Northup and O'Brien (1916-1953)
Variant Name(s):
Luther Lashmit; Leet Alexander O'Brien; Willard Close Northup
Founded:
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA
Residences:
- Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Trades:
- Architect
Building Types:
Styles & Forms:
Art Deco; Beaux-Arts; Colonial Revival; Modernist
Northup and O’Brien, a Winston-Salem firm that encompassed architects Willard Close Northup, Leet O’Brien, and after 1927, Luther Lashmit, was one of the most prolific and distinguished architectural firms in North Carolina during the first half of the 20th century. The firm offered a full range of architectural possibilities for the urbanizing state, and its founders and members led in the establishment and promotion of the architectural profession. During their period of practice, their home base of Winston-Salem was the wealthiest city in the state, and the firm gained and kept as clients many of the leading industrialists of the city, while their field of commissions also extended throughout much of North Carolina. Their work encompassed myriad revival styles—including their distinctive local “Salem Revival” style originated by Northup—as well as new trends in modernism. The firm found remunerative and regular work in planning public schools, universities, and health facilities according to standards of the day, while also designing sophisticated residences, skyscrapers, and civic edifices.
Born in Hancock, Michigan, by the time of his high school graduation in 1900 Willard Close Northup (1882-1942) lived in Asheville, North Carolina, where his father owned a hardware store. To develop his architectural skills, young Northup attended the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry in Philadelphia, studied at the University of Pennsylvania, and was briefly employed by a Charleston, South Carolina, architecture firm. Returning to North Carolina, he gained experience in the offices of such established architects as Charles McMillen of Wilmington and Richard Sharp Smith and William H. Lord of Asheville. He moved briefly to Muskogee, Oklahoma, to work for the architectural firm of McKibbon and McKibbon, but soon returned to North Carolina, where in 1906 he opened his own practice in Winston (soon to become Winston-Salem). Willard Northup’s first commissions were small residences, but he soon expanded his repertoire to include more ambitious Colonial Revival and Georgian Revival houses, plus other projects such as the Marshall Fields Factory Village in Fieldale, Virginia, and the O’Hanlon Building, North Carolina Baptist Hospital, Winston-Salem City Market, and Salem Town Hall and Fire Station in Winston-Salem.
In 1907, with his practice thriving, Northup hired a young draftsman, Winston-Salem native Leet Alexander O’Brien (1891-1963). O’Brien was a graduate of the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh and had worked in that city for the architectural firm of Ingham and Boyd for several years before returning to North Carolina.
Northup and O’Brien formed their partnership firm in 1915 or 1916 and established a strong reputation for their religious, commercial, and institutional work, with a specialty in consolidated schools during a period when state and local investment in public education was mounting. Both men served in World War I. O’Brien, who was exempted from the draft due to his poor eyesight, was stationed at the Navy Bureau of Yards and Docks in Washington, DC. Northup went abroad to oversee military camp construction for two years, achieving the rank of captain.
Meanwhile, Northup had begun his vital and lasting role in the promotion of the architectural profession in North Carolina. In 1913, he was one of five North Carolina architects (see Glenn Brown) instrumental in founding a state chapter of the American Institute of Architects (NCAIA), and he was equally important in the passage of legislation regulating architectural practice in 1915. Northup served the North Carolina Chapter of the AIA as education chairman in 1913, treasurer-secretary from 1913 to 1916, vice-president in 1916, and president in 1921. In 1932 he received one of the highest honors of the AIA—elevation to fellowship as FAIA. In 1919, Northup was appointed president of the North Carolina Board of Architecture, a position he held until 1931 and again from 1933 until his death in 1942.
Leet O’Brien also participated in professional organizations, becoming an AIA member in 1925, joining the North Carolina Society of Engineers, directing the Winston-Salem Engineers Club, and serving on the advisory committees of the North Carolina State Planning Board, the North Carolina Arts Society, and the North Carolina Engineering Foundation. He was elected treasurer-secretary of NCAIA in 1927, vice-president in 1932-1933, and president in 1934-1935. When planning began in the late 1940s for a new architecture school at North Carolina State College, O’Brien suggested that the NCAIA create a foundation to support the program. Northup and O’BrienpartnerLuther Lashmit, Charlotte architect Walter W. Hook, and Raleigh architect William H. Deitrick incorporated the North Carolina Architectural Foundation, which later became the North Carolina Design Foundation, in 1949.
Many talented architects began their careers working for Northup and O’Brien. The firm hired Durham native George Watts Carr, educated at Davidson College and the Eastman Business School in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1926 to supervise their projects in his thriving hometown. Carr established his own Durham practice in 1927, which continued until he retired in 1974.
