Willoughby J. Edbrooke

Willoughby James Edbrooke (Evanston, Illinois 1843 — 1896) was an American architect and a bureaucrat who remained faithful to a Richardsonian Romanesque style into the era of Beaux-Arts architecture in the United States, supported by commissions from conservative federal and state governments that were spurred by his stint in 1891-92 as Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury Department.

Edbrooke first practiced in Chicago in 1868 and in 1879 formed a partnership with Franklin P[ierce] Burnham (died 1909). The partnership was dissolved in 1892. Among their major joint commissions were the Georgia State Capitol, and buildings for Notre Dame University, and the Mecca Apartments (1891-1892) in Chicago, where Edbrooke served as superintendent of construction. The division of responsibilities and credit for constructions at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893, may have finalized the dissolution of the partnership. Edbrooke resited in Washington DC, where in his position as supervising architect of the Treasury Department, he initiated the design of at least forty buildings.

The monumentally classical Georgia State Capitol shows Burnham's design sensibility rather than Edbrooke's, as Edbrooke's late constructions show. At the turn of the twentieth century, fire destroyed many of the documents in storage at the Capitol, including the original plans and specifications for the building. The competition for the capitol's design was judged by New York architect, George B. Post, who remarked its "beauty, strength and harmony" in justifying his selection of the Edbrooke and Burnham classicizing design, that it was more academically correct, simple and elegant, and monumental in its appearance. At the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893, the Government Building was ascribed to Willoughby J. Edbrooke. Its classicizing design fit in harmoniously with the "White City" that ushered in the American Renaissance movement and the age of Beaux-Arts architecture. At the Exposition, Franklin P. Burnham was officially credited only with the Cold-Storage Warehouse, while "Willoughby J. Edbrooke, Washington" is credited with the United States Government Building and the other official federal exhibits.

His major commissions were:

• Construction for Notre Dame University: the Main Building (1879), Washington Hall (1881), LaFortune Student Center (1883) and Sorin Hall (1889).
• 7th District Police Station, Chicago, Illinois (1888) Co-architect Franklin P. Burnham
• Kane County Courthouse, Geneva, Illinois (c. 1890-92). Co-architect Franklin P. Burnham.
• Georgia State Capitol (1884-89) Co-architect Franklin P. Burnham. Local builders were It was built by Miles and Horne . George Crouch worked on the ornamental sculpture.
• San Jose Post Office, San Jose, California (1892) Served as the main city library 1937-69; occupied by the Civic Art Gallery 1969, renamed the San Jose Museum of Art 1974. In the 1906 earthquake the top of the tower collapsed into the street and was rebuilt in modified form.
• World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago (1893) Government Building. Co-architect Burnham.
• Old Post Office Building (Washington, D.C.) (1892-99) During construction, five supervising architects made alterations ro Edbrooke's design.
• Federal Court House and Post Office, Martinsburg, West Virginia (1892-95) Edbrooke's design here, as at many federal structures commenced during his official term, was revised and detailed by assistants, in this case by Assistant Supervising Architect D.W. Aiken. Now housing a Federal Aviation Administration Records Center.
• Old United States Courthouse and Post Office, Duluth, Minnesota (1896). Co-architects Jeremiah O'Rourke, James Knox Taylor. Demolished.
• City Hall, Sioux City, Iowa (1896) Co-architect William Martin Aiken .
• U.S. Court of Appeals, San Francisco, California (1897-1905)
• Milwaukee Federal Building, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1899). Its five-bay entrance loggia virtually repeats the three-bay entrance loggia for the Old Post Office Building, Washington DC, being erected at the same time.
• Federal Archive Building, New York (1899). A full city block between Greenwich Street and Washington Street, its interior has been renovated as studios and loft apartments, as The Archive.
• Federal Court House and Post office for the Upper Midwest, now the "Landmark Center", St Paul, Minnesota (1902) Completed after Edbrooke's death, Cass Gilbert, supervising architect.

Edbrooke was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

His son Harry W.J. Edbrooke went into practice with Willoughby's brother, Frank E. Edbrooke, the dean of early Denver architecture.