George Grant Elmslie
George Grant Elmslie (
February 20,
1871 -
April 23,
1952) was an American, though born in
Aberdeenshire,
Scotland,
Prairie School architect whose work is mostly found in the
Midwestern
United States. He worked with
Louis Sullivan and later with
William Gray Purcell.
The architectural practice most widely known Purcell & Elmslie consisted of three partnerships. The first, Purcell & Feick, was created at Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1907 between Purcell and his Cornell School of Architecture classmate, George Feick, Jr. George Elmslie and Purcell had been friends since 1903, when Purcell worked for a short while in the office of
Louis Sullivan, and Elmslie was an informal influence in the work of Purcell & Feick. In 1909, Elmslie joined the office in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the name of the firm changed to Purcell, Feick, & Elmslie in 1910. Feick left the partnership in 1912, and the name of the practice became Purcell & Elmslie until being dissolved in 1921.
Over the course of the partnership, Purcell & Elmslie became one of the most commissioned firms among the Prairie School architects, second only to
Frank Lloyd Wright. During the 1920s, Elmslie partnered briefly with various other architects, including Lawrence A. Fournier, William S. Hutton, and William Drummond, when he produced a number of banks, commercial, and institutional buildings during the 1920s and 1930s.
A curious historical note: Elmslie was actually born in 1869, a fact he carefully kept secret all his life except from a very few people. The apparent reason for this was due to his immigration status in 1885, when he joined his father John Elmslie in Chicago from his native Scotland. Had Elmslie divulged his true age, he would have been ineligible to enter the United States as a dependent family member.
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Purcell and Elmslie, Architects
