Waddy Butler Wood (1869 – January 25, 1944) was a prominent American architect of the early 20th century and resident of Washington, D.C. Although Wood designed and remodeled numerous private residences, his reputation rested primarily on his larger commissions, such as banks, commercial offices, and government buildings. His most famous works include the Woodrow Wilson House and the Main Interior Building.
Early life and education
Waddy Wood was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1869 to Captain Charles Wood, a Virginian who had relocated west to seek better opportunities. His father had been a Confederate States Army soldier during the American Civil War. Shortly after his birth, the Woods returned to Virginia and settled in Albemarle County, Virginia. He grew up at "Nutwood," Ivy, Virginia near the Wood family state, "Spring Hill," the home of his grandfather, John Wood, Jr. until leaving to receive his advanced education at Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
Early career
In 1892, Wood began working as an architect in Washington, D.C. His first important commissions were on two streetcar barns. The first was Metropolitan Railroad's East Capitol Street Car Barn, which he helped to design with engineer A.N. Connett in 1896. The following year he designed the Georgetown Car Barn, then known as Union Station, for the Capital Traction Company. During this time, Wood also designed several homes in what was then known as Kalorama Heights (now Adams Morgan).
Wood, Donn & Deming
In 1902, he began an association with Edward Donn, Jr. and William I. Deming, forming the firm of Wood, Donn and Deming. The firm was highly successful in Washington, D.C. providing services to various branches of government. Their designs can be found throughout the United States, including the expansion of the Portsmouth Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia. They also had a strong residential client base designing houses for prominent citizens such as Mrs. Phil Sheridan, General Charles Lane Fitzhugh and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet; as well as public residences such as the Bachelor Apartment House located near the White House.
In 1906, Wood, Donn & Deming became the first Washington, D.C. architectural firm to design a bank high-rise in their city when they designed the Union Trust Building, now home to the New America Foundation and Joe's, the DC location of a high end steak and seafood chain. The building is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In the past, the city's largest banks had each retained nationally renowned architects while local architects were only chosen to design bank branches or remodel existing buildings. By choosing Wood's firm, Union Trust began a trend of the city's banks choosing local architects to design their buildings.
Wood's partnership with Donn and Deming is best known for the firm's work in 1907 on the Masonic temple located at the intersection of 13th Street, H Street, and New York Avenue NW, which is now the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The building, a specimen of neo-Renaissance and Renaissance Revival styles, was declared a Washington, D.C. Historic Landmark in 1984 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
In addition to the Masonic lodge hall, the building originally housed professional offices, the George Washington University law library, and a movie theater. The exterior has never been altered substantially. As the Temple Association envisioned, the building's location at the tip of a wedge-shaped block provides an aesthetic buffer zone which "permits of no future building being erected sufficiently near to mar [the Temple's] monumental effect ... ."
Despite the successes of Wood, Donn and Deming, his use of occult masonic symbolism and features was not universally appreciated and the firm was dissolved in 1912.
Personal practice
Waddy Wood's most famous buildings were created after he left Wood, Donn & Deming. In 1915, he built a home for Henry Parker Fairbanks, which was purchased by Woodrow Wilson in 1920 and became the Woodrow Wilson House (or the Fairbanks-Wilson house). As his reputation grew, his client list became quite prominent. In addition to President Wilson, he designed a home for Howe P. Corcoran and remodeled the interior of Senator Oscar Underwood's home in Fairfax County - Woodlawn, a home originally designed by William Thornton, which Wood had worked on previously during his association with Donn and Deming.