KERR, Robert Claud (1866-1938), a native of Glagsow, Scotland where he was born in 1866. He articled in the office of John Honeyman, a leading architect in Scotland and partner in the Glasgow firm of Honeyman & Keppie from 1884 to c. 1889, and he may have remained with the firm as an assistant until at least 1897. During this period, Kerr attended classes at the Glasgow Architectural Association, and he also enrolled in evening classes at Anderson College, Glasgow. He emigrated to the United States in late 1897 or early 1898.
From 1898 to 1900 Kerr lived in Chicago and worked for several architects including James L. Silsbee, for Jarvis Hunt, for the firm of Hill & Woltersdorf, and in the St. Louis office of Raeder, Coffin & Crocker, where he gained experience in steel frame construction in commercial buildings, theatres and hospitals. He then moved to nearby Webb City, Missouri in 1900, and worked there as an architect until the following year when he moved to Seattle, Washington.
In 1903 he formed a partnership in Seattle with Roy D. Rogers (1876-1951) and they continued to practise together until 1908. Kerr remained in Seattle until 1911, then moved to Vancouver, B.C. where he was recorded as an architect working in the office of Robert J. MacDonald from 1912 to 1914 (Vancouver City Directory, 1912, 908). No information has been found on the activity of Kerr from 1915 until 1923 when his name as an architect reappears in the Vancouver City Directory. In 1926 he formed a partnership with Richard T. Perry (see list of works under Perry & Kerr), but this may have been an informal arrangement and lasted less than a year, and Kerr was once again working alone from 1927 until after 1932. Kerr died in Vancouver, B.C.. on 22 October 1938 (British Columbia, Registry of Deaths, 1938-09-548303; biog. and list of works from Washington State Dept. of Archaeology & Historic Preservation [online]; biog. D. Luxton, Building The West, 2003, 471, 508; biog. and list of works in J.K. Ochsner, Shaping Seattle Architecture, Second Edition, 2014, 450; inf. Architectural Inst. of British Columbia, Application for Membership dated 27 Dec. 1920).
KERR & ROGERS
(works in Seattle, Wash.)
PROSPECT STREET, residence for John S. Brace, 1904
PROSPECT STREET, residence for Albert C. Cline, 1904
WEST COMSTOCK STREET, residence for James Bothwell, 1905
ROEBLING BUILDING, a warehouse for John A. Roebling Co. Ltd., First Avenue South near Railroad Way South, 1905 (Architectural Inst. of British Columbia, Application for Membership, No. 81, 1920, list of works by Kerr)
FIRE HALL NO. 8, Queen Anne Hill, 1906
FIRE HALL NO. 15, 1906, demol.
FIRE HALL NO. 17, 50th Street, 1907; demol.
STATE ARMOURY BUILDING, Western Avenue at Lenora Street, designed in 1905; built 1908-09 (Spokane Press, 7 Aug. 1905, 1, descrip.)
R.C. KERR
(works in British Columbia)
CRANBROOK, B.C., public school, 1909 (Cranbrook Herald, 13 May 1909, 5)
(with Robert J. MacDonald) VANCOUVER, B.C., The Padmore Building, Cordova Street, 1912 (Architectural Inst. of British Columbia, Application for Membership, 1920, list of works by Kerr)
VANCOUVER, B.C., Third Church of Christ Scientist, Burnaby Street near Thurlow Street, 1927 (C.R., xli, 22 June 1927, 54; dwgs. at Vancouver City Archives)