ATCHESON & ADAMS (fl. 1912-15), architects of Detroit, Michigan who completed several projects in the region of Windsor, Ontario between 1913 and 1915. The partnership consisted of Norman Swain Atcheson (1876-1939) and his business partner Harry Edward Adams (1887-1970). Atcheson was born in St. Louis, Missouri on 12 October 1876 and he attended the School of Architecture at the Univ. of Michigan from 1896 to 1900. He then studied at the Art Students League in New York City for two years, and in 1905 he joined the office of George D. Mason, a leading architect in Detroit, Mich. While there, he met Alvin E. Harley, and both left Mason’s office to form a new partnership of Harley & Atcheson in Detroit in 1908. Their best-known work was the 10 storey Henry Clay Hotel, Grand River Avenue at Centre Street, Detroit, built 1913 and still standing as of 2020.
In early 1913 Atcheson appears to have terminated the collaboration with Harley, and he is listed under his own name in Detroit, working with Harry E. Adams who is noted as an “associate” of Atcheson and residing across the border in Windsor, Ontario (Detroit City Directory, 1913, p. 416). This partnership of Atcheson & Adams, with dual offices in both Detroit and Windsor, may indicate that Adams was assigned the design responsibilities for the Canadian projects by the firm (see list below). Harry E. Adams was born in Michigan on 9 October 1887 and he may have received his training in the Detroit office of Harley & Atcheson. The new firm of Atcheson & Adams remained active until late 1914, but Atcheson appears to have relocated to southern California after 1920, and he died in San Mateo, Calif. on 20 February 1939. No information has been found on H.E. Adams after 1914, and he may have abandoned the profession, but he could be the same “Harry E. Adams” of Windsor, Ont. who died at Pinelles, Florida on 15 May 1970 (inf. City of Windsor LACAC Committee).
ATCHESON & ADAMS (works in Windsor, Ont.)
LONDON STREET WEST, at Elm Avenue, a two storey commercial block for Maxime St. Denis, with seven stores and seven flats, 1913 (Evening Record [Windsor], 24 May 1913, 7, descrip.)
JANETTE AVENUE, at London Street, residence and medical office for Dr. Ulysses D. Durocher, 1913 (Evening Record [Windsor], 26 Aug. 1913, 6, descrip.)
LONDON STREET WEST, at Wellington Avenue, a two storey commercial block for Adelard St. Denis, with four stores and six apartments, 1913 (Evening Record [Windsor], 5 Sept. 1913, 2, descrip.)
GLENGARRY STREET, at Assumption Street, a two storey block of stores and flats for Nathan Cohn, 1913 (Evening Record [Windsor], 24 Oct. 1913, 2)
ROGIN BLOCK, Parent Avenue at Assumption Street, a two storey block of stores and flats for Charles Rogin, 1913-14 (Evening Record [Windsor], 24 Oct. 1913, 2; 18 Aug. 1914, 3, illus. & descrip.)
SANDWICH EAST, ONT., a cobblestone bungalow, for an unnamed client, "...on the old J. Henry Smith site on the river front", 1915 (Evening Record [Windsor], 8 June 1915, 7)
COMPETITIONS
WINDSOR, ONT., Masonic Temple, Ouellette Avenue at Erie Street, 1915. The firm of Atcheson & Adams were one of 4 architectural firms who submitted designs for this Windsor landmark (Evening Record [Windsor], 3 June 1915, 2). The winner was J.C. Pennington, but his proposal was not built until 1921, and completed by Pennington & Boyde.