Abram Garfield


Abram Garfield was an architect who practiced in Cleveland, Ohio. He was the sixth son of President James A. Garfield and Lucretia Rudolph Garfield, and the youngest to survive infancy. He designed prominent residences and other buildings. A number of his works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Early life

Abram Garfield was born in Washington D.C. In 1876 the family moved to what is now the James A. Garfield National Historic Site in Mentor, Ohio. Garfield received a Bachelor of Arts from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts in 1893 and a Bachelor of Science in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts three years later. He lived at 9718 Lake Shore Boulevard in Bratenahl.

Career

He began work as an architect in 1897, and in 1898 formed Meade & Garfield with Frank Meade in Cleveland, Ohio; the firm was noted for its premier residential designs. When the partnership ended in 1905, Garfield opened his own firm. In 1926, he along with Rudolph Stanley-Brown, George R. Harris, and Alexander Robinson started an architectural practice. In 1935 it was renamed Garfield, Harris, Robinson and Schafer until Garfield’s death in 1958. The firm, which still exists, was known as Westlake, Reed, Leskosky Architects until 2016 when purchased by DLR group.
Garfield specialized in residential architecture, designing large houses in Shaker Heights and other Cleveland suburbs, but his work also included more modest houses for the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority and institutional projects such as schools and a hospital. Garfield served as chairman of the Cleveland Planning Commission from 1930 to 1942 and was a founder and first president of the Cleveland School of Architecture, which became part of Western Reserve University in 1941. He was named a trustee of the university that year and two years later was made an honorary lifetime member of the board; he received an honorary doctorate from Western Reserve University in 1945. Garfield was also a director of the American Institute of Architects from 1919 to 1922 and served on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts from 1925 to 1930, including as vice chairman from 1929 to 1930. In 1949 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate Academician. He lived in Bratenahl, Ohio. Garfield married Sarah Grainger Williams and together they had two children, Edward W. and Mrs. William R. Hallaran. After the death of his first wife, he remarried to Helen Matthews.
Garfield died on October 16, 1958, at his home in Cleveland. He was buried at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland.

Works