 1897.
  6. ^ Daily Nebraska State Journal (Lincoln, NE), December 8, 1882.
  7. ^ St. Paul (MN) Globe, May 16, 1886.
  8. ^ "David R. Davis, Architect, Dies," Racine (WI) Journal-Times, February 18, 1935.
  9. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  10. ^ "National Register of Historic Places: County Courthouses in Iowa TR".
  11. ^ Henry-Russell Hitchcock and William Seale, "Notes on the Architecture," Court House: A Photographic Document, ed. Richard Pare (New York: Horizon Press, 1978): 215.
  12. ^ a b Kathryn Bishop Eckert, The Sandstone Architecture of the Lake Superior Region (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2000): 195.
  13. ^ David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim, Buildings of Iowa (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993): 397-398.
  14. ^ Medina County Courthouse NRHP Registration Form (1970)
  15. ^ History of Medina County and Ohio (Chicago: Baskin & Battey, 1881)
  16. ^ "101 W 10TH AVE | Property Record". January 2012.
  17. ^ "To Contractors and Builders," Daily Nebraska State Journal (Lincoln, NE), September 2, 1880, 1.
  18. ^ a b Oliver B. Pollack, Nebraska Courthouses: Contention, Compromise and Community (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2002)
  19. ^ Blue Earth County Courthouse NRHP Registration Form (1980)
  20. ^ Inland Architect and News Record 10, no. 2 (August 1887): 15.
  21. ^ Rock County Courthouse and Jail NRHP Registration Form (1977)
  22. ^ Inland Architect and News Record 12, no. 5 (November 1888): xvi.
  23. ^ Merrill City Hall NRHP Registration Form (1978)
  24. ^ Stone 1, no. 9 (January 1889): 239.
  25. ^ Building 10, no. 8 (February 23, 1889): 3.
  26. ^ Dickinson County Courthouse NRHP Registration Form (1981)
  27. ^ Franklin County Courthouse NRHP Registration Form (1976)
  28. ^ "Proposals," Engineering and Building Record 21, no. 21 (April 26, 1890): 336.
  29. ^ Columbus City Hall NRHP Registration Form (1979)
  30. ^ Hardin County Courthouse NRHP Registration Form (1981)
  31. ^ History of the Red River Valley: Past and Present, vol. 1. (1909)
  32. ^ David Gebhard and Tom Martinson, A Guide to the Architecture of Minnesota (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1977)
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