William Augustus Edwards


William Augustus Edwards was an American architect. Based first in Columbia, South Carolina, and second in Atlanta, he was renowned for the educational buildings, courthouses and other public and private buildings that he designed in Florida, Georgia and his native South Carolina in the early 20th century. As Architect to the Florida Board of Control he designed his best known works, the Collegiate Gothic campuses of the University of Florida and Florida State University. Edwards' firm, founded by him in 1902, survived under his successors' leadership until 1971.

Early life and education

William Augustus Edwards was born December 8, 1866, in Darlington, South Carolina, the son of Augustus F. Edwards, a lawyer and Confederate veteran, and Elizabeth Sarah Edwards, née Hart. After graduating from St. David's School in Society Hill, Edwards attended Richmond College, now the University of Richmond for one year and then entered the University of South Carolina where he received a degree in mechanical engineering in 1889.

Career history

His activities between 1889 and 1893 to not appear to have been recorded. In the latter year he moved to Roanoke, Virginia, where he joined architect Charles C. Wilson, another Darlington County native, as a drafter. Wilson moved to Lynchburg in 1895 and to Columbia, South Carolina, in 1896, apparently accompanied by Edwards. In 1899 they formed a partnership, Wilson & Edwards, architects. Their most visible work was the First Baptist Church in Selma, Alabama, though construction delays meant it was not completed until two years after they dissolved their partnership in 1902.
In January 1902 Edwards formed the new partnership of Edwards & Walter with Frank C. Walter. In 1908 the partners moved to Atlanta, a city then rapidly expanding. There the firm was briefly known as Edwards, Walter & Parnham with C. D. Parnham. Edwards & Walter dissolved their partnership in 1910 and for five years Edwards practiced without a partner, the only time in his career where he would do so.
In 1915 he formed his last and longest-lasting partnership, Edwards & Sayward, with William J. Sayward, a Vermont native and a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1919, after World War I they were joined by Joseph F. Leitner, previously architect to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad; like the previous association with Parham the partnership of Edwards, Sayward & Leitner only lasted a few months. Edwards & Sayward continued until Edwards' death in 1939.
Edwards was best known as an architect of institutional buildings, a reputation substantially built on his twenty-year relationship with the Florida Board of Control, which governed Florida's public institutions of higher learning. Shortly after its establishment the board organized a limited competition to pick an architect for the University of Florida. Only two architects were invited to submit plans: Edwards & Walter and Henry John Klutho of Jacksonville. Edwards & Walter submitted a Collegiate Gothic plan modeled on the English Oxbridge universities while Klutho proposed a Beaux-Arts plan. Edwards & Walter were selected University Architects in part because the board believed that their English image would compare favorably with other, older universities. The University of Florida opened the next year with its first two Edwards buildings: Buckman Hall and Thomas Hall. Edwards was responsible for all future development for the next two decades, creating a cohesive Collegiate Gothic campus. His work at the university culminated in the University Auditorium and the Smathers Library, monumental buildings intended as the first phases of larger administration and library buildings.
Edwards' role in Florida was initially that of University Architect, but his mandate soon expanded to include a new campus for Florida State University and buildings for Florida A&M University and the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind as Architect to the Board of Control. In 1925 an architectural department was established at the university under the leadership of Rudolph Weaver, who became the new architect to the board.

Marriage and family

In 1898 Edwards was married to India Pearl Brown. They had three children, including two sons and one daughter. He was a Unitarian and a member of the American Institute of Architects. Edwards died March 30, 1939, in Atlanta at the age of 72.
One of his sons, H. Griffith Edwards, was also an architect. He graduated from Georgia Tech and worked for Edwards & Sayward and Henry J. Toombs until 1940, when he established an independent practice. In 1946 he also joined the Georgia Tech faculty. In 1956 he formed the partnership of Edwards & Portman with John C. Portman Jr., one of his students. He retired in 1968.

Educational buildings

Among the academic institutions for which Edwards designed buildings were:

Alabama

From 1905 to 1925, Edwards was architect for the Florida Board of Control and designed many buildings in the Collegiate Gothic style for the three existing state institutions of higher learning as well as other public schools.

University of Florida

As the main architect for Florida's newly reorganized system of higher education, Edwards designed numerous buildings for the University of Florida's new Gainesville campus, which first welcomed students in 1906. Most of his surviving works at the school had already been individually recognized by the National Register of Historic Places when the University of Florida Campus Historic District was established in the heart of the original campus in 1989.
Works include:
Buildings designed by Edwards for Florida State University include:
  • Bryan Hall
  • Westcott Building
  • Reynolds Hall
  • Suwannee Room
  • * Originally the freestanding Suwannee Dining Hall, now a wing of the William Johnston Building.
  • Broward Hall
  • Eppes Hall
  • Murphree Hall
  • Dodd Hall

    Florida A&M University

Buildings designed by Edwards for Florida A&M University include:
Edwards designed many county courthouses and other public buildings, as follows:

Florida

Florida