Résumé

Chauffeur, C.C. Tanner, Lake Tahoe, CA, 1918.

Sturtevant worked for the following Los Angeles, CA, landscape architects: Florence Yoch, Charles Adams, A.E. Hansen and Cook, Hall and Cornell (1924-1925).

He worked in the nursery of Theodore Payne, Los Angeles, CA, 1921.

He started calling himself a "landscape architect" by about 1922, when he recorded this occupation on his US passport application of 01/28/1922. His profession was "landscape architect" in voter records of 1924. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: California State Library; Sacramento, California; Great Register of Voters, 1900-1968, accessed 05/28/2020.)

Draftsman, Stiles and Van Kleek, Landscape Architects, St. Petersburg, FL, 1925-1926. (See R.L. Polk and Company's St Petersburg, Florida, City Directory, 1926, p. 596.)

Office Manager/Head Designer, Fletcher Steele, Boston, MA, 1926-1927.

Principal, Butler S. Sturtevant, Landscape Architect, Boston, MA, 1927. Sturtevant had an office in Boston, MA, in 1927 at 7 Water Street, Room #919. (See Boston, Massachusetts, City Directory, 1927, p. 1927.)

Designer, Gardner, Gardner and Fischer, Los Angeles, CA, 1927-1928.

Draftsman, Co-Principal, Butler Sturtevant, Landscape Architect, Seattle, WA, c. 1928-1938. In 1928-1929, Sturtevsnt had an office in Room #809 of the Skinner Building, although he mvoed to Room #823 by 1930. (See Seattle, Washington, City Directory, 1928, p. 1610, R.L. Polk and Company's Seattle, Washington, City Directory, 1929, p. 1734 and Seattle, Washington, City Directory, 1930, p. 1643.) He switched his office to #406 New World Life Building by 1935. (See Seattle, Washington, City Directory, 1935, p. 1653.) He continued to have a permanent residence at 36 Chester Way in San Mateo, CA, after 1934, at least.

Landscape Architect, Principia College, Elsah, IL, c. 1932.

Principal, Butler Sturtevant, Landscape Architect, San Francisco, CA, 1940-1942. In 1942, Sturtevant had his landscape architecture office at 210 Post Street in San Francisco.

Partner, Sturtevant and Grohs, Landscape Architects, Seattle, WA, 1942.

Major, United States Army, 1942-1943. (See Burlingame-San Mateo, California, City Directory, 1942, p. 287.) He spent some time serving in Texas during his military career. (See Fort Worth, Texas, City Directory, 1943, p. 909.)

Professional Activities

Lanscape Architect, University of Washington, Seattle (UW), Seattle, WA, 1931-1939.

College

B.S., Horticulture, University of California, Southern Branch, Los Angeles, CA, 1918-1921.

Graduate coursework, Harvard University, Graduate School of Landscape Architecture and City Planning, Cambridge, MA, 1922-1923.

Relocation

Butler S. Sturtevant was born in Delavan, WI, in 1899. On 06/08/1900, when the US Census was taken that year, he lived with his family at 220 3rd Street. in Delavan. The household included his parents, three siblings and two boarders, a traveling salesman, Charles M. Tallman, (born c. 01/1868 in WI), and his wife, Mildred Tallman, (born c. 01/1875 in WI). The Tallmans wed c. 1896. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: Year: 1900; Census Place: Delavan, Walworth, Wisconsin; Page: 7; Enumeration District: 0085; FHL microfilm: 1241820, accessed 05/25/2020.)

The family had relocated to Los Angeles, CA, by 1907 or 1908. In 1908, James Merrill Sturtevant worked as a clerk for Montgomery Brothers, Jewelers, and resided at 969 West Kensington Road. (See Los Angeles, California, City Directory, 1908 p. 1388.) In 1910, the US Census located their house at 1347 Edgecliff Avenue, where they remained for many years. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: Los Angeles Assembly District 74, Los Angeles, California; Roll: T624_84; Page: 17A; Enumeration District: 0074; FHL microfilm: 1374097, accessed 05/25/2020.)

On 09/07/1918, Sturtevant maintained his permanent address with his parents at 1347 Edgecliffe Drive, Los Angeles, CA.At the time, he worked as a chauffeur for C.C. Tanner, who lived at Lake Tahoe, CA. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: Registration State: California; Registration County: Los Angeles; Roll: 1531187; Draft Board: 17, accessed 05/25/2020.)

