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Walsh designed DuBourg Hall and St. Francis Xavier College Church,
which are both located on the campus of Saint Louis University. |
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Thomas Waryng Walsh
[St. Louis Architects: Famous and Not So Famous, Part 15]
by Carolyn Hewes Toft
(first published in Landmarks Letter, September/October 1989)
Thomas Waryng Walsh was born in Kilkenny, Ireland in 1827. The eldest son of an architect
/builder, young Walsh began his career at age 17 in the Dublin office of Sir William Dean
Butler.
In 1846, Walsh left the British Isles for North America--working first in St. John's,
Newfoundland where he superintended the construction of a new custom house and post office.
From there he headed to Boston and then on to New York City.
After a brief period working for Trench & Snook on plans for Trinity Church, the
Metropolitan Hotel and Niblo's Theatre, Walsh was drawn to St. Louis by reports of job
opportunities in the wake of the 1849 fire. Population in St. Louis grew from
77,860 in 1850 to 160,773 by 1860 and Walsh found plenty of work in the rapidly
expanding city. He also found a wife, Isabella Betts, whose parents came from
Canada to St. Louis by canoe in 1836!
Although he lost the 1854 competition for the original Mercantile Library building,
commissions from his first decade of practice included several public schools, a number of
banks, the Gay Building at 121 North 2nd Street and the old Custom House at 3rd
and Olive. His much-acclaimed Lindell Hotel was started in 1856 but was not completed
until 1863.
Located on Washington Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets, the $1,500,000 Lindell opened
its doors with a stupendous banquet and ball that attracted 3,000 guests.
Promotion (including Walsh's article for the Builder, XVI, 1863)
extolled the Lindell's lavish decorations and marvelled at its thirty-two miles
of bell wire. On the evening of March 30, 1867, a fire reduced the prize of St.
Louis to rubble. Pieces of the Lindell's cream colored Grafton limestone
exterior were salvaged by Henry Shaw who, along with his gardener James Gurney,
used the stones to create the picturesque Ruins behind the Sailboat Pond in
Tower Grove Park.
Another Walsh-designed building started in the 1850s but not completed until the 1860s
stood at the southwest corner of 7th and Chestnut. Conceived by Washington
University, the O'Fallon Polytechnic Institute was originally programmed to
provide technical education for the youth of the city. Instead, the University
sold the building to the School Board in 1868. The Board established a 30,000
volume library and leased meeting spaces to the Academy of Science, the Medical
Society, the Institute of Architects and the Missouri Historical Society. The
Institute was demolished in 1895 to make way for Eames & Young's Title Guaranty
Building which in turn was demolished in 1983 for Gateway One.
Walsh formed a decade-long partnership in 1860 with James Smith. Prominent buildings
from that period included Walsh's revisions to Father Dodd's plans for St. Alphonsus Rock
Church and the Four Courts Building at 12th and Clark Streets. By 1871, the
name Edmund Jungenfeld was added to the masthead and the firm had entered what
would be a tumultuous decade.
Smith left the office in 1874, the year of the final decision to build a new Post Office at
the western edge of downtown. Local supervision of Alfred Bult Mullett's design
was given to Walsh who quickly found himself in the center of charges that the
"St. Louis Custom House Ring" had defrauded the Federal government.
Although Walsh and three assistants were indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in
1876, only two assistants were tried. Both were acquitted. The case against
Walsh and one assistant was never brought to trial but President Hayes removed
Walsh from the job in 1878 and appointed Henry C. Issacs in his place.
In December of that year, the American Architect (which had presumed Walsh's guilt)
published a retraction stating that Walsh had been "altogether
exonerated." Meanwhile, Robert William Walsh had entered his father's
office as had Frederick Widmann and the firm continued to receive important
commissions.
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| Vintage Image of St. Francis Xavier College Church, circa 1900 |
Jungenfeld, Widmann and Robert Walsh left around 1881 to form their own firm (known after
Jungenfeld's death in 1884 as E. Jungenfeld & Co.; the history of that firm
will follow in a later column.) Walsh, plagued with chronic kidney trouble
resulting in Bright's disease, continued to practice on his own until his death
in 1890. Among his final projects were the new campus for St. Louis University,
including the College Church.
Source: Landmarks Association of Saint Louis
