H.L. Stevens & Company

H.L. Stevens & Company was a Chicago-, New York-, and San Francisco-based architectural firm that designed hotels around the United States.[1][2][3] At least 15 of its works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places for their architecture.[4]

Hotel Van Curler, Schenectady, New York
Hotel Kirkwood, Des Moines, Iowa

The firm specialized in small (less than 500 rooms) hotels and apartment houses in a Georgian Revival or Colonial Revival style in either a rectangular or H-shape, which in at least one case was viewed as a refreshing change from the small, squarish hotels that a city had previously experienced. Their buildings, primarily in the Northeast, are in many cases still extant.[1]

In 1912, there was some dispute surrounding the State of Illinois's approval of the firm as an architectural firm, because, as a corporation, it appeared incorrect to allow the designation of the corporation as a licensed architect.[5]

The firm developed hospitals during World War I. During that time, it created an integrated approach to design and construction that would be termed "fast-tracking" today; it applied this approach to its development of hotels starting with the Penn Alto Hotel.[3]

Works include (with attribution that varies in punctuation):

References edit

  1. ^ a b Breyer, Lucy (August 1985). "National Register of Historic Places nomination, Hotel Van Curler". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved September 17, 2009.
  2. ^ "Historic buildings".
  3. ^ a b "National Historic Landmarks & National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania". CRGIS: Cultural Resources Geographic Information System. Archived from the original (Searchable database) on 2007-07-21. Retrieved 2013-05-21. Note: This includes Richard T. Brandt Jr. (n.d.). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Penn Alto Hotel" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-11-03.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  5. ^ Biennial Report of the Attorney General of the State of Illinois. September 1912. pp. 1171–72.
  6. ^ Alexa McDowell. "National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form: Iowa City Downtown Historic District" (PDF). City of Iowa City. Retrieved 2021-05-28.

External links edit