John Andrewartha
John Andrewartha (25 August 1839 – 7 November 1916) was an English architect and civil engineer.
![](../I/Advertisement_for_John_Andrewartha%252C_1887_Austin%252C_TX_City_Directory.jpg.webp)
![](../I/lossy-page1-220px-GENERAL_VIEW_OF_THE_CITY_HALL%252C_FROM_NORTHEAST_-_City_Hall%252C_601_West_Jefferson_Street%252C_Louisville%252C_Jefferson_County%252C_KY_HABS_KY%252C56-LOUVI%252C16-1.tif.jpg.webp)
Early life and education
John Andrewartha was born at Falmouth, Cornwall, the son of William Guy and Sarah Elizabeth Andrewartha. He trained as an engineer in the Royal Navy.[1]
Career
![](../I/lossy-page1-220px-SOUTH_SIDE_ELEVATION_-_City_Hall%252C_601_West_Jefferson_Street%252C_Louisville%252C_Jefferson_County%252C_KY_HABS_KY%252C56-LOUVI%252C16-4.tif.jpg.webp)
Andrewartha began working in the United States in 1865, first based in Louisville, Kentucky, and after 1881 in Austin, Texas. In Kentucky his firm won a design contest in 1866 for the Louisville City Hall.[2] The city's Courier-Journal Building was also his design; it burned down in 1979.[3] Andrewartha also designed the original entrance lodge, stables, clubhouse, and other structures at Churchill Downs, though they have all since been replaced.[4]
In 1872, Andrewartha and two others (the contractor and the site foreman) were charged with manslaughter after the fatal collapse of the Pettit Building in Louisville.[5] But in late 1873, he was listed as the architect for the building of the Fourth Kentucky Lunatic Asylum project.[6]
Among his varied completed projects in Texas were the Austin City-County Hospital (1884), the first public hospital in Texas; the St. John's Home for Negro Orphans in East Austin (1911), the original Montopolis Bridge over the Colorado River[7] (which was washed away in a 1935 flood), and Austin residences such as the Henry Hirschfeld House, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.[1]
Personal life
Andrewartha married Jemima Louisa Whillier on 11 June 1861 in Alverstoke, Hampshire, England. They had twelve children together; seven of their children lived to adulthood. John was widowed when Jemima died in May 1915 at their home in Austin, Texas;[8] he died the following year, aged 77 years.[9][10]
References
- Christopher Long, "John Andrewartha" in Handbook of Texas Online (Texas State Historical Association 2010).
- David Dominé, Old Louisville: Exuberant, Elegant, and Alive (University of Georgia Press 2013): 40. ISBN 9780932958297
- Elizabeth Fitzpatrick "Penny" Jones, "Architecture" in John E. Kleber, Encyclopedia of Louisville (University Press of Kentucky 2015): 45. ISBN 9780813149745
- Gregory Luhan, Dennis Domer, and David Mohoney, The Louisville Guide (Princeton Architectural Press 2004): 257. ISBN 9781568984513
- "The Louisville Horror" Nashville Union and American (13 October 1872): 1. via Newspapers.com
- Journal of the Kentucky General Assembly and Senate (19 January 1876): 160.
- "Specious Pleading of the Bridge Company" Austin Weekly Statesman (9 May 1889): 2. via Newspapers.com
- "The Austin [Texas] American". The Austin American. 16 May 1915. p. 12.
- "Save Austin's Cemeteries - Biographies of Oakwood Cemetery Residents". Archived from the original on 25 July 2018. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
- "Biographies of Oakwood Cemetery Residents". Save Austin's Cemeteries.