William Lawrence Bottomley


William Lawrence Bottomley, was an American architect in twentieth-century New York City; Middleburg, Virginia; and Richmond, Virginia. He was known for his Colonial Revival designs of residential buildings in the United States and many of his commissions are situated in highly aspirational locations, including Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia.

Education

Educated at the Horace Mann School in New York, Bottomley graduated from Columbia University in 1906 with a Bachelor of Science degree in architecture. In 1907 he won Columbia's McKim Fellowship in Architecture award, which funded two years of study abroad, half of it in residence at the American Academy in Rome. In 1908 he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, in the atelier of Victor Laloux, where he studied until 1909, when he returned to America to begin formal practice as an architect.

Personal life

William Lawrence was the son of John A. Bottomley, President of the Marconi Corporation in the Americas, and Susan Amelia Mersereau Steers. He married Harriet Townsend, a sculptor and writer, on August 26, 1909 at Beech Hill in Westport, New York. Harriet's love for gardening may have influenced William's strong alliance with landscape architect Charles Gillette. William and Harriet had three daughters: Harriet, Susan, and Virginia.

Career

In his 40-year career, Bottomley executed 186 commissions, 40% of which were in Virginia. "Bottomley's clients...while well-to-do, didn't have names with the lofty status of Rockefeller, Whitney, or Widener." Eleven of Bottomley's commissions are currently listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places. Eight of these are in Virginia.
Bottomley designed a residence at 155 Western Promenade in Portland, Maine.
In 1918, young U.S. Army lawyer Walter G. Davis, Jr. worked with the American Commission to Negotiate Peace in Paris, resulting in the Treaty of Versailles, where Europe was divided after World War I. Two years later, he swept into fashionable 155 Western Promenade, with its 32-foot salon for entertaining; inset Grand Tour paintings collected by Davis during his travels; and a library featuring a priceless Zuber & Cie mural from Paris: the Boston panel of Views of North America.
His work is now the subject of the Historic Richmond Foundation's Year of Bottomley events.

Works

Works cited

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