James Knox Taylor (1857-1929) Washington, DC (F.A.I.A.)
Former Supervising Architect of the US Treasury, in charge (between 1897 and 1912), of the design and erection of a number of Government buildings. Taylor was born in Knoxville, Illinois, and completed an early education in schools in St. Paul, Minnesota. After taking up architectural study he completed a two-year course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, later worked in offices in Boston and New York, in the latter city employed for a year or more by Cass Gilbert.
Returning to St. Paul in 1882, Mr. Taylor established practice in the city, and subsequently moved to Philadelphia in 1892, and three years later went on to Washington. In the capital city he entered the Office of the US Supervising Architect as senior draftsman, and in 1897 succeeded to the post of Supervising Architect of the Department. Through his fifteen years of service in the office, Mr. Taylor was in charge of the design and erection of various Government buildings, among them Post Offices at Annapolis and Carrollton, Maryland, at Asbury Park, New Jersey and Norwich, Connecticut, and in San Francisco, the old Federal Building occupied by the Post Office, Custom House, and Appraisers' Stores.
Following his retirement from Government service in 1912, he opened an office in Boston for private practice. Later, after a few years in Yonkers, New York, he moved to Tampa, Florida, and in 1929 passed away in that city. He was 72 years old.