Dodge, William Waldo, Jr. (1895-1971)

The Spinning Wheel [Asheville]

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Biography

William Waldo Dodge, Jr. (1895-1971), architect and craftsman, was one of the leading figures in Asheville's architectural scene as well as an illustrious and well-known silversmith. He was part of an important larger movement in Asheville that expressed the influences of the romantic and Arts and Crafts movements in a variety of media from architecture to silver, pottery, weaving, and other arts. His personalized work attracted liberal patronage, even during the Great Depression, from clients who could still afford to build, and his buildings remain treasured expressions of his craftsmanly approach to architecture.

Dodge was born in Washington, D. C. in 1895, the son of William W. and Margaret Parker Dodge. His father was a patent attorney who headed a successful family legal practice in the nation's capital. William, Jr., attended the Friends School in Washington and then Philips-Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. He was sent to Princeton University to prepare for a career in law, but after a year decided that he did not want to be an attorney and enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study architecture. He was graduated from MIT with a Bachelor of Architecture in 1916. From Cambridge, with World War I looming, he went to Plattsburg, New York, and enrolled in officer's training school. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant and sent to France as a member of the American Expeditionary Force. Wounded in battle, he was awarded a Silver Star and Purple Heart.

Exposure to chlorine gas during the war aggravated Dodge's tubercular condition, and after the war, he was treated at the veterans' hospital at Oteen near Asheville, North Carolina, a community long regarded as having a climate and surroundings beneficial to patients afflicted with lung diseases. This assignment brought Dodge to the Asheville area, where he spent most of the rest of his life. At Oteen he taught crafts to fellow patients and developed an interest in silver and copper smithing. After he was released from the hospital, Dodge moved to Connecticut and married Margaret Robinson, but a relapse forced him to enter Gaylord Tuberculosis Sanitorium. While he was convalescing there, the Dodges studied silversmithing. After his discharge, the couple moved to Asheville, where Dodge briefly taught physics and mechanical drawing at the Asheville Boys School. He opened a silversmith shop on Charlotte Street in Asheville and created over the years a unique and widely admired body of artistic silver work.

Early in the 1920s, a prominent Asheville citizen asked Dodge to design a residence for him, and Dodge planned for him the lavish Tudor Revival style Hammond-Knowlton House (1925). Drawing upon his training at MIT, Dodd added architectural practice to his silversmith's craft. With Asheville in the midst of a boom period, he found abundant opportunities and in 1927 moved to a shop he designed and built in the new suburban community of Biltmore Forest, developed on a portion of the Biltmore Estate. An account of Dodge's practice was published in the American Architect in November, 1928, illustrating his silverware, workshop, and studio, and describing him as "an architect by profession and a craftsman by avocation." In 1929 Dodge obtained a license to practice architecture in North Carolina, and he continued to attract or find commissions during the Great Depression.

Blending English, French, and rustic elements already favored in the mountain city, where the mountain setting and the romantic (and French) aura of Biltmore exerted strong influences, Dodge rendered these themes in picturesque compositions enriched with handcrafted detailing that appealed to the wealthy residents of Asheville and Biltmore Forest. His own shop and other small buildings--including repurposed log cabins from the region--display his intricately crafted details and rustic motifs on a modest scale, while larger houses such as the William A. Knight House in Biltmore Forest combine brick, stucco, stone, and wood, and individually designed details of wood carvings, hinges, sculptures, and more to evoke the spirit of a French chateau.

In 1942, facing the wartime hiatus in private construction, he and five other western North Carolina architects banded together to form the architectural firm of Six Associates to enable them to compete for defense contracts and other large projects. Although the firm continued and expanded after the war, in 1947 Dodge withdrew to resume his own practice, which he pursued until his retirement in 1956. His son William Waldo Dodge, III, followed him in the profession with a large practice in Raleigh.

Note: A large collection entitled the William Waldo Dodge Architectural Drawings, 1916-1989 (MC 00372) was donated in 2010 to the Special Collections Research Center at NCSU Libraries. Although most of the drawings are from the firm of Dodge III, there are several by Dodge, Jr., especially from the post-World War II period. When processing is complete and further field checking can be done, additional entries will be inserted in the building list. In the meantime readers may consult the preliminary inventory at http://library.ncsu.edu/findingaids/mc00372.

Authors: Charlotte V. Brown and Zoe Rhine. Update: Catherine W. Bishir.

Published 2012

Building List

William Waldo Dodge, Jr.'s Work Locations

Bibliography