A key figure in the Northup and O’Brien firm, and one of the state’s outstanding architects of the mid-20th century, was Winston-Salem native Luther Lashmit. Although he did not become a partner until 1945, Lashmit was a vital part of the firm from 1927 onward and lead architect for some of its premier projects. Lashmit graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, traveled in Europe, and taught at the Georgia Institute of Technology before returning to Winston-Salem to work with Northup and O’Brien. He took on the prestigious project of designing Graylyn, the opulent and up-to-date Norman Revival-style residence of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company president Bowman Gray and his wife Nathalie Lyons Gray; the project began in 1927 and was not completed until 1932. Lashmit left Northup and O’Brien in 1933 to teach at Carnegie Institute until 1938, when he rejoined the firm and in 1939 designed another distinctive residential project, Merry Acres (R.J. Reynolds, Jr., House), the streamlined International style home for the son of the founder of the Reynolds Tobacco Company. In 1942, Luther Lashmit took another leave from the firm to work for the Federal Public Housing Authority, and upon his return home in 1945 became a partner in Northup and O’Brien. After O’Brien retired in 1953, Luther Lashmit formed a partnership with engineers Mack D. Brown and William W. Pollock, who had joined the firm in 1929 and 1936, respectively, and architect William Russell James, Jr., to reorganize the firm under the name Lashmit, James, Brown, and Pollock. After several additional partnership changes over the years, the successor firm became Calloway Johnson Moore and West in 1994 and now operates under the initials CJMW.
Northup and O’Brien’s commissions encompassed hundreds of commercial, institutional, educational, ecclesiastical, and residential buildings throughout North Carolina in a full range of popular 20th architectural styles. An unusual quantity of their architectural drawings survives (see note below), including several in Winston-Salem repositories and those for some 300 projects at Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, in Raleigh.
In his early work in Winston-Salem, Northup incorporated distinctive architectural features seen in older Salem buildings—particularly the arched entrance “bonnet” hood design at the venerable Home Moravian Church—into new edifices such as the Salem Town Hall (1912), the last municipal building erected before Salem’s consolidation with Winston in 1913. Honoring Salem’s Moravian heritage, he specified bonnet hoods over the corner entrances. When he drew plans for the Rondthaler Memorial Building (1913) to expand facilities at Home Moravian Church, he repeated many of the older building’s features, including the round-arched entrance hood. Northup and O’Brien produced many renditions of the “Salem Revival” style, which became a localized version of the widely popular Colonial Revival style. The firm’s many church designs included those for Moravian congregations, such as Calvary Moravian Church (1925) and Ardmore Moravian Church (1931) in Winston-Salem. By contrast, Fairview Moravian Church (1923), in Winston-Salem displays the more generally popular Neoclassical Revival style.
Northup and O’Brien’s commercial building designs range from modest storefronts to skyscrapers. Winston-Salem examples include the Art Deco style Sosnick’s Department Store (1929), and skyscrapers such as the 8-story Neoclassical Revival style O’Hanlon Building (1915) and the 6-story Pepper Building (1929), in variegated brown brick and sandstone veneer with Art Deco detailing. One of the firm’s premier projects was the 15-story Durham Life Insurance Building in Raleigh, the city’s tallest skyscraper upon its completion in 1942, with a stepped ziggurat form and elegant Art Deco detailing recalling Winston-Salem’s iconic Reynolds Building by Shreve and Lamb.
Many local and state agencies commissioned Northup and O’Brien to design public buildings. The Renaissance Revival-style Winston-Salem City Hall, built in 1926 of red brick with a rusticated stone base and pilasters at the upper stories, was recognized by the North Carolina chapter of the AIA with an Honor Award in 1929. The Forsyth County Courthouse, erected in 1926 with limestone facing and enlarged in 1958, and the Justice Building in Raleigh (1938), constructed of Mount Airy Granite, show the firm’s mastery of the austere, modernized classicism of the era.
The rapid expansion and greater complexity of medical facilities in the 20th century provided Northup and O’Brien with a steady source of commissions. The firm planned hospitals, nurses’ housing, and other medical buildings, most of which have been razed or heavily altered. Among these projects were Forsyth County’s second tuberculosis hospital (1930); that hospital’s wing for black patients (1938); the state-of-the-art Art Deco-style Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital (1938) built to serve Winston-Salem’s African American community; the first building on the Bowman Gray School of Medicine campus (1940); and the major expansion of the adjacent North Carolina Baptist Hospital—all of which were executed in red brick with streamlined cast-stone details. The firm also planned the late 1940s renovations and new construction at present Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh (a psychiatric treatment facility) and the associated Dorothea Dix School of Nursing.
