Background
William W. Clay was born in 1849 in New York, United States.
William W. Clay was born in 1849 in New York, United States.
At the age of twenty a graduate of the College of the City of New York.
Mr. Clay left for Chicago shortly after the great fire of 1871 and for several years thereafter was active in reconstruction work. In practice first in association with the late O. L. Wheelock and later a partner in the firm of Beers, Clay 6 Dutton, he was identified with the planning and erection of the Medinah Office Building erected at the comer of Wells Street and Jackson Blvd. (no longer standing), and the Dakota Hotel on Michigan Avenue at 30th Street.
He was better known, however, for his residence work which comprised many homes for wealthy clients on Prairie Avenue, and hundreds of other houses both large and small, in the city. It may also be of interest to recall that he was the first architect in Chicago to make use of encaustic tile as exterior decoration of private homes.
In 1893 (during Chicago’s World's Fair) served a term as president of the local Chapter of the A. I. A.