William Ward Watkin and the Rice Institute

Houston, Texas: Gulf Publishing Company, 1991. CX4 - A first edition (complete numberline) hardcover book SIGNED by Ray Watkin Strange (daughter of the subject of the book William Ward Watkin) in very good condition in very good dust jacket. Dust jacket has price clipped, some wrinkling, chipping, crease, and few less than half-inch tears on the edges and corners, light tanning and shelf wear. Book has some bumped corners, some light stains on the page edges, light discoloration and shelf wear. 9.25"x6.25", 363 pages. Satisfaction Guaranteed. William Ward Watkin was an architect primarily practicing in Houston, Texas. He was the founder of the Architecture Department of Rice University in 1912, and remained on the Rice faculty until his death. Concurrently, he also designed a number of important projects, mostly in the Houston area. Watkin was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 21, 1886, and grew up in Danville, Pennsylvania, where he graduated from high school in 1903. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1908, he spent a year in Europe and then moved to Boston, Massachusetts to join the architecture firm of Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson. Watkin was then sent to Houston, TX to work on plans for Rice Institute (now named Rice University) and was the firm's representative supervisor there. Edgar Odell Lovett, the President of Rice Institute, offered Watkin a faculty position in architectural engineering when the Institute opened in 1912. He later became the head of the architecture department, a position he held until his death. In addition to his duties at Rice, Watkin designed a large number of structures, many of which are architecturally significant. He died and was interred at Forest Park Cemetery in Houston . . Signed. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.