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Male, US, born 1868-02-27, died 1952-05-26
Associated with the firms network
Hunt and Chambers, Architects; Hunt and Grey, Architects; Hunt, Chambers and Shepard, Architects; Hunt, Myron, Architect; Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge, Architects
Résumé
Draftsman, Hartwell and Richardson, Architects, Boston, MA, 1892-1893; travel in England, Scotland, 06-10/1893; travel in Italy, where Hunt studied buildings of the early Renaissance, 11/1893-c. 01/1895.
Draftsman, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, Architects, Chicago, IL, 1896-1897 (Shepley Rutan and Coolidge maintained its headquarters in Boston, MA, but at this time operated branch offices in Chicago and Palo Alto, CA.)
Principal, Myron Hunt, Architect, Chicago, IL, 1897-1903; in Chicago, Hunt shared 11th floor office space in Steinway Hall at 64 East Van Buren Street with several other architects, including Dwight Perkins, Robert Spencer, and Frank Lloyd Wright; this was before Wright opened his famous studio in Oak Park, IL. (See Brendan Gill, Many Masks, [New York, Ballantine Books, 1987], p. 117, and H. Allen Brooks "Steinway Hall, Architects and Dreams," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 22, no. 3, 10/1963, pp. 171–175.)
Hunt relocated to Southern CA in 1893; many American architects relocated around 1893, as the period's drastic economic volatility often destabilized practices. He became Registered Architect #338 in the State of California, following the imposition of licensing requirements in 1901.
Partner, Hunt and [Elmer] Grey, Architects, Los Angeles, CA, 1903-1910. This prolific and important firm lasted only about seven years.
Principal, Myron H. Hunt, Architect, Pasadena, CA, 1911-1920.
Partner, Hunt and Chambers, Architects, Pasadena, CA, 1920-1947.
Partner, Hunt, Chambers and Shepard, Architects, Pasadena, CA, c. 1927. This firm existed to design a boys' school in Girard, CA, for the Protestant Welfare Association.
Professional Service
Second Vice-President, Chicago Architectural Club, 1896; Member, Executive and Catalogue Committees of the Chicago Architectural Club, 1896; Founding Member, Arts and Crafts Society of Chicago, 1898-1899; it is believed that Hunt had great personal success working in Evanston, IL, having designed approximately 39 buildings there between 1897-1903;
Professional Awards
Fellow, American Institute of Architects (FAIA); Arthur Noble Medal, City of Pasadena, for Outstanding Civic Service, 1928, Pasadena, CA.
Archives
Some archival documents on Myron Hunt and the work of Hunt and Chambers are housed at the Architecture and Design Collection of the University Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).
The vast majority of Myron Hunt's professional papers were taken in by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, which maintained the "Myron Hubbard Hunt Collection, 1815-1957," consisting of 4,156 pieces, 20 boxes,15 oversize volumes. and 1 oversize photo.
High School/College
Graduate, Lake View High school, Lakeview, Chicago, IL; coursework, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 1888-1890; B.S., Arch., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, 1890-1893;
Relocation
Hunt was born in Massachusetts, but moved to the Chicago, IL, area as a child. Hunt attended Northwestern University in Evanston, IL and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, MA. He worked for the Boston-based firm, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, in their Chicago office between 1896-1897 and on his own in Chicago between 1897-1903. In 1900, Hunt's family lived in the 1st Ward of Evanston, IL.
He moved to Pasadena, CA, in 1903. The Hunts lived in the affluent and artistic 2nd Ward of Pasadena in 1910; neighbors included the Proctor and Gamble heir, David Berry and Mary Huggins Gamble, the painters, Alice E. and Frieda Ludovici and the architect, Charles Sumner Greene; their household included both a servant, Wilhelmine Grossgarten (born c. 1866 in Germany) and a cook, Pattie Noble (born c. 1887 in TX). He worked either in Pasadena or Los Angeles for the remainder of his career, passing away in Los Angeles County, CA, at the age of 84.
His last residence was in the city of Port Hueneme, Ventura County, CA.
Parents
Myron A. Hunt (born c. 1838 in MA), the architect's father, was a nurseryman, active in professional circles. The 1880 U.S. Census indicated his occupation as a florist. Kevin Starr, the historian of California, noted the strong influence that the elder Hunt and his passion for flora had on his son: "In the landscaping and garden designs of his home, Hunt signaled an already emergent Southern California Meditteraneanism. As a design for living...the garden constituted the central Southern California connection. The son of a distinguished nurseryman, Myron Hunt loved and understood trees, shrubs, flowering plants. He also knew and loved the garden and landscaping traditions of Italy. Hunt's very first Southland commission had been the redesign of the gardens of the Hotel Maryland in Pasadena. Among other amenities, Hunt designed a plastered masonry pergola translated romantically from the Amalfi coast. Soon overgrown with vines, the Hotel Maryland pergola became a local landmark, reproduced on postcards as a popular image of Southern California as the Mediterranean shore of America." (See Kevin Starr, Material Dreams: Southern California through the 1920s, [New York: Oxford University Press, 1990], p. 194.)
His mother's maiden name was Julia Miller (born c. 1848 in either MA or VT); the 1880 U.S. Census indicated that Vermont was her birthplace; the 1900 and 1910 U.S. Censuses indicated that Julia Miller had been born in MA.
Myron H.M. Hunt was the second of six children: Henrietta B. (born c. 1862 in MA), Mary B. (born c. 1873 in IL), Charles A. (born c. 1875 in IL), George E. (born c. 1876 in IL) and Fanny M. (Born c. 1879 in IL). Myron A. and Julia's household also included a boarder/servant in 1880, Peter Larsen, (born c. 1854 in Sweden).
Spouse
He married Harriette H. Boardman (born 05/1868 in PA) in 05/1893; Harriette Boardman Hunt contracted tuberculosis in MA, and the family moved to Pasadena, CA, for her recovery; many well-to-do Midwesterners had already either moved permanently or had established summer houses there; from these transplants, Hunt would receive numerous commissions. Pasadena, in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, attracted many from wealthy winter residents from Chicago, IL, particularly.
Harriette Boardman's father came from PA, her mother from NJ.
Hunt married a second time in 1915 to Virginia Pease, an educator.who served as the principal of the Garfield Elementary School (c. 1904) and Throop Polytechnic Elementary School in Pasadena, CA, and was board member for several organizations, including the George Junior Republic, LaVina Sanatorium and Huntington Hospital. She won the Arthur Noble Award in 1932 for her service to the City of Pasadena.
Children
Hunt and Harriette Boardman had five children: Charles Hunt (born 12/1895 in IL), Harriette Hunt (born 10/1899 in IL), Hubbard Hunt (born 02/1900 in IL) and Robert Hunt (born c. 1906 in CA). One had died before 1900.
Biographical Notes
In 1910, the Hunts lived in a single-family house, and paid a mortgage.
PCAD id: 197