The US Census of 1920 found the Sturtevants living at the same address, but another child had been born by that time, Jack. Brothers James Merrill and Sabin worked as salesmen in the wholesale merchandise business as per the census. Butler's occupation was listed as "none" in this document. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: Year: 1920; Census Place: Los Angeles Assembly District 63, Los Angeles, California; Roll: T625_106; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 147, accessed 05/25/2020.)

In preparation for his schooling in landscape architecture at Harvard University in 1923, Sturtevant took a world tour in 1922 (see Biographical Notes below). While at Harvard in 1923, he had a room at 67 Sparks Street in Cambridge, MA. (See W.A. Greenough's Cambridge, Massachusetts, City Directory, 1923, p. 778.)

After Harvard, he returned to live at home with his parents during 1924. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: California State Library; Sacramento, California; Great Register of Voters, 1900-1968, accessed 05/28/2020.)

Following his 1922 tour and Harvard tenure, Sturtevant began to take different professional positions all around the US. Between 1925 and 1927, Sturtevant lived and worked in Saint Petersburg, FL, and Boston, MA. The architect obtained lodging at 219 3rd Avenue North in Saint Petersburg while working for Stiles and Van Kleek, Landscape Architects, and had a residence at 37 Pinckney Street in Boston in 1927. (See R.L. Polk and Company's St Petersburg, Florida, City Directory, 1926, p. 596 and Boston, Massachusetts, City Directory, 1927, p. 1927.)

He moved to Seattle, WA, in 1928, where he took temporary lodgings at the College Club in 1928 and Washington Athletic Club in 1931. (See Seattle, Washington, City Directory, 1928, p. 1610 and Seattle, Washington, City Directory, 1931, p. 1619.)

In a ship's manifest of 1932, Sturtevant listed his address in the US as in Elsah, IL. Elsah was the site of Principia College, a Christian Science-funded institution, designed by the Berkeley, CA, architect, Bernard R. Maybeck (1862-1957). He worked on the landscape plan at Principia during the early 1930s, with Maybeck. Interestingly, Sturtevant would marry a woman who was Christian Science healer and he may, himself, have been interested in the church. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Boston, Massachusetts, 1891-1943; NAI Number: 4319742; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series Number: T843; NARA Roll Number: 381, accessed 05/25/2020.)

Butler and Gertrude Sturtevant has a residence at 36 Chester Way in Burlingame, CA, between 1934 and 1945, at least. In 1940, this residence had a value of $20,000, a sizeable amount for the time. Butler married into some wealth with Gertrude's family and her first husband, John S. Armour. In 1940 Gertrude's two daughters, Nancy McIntosh (born c. 1922 in CA) and Gertrude McIntosh, (born c. 1924 in CA), lived in the household, as did a servant, Juan Oquenda, (born c. 1907 in the Philippines). (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: California State Library; Sacramento, California; Great Register of Voters, 1900-1968, accessed 05/28/2020, and Ancestry.com, Source Citation: Year: 1940; Census Place: San Mateo, San Mateo, California; Roll: m-t0627-00330; Page: 63B; Enumeration District: 41-35, accessed 05/25/2020.) They continued to live here in 1945. (See Burlingame-San Mateo (1945) City Directory, p. 195.)

During World War II in 1943, Sturtevant and his wife lived in Fort Worth, TX.

By 1946, he and Gertrude made their residence in Hillsborough, CA, at 610 Bromfield Road, nearby to the Wellington Henderson House (1932) at 711 Bromfield, designed by William W. Wurster. (See San Mateo, California, City Directory, 1946, p. 324.) They continued to reside here in 1948. (See Burlingame-San Mateo (1948) City Directory, p. 423.)

Following Gertrude's death in 1958, he had an apartment at 290 Lombard Street, Unit #51, in San Francisco. (See San Francisco, California, City Directory, 1959, p. 1423 and Ancestry.com, Source Citation: The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; NAI Number: 2848504; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 - 2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series Number: A3998; NARA Roll Number: 337, accessed 05/28/2020.)

He resided in Dallas, TX, toward the end of his life, in the Turtle Creek neighborhood.

Butler Sturtevant died in San Francisco, CA, on 04/11/1971. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, CA, in a family plot that included his mother, and brothers James, Butler and John.

