Holabird

choice as his successor seems to rest on evidence
(News and Observer, July 4-6, 1912) that is
historically inadequate. For summary handling
of deserters in his tidewater campaign he was
threatened with punishment by the Federal gov-
ernment ; but Grant, knowing the circumstances,
intervened. Public honors he consistently re-
fused, except for a directorship for the state in
the North Carolina Railroad Company, urged
upon him by Governor Vance. On Jan. 7, 1869,
he married Lydia Van Wyck, by whom he had
six children. He was buried with military hon-
ors from the Church of the Good Shepherd (Epis-
copal), Raleigh, of which he was a member.

[S. A. Ashe, Biog. Hist, of AT. C., vol. I (1905), and
Hist, of N. C., vol. II (1925) ; War of the Rebellion:
Official Records (Army) ; H. E. Bromwell, Fullinwider
Notes (1920); G. E. Swope, Hist, of the Swope Family
and Their Connections (1896); Confed. Veteran
(Nashville), Sept. 1912; Carolina and the Southern
Cross, May 1913; News and Observer (Raleigh, N. C.),
July 4-6, 1912.] C.C.P.

HOLABIRD, WILLIAM (Sept. n, 1854-
July 19,1923), architect, the son of Gen. Samuel
Beckley Holabird, United States Army, and of
Mary Theodosia (Grant) Holabird, was born at
Amenia Union, N. Y. After graduating from
high school he entered the United States Mili-
tary 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. Shortly afterward, Dec. 27, 1875,
he married Maria Ford Augur, daughter of Gen.
C. C. Augur, United States Army. He moved
to Chicago in 1875 and applied for a position as
an engineer in the architectural office of William
Le Baron Jenney [g.z/.], who employed him as a
draftsman. In 1880 young Holabird joined forces
in independent practice with 0. 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.

Holabird's courage, energy, commanding pres-
ence, and personal popularity united to the gen-
tler graces and rare artistic ability of Martin
Roche made a combination that put the firm in
the vanguard of Chicago architects. In 1886
Wirt D. Walker of Chicago commissioned them
to design a high building, no 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 Lor-
ing, a manufacturer of terra cotta, to the effect
that a building might be constructed with a skel-

Holabird

eton 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 1884-85 in the major portion of his Home In-
surance Building in Chicago, which consisted
in enclosing iron columns in brick masonry
piers with iron lintels and spandrel girders sup-
ported by brackets on the columns. In the Ta-
coma Building this primitive arrangement was
improved by the addition of brackets for the di-
rect 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 no building,
twelve stories high. Shortly afterward addi-
tional 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 facades the principles of skeleton construc-
tion. The building created nation-wide comment
and established the use of skeleton construction
for high buildings.

Another important contribution to architec-
tural engineering by Holabird & Roche was their
introduction of the multiple deep basement and
the necessary devices to make it possible, first
used in the original Tribune Building. In addi-
tion to the Tacoma, the firm produced between
1883 and 1923 an imposing number of buildings,
of which the most important in Chicago and its
vicinity were the following: United States Mili-
tary Post at Fort Sheridan, III (1885), Caxton
(1890), Pontiac (1891), South end of Monad-
nock Block (1892), Old Colony (1893), Mar-
quette (1894), Atwood (1896), old Tribune
Building (1901), Cook County Building (1906),
Congress Hotel (1902-07), Boston Store (1907-
16), Hotel Sherman (1909-12), Hotel LaSalle
(1909), University Club (1909), City Hall
(1910), Monroe (1911), Mandel Brothers store
(1911), Otis (1911), John Crerar Library
(1919), Illinois Life (1921).

The invention of the skeleton steel skyscraper
demanded revolutionary improvements in all of
the structural arts and sciences, and resulted in
the most brilliant era of structural engineering
the world has ever known. In this era Holabird
was one of the pioneers and throughout his life
a conspicuous leader. He 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. With his
family, he made his home in Evanston, III, where
he died in his sixty-ninth year.

[Who's Who in America, 1922-23; Jour. Ill State

127