Albert L. Farr

American architect

Albert Lincoln Farr
Born	October 8, 1871 Omaha, Nebraska, US
Died	12 July 1947(1947-07-12) (aged 75) Piedmont, California, US
Occupation	Architect

Albert Lincoln Farr (October 8, 1871—July 12, 1947) was an American residential architect, who designed homes in the Craftsman and Georgian styles.

Early life

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, his early childhood was spent in Yokohama, Japan. The Farr family returned to the United States, and settled in Oakland in the San Francisco Bay Area and he attended Oakland High School. Farr lived at various times in San Francisco (at 2528 Union), and also briefly in Berkeley, settled in Piedmont, and Oakland.^[1]

Career

From 1909 through the end of his career he maintained an office at 68 Post Street in San Francisco.^[1]

Farr earned his architecture license in 1901, one of the first in California. He took on Joseph Francis Ward as an associated architect partner in 1922, eventually naming his firm Farr & Ward. Farr and his firm designed buildings throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, particularly in the San Francisco neighborhoods of Russian Hill, Pacific Heights, Sea Cliff, and St. Francis Wood. Many of his designs involve a facade of brown wooden shingles.^[1]

The Sundial Lodge, also known today as the L’Auberge Carmel, a Relais & Châteaux property, is a historic Medieval Revival hotel in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. It was designed by Farr and was built in 1929–1930, by Master builder Michael J. Murphy. It was designated as an important commercial building in the city's Downtown Historic District Property Survey, and was recorded with the Department of Parks and Recreation on December 5, 2002.^[2]

Projects

Farr also designed houses in Belvedere, Piedmont and Woodside. One of his most famous is the Wolf House for Jack London, in Glen Ellen.^[3] The 15,000-square-foot (1,400 m²) home burned before construction was completed. Long thought to be the result of an arson, recent analysis of the ruins, located in Jack London State Historic Park, determined the cause to be spontaneous combustion.^[1]^[4]

Death

Farr died on July 12, 1947, in Piedmont, California. He was buried in the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.^[5]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d David Parry (September 2004). "Architect Profile: Albert L. Farr" (PDF). homesconnect.com. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
^ Kent L. Seavey (December 5, 2002). "Department Of Parks And Recreation" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
^ Hayes, Gregory W.; Atkinson, Matt (2010). Jack London's Wolf House. Glen Ellen, California: Falcon Books and Valley of the Moon Natural History Association. ISBN 9780615426006.
^ Ybarra, Michael (February 4, 1996), "Discovering An Answer In the Flames", The New York Times
^ "Albert Farr", Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, p. 13, July 14, 1947