William Ralph Emerson
William Ralph Emerson (March 11, 1833 – November 23, 1917) was an American architect. He partnered with Carl Fehmer in Emerson and Fehmer. • Illustration — The Hotel Claremont, built in 1890–1892, Claremont, New Hampshire
William Ralph Emerson

Reproduced from an original postcard published by the Metropolitan News Company, Boston, Massachusetts · Public domain
- Born
- 11 March 1833
- Died
- 23 November 1917
- Place of death
- Milton, Massachusetts
- Birthplace
- Alton, Illinois
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- architect
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William Ralph Emerson (March 11, 1833 – November 23, 1917) was an American architect. He partnered with Carl Fehmer in Emerson and Fehmer. • Illustration — The Hotel Claremont, built in 1890–1892, Claremont, New Hampshire
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In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Born — 11 March 1833 • Died — 23 November 1917 • Place of death — Milton, Massachusetts • Birthplace — Alton, Illinois
Early life and education
Early life and education
A cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson, William was born in Alton, Illinois, and trained in the office of Jonathan Preston (1801–1888), an architect–builder in Boston. He formed an architectural partnership with Preston (1857–1861), practiced alone for two years, then partnered with Carl Fehmer (1864–1873). He is best known for his Shingle Style houses and inns, many of them in Bar Harbor, Maine. He worked with fellow Boston designer Frederick Law Olmsted on the creation of the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., designing several of the zoo's first buildings. Emerson was a friend of the Boston painter William Morris Hunt, who painted a portrait of Emerson's son Ralph, shown at an exhibition of Hunt's work at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1880. Emerson died in Milton, Massachusetts.
Personal life
Personal life
On September 15, 1873 he married Sylvia Hathaway Watson.
Selected works
Selected works
• 1869 Sanford-Covell Villa Marina, 72 Washington Street, Newport, Rhode Island • 1869 Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller Mansion renovation, Woodstock, Vermont • 1875 Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital, Harrison Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts • 1878 Eustis Estate, Canton Avenue, Milton, Massachusetts • 1878 Summer cottage of Boston painter William Morris Hunt, Magnolia, Massachusetts • 1879 Redwood, C. J. Morrill House, Bar Harbor, Maine • 1881 Boston Art Club, 150 Newbury Street, Boston, Massachusetts • 1887 Saint Jude's Episcopal Church, Seal Harbor, Mount Desert, Maine • 1887 Saint Margaret's Roman Catholic Church, Beverly Farms, Massachusetts • 1887 Tianderah, stone and shingle residence, Gilbertsville, New York; Listed on the National Historic Register, November 2, 1978 #78001894 • 1888 Fitz Cottage, Jackson, New Hampshire • 1889 William James House, 95 Irving Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts • 1890 The Reading Room, now part of the Bar Harbor Inn, Bar Harbor, Maine • 1890–1892 The Hotel Claremont, Claremont, New Hampshire • 1896 Felsted, a cottage for Frederick Law Olmsted, Deer Isle, Maine
Identity and overview
Identity and overview
The following is established of the heading itself.

Portrait of William Emerson (b. 1873), later first Dean of the MIT School of Architecture, likely in his 20s. Taken before 1900.
(1900) Universities and their Sons

Portrait of William Emerson, head of the MIT Architectural Department
(November 1922). " The Ninety-Sixty Meeting of the Council ". MIT Technology Review 25: 367.
Primary material
Documents and archives
Institutional database
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q8017339: William Ralph Emerson
Scholarly · Wikimedia Foundation
reference work
- “William Ralph Emerson”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Heather Ewing, 'The Architecture of the National Zoological Park,' in New Worlds, New Animals: From Menagerie to Zoological Park in the Nineteenth Century. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
- 2.Portrait of Master Ralph Emerson, Exhibition of the Works of William Morris Hunt, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Dec. 20, 1879-Jan. 31, 1880, Seventh Edition, Alfred Mudge & Son, Boston, 1880.
References
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References
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Institutional database
Wikidata, structured authority record Q8017339: William Ralph EmersonWikimedia Foundation
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Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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