Walter J. Mathews

Walter J. Mathews (May, 1850 – 20 November 1947) was an American architect based in Oakland, California. He was a native of Markesan, Wisconsin. He is best known for his design the First Unitarian Church of Oakland.

His father, Julius C. Mathews, was also an architect. The family moved from Wisconsin in 1866, and Walter and his brothers trained in the office of their father. After training in his father's office, he spent a few years in Los Angeles, where he became a partner with architect Ezra F. Kysor in the firm Kysor & Mathews. Among the Los Angeles projects he collaborated on with Kysor were the Cathedral of Saint Vibiana and Childs' Grand Opera House, which was later to become the first Los Angeles venue of the Orpheum vaudeville circuit.

Mathews returned to Oakland in 1877, becoming a partner in his father's firm until establishing his own practice in Oakland in 1886.

His projects were typical of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including office buildings, hotels, theaters, clubs, commercial buildings, churches, and houses. He remained in practice in Oakland until at least 1940.

External links

• Images of Arbor Villa, designed by Mathews, from The Bancroft Library
• Past and Present of Alameda County, California, from The Internet Archive

References

• "First Unitarian Church of Oakland (data pages)". Historic American Building Survey. National Park Service. pp. 13–15. Retrieved 2006-09-28.