Background
William Holabird was born on September 11, 1854 in Amenia, New York, United States. He was the son of General Samuel Beckley Holabird, United States Army, and of Mary Theodosia (Grant) Holabird.
William Holabird was born on September 11, 1854 in Amenia, New York, United States. He was the son of General Samuel Beckley Holabird, United States Army, and of Mary Theodosia (Grant) Holabird.
Holabird graduated from high school and entered the United States Military Academy at West Point and remained there from 1873 to 1875. Angered by being disciplined for breaking a camp rule to aid a sick comrade, he resigned.
Holabird moved to Chicago in 1875 and applied for a position as an engineer in the architectural office of William Le Baron Jenney, who employed him as a draftsman. In 1880 young Holabird joined forces in independent practice with O. C. Simonds and a little later with Martin Roche, the firm being known as Holabird, Simonds & Roche. After 1883 and the abandonment of architecture for landscape gardening by Simonds, the firm was called Holabird & Roche. In 1896 Edward A. Renwick became a member.
In 1886 Wirt D. Walker of Chicago commissioned them to design a high building, 110 feet long and 25 feet in width, on the northeast corner of LaSalle and Madison Streets. In endeavoring to retain a profitable floor area on so narrow a lot the architects recalled a suggestion of Samuel Loring, a manufacturer of terra cotta, to the effect that a building might be constructed with a skeleton of iron on which thin terra cotta walls and tile floors could be supported. Holabird's former employer, W. L. Jenney, had tried out a scheme in 1884-1885 in the major portion of his Home Insurance Building in Chicago, which consisted in enclosing iron columns in brick masonry piers with iron lintels and spandrel girders supported by brackets on the columns. In the Tacoma Building this primitive arrangement was improved by the addition of brackets for the direct support of the masonry (terra cotta) pier facings. Holabird & Roche made complete plans for a building on this principle.
The foundations were laid in May 1886 for the 25 x 110 building, twelve stories high. Shortly afterward additional property was acquired and the drawings were made for the Tacoma Building. The work was started in May 1887 and the building was ready for occupancy in July 1888. It was the first office building in the world to utilize throughout its façades the principles of skeleton construction. He died in his sixty-ninth year in in Evanston, Illinois.
Holabird was a fellow of the American Institute of Architects; a 32nd Degree Mason, and a member of a great many social, civic, and professional organizations.
Holabird's courage, energy, commanding presence, and personal popularity united to the gentler graces and rare artistic ability of Martin Roche made a combination that put the firm in the vanguard of Chicago architects.
On December 27, 1875, Holabird married Maria Ford Augur, the daughter of General C. C. Augur, United States Army. They had six children.