William Gray Purcell - Career

Career

After graduation, Purcell worked for a few months for Henry Ives Cobb, and then for Louis Sullivan until the end of 1903. In 1904 he traveled to the West Coast to work for John G. Howard in Berkeley, California and for Charles H. Bebb and Leonard L. Mendell in Seattle, Washington.

The architectural practice most widely known as Purcell & Elmslie consisted of three partnerships. The first, Purcell & Feick, was formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1907 between Purcell and his Cornell classmate, George Feick, Jr. George Elmslie and Purcell had been friends since 1903, when Purcell worked for a short while in the office of Louis Sullivan, and Elmslie was an informal influence in the work of Purcell & Feick. In 1909, Elmslie joined the office in Minneapolis, and the name of the firm changed to Purcell, Feick, & Elmslie in 1910. Feick left the partnership in 1912, and the name of the practice became Purcell & Elmslie until being dissolved in 1921.

Over the course of the partnership, Purcell & Elmslie became one of the most commissioned firms among the Prairie School architects, second only to Frank Lloyd Wright. After his partnership with Elmslie ended, Purcell continued with his own practice in Portland, Oregon, before tuberculosis forced him into bedrest in a sanatorium at Banning, California, between 1931 and 1935. Following successful lung surgery, Purcell retired to an estate in the foothills of Southern California, near Pasadena. He continued to develop and support the cause of American architecture for another thirty years, mostly through publishing many essays, consulting with architectural historians, and other writing.