Northup and O’Brien also served the state’s transformative investment in public school buildings in the early and middle years of the 20th century. By 1940, the firm had designed more than one hundred public consolidated schools statewide. Many have been replaced, but many still stand. Surviving examples in their home county include such Colonial and Neoclassical Revival-style buildings such as Clemmons School (1925), Old Town School (1926), and Griffith School and Gymnasium (1926), and one of Forsyth County’s earliest modernist schools, Lewisville School (1948).
As the state’s colleges expanded, Northup and O’Brien designed buildings and site plans for many old and new campuses. Their Winston-Salem commissions included projects at Salem Academy and College; Winston-Salem State University; the Methodist Children’s Home; and Memorial Industrial School. Farther afield, the firm planned buildings at present Appalachian State University in Boone, Davidson College near Charlotte, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and North Carolina Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount.
By the time the firm’s founders died or retired, Northup and O’Brien’s oeuvre was among the most extensive, varied, and distinguished in the state. Not addressed in this summary is how these men interacted with the state and local leaders who developed North Carolina into the notably progressive state of the mid-20th century. Certain it is that Northup, O’Brien, and Luther Lashmit played a role in that transformation, and their legacy stands not only in the buildings of their home community but in public, private, and institutional buildings throughout much of the state.
Note: This building list is necessarily selective. The firm’s architectural output was so extensive that a full listing of works is not feasible here. The North Carolina State University Special Collections Library in Raleigh, which houses the principal collection of the firm’s drawings, notes in its finding guide more than 300 projects; other repositories for the firm’s drawings include the Moravian Archives; Old Salem, Inc.; and the Z. Smith Reynolds Library at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem. Architectural surveys of Winston-Salem have identified many more buildings. The building list highlights some of the firm’s best known buildings and illustrates their geographical range. Other buildings are listed in the finding guides of the collections cited above.
- Catherine W. Bishir, North Carolina Architecture (1990).
- Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina (2003).
- Sid Bost, “Lashmit, Brown and Pollock Firm Reorganized and Name Is Changed,” Winston-Salem Sentinel, Jan. 1, 1972.
- “Funeral Service for Willard C. Northup,” Twin City Sentinel, Feb. 14, 1942.
- C. David Jackson and Charlotte V. Brown, History of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, 1913-1998 (1998).
- C. David Jackson and Charlotte V. Brown, History of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, 1913-1998 (1998).
- Northup and O’Brien, Architects, “Commissions During 1940 Totaling Over Three Million Dollars” (firm publicity brochure), copy in Charlotte Vestal Brown Papers, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, North Carolina.
- Willard Close Northup, biographical sketch, The American Institutes of Architects Archives, Record Group 803, photocopy in Charlotte Vestal Brown Papers, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, North Carolina.
- “O’Brien, Architect, Dies at 72,” Winston-Salem Journal, Aug. 15, 1963.
- Leet A. O’Brien, “Questionnaire for Architects…Qualified for Federal Public Works,” photocopy in Charlotte Vestal Brown Papers, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, North Carolina.
- Molly Grogan Rawls, Old Salem and Salem College (2010).
- Molly Grogan Rawls, Winston-Salem in Vintage Postcards (2004).
- Molly Grogan Rawls, Winston-Salem: Then and Now (2008).
- Molly Grogan Rawls, Winston-Salem: From the Collection of Frank B. Jones Jr. (2006).
- Gwynne Stephens Taylor, From Frontier to Factory: An Architectural History of Forsyth County (1981).
- “W. R. James Jr., Architect, Dies,” Winston-Salem Sentinel, Mar. 19, 1962.
Adamsleigh
Contributors:Luther Lashmit, architect; Northup and O'Brien, architectsVariant Name(s):John H. Adams House
Dates:1929-1931
Location:Sedgefield, Guilford CountyStreet Address:3210 Forsyth Dr., Sedgefield, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:H. McKelden Smith, Architectural Resources: An Inventory of Historic Architecture, High Point, Jamestown, Gibsonville, Guilford County (1979).
Note:As part of the exclusive Sedgefield development, Lashmit designed the extensive Tudor Revival residence for High Point industrialist J. H. Adams. It was destroyed in 2019 after having been bought for millions of dollars.
Adolphus H. Eller House
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1920s
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:129 Cascade Ave., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Gwynne Stephens Taylor, From Frontier to Factory: An Architectural History of Forsyth County (1981).
Agnew Hunter Bahnson House
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architects; Willard C. Northup, architectDates:1920
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:450 Spring St., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Note:The original address was 702 West Fifth St.
