Los Angeles County
Biographies
JOHN PARKINSON
To John Parkinson, eminent architect, is due the credit for designing many of the buildings of the business section of Los Angeles. He has been a resident of Los Angeles for four decades and his achievements in that time give him rank as one of the foremost men in his profession in the west. Mr. Parkinson was born in England, December 12, 1861, and acquired both his literary and technical education there. In1882 he received his diploma in architecture and building construction at Mechanics Institute at Bolton, England. Soon afterward coming to the United States, he located at Napa, California, in 1885, and from January, 1889, to March, 1894, was in practice at Seattle. His home has been at Los Angeles since 1894.
A partial list of the structures of which he was the architect or associated as architect that represent the scope of his powers, and his method of treatment of business architecture includes the following: Currier, Laughlin, Grant, Johnson and Hibernian buildings, Angelus Hotel, Maryland Hotel, California Club, Security building, Title Insurance building, Central building, Bartlett building, Pacific Southwest building, Los Angeles Athletic Club, Pacific Mutual building, Bullock’s store and extension, the Broadway Department Store, the Arcade Depot, Blackstone building, Security National Bank building, Los Angeles Gas and Electric building, Chamber of Commerce building, the Los Angeles Coliseum, the Wholesale Terminal building, the Administration building of the University of Southern California; the Utah Hotel and the Kearns building at Salt Lake City, and the Union Depot at Ogden, Utah; the Southland Hotel of Dallas, Texas, and many other important structures throughout the country.
Mr. Parkinson is a member of the American Institute of Architects, the Engineers and Architects Association, the State Board of Architecture, the California Club and the Los Angeles and Brentwood Country Clubs.
Donald B. Parkinson, son of John Parkinson, is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Cambridge and is associated with his father in the profession of architecture. Among the many large and important buildings which have been constructed by the Parkinson firm since he became a member thereof are the John D. Spreckles building of San Diego; the Hayward Hotel of Los Angeles and a number of buildings for the Southern California Telephone Company in this part of the state.
Transcribed
12-21-12 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: California
of the South Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages
531-532, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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BIOGRAPHIES