Otis A. Merrill


Otis A. Merrill was an American architect. In association with various partners he practiced architecture in Lowell, Massachusetts, from 1873 until 1900.

Life and career

Otis Addison Merrill was born August 22, 1844, in Hudson, New Hampshire, to Benjamin Arnold Merrill and Mary Jane Merrill. He was educated in the local schools. At the age of 18, during the American Civil War, he enlisted in the Union Army with the 7th New Hampshire Infantry Regiment. He was awarded a Gillmore Medal for his conduct during the Second Battle of Charleston Harbor. He was discharged July 7, 1865, at Concord with the rank of sergeant. After the war he went to Haverhill, Massachusetts, where he learned the carpentry trade, moving to Lowell in 1869. After four more years and with some self-training in architecture, he established himself as an architect in Lowell in 1873. In 1878 he formed a partnership with Charles S. Eaton, a Lowell native who had just graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The partnership of Merrill & Eaton was dissolved in 1880. Two years later in 1882 he formed a partnership with Arthur S. Cutler, an Andover native, who had joined Merrill's office as a draftsman in 1876. Merrill & Cutler was dissolved in 1897, and Merrill formed a new partnership, Merrill & Clark, with draftsman Edwin R. Clark. In April 1899 Clark left to open his own office, and Merrill was joined by Perley F. Gilbert, a native of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, and graduate of MIT. Merrill & Gilbert practiced together until Merrill's retirement in November 1900. The office continued under Gilbert and his successors until 1990.
Merrill's practice was centered on Massachusetts, and he and his partners were well known as architects of public buildings and schools in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. His most prominent building was the Lowell City Hall, begun in 1890 and completed 1893, with a design based on the Allegheny County Courthouse by H. H. Richardson. An unusual foreign project was for a YMCA in Madras, now Chennai, in India. Plans for this building, which was the gift of John Wanamaker, were drawn and accepted in the United States in 1896. Merrill & Cutler designed the building in an Italian Gothic style. In 1897, after being sent to India, they were revised by local architect George S. T. Harris at the suggestion of Governor Arthur Havelock. Though the floor plans were unchanged, Harris redrew the elevations to be more in keeping with the local architecture, in what is now known as the Indo-Saracenic style. The building was finished in 1899.

Personal life

Merrill was married three times. He was married first in 1870 to Maria Jennie Moore of Pelham, New Hampshire, who died in 1882. He married second in 1883 to Anna Maud Smith of Worcester, who died in 1886. He married third in 1889 to Anna E. Boynton of Pepperell. He had a total of six children. During their time in Lowell, Merrill and his family lived in a house now numbered 92 Wannalancit Street, a Second Empire cottage which he designed and built himself in 1870. After his retirement, Merrill and his wife moved to her hometown of Pepperell. She died there March 6, 1929, followed by her husband September 14, 1935.

Legacy

The Lowell architects Frederick W. Stickney and Harry Prescott Graves worked for Merrill before opening their own offices.
At least two buildings designed by Merrill and his partners have been listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places, and others contribute to listed historic districts.

Architectural works