Agriculture Laboratory
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1945
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:North Carolina State University Campus, Raleigh, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
Albemarle City Hall
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1938
Location:Albemarle, Stanly CountyStreet Address:N. 2nd St., Albemarle, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Public
Ardmore Moravian Church
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1931
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:2013 W. Academy St., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Religious
Images Published In:Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina (2003).
Ardmore School
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsVariant Name(s):Redeemer Presbyterian Church and School
Dates:1929
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:1046 Miller St., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
Note:The building is an unusual example of Art Deco style in a schoolhouse.
Armory
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1949
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:North Carolina State University Campus, Raleigh, NC
Status:Unknown
Type:Educational
Bess Gray Plumley House
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1921-1924
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:821 West End Blvd., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Blair Hall
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsVariant Name(s):Blair Library and Administration Building
Dates:1938-1939
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:Winston-Salem State University Campus, Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
Note:Blair Hall still functions as Winston-Salem State University’s Administration Building, housing the offices of the Chancellor, Academic Affairs, and Business Affairs.
Bowman Gray School of Medicine
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsVariant Name(s):Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center
Dates:Ca. 1940
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:Cloverdale Ave., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Unknown
Type:Health Care
Images Published In:Molly Grogan Rawls, Winston-Salem in Vintage Postcards (2004).
Note:It is not known how much of the Northup and O’Brien building at Bowman Gray still stands in the large medical complex.
Burton Craige House
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architects; Luther, Lashmit, architectDates:1929
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:134 Cascade Ave
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Heather Fearnbach, Winston-Salem’s Architectural Heritage (2015).
Note:The large Colonial Revival residence was built around an earlier house for a Salisbury attorney who became counsel for RJR in 1911. The landscape designer, popular in Winston-Salem, was Thomas Sears.
Calvary Moravian Church
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1925
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:600 Holly Ave., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Religious
Images Published In:Molly Grogan Rawls, Winston-Salem in Vintage Postcards (2004).
Note:The large, Flemish bond brick church was evidently the first in the local Salem Moravian Revival style, which set the tone for many other Moravian churches.
Clemmons School
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1925; 1936; 1950
Location:Clemmons, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:3540 Clemmons Rd., Clemmons, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
Clewell Hall
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architects; Willard C. Northup, architectDates:1921-1922
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:Salem College Campus, Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
Images Published In:Molly Grogan Rawls, Old Salem and Salem College (2010).
Note:This was among the first of the Colonial Revival buildings planned for Salem College in Northup’s Salem or Moravian Revival style.
Comer Covington House
Contributors:Luther Lashmit, architect; Northup and O'Brien, architectsVariant Name(s):Hillbrook
Dates:1929-1931
Location:High Point, Guilford CountyStreet Address:900 Rockford Rd., High Point, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Benjamin Briggs, The Architecture of High Point, North Carolina: A History and Guide to the City’s Houses, Churches and Public Buildings (2008).
Note:For textile industrialist Covington, Lashmit designed an imposing yet picturesque stone residence, combining motifs of Norman Revival and English Tudor and cottage styles. As at Reynolda and elsewhere, Thomas Sears was the landscape designer.
Corrin Refectory
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1941
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:Salem College Campus, Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
Dormitories
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1946
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:North Carolina State University Campus, Raleigh, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
Durham Life Insurance Building
Contributors:Luther Lashmit, architect; Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1940-1942
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:336 Fayetteville St., Raleigh, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Commercial
Images Published In:Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina (2003).
Note:Similar in its ziggurat form to the earlier Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, the 12-story skyscraper had one of the nation’s first three uses of Willis Carrier’s special system for air conditioning tall buildings.
East Fourth Street Moravian Church
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsVariant Name(s):Fries Memorial Moravian Church
Dates:1914
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Unknown
Type:Religious
Note:The building is currently occupied by Mars Hill Baptist Church.
Education Building
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsVariant Name(s):State Office Building
Dates:1937-1938
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:114 W. Edenton St., Raleigh, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Public
Edward C. Ashby House
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1930s
Location:Mount Airy, Surry CountyStreet Address:302 Cherry St., Mount Airy, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Laura A. W. Phillips, Simple Treasures: The Architectural Legacy of Surry County (1987).
Eller Hall
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1937-1939
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:Winston-Salem State University Campus, Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
Note:One of five campus buildings from the late 1930s, Eller Hall is a classroom building that has served various purposes.
Ferrell House
Contributors:Luther Lashmit, architect; Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1928
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:2115 Georgia Ave., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Heather Fearnbach, Winston-Salem’s Architectural Heritage (2015).
