Résumé

Draftsman/Designer, Albert Pissis, Architect, San Francisco, CA, c. 1894-1896, c. 1901-1903.

Principal, Loring P. Rixford, Architect, San Francisco, CA, 1903-1907. In 1905, Rixford maintained his office in the Metropolitan Building in San Francisco.

Supervisor, San Francisco Board of Supervisors, San Francisco, CA, 07/29/1907-05/1909.

City Architect, City and County of San Francisco, Board of Public Works, Bureau of Architecture, 05/26/1909-12/10/1909. Rixford took over for Newton J. Tharp (1867-1909), who died of pneumonia while on a tour of New York hospitals for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Rixford was succeeded by Emil de Neuf (1872-1915) as City Architect. de Neuf served only about four months, between 12/1909 and 03/21/1909 and was replaced Normand W. Mohr, who lasted only until 04/18/1910. He was replaced on an acting basis by John L. Fisher. (See San Francisco Board of Supervisors, San Francisco Municipal Report for the Fiscal Year 1909-10, Ended June 30, 1910, [San Francisco: Neal Publishing Company, 1911], p. 606.)

Principal, Loring P. Rixford, Architect, San Francisco, CA, c. 1910- c. 1920.

High School/College

Graduate, Boys' High School, San Francisco, CA, 06/1998. He graduated in Classical Studies.

B.S., University of California, Berkeley, (UCB), Berkeley, CA, 05/15/1894. (While at the UCB, Rixford became a member of the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity. At the time, other members of the fraternity included the architectural writer/poet Charles Keeler (Class of 1893), architect John Bakewell, Jr., (Class of 1894), and architect Arthur M. Brown, Jr. (Class of 1896). (See Daniella Thompson, Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA).com, "Beta Theta Pi Chapter House, 2607 Hearst Avenue, Berkeley, CA," accessed 06/19/2019.)

He was also a Liuetenant-Colonel, second-in-command, of the Battalion of University Cadets at UCB in 1893. One of this graduating UCB classmates was the architect, Julia Morgan [1873-1957].)

Coursework, École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, Paris, France, 1897-1901.

Relocation

At age 22, he lived on Ellsworth Street between Dwight Way and Channing Way while a student in Berkeley, CA. In 1896, he and his elder brother, Emmet, a physician, shared habitations at 1713 Pierce Street, in San Francisco, CA, according to CA voters registration records..

In 1918, Rixford applied for a US Passport to travel with the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) to France to work with the Red Cross for six months. While working on the reconstruction of France in 12/1918, the Sausalito News referred to him as "Loring Rixford, an architect engaged in rehabilitation work in France." (See "S.F. Woman, 100, Dies at Home," Sausalito News, vol. 34, no. 51, 12/21/1918.)

Parents

His father was Gulian Pickering Rixford (born 09/21/1838 in East Highgate, VT-d. 10/27/1930 in Los Altos, CA). Educated in civil engineering at McGill University in Montreal, Gulian Rixford worked first as a surveyor for a street railway in Canada before relocating from VT to CA (via Nicaraugua) in 1867. In CA, he worked from 1867-1879 at the San Francisco Bulletin newspaper became a significant figure in the expansion of CA agriculture He worked for the CA State Department of Horticulture, where he helped to introduce the avocado, passion fruit, pistachio and smyrna fig into mass cultivation, and also for the US Department of Agriculture. A versatile figure, he also worked in several roles (Director of the Museum and Librarian, for example) at the CA Academy of Sciences, where his papers reside. He married Caroline Corey (born 04/14/1839 in Stanbridge, QC, Canada-d. 05/03/1864 in San Francisco, CA) on 05/03/1864. (It is not clear whether she was born in Notre-Dame-de-Stanbridge or the neighboring Saint-Ignace-de-Stanbridge.) Caroline managed the household. A son, Dr. Emmet Hawkins Rixford (1865-1938), became professor of surgery at Stanford Medical School in San Francisco.

Loring Rixford was the grandson of Luther Parker Rixford (1814-1897) and Elvira Pickering (1818-1918), and descended from William Rixford, who fought in the Revolutionary War.

Miscellaneous Notes

A US Passport Application form (03/11/1897) described Rixford, at age 26, as standing 5 feet 11 inches tall, with an oval face, fair complexion, low forehead, straight nose, round chin, brown hair and blue eyes. San Francisco Mayor Eugene E. Schmitz was elected as Mayor of San Francisco in 11/1905, and took office on 01/08/1906. He served only a little over a year, when he was convicted of extortion, a felony, for which he was sentenced to five years in San Quentin Prison. In the wake of Schmitz's removal, James L. Gallagher became an interim mayor between 06-07/1907, followed by Charles Boxton, a County Supervisor and interim Mayor who occupied the office for a week from 07/09/1907 until 07/16/1907. On the latter day, lawyer and poet Edward Robeson Taylor (1838-1923) took over as Mayor and proceeded to fill the seats of all 18 Supervisors who resigned on 07/29/1907 in the wake of the Schmitz conviction. Taylor appointed 18 new supervisors, including Loring P. Rixford. Rixford served as a supervisor from 1907-1909, when he was made San Francisco City Architect. Taylor, who was 68 when elected, the oldest in the city's history, remained as mayor until 1910. (See "Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco 1907-1908 Reorganization of the Board of Supervisors," San Francisco Municipal Reports, 1907, [San Francisco: Neal Publishing, 1909], p. 903-921.) Member, Bohemian Club, San Francisco, CA. In 02/1909, Rixford won an anonymous competition for the design of the Bohemian Club's new club house at Post and Taylor Streets. (See "Rixford Plan Best for Nest of Owl," San Francisco Call, vol. 105, no. 69, 02/09/1909, p. 23.)

• San Francisco, CA (Architect's Birth)
  San Francisco, CA

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• Santa Clara, CA (Architect's Death)
  Santa Clara, CA

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