Person Record

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Name

Waters, William

Notes

William Waters was born in Franklin County, NY in 1843. He attended local schools and Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. He came to Oshkosh, WI in 1867 and established an architectural firm. He designed houses, schools, public buildings, and churches all over northeastern Wisconsin. He also designed the Wisconsin Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. He became the leading architect of the region. He married Catherine Follett circa 1867 and the couple had two surviving children: William Waters, Jr.; and Elizabeth Waters. He died in Oshkosh on December 14, 1917.

William Waters Obituary:
Oshkosh Daily Northwestern
12/15/1917

ARCHITECT NO MORE

William Waters, long Identified with Upbuilding of State, Passes Away.

Left Monuments Of Genius

Many of the Notable Buildings Here and Elsewhere Designed By Him.

Another pioneer, a man who has been directly identified with the physical upbuilding of Oshkosh for a full half century, has passed on. William Waters one of the oldest and most successful of all Wisconsin architects, has gone.

The death of that prominent member of a coterie of sturdy eastern men who did so much to make this city what it is today, was not entirely unexpected, but the announcement will cause no less of a shock. He had been in poor health for some time and for the last few weeks it was known that the end was not far off, and his son's wife was called from her home in California was called to be present with Mr. Waters' daughter when the closing moments should arrive.

General debility was the cause of death and for some time past there was a gradual breaking down. At 4:15 o'clock yesterday afternoon Mr. Waters passed
away.

It was said of one great man in whose footsteps of activity William Waters followed: "If you seek a monument look around." Oshkosh is full of the monuments of the Oshkosh architect's genius and labor. He had reached the ripe age of seventy-four years, of which fifty had been spent in Oshkosh. He was born in Delaware county, New York, his father was a prosperous merchant. He attended the public school of his native town and later the Polytechnic Institute at Troy. N. Y. Soon after his graduation, he came to Oshkosh and engaged in his chosen profession as architect.

Fires from time to time have destroyed buildings which he designed for this city, but they have been replaced, many of. them by others which he also planned. Mr. Waters did not confine himself to any one type of structure but public buildings as well as residences were the offspring of his fertile brain. Courthouses at Phillips,
Wautoma, and Waupaca, high schools at Ripon, Sheboygan Falls, Shawano, Marshfield and Oshkosh, banks, opera houses and municipal and state buildings
were erected in various cities after his plans.

Some of the more notable places of worship in Oshkosh, including St. Peter's Catholic, Trinity Episcopal, Algoma Street Methodist, and the new part of the First Congregational church, were designed by him. The Athearn hotel, the Tremont hotel, Grand opera house, the Oshkosh public library, the county asylum, the city hall, the Longfellow school, besides a very great number of stately residences in this city, are also monuments to his memory.. His last pretentious enterprise was the drafting of the plans of the new high school in which he collaborated with Henry F. Auler. The old Normal school, destroyed by fire, was his own creation.

Mr. Waters was the architect who designed the Wisconsin building at the Columbia exposition at Chicago. His son, William Waters Jr., who is following in his father's footsteps, was general superintendent of construction of the buildings at the Panama Pacific Exposition at San Francisco and is now consulting engineer
in the construction of buildings at the army cantonment at Palo Alto, Calif. Because of the arduous duties which devolve upon him, he was unable to come to Oshkosh at this time, but he made a visit to his father last summer, before the illness became serious.

Mr. Waters was married in Oshkosh, his wife being Miss Catherine Follett, whose father was the second mayor of Oshkosh. She died more than forty years ago.
Besides the son. there is one daughter, Miss Elizabeth Waters of this city, and two grand children, Mercedes and Billie.

The funeral will be held .Sunday afternoon at 2:00 o'clock from the residence, 57 Elm street. Rev. Edward H. Smith will officiate and Interment will be at Riverside cemetery.

Mr. Waters was a man of most retiring disposition, but of admirable traits of mind and heart. He was a student of good literature and was declared to have the most intimate knowledge of the works of Thackeray of any man in the city of Oshkosh. He was at one time president of the Wisconsin chapter of architects, a state organization of that profession. For many years he had done many acts of kindness for people less fortunate than himself, but it was always done so
unostentatiously it was known to but few people. It is said that one of the last things he did before his final seizure was to walk laboriously down to his office to make a liberal donation to charity.

Upon more than one occasion poor families had loads of coal or wood sent to them without learning the name of the donor. A number of young men who have entered the architect's profession received not only their inspiration but financial aid from Mr. Waters. Several families have lived for months, rent free, in houses that he owned when they were unable to pay, and no pay was ever demanded. It is said that by those who knew him best that it would be impossible to estimate the amount of money contributed in such ways.