NC Architects and Builders is a growing system. We will post this entry as soon as it is ready.
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| Birthplace: | Laurel, Maryland, USA |
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Harry P. S. Keller (1869-1938), a versatile architect active in Wilmington and Raleigh in the early 20th century, planned a variety of buildings from residences to commercial buildings and college buildings at present North Carolina State University.
Harry Keller was the son of Samuel Prescott Keller of Laurel, Maryland. Little is known of his training and early work except that he was a draftsman in the office of Washington, D. C. architect Glenn Brown in the late 1890s. He apparently began his career in North Carolina as chief draftsman for Charles McMillen in Wilmington, and by 1901 was operating a branch office of McMillen's firm in Greensboro. (No work by the firm has been identified in that city, however.) In 1903 Keller opened his own office in Wilmington, and designed a number of Colonial Revival residences and remodelings in the port city.
In 1904 he moved to Raleigh to work as a designer for the prolific contractor/architect William P. Rose, and probably planned some of the buildings associated with Rose. In Raleigh, Keller again went out on his own, establishing his own practice in 1907, and his career gained momentum after 1910. In 1909, as reported by the Manufacturer's Record of September 9, Keller provided designs to the congregation of Raleigh's St. Paul's A. M. E. Church, for rebuilding their large brick church which had burned a few months earlier. His work encompassed a range of popular styles, including free adaptations of Colonial Revival and Romanesque Revival modes, sometimes combined with elements of industrial architecture and the Prairie style.
At present North Carolina State University, he displayed a bold and vivid rendition of the Colonial Revival style, combining freely-interpreted classical details and industrially-inspired forms, with red brick walls accentuated by highly contrasting yellow brick and concrete keystones, columns, and moldings. His substantial and handsome residences included the massive Southern Colonial style Machaven (also known as the Hines House) in Rocky Mount and the Zebulon M. Caveness House in Raleigh, the latter presenting a robust blend of the Colonial Revival in its symmetry and formality with the horizontality and simple forms of the Prairie style. Keller's blueprints for the Caveness House are in Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries.
Keller was one of the first licensed architects in North Carolina. His license certificate, issued in 1915, was #20 in the official registration book of the North Carolina Board of Architecture, one of the early group of men who were licensed in the state based on their having been in professional practice prior to the licensing act of 1915.
In 1920, Keller was listed in the U.S. census as a resident of Raleigh, a 49-year-old architect and head of a household that included his wife, Alice, 36, and children Harry, Jr., 12 and Mary, 6. Ten years later he was still listed as an architect, with Alice working as a teacher, Harry, Jr., a manufacturer's agent, and Mary at home. Although he continued as an architect, Keller's work during the 1920s has not been identified. During the Great Depression, he was employed as a superintendent of school construction for eastern North Carolina. Given the quality and variety of his work, further study of his training and career is in order.
Author: William B. Bushong. Update: Dave Delcambre and Catherine W. Bishir.
