Henry Ives Cobb

Background

Henry Ives Cobb was born on August 19, 1859 in Brookline, Massachusetts, United States. He was a son of Albert A. and Mary R. (Candler) Cobb.

Education

He was educated in Boston schools, Cobb completed a preparatory course in architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and after being graduated at the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard, spent a year (1870) in Europe in supplementary study and travel.

Career

He began his career in the Boston office of Peabody & Stearns, and while employed there prepared a design which he entered in the competition for a new Union Club in Chicago. Successful in winning the commission for the building, in 1882 Mr. Cobb moved to Chicago to supervise its erection, subsequently joined the late Charles S, Frost in a partnership of which he remained a member until 1889. During that period the firm of Cobb & Frost established a high professional reputation as the designers of a number of important buildings in Chicago, outstanding examples of which were: Newberry Library, begun in 1887 on site of the Malcolm Ogden house: Historical Society Building (Dearborn and Ontario Streets) 1887; Chicago Athletic Club; the old Post Office (1888-1905), since 1934 the United States Court House, also Horticulture Hall and the Fisheries Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition.

In addition, the firm designed the following buildings on the campus of the University of Chicago; Kent Chemical Laboratory; Ryerson Laboratory; Bartlett Gymnasium and dormitories in the Central Quad.

In the field of residential work Cobb & Frost won wide recognition follow¬ing the completion of the Potter Palmer mansion at the corner of Lake Shore Drive and Banks Street, for which a permit was taken out for $90,000. Other residences of note designed by the firm included the Dr. Gill home on Drexel Boulevard and the Cass house, Chicago, also the Studebaker residence at South Bend, Indiana.

In the second phase of his career Mr. Cobb opened an office in New York in 1902, and continued in independent practice the rest of his life. His works in Manhattan were mainly office and commercial buildings, including the Harriman Bank Building, 55 Liberty St., 1910, erected on the site of the old home of the poet, William Cullen Bryant; Sinclair Oil Building; Office Building at 42 Broadway; and the Booth Memorial Theatre. In later years Mr. Cobb was commissioned to design a number of buildings for the American University at Washington, D. C., also the Durand Art Institute at Lake Forrest University, Indiana.

Achievements

• He was an American architect who designed numerous residences and landmark buildings in Chicago, including the Newberry Library, the Chicago Athletic Association building, the Union Club of Chicago, and the main quadrangle and other buildings on the campus of the University of Chicago.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Central Pavilion of the Fisheries Building at the World's Fair , Chicago, IL

Connections

Father:

Albert Adams

Mother:

Mary Russell Candler Cobb

Spouse:

Emma Martin Smith