Background
Charles B. Atwood was born in 1848 at Millbury, Massachusetts, United States.
Charles B. Atwood was born in 1848 at Millbury, Massachusetts, United States.
Atwood received a technical education at the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard.
He entered Laniel Burnham’s Chicago office in 1891, and later was taken into the firm of D. H. Burnham & Company. Born at Millbury, Mass. After a few years of draftsmanship in the Boston office of Ware & Van Brunt, in 1872 established his own office in the city. His early work included a number of commercial buildings in the vicinity of Worcester, Mass., near his home, also he was successful in winning a number of competitions.
In 1875 Mr. Atwood accepted a position as designer with the New York firm of Herter Brothers, well known interior decorators, and moved to that city. During the ten years he remained with the firm he prepared plans for a number of the houses Herter Brothers built and furnished for prominent New York clients, and after establishing his own office in the city, Atwood specialized in designing large residences. Among the most important examples of these were the city homes for H. McKinley Twombly and Dr. Stewart Webb, son-in-law of William Vanderbilt. He also had charge of designing the interior decoration of the palatial mansion of Mrs. Mark Hopkins at Great Barrington, Mass. In a later period he received several commissions on large public buildings, and in that field of design Mr. Atwood achieved marked success. He entered the competition for the New York City Hall, and though his drawings were pronounced superior to any of the others submitted, he was declared ineligible for the first prize of five thousand dollars due to failure to furnish an estimate of cost with the plans submitted.
After leaving New York in 1891, he joined the Burnham office in Chicago where a large staff was engaged in preparing plans for the World’s Columbian Exposition which opened in 1894. Following Mr. Burnham's appointment as Architect-in-Chief of the Fair, he chose Mr. Atwood as his designer, and while the latter is generally credted with the planning of many of the buildings, the Art Building, afterward re-named the Columbian Museum, was particularly his own conception.
Of the commercial works of the firm, Mr. Atwood was identified only with the design of the EHicott Building at Buffalo, N. Y. In the following years he participated less actively in projects being planned in the office, due mainly to failing health, and with the possibilities of greater success unrealized, his career was cut short by death in his forty-seventh year.
He was successful in winning a number of competitions.