Published 2009
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| Dates: | 1907-1908 |
| Location: | Rocky Mount, Nash County |
| Street Address: | 306 S. Grace St., Rocky Mount, NC |
| Status: | Standing |
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The imposing Southern Colonial style brick house was built for Hines, known as the "ice king of the state" for the ice plants he established along the railroad lines from Rocky Mount to Salisbury. |
| Title: | Machaven |
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Preservation North Carolina, "Machaven," Preservation North Carolina Historic Architecture Slide Collection, 1965-2005 (PNC slides), Built Heritage of North Carolina: Historic Architecture in the Old North State, North Carolina State University, Libraries, Special Collections Research Center
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| Dates: | 1904 |
| Location: | Wilmington, New Hanover County |
| Street Address: | 210 Ann St., Wilmington, NC |
| Status: | Standing |
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| Dates: | 1903 |
| Location: | Wilmington, New Hanover County |
| Street Address: | 113 S. Front St., Wilmington, NC |
| Status: | Standing |
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| Dates: | 1903 |
| Location: | Wilmington, New Hanover County |
| Street Address: | 113 N. 4th St., Wilmington, NC |
| Status: | Standing |
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| Dates: | 1882-1883; 1903 [remodeled] |
| Location: | Wilmington, New Hanover County |
| Street Address: | 220 S. 3rd St., Wilmington, NC |
| Status: | Standing |
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The Wilmington Morning Star of December 10, 1903, reported that architect H. P. S. Keller had drawn plans for an "extensive" remodeling of the "splendid" Henry Latimer House, to cost $8,500. Based on Sanborn Maps of the period, the remodeling produced the tall mansard roof that supplied a third story to the house. |
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| Dates: | 1909 |
| Location: | Raleigh, Wake County |
| Street Address: | North Carolina State University Campus, Raleigh, NC |
| Status: | Standing |
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| Title: | 1911 Building, Raleigh, Wake County |
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Edward T. Funkhouser, "1911 Building, Raleigh, Wake County," Edward T. Funkhouser Photographs, 2001-2008 (MC00336), Edward T. Funkhouser Photographs, North Carolina State University, Libraries, Special Collections Research Center
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| Dates: | 1912; ca. 1922 [additions]; 1945 [additions]; 1947 [additions] |
| Location: | Raleigh, Wake County |
| Street Address: | North Carolina State University Campus, Raleigh, NC |
| Status: | Standing |
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Ross Edward Shumaker designed the building's east balconies. |
| Title: | Leazar Hall |
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Edward T. Funkhouser, "Leazar Hall," Edward T. Funkhouser Photographs, 2001-2008 (MC00336), Edward T. Funkhouser Photographs, North Carolina State University, Libraries, Special Collections Research Center
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| Dates: | 1914-1916 |
| Location: | Raleigh, Wake County |
| Street Address: | 1804 Hillsborough St., Raleigh, NC |
| Status: | Standing |
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Keller's blueprints for the handsome Prairie style-Colonial Revival style house are in the Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries. |
| Title: | Caveness House, Raleigh, Wake County |
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Myrick Howard, "Caveness House, Raleigh, Wake County," Preservation North Carolina
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| Dates: | 1914 |
| Location: | Raleigh, Wake County |
| Street Address: | 101 Current Dr., North Carolina State University Campus, Raleigh, NC |
| Status: | Standing |
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| Dates: | 1913-1914 |
| Location: | Raleigh, Wake County |
| Street Address: | SE corner Wilmington St. and Edenton St., Raleigh, NC |
| Status: | Standing |
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| Dates: | Ca. 1915-1920 |
| Location: | Raleigh, Wake County |
| Street Address: | S. Wilmington St., Raleigh, NC |
| Status: | Unknown |
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| Dates: | Ca. 1915-1920 |
| Location: | Raleigh, Wake County |
| Street Address: | Raleigh, NC |
| Status: | Unknown |
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| Dates: | 1884-1901; 1909-1910 [rebuilt] |
| Location: | Raleigh, Wake County |
| Street Address: | 402 W. Edenton St., Raleigh, NC |
| Status: | Standing |
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The imposing brick edifice in Gothic Revival style is the home of the city's oldest independent black congregation, which began when black members of Edenton Street Methodist Church held separate services as early as the 1840s; they moved to this site in 1853, worshiping in a frame church (formerly Christ Church) that was moved to the site. After the Civil War, the church--known as the "African" church"--hosted the 1865 and 1866 state Freedmen's Conventions, and soon allied with the A. M. E. denomination. The congregation built a large brick church over several years, as funds permitted, only to see it go up in flames in July, 1909, just a few years after it was completed. Raleigh citizens contributed to its rebuilding, from designs by Henry P. S. Keller. (See the Manufacturers' Record, Sept. 9, 1909, where the congregation was advertising for bids for "edifice plans by H. P. S. Keller.") The rebuilding evidently incorporated the surviving brick walls. |
| Title: | St. Paul's A.M.E. Church, Raleigh, Wake County |
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Betsy Ross, "St. Paul's A.M.E. Church, Raleigh, Wake County," NC Architects/Builders Biographical Dictionary Project Collection, Betsy Ross Design, Raleigh, NC
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