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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, 1894.
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.)
Draftsman, Jenney and Mundie, Architects, Chicago, IL, c. 1897. The firm of pioneering high-rise designer William LeBaron Jenney (1832-1907) and Scotsman William Bryce Mundie (1863-1939) operated in Chicago between 1891 and 1905. Jenney retired completely in the spring of 1905 and relocated to Los Angeles, CA. At the time of his retirement, the firm added one-time office boy Elmer C. Jensen (1870-1955) as partner.
Draftsman, Henry Ives Cobb, Architect, Chicago, IL, c. 1898.
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 1903. He became Registered Architect #338 in the State of California, following the imposition of state architectural 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, Los Angeles, CA, 1911-1920. In 1913, Hunt had an office at 408 South Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles. (See "Hunt, Myron," Who's Who on the Pacific Coast, 1913, Franklin Harper, ed., [Los Angeles: Harper Publishing Company, 1913], p. 288.)
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. Hunt had great professional success working in Evanston, IL, having designed approximately 39 buildings there between 1897-1903.
Member, American Institute of Architects (AIA), Southern California Chapter.
President, AIA, Southern California Chapter.
Member, Architectural Club of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.
President, Architectural Club of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, c. 1913.
Professional Awards
Fellow, American Institute of Architects (FAIA).
Recipient, City of Pasadena, Arthur Noble Medal for Outstanding Civic Service, Pasadena, CA, 1928.
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.
European travel, 1893-1895. Like many architects of the time, Hunt took a grand tour in Europe to see in person architectural landmarks he had been taught in his Beaux-Art-influenced classes. He traveled in England and Scotland, 06-10/1893, and toured Italy, where Hunt studied buildings of the early Renaissance, 11/1893-c. 01/1895.
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.
The 1900 US Census indicated that Hunt lived with his wife Harriette and their three children at 1637 Chicago Avenue in the 1st Ward of Evanston, IL. The Hunts also seem to have had a lodger, William G. Hoag (born c. 11/1861 in IL), who worked as a bank cashier when the census was taken on 06/12/1900. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1900; Census Place: Evanston Ward 1, Cook, Illinois; Roll: 292; Page: 13; Enumeration District: 1155, accessed 03/13/2025.)
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 miniature painters, Frieda Ludovici (1869-1960) and Alice Emilie Ludovici (1872-1957) and the renowned architect, Charles Sumner Greene (1868-1957), who lived with his family close-by at 368 Arroyo Terrace, while the Hunts dwelled at 200 Arroyo. Many of the their immediate neighbors had live-in household servants. The Hunts employed two people in 1910: Wilhelmina Grossgarten (born c. 1866 in Germany), likely a maid, and Pattie Noble (born c. 1877 in TX), listed in the census as a cook. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1900; Census Place: Evanston Ward 1, Cook, Illinois; Roll: 292; Page: 13; Enumeration District: 1155, accessed 03/13/2025.)
Myron Hunt 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 Holland Boardman (born 05/1868 in PA) in 05/1893 in Bridgeton, NJ. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation New Jersey State Archives; Trenton, New Jersey; New Jersey, U.s., Marriage Records, 1670-1965, accessed 03/13/2025.)
She was named for her mother, Harriet Agnes Nichols, (born 1842 in NY, NY), who married Dr. Charles Hodge Boardman (born 05/28/1838 in Philadephia, PA-d. 07/16/1907 in Brooklyn, NY) on 09/20/1865 in Cumberland, NJ.
Charles Boardman, a Union Army surgeon duirng the Civil War, was a prominent physician in both New York City and the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area. In 1884, the family resided in Saint Paul, MN, where Charles Boardman taught medical jurisprudnece at the University of Minnesota. Harriette attended Smith College in MA, in that year. (See Ancestry.com, Source Information Ancestry.com. U.S., School Catalogs, 1765-1935 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012, accessed 03/13/2025.)
Harriette Boardman Hunt contracted tuberculosis in MA, and her 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.
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 c. 12/1895 in IL), Harriette Hunt (born c. 10/1899 in IL), Hubbard Hunt (born c. 02/1900 in IL) and Robert Hunt (born c. 1906 in CA). One child had died before 1900, according to that year's US Census. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1900; Census Place: Evanston Ward 1, Cook, Illinois; Roll: 292; Page: 13; Enumeration District: 1155, accessed 03/13/2025.)
Biographical Notes
In 1910, the Hunts lived in a single-family house, and paid a mortgage.
Member, California Club, Los Angeles, CA.
Member, Gamut Club, Los Angeles, CA.
Member, Twilight Club, Los Angeles, CA.
Member, Tuna Club, Los Angeles, CA.
Member, University Club, Los Angeles, CA
Member, Valley Hunt Club, Los Angeles, CA.
PCAD id: 197
