Résumé

Partner, [Reuben S.] Clark and Kenitzer, Architects, San Francisco, CA, c. 1861.

Principal, Reuben S. Clark, Architect, San Francisco, CA. On 08/13/1856, the State of California's Board of State Capitol Commissioners selected plans by Clark for a proposed capitol building. Construction bogged down after a week amid financing problems. The project was set aside until 1860, when new plans by M.F. Butler were selected, with Clark employed as Supervising Architect. Again progress was very slow, stymied by bad weather and cash flow problems.

Principal, Reuben S. Clark, Architect, Sacramento, CA, 1866. Clark suffered a nervous breakdown in 1864 while superintending the California State Capitol's construction in Sacramento. Clark's name was listed in the Sacramento, California, City Directory, 1866 among the two architects operating in Sacramento, CA, in 1866 (the other being Seth P. Babson). Clark's office was located at 260 L Street. (See Sacramento, California, City Directory, 1866, p. 164.)

After Abraham Lincoln's assassination on 04/14/1865, Clark was alleged to have made "disloyal' comments against the Union to workers at the Capitol site. At a meeting on 04/15/1865, the Executive Committee of the Union League of America, No. 2, leveled two charges of disloyalty against Clark: "First charge of disloyalty in this that he, the aforesaid Reuben Clark, a few days prior to the last Presidential election addressed the employees of the state capitol building as follows: 'I don't care which side wins. I had as leave one side as the other would win: but we must vote for the administration if we wish to save our berths. What is the use of loosing [sic] a ten year's job for the sake of one vote?" The report continued: "Second specification of disloyalty in this that the aforesaid Reuben Clark knowingly employed and retained out spoken secessionists as workmen on the aforesaid state capitol building." (See J.R. Atkins, "Report of the Executive Committee of the Union League of America, No. 2, to the President and Members of the League," California State Archives, Board of State Capitol Commissioners Papers, Item F3580:22, accessed 12/11/2018.) The local Union League of America membership found Clark guilty of disloyalty at its meeting of 05/13/1865 and reported him so to the Secretary of the State Capitol Construction Committee. Clark died the following year in the Insane Asylum of the State of California at Stockton, CA.

Relocation

The San Francisco, California, City Directory, 1861, noted that, while the firm of Clark and Kenitzer had a San Francisco office address of 428 California Street, Clark lived in Sacramento, CA.

The Sacramento, California, City Directory, 1866, (p. 60), listed Clark's home address as 260 L Street, between 9th and 10th Streets in what is now Downtown Sacramento.

He died in the Insane Asylum of the State of California at Stockton, CA.

Biographical Notes

Clark was an active member of the Masons, and his firm, Clark and Kenitzer designed the San Francisco Masonic Building, Lodge #2, at the corner of Post and Montgomery Streets. (See Daily Alta California, "Grand Masonic Celebration," Volume 24, Number 3619, 3 November 1862, p. 5.)