Background
Charles Bowler Atwood was born on May 18, 1849 in Charlestown, Massachussets, United States to David and Lucy Jane (Bowles) Atwood.
Charles Bowler Atwood was born on May 18, 1849 in Charlestown, Massachussets, United States to David and Lucy Jane (Bowles) Atwood.
At seventeen Atwood was studying architecture, and in 1868 he entered the course in architecture at the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University, remaining there two years. From Harvard he entered the office of Ware & Van Brunt, then one of the few firms of architects of high professional standing in the country, where he remained until 1872.
In 1872 he opened his own offices in Boston. During a three-year period of independent practise, Atwood's work was largely in the neighborhood of Worcester, near which, at Millbury, his family then resided. His most important works of this time were the Merchants Fire Insurance Building at Worcester, and the Five Cent Savings Bank at Lowell. He was also the successful prize winner in various minor competitions.
In 1875 he was called to New York to take charge of the architectural work of Herter Brothers, the well-known fashionable decorators.
While with them he designed the twin Vanderbilt houses on Fifth Avenue between Fifty-first and Fifty-second Streets. Later, he left the employ of Herter Brothers, and again entered independent practise.
In 1890, D. H. Burnham's partner, John W. Root, had died, and Burnham was in a quandary as to his successor, for it would have been impossible for Burnham to do by himself the immense amount of work thrust on him by his position as chief of construction and consulting architect for the contemplated Chicago World's Fair. William R. Ware (of Ware & Van Brunt), then professor of architecture in Columbia College, at once suggested Atwood, and, despite the doubts expressed by C. F. McKim, Burnham selected him.
By the spring of 1891 the reorganization was completed, and Atwood thus became "Designer-in-Chief" of the Chicago World's Fair.
The most important were the combination of Music Hall, Peristyle, and Casino, in one composition, and the Art Building, the artistic crown of the Exposition and Atwood's undoubted chef-d'oeuvre. Augustus Saint-Gaudens said that the Art Building had been "unequaled since the Parthenon" and Burnham that "his Art Building in design was the most beautiful building I have ever seen. "
In 1893 Burnham originated a new firm, D. H. Burnham & Co. , with Atwood in control of "all artistic matters including making designs. " Among the buildings which Atwood designed under this arrangement was the Ellicut Building in Buffalo. After the completion of the World's Fair work, however, he seems never to have been completely happy in the Burnham firm.
Atwood resigned on December 10, 1895. On December 18, 1896 he died under mysterious circumstances.
His most important works were the Merchants Fire Insurance Building at Worcester, the Five Cent Savings Bank at Lowell. He also designed the twin Vanderbilt houses on Fifth Avenue between Fifty-first and Fifty-second Streets the Twombly and Webb houses, and a great deal of work on the estate of Mrs. Mark Hopkins at Great Barrington. For the Columbian Exposition Atwood desined the Terminal Station and the Fine Arts Building. He was also the successful prize winner in various minor competitions.
Atwood was a genial, companionable person, he grew more and more peculiar as the years drew on, more and more a recluse. His artistic skill was the product of an intense artistic temperament, which had many of the peculiarities and deficiencies that occasionally accompany it.
Physical characteristics: Atwood always was a frail man, and during his work on the Reliance and Fisher buildings in 1894 and 1895 Atwood’s appearance grew ominously skeletal.
Quotes from others about the person
Daniel Hudson Burnham said: "His Art Building in design was the most beautiful building I have ever seen".
Atwood kept his life private. Only after his death Marian (Minnie) Singer told she was married to him and they had a young son who died in 1884. This information was shocking to everybody who knew Atwood.