Parents

His parents were James Brown Sturtevant ((born 12/01/1859 in WI-d. 06/12/1942 in Los Angeles County, CA) and Ada Merrill(born 10/29/1869 in Chicago, IL-d. 08/19/1959 in Los Angeles County, CA), who married c. 1888. They lived in MN, c. 1889, but had moved back to WI by 1891. In 1900, Sturtevant worked as a grocer in Delavan, WI. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: Year: 1900; Census Place: Delavan, Walworth, Wisconsin; Page: 7; Enumeration District: 0085; FHL microfilm: 1241820, accessed 05/25/2020.) Ten years later, in Los Angeles, James had employment as a superintendent with a grocery company. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: Los Angeles Assembly District 74, Los Angeles, California; Roll: T624_84; Page: 17A; Enumeration District: 0074; FHL microfilm: 1374097, accessed 05/25/2020.) In 1914, the city directory indicated that James B. Sturtevant worked as a milliner. (See Los Angeles, California, City Directory, 1914, p. 2129.)

By 1920, James had become a real estate broker working Los Angeles. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: Year: 1920; Census Place: Los Angeles Assembly District 63, Los Angeles, California; Roll: T625_106; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 147, accessed 05/25/2020.)

James and Ada had four children by 1900, all of whom were alive in that year. They included: James Merrill Sturtevant, (born c. 10/1889 in MN), Sabin B. Sturtevant, (born c. 11/1891 in WI), Ada Catherine Sturtevant, (born c. 02/1897 in WI), and Butler. In 1913, another son, John "Jack" Sturtevant was born in Los Angeles. He died in 1974.

Butler's sister, Ada Catherine Sturtevant, wed Frederich W. Schaefer, (1886-1962), on 12/29/1928 in Los Angeles, CA.

Spouse

Sturtevant married twice. He wed Gertrude Clark, (born 02/07/1899 in CA-d. 06/16/1958 in Los Angeles County, CA) on 07/25/1934 in Whatcom County, WA. They were both 34 at the time. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: Washington State Archives; Olympia, Washington; Washington Marriage Records, 1854-2013, accessed 05/25/2020.)

Gertrude Clark's father was Warren D. Clark, a shipping executive with Williams, Dimond and Company, who moved in well-to-do business circles in the Bay Area. Williams, Dimond and Company worked with the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company, as its traffic manager and general Pacific Coast shipping agent. (See Her brother, W. Dearborn Clark, would become a Vice-President of the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company by 1940. The architect, William W. Wurster, (1895-1973), would design a very notable beach house for Dearborn Clark at Aptos, CA, in 1937.

Gertrude Clark married three times. Her first husband was Kenneth Goad McIntosh (born 03/02/1898 in San Francisco, CA-d. 06/23/1928 in Monterey County, CA), a buyer for American Factors, Limited, a large, Hawaiian sugar and real estate company, and had two daughters by him, Nancie McIntosh, (born c. 1922 in CA), and Gertrude McIntosh Maus, known as "June," (born 06/1923 in CA- d. 02/22/2008 in Missoula, MT).

Her second husband was John Stanley Armour, (born either 12/06/1896 or 12/06/1898 in Evanston, IL-d. 09/20/1930 in San Francisco, CA), the son of the steel executive M. Cochran Armour, (1851-1928). M. Cochran Armour spent his career in Chicago, IL, but purchased a residence in Pasadena, CA, at 962 Linda Vista Avenue by 1918, at least. John C. Armour attended Yale University and became an investment banker in San Francisco. John and Gertrude were wed less than a year, when he passed away. He died of anterior poliomyelitis at San Francisco’s Childrens’ Hospital at the age of 31. (See Ancestry.com, Source Information: California, San Francisco Area Funeral Home Records, 1895-1985 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010, accessed 05/27/2020.)

According to the 1940 US Census, Gertrude had a Christian Science healing practice in that year. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: Year: 1940; Census Place: San Mateo, San Mateo, California; Roll: m-t0627-00330; Page: 63B; Enumeration District: 41-35, accessed 05/25/2020.) She also had a Christian Science healing practice in Fort Worth, TX, in 1943, while Butler served in the military. She had an office in Room #714 of Fort Worth's W.T. Waggoner Building.(See Fort Worth, Texas, City Directory, 1943, pp. 679 and 909.)

She passed away in Los Angeles County, CA, and was buried at the Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, CA, just south of San Francisco.

After Gertrude's death, Sturtevant married Martha F. Walker (born 02/10/1914 in Tulsa, OK-d. 10/25/1990 in Ballwin, MO), on 07/31/1970 in Dallas, TX. He was 70, she 59. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: Texas Department of State Health Services; Austin, Texas. Source Information: Texas, Marriage Index, 1824-2014 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005, accessed 05/25/2020.)

