Illinois
William W. Boyington (1839-10/16/1898) Chicago, Illinois (F.A.I.A.)
In practice in Chicago prior to the great fire of 1871, Boyington participated actively in the subsequent re-building of the city as architect of many important buildings including churches, hotels, and various public and commercial structures.
He was born and received an early education in Springfield, Massachusetts, and is said to have studied architecture in New York under Professor Stone. Still in his teens when he first arrived in Chicago, the young man began practice shortly thereafter, and his first commission was to design the old Central Union Depot. He was increasingly busy up to the year of the fire, in that period engaged in planning many churches, of which the best known were: St. Paul's Universalist, Wabash and Van Buren Streets; the First Presbyterian; Wabash Avenue Methodist; the First Baptist; the North Presbyterian; Ada Street Methodist; and the old Second Baptist Church, now the home of the Aiken Institute. Also churches of equally elaborate design were built from his plans in cities of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Iowa, and Wisconsin.
Among his most important secular works were: Jones Hall, 1859, and Douglas Hall, 1865, at the old University of Chicago at Cottage Grove and Rhodes Streets; Observatory at the University of Chicago, 1863; Democratic Convention Hall, 1864; Crosby's Opera House (built in 1865 and destroyed in the great fire); the McCormick Building at the foot of Lake Street, 1866; the old Lake Shore & Michigan Depot; Chicago Water Works with its tower, built between 1867 and 1869; old Masonic Hall; Board of Trade Building at the head of La Salle Street, (1865, demolished); and the following hotels: the Sherman House, 1869; the Massasoit Pacific Hotel and the junction of Clark, Jackson, and La Salle Streets, completed in 1871 just prior to the fire. In the reconstruction period that followed the fire he continued active for several years, re-building many of his early works damaged or destroyed in the fire.
In addition to his work in Chicago, he prepared plans for hotels and other structures built in cities elsewhere, among which were the Windsor Hotels at Montreal, Canada, and Denver Colorado, and the Newhall Hotel in Milwaukee Wisconsin.