It never ceases to amaze me just how many talented architects were practicing at the local level back during the halcyon days of America's Gothic revival. Not only were there national (and even international figures) like Cram, Goodhue and to a lesser extent John Russell Pope (an ultra-sober classicist who dabbled in the Gothic), but numerous local architects and draftsmen whose work embellished their hometowns and hinterlands and who today are finally being rediscovered. One such figure is the English-born Arnold Sutherland Constable, the chief designer of Seattle-based Beezer Brothers and later head of his own firm in San Francisco during the first thirty years of the last century.
Constable effectively functioned as the house architect for the West Coast Dominican friars and sisters, as well as numerous Gothic parish churches in Seattle. Appropriately enough, the Dominican School of Philosophy in Berkeley is sponsoring an exhibit of his work running until July 2010, so be sure to stop in and have a look.
Thanks to alert reader John Weidner for the information and photos.