Martha Walker married four times, and was the daughter of a socially-prominent Tulsa family. Her father was Jay P. Walker (d. 1966), co-founder and chief executive officer of Tulsa's National Tank Company, a significant petroleum equipment manufacturer. She was a Christian Scientist, who attended Principia College in Elsah, IL, during the 1930s. (See Bob Foresman, “Walkers left their mark,” Tulsa World.com, published 11/23/1990, accessed 05/28/2020.)

Biographical Notes

His World War II draft registration card listed his middle name as "Stevens," while that for World War I recorded it as "Steven." Signatures confirmed that he called himself "Steven" in 1918 and "Stevens" in 1942. Butler Sturtevant began socializing with quite wealthy people by the early 1930s, many of whom had maternal surnames used as middle names. In order to fit in with this wealthy crowd, Butler may have changed his middle name from the first name "Steven" to a surname "Stevens."

According to his World War I draft registration card, Sturtevant was tall and slim with light blue eyes and light brown hair. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: Registration State: California; Registration County: Los Angeles; Roll: 1531187; Draft Board: 17, accessed 05/25/2020.) His World War II registration card listed him as being 6-foot, 2-inches tall, and weighing 185 pounds. He had a light Caucasian complexion.A US passport application of 1922 listed his height as 6-feet, 1-and-½-inches tall.

Sturtevant was a registered Republican voter in 1920. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: California State Library; Sacramento, California; Great Register of Voters, 1900-1968, accessed 05/28/2020.) In 1934, 1936, 1938, 1940, and 1942, Butler and Gertrude Sturtevant were registered Republicans according to San Mateo County voting records. (See Ancestry.con, Source Citation: California State Library; Sacramento, California; Great Register of Voters, 1900-1968, accessed 05/25/2020.)

He took a grand tour to see the major monuments of architecture and landscape architecture in 1922. His travel itinerary listed the duration of his time abroad as indefinite, probably for months, and his itinerary would likely include Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Norway, Sweden, the British Isles, Holland, Belgium, Egypt, India, the Straits Settlements, China, Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong. He was set to leave on 02/25/1922.

He traveled from Southampton, England, aboard the Holland America Liner, S.S. Nieuw Amsterdam, departing on 08/27/1927, bound first for Halifax, NS, and later New York, NY. He would have arrived in New York about 09/03/1927. (See Ancestry.com, Source Information: UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors: Outwards Passenger Lists. BT27. Records of the Commercial, Companies, Labour, Railways and Statistics Departments. Records of the Board of Trade and of successor and related bodies. The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England, accessed 05/25/2020.)

Sturtevant took a third European tour, traveling aboard the US Lines' S.S. American Farmer, from London, England, to Boston, MA, between 09/02/1932 and 09/11/1932. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Boston, Massachusetts, 1891-1943; NAI Number: 4319742; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series Number: T843; NARA Roll Number: 381, accessed 05/25/2020.)

Sturtevant travelled between San Francisco and Honolulu, HI, on 05/07/1946, aboard a Pan American Airways passenger plane. He listed his occupation on the passenger list as “site planner.” (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Passenger and Crew Manifests of Airplanes Arriving at Honolulu, Hawaii, compiled 02/1937 - 11/1954; National Archives Microfilm Publication: A3614; Roll: 12; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 - 2004; Record Group Number: RG 85, accessed 05/25/2020.)

After Gertrude's death in 1959, Butler Sturtevant and Martha Grissom took a first-class trip, as apparently husband-and-wife, to England, staying at the Ritz Hotel. They left Southampton, England, on 11/25/1959 bound for New York, aboard the Cunard Liner, Queen Elizabeth I. On this voyage, Sturtevant listed his occupation as "Director."(See Ancestry.com, Source Information: UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012, accessed 05/28/2020.)

He from London to New York, NY, aboard Pan American Airways Flight 101 on 07/20/1960. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation: The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; NAI Number: 2848504; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 - 2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series Number: A3998; NARA Roll Number: 337, accessed 05/28/2020.)

There has been some general confusion about where Sturtevant died. He did not die in Saint Louis, MO, but San Francisco. His second wife, Martha Walker Sturtevant, resided in Saint Louis during the 1970s and 1980s and was listed as "Mrs. Butler S. Sturtevant" in public listings during that time frame.

SSN: 545-58-4986.

• San Francisco, CA (Architect's Death)
  San Francisco, CA 94102

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• Delevan, WI (Architect's Birth)
  Delevan, WI 53115

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