Henry Ives Cobb (August 19, 1859 – March 27, 1931) was an architect from the United States. Based in Chicago in the last decades of the 19th century, he was known for his designs in the Richardsonian Romanesque and Victorian Gothic styles.
Biography Cobb was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, to Albert Adams and Mary Russell Candler Cobb. Cobb studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for one year then transferred to Harvard University where he graduated in 1881 with an engineering degree. After graduating, Cobb worked at the Boston architectural firm Peabody & Stearns before moving to Chicago in 1882.Blumberg, N.. "Henry Ives Cobb." Encyclopedia Britannica, August 15, 2022. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Ives-Cobb .
In Chicago, Cobb partnered with Charles Sumner Frost and formed Cobb and Frost. They designed the Palmer Mansion (demolished) on Lake Shore Drive; the Chicago Varnish Company Building—listed on the National Register of Historic Places and as a Chicago Landmark; the Episcopal Church of the Atonement at 5749 North Kenmore Avenue—also on the National Register of Historic Places; the Chicago Federal Building (demolished); the Newberry Library; the Fisheries Building (demolished) at the World's Columbian Exposition; and many pre-1900 buildings at Lake Forest College and the University of Chicago. Elsewhere, he designed the Sinclair Oil Building (today the Liberty Tower), a Perpendicular-style skyscraper in downtown Manhattan, that was converted to residences in 1980; the Olive Building in St. Louis and co-designed the King Edward Hotel in Toronto. Cobb moved to Washington, D.C., in 1897 to escape the Chicago grime, which damaged his cherished art collection. Cobb is responsible for The University of Chicago Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, WI, constructed from 1895 to 1897, with its Greco-Roman terra-cotta architectural detail.
Family Henry Ives Cobb's grandmother, Augusta Adams Cobb, controversially abandoned her husband, Henry Cobb, and five of her seven children in 1843, and married Brigham Young as a plural wife.
Cobb and wife Emma Martin Smith had 10 children, seven of whom survived into adulthood. The children were: architect and author Henry Ives Cobb, Jr. (1883–1974), Cleveland Cobb (1884–?), Leonore Cobb (1885–?), Candler Cobb (c. 1887–?), Elliot Cobb (1888–?), Priscilla Cobb (1890–91), Alice Cobb (1892–93), Boughton Cobb (1894–1974), Russell Cobb (1897–?), and Emerson Cobb, (1902–10).
Works BuildingLocationDatesNotesImageUnion Club of ChicagoWashington Place at Dearborn Street1881Designed by Henry Ives CobbPalmer Mansion1350 North Lake Shore DriveChicago1885Designed by Henry Ives CobbHarriet F. Rees House2110 S. Prairie AvenueChicago1888Designed by Cobb & Frost.Tippecanoe Place620 West Washington AvenueSouth Bend, Indiana1889Designed by Henry Ives Cobb. Recognized as a National Historic Landmark.Chicago Athletic Association12 South Michigan AvenueChicago1893Designed by Henry Ives CobbGarfield Building1965 E. 6th StreetCleveland, Ohio1893Designed by Henry Ives CobbNewberry Library60 West Walton StreetChicago1893Designed by Henry Ives Cobb and William PooleSt. Cecilia Music Center24 Ransom NEGrand Rapids, Michigan1893Designed by Henry Ives CobbChicago Varnish Company Building33 West Kinzie StreetChicago1895Designed by Henry Ives CobbOlive Building721 Olive StreetSt. Louis1896Designed by Henry Ives Cobb; 1902 addition by Mauran, Russel & GardenFormer Chicago Historical Society Building632 North Dearborn StreetChicago1896Designed by Henry Ives CobbYerkes Observatory373 W. Geneva StreetWilliams Bay, Wisconsin1897Designed by Henry Ives CobbWoodward & Lothrop Store1025 F Street NWWashington, D.C.1897Designed by Henry Ives Cobb; subsequent expansions 1902-1927The Kip-Riker Mansion432 Scotland RoadSouth Orange, New Jersey1903Designed by Henry Ives Cobb for Ira A. Kip, Jr. Presently Temple Sharey Tefilo IsraelMarcia Worth, September 16, 2011, South Orange Patch (Open Post)Chicago Federal BuildingDearborn and Adams StreetsChicago1905Designed by Henry Ives CobbLiberty Tower55 Liberty StreetNew York City1909Designed by Henry Ives CobbCort Theatre64 Ellis StreetSan Francisco1911Designed by Henry Ives CobbKing Edward Hotel37 King Street EastToronto1920-1922Designed by Henry Ives Cobb: 18-story tower
See also Architecture of Chicago Cobb and Frost
References
External links Henry Ives Cobb papers, ca. 1907-1922. Held by the Department of Drawings & Archives , Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.