Wm. H. Brown, Architect, Lafayette & Indianapolis, Indiana.
William H. Brown practiced in: Lafayette (c.1866-1873?) and Indianapolis (c.1861, c.1874-1881?). The few documented buildings he designed were highly dramatic Gothic Revival / Second Empire forms showing a great deal of skill in their design. Brown's Ford School (1869) in Lafayette is well remembered by all who saw it prior to its demolition in the 1950s. It occupied a commanding site at the summit of South Street Hill, overlooking the entire city. The firm of W. H. Brown & Co. served as contractors for Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church (1869-1873) in Lafayette, with Melton & Alexander subcontracted for all interior woodwork. Brown was also the architect for the remodeling of Lafayette's old Eastern School as the Jenks School in 1870. The building, demolished in 1900 to make way for Washington School, was a somewhat strange and ominous-looking contrast to the masterful Ford School Brown had designed the year before. In 1870 Brown also rebuilt the Opera House and Post Office Block which had burnt in December, 1869. This building, later known as the Chase Block and later the Winski Building, was demolished in 1952.
W. H. Brown's best-known Indianapolis work yet documented was the Vance Block (c.1877), similar in presence to Ford School. The building was remodeled by the Indiana Trust Co. in the 1890s. At this time the mansard roof and upper tower were removed and two floors added. The building was known as the Indiana Trust building as of 1897 and was demolished sometime prior to 1962.
It seems that William H. Brown became affiliated with Haugh, Ketcham & Co. Ironworks, of Indianapolis, makers of the famous rotary jail. The Montgomery County Jail (1882) in Crawfordsville, one of the very few (perhaps three) rotary jails in existence and still functional, was designed by William H. Brown and Benjamin F. Haugh of Haugh, Ketcham & Co. It seems that this was the same William H. Brown but documentation is still lacking at this time.
If you have any information relating to a building by William H. Brown, please contact me. Email: blross@bsu.edu
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