GARDEN, Edward Gordon (1871-1924), an American architect who was active in Atlin, British Columbia, in the northwest region of the province near Skagway, Alaska. He advertised himself in the local newspapers as an architect (Atlin Claim, 20 May 1899, 1), and was credited with preparing plans for the new Provincial Government Offices in Atlin, and well as the plans for the Pioneer Wharf, near Lake Street and Pearl Street, ATLIN, B.C. (Atlin Claim, 20 May 1899, 4, news item).
Garden was born in Toronto, Ont. on 24 March 1871 and was educated at Bishop’s College School in Sherbrooke, Que. in 1883-87. He moved to Minneapolis, Minn. in 1887 and became a pupil of William Channing Whitney, a prominent architect in that city. Both Garden and his younger brother Hugh, also an architect, left for Chicago in the early 1890’s and joined the branch office of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, a leading firm of architects headquartered in Boston. They met another young architect in that office, John Mauran, and Garden would later form a partnership with him in St. Louis. Both Mauran and Garden were later transferred to St. Louis in 1895 to work in another branch office of the Boston architectural firm.
It is unclear what prompted Garden to decide to leave the prosperous American midwest and move to a remote corner of northern British Columbia in early 1899. In the small town of Atlin, he obtained the commission to design the Provincial Government Office & Courts Building in Atlin, B.C. (built 1899-1900; still standing 2016), but his experience there was not a rewarding one , and within 6 months he had decided to return to St. Louis, Missouri in the American Midwest “….where he will enter into a partnership with a prominent architect of that city” (Atlin Claim, 12 Aug. 1899, 4). In St. Louis, he was invited to join his colleagues John L. Mauran and Ernest J. Russell, both of whom had previously worked in the St. Louis branch office of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge. Their new firm, called Mauran, Russell & Garden, was remarkably successful, and between 1900 and 1910 they received major commissions for institutional, ecclesiastical, commercial and residential buildings in St. Louis and the surrounding region. Their best know landmark was the impressive design for the Lilburn Building, an 18 storey skyscraper clad entirely in white glazed terra cotta (1907) .
Garden left the partnership in 1909 or 1910, and he moved to San Francisco in 1911 to open an office under his own name, remaining in the Bay Region until 1922. He moved again, this time to Cleveland, Ohio where he died on 3 February 1924 (obituary St. Louis Star & Times, 8 February 1924, 2; biography in H. Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, 1956, 229; biography and port. Landmarks Association of St. Louis Inc.).
E.G. GARDEN
ATLIN, B.C., Provincial Government Building, with Court House & Registry Office, Second Street, 1899-1900, now used as a local museum (Atlin Claim [Atlin, B.C.], 20 May 1899, 4; Margaret Carter, Early Canadian Court Houses, 1983, 186-87, illlus., 230, illus.). A detailed architectural description of the completed building appeared in the weekly newspaper called The Atlin Claim, 24 Aug. 1900, page 1.
MAURAN, RUSSELL & GARDEN
(works in St. Louis, Missouri)
FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST SCIENTIST, Kings Highway Boulevard at Westminster Place, 1903 (inf. Landmarks Assoc. of St. Louis Inc.)
SILK EXCHANGE BUILDING, 12th Boulevard, 1906 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 21 May 1975, 31, historical article)
CARNEGIE LIBRARY, Union Boulevard at Cabanne Avenue, 1906 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 12 April 1906, 3)
SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH, Kings Highway Boulevard, between Washington St. and McPherson Street, 1906 (Brickbuilder [New York], xvii, Dec. 1907, 274, illus.; Architectural Record [New York], xxiv, Oct. 1908, 312, illus.)
PILGRIM CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, Union Boulevard at Kensington Avenue, 1906 (Architectural Record [New York], xxiv, Oct. 1908, 310, illus.; Brickbuilder [New York], xviii, Jan. 1909, 6, illus.)
CHURCH OF THE MESSIAH, Union Boulevard at Enright Avenue, 1907 (Brickbuilder [New York], xvii, Dec. 1907, 270-71, illus.; Architectural Record [New York], xxiv, Oct. 1908, 309-12, illus.)
LILBURN BUILDING, Broadway at Pine Street, 1907, an 18 storey skyscraper for the Lilburn Realty Co., 1907 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 21 July 1907, Section Two, 11, illus. & descrip.)
CONDIE NEALE GLASS CO., Broadway at Benton Street, a 6 storey warehouse block, 1907-08 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 22 March 1908, Section Two, 14, illus. & descrip.)
WESTMORELAND PLACE, a mansion for Mrs. George L. Allen, 1909 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 3 Oct. 1909, Sunday Magazine, Home Section, 11, illus. & descrip.)
LINDELL DRIVE, a mansion for Col. William E. Hughes “on the Catlin tract”, 1909 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 31 Jan. 1909, 8 B)