Garfield, Abram

GARFIELD, Abram (1872-1958), an important architect from Cleveland, Ohio who is credited with the design of a large residence for James F. Kilgour, 15th Street at Victoria Avenue, BRANDON, MAN., 1909 (City of Brandon b.p. 1192, 26 May 1909).
Garfield, son of the American President James A. Garfield, was born in Cleveland and educated at Williams College and at MIT in Cambridge, Mass. He opened his own office in Cleveland in 1897, then formed a partnership with Frank B. Meade in 1898 (as Meade & Garfield). From 1905 to 1922 he practised there under his own name, but it is unclear how he obtained the Canadian commission in Brandon in 1909. Garfield was best know for sumptuous residences in the Shaker Heights neighbourhood of Cleveland including that for Mrs. John Hay, East Boulevard, 1910 (E. Johannesen, Cleveland Architecture 1876-1976, 1979, 98-9, illus.). Garfield founded the Cleveland School of Architecture in 1924, and continued to lecture there after the School was amalgamated with Western Reserve University. He also served on the National Commission on Fine Arts in Washington in 1925, and on the Cleveland City Plan Commission from 1928 to 1942 (obit. A.I.A. Journal [Washington], xxxi, Jan. 1959, 47; biog. & list of works, Cleveland Chapter A.I.A., Guide to Cleveland Architecture, 1990, 17.2-17.3)