First Presbyterian Church and Manse
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1932; 1937
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:300 Cherry St., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Religious
Forsyth County Courthouse
Contributors:J. A. Jones, builder; J. A. Jones Construction Company, builders; Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1925-1926; 1958
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:West Third St., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Public
Images Published In:Molly Grogan Rawls, Winston-Salem in Vintage Postcards (2004).
Gwynne Stephens Taylor, From Frontier to Factory: An Architectural History of Forsyth County (1981).Note:The stone-faced neoclassical edifice, built at the same time as Northup and O’Brien’s Winston-Salem City Hall, was actually a complete transformation of the brick edifice by Frank P. Milburn, vestiges of which survive. J. A. Jones’s work likely was the 1925-1926 transformation of Milburn’s building, though it is possible that he built Milburn’s earlier courthouse.
Fred J. DeTamble House
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1938
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:2810 Club Park Rd., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Friends Church
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1927
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:Corner of Broad St. and Sixth St., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Religious
Galloway House
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1917-1918
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:817 West End Blvd., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Galloway-Motsinger House
Contributors:Luther Lashmit, architect; Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1926; 1930
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:1040 Arbor Rd., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Gwynne Stephens Taylor, From Frontier to Factory: An Architectural History of Forsyth County (1981)
Heather Fearnbach, Winston-Salem’s Architectural Heritage (2015).Note:The Rocky Mount Telegram of February 14, 1986, reported on the “Show House” fundraiser in Winston-Salem, which featured the “10,500 square-foot Georgian mansion designed and built by Luther Lashmit for Mamie Gray Galloway, sister of Bowman Gray.” Gray was president of RJR. Located in the Buena Vista suburb, it was in 1986 the home of Dr. and Mrs. Selwyn Rose.
General Engineering Lab Building
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1948
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:North Carolina State University Campus, Raleigh, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
Gramley Library
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1937; 1972
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:Salem College Campus, Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
Images Published In:Molly Grogan Rawls, Old Salem and Salem College (2010).
Graylyn
Contributors:Luther Lashmit, architect; Northup and O'Brien, architectsVariant Name(s):Bowman Gray Residence
Dates:1927-1932; 1980-1984
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:1900 Reynolda Rd., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Catherine W. Bishir, North Carolina Architecture (1990).
Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina (2003).
Molly Grogan Rawls, Winston-Salem: From the Collection of Frank B. Jones Jr. (2006).Note:For the president of the R. J. Reynolds company, Lashmit designed an elaborate Norman Revival chateau as a luxuriously up to date residence. Extensive drawings are at Special Collections Research Center, NCSU Libraries, Raleigh, NC.
Griffith School and Gymnasium
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1926; 1950
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:1385 Clemmonsville Rd., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
H. Montague House
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1929
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:350 Stratford Rd., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Hargrove Bellamy House
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1920s
Location:Wilmington, New Hanover CountyStreet Address:1417 Market St., Wilmington, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Henry E. Shaffner House
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1907-1909
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:150 S Marshall St., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Note:The building is now a Bed & Breakfast.
Horticultural Laboratory
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1947
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:North Carolina State University Campus, Raleigh, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
Hubert M. Radcliff House
Contributors:Luther Lashmit, architect; Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1927
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:2300 Georgia Ave., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Heather Fearnbach, Winston-Salem’s Architectural Heritage (2015).
Indera Mills
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1904-1916
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:400 Marshall St., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Industrial
James A. Gray Building
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1937
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:1001 Reynolda Rd., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Molly Grogan Rawls, Winston-Salem in Vintage Postcards (2004).
James C. Dodson House
Contributors:Luther Lashmit, architect; Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1926-1928
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:363 Stratford Rd., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
John L. Dillard House
Contributors:Luther Lashmit, architect; Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1937
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:1093 Kent Rd., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Molly Grogan Rawls, Winston-Salem in Vintage Postcards (2004).
Justice Building
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1938-1940
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:2 E. Morgan St., Raleigh, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Public
Lasater Mill
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1933
Location:Clemmons, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:7951 Lasater Rd., Clemmons vicinity, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Industrial
Note:The picturesque, stone grist mill was built as an outbuilding for the elaborate country estate of Reynolds executive Robert E. Lasater; the main house was designed by Charles Barton Keen, architect of Reynolda House.
Leazar Hall
Contributors:Thomas Wright Cooper, architect (ca. 1922); Harry P. S. Keller, architect (1912); Nelson and Cooper, architects (ca. 1922); G. Murray Nelson, architect (ca. 1922); Northup and O'Brien, architects (1947); Ross Edward Shumaker, architect (1945)Dates:1912; ca. 1922 [additions]; 1945 [additions]; 1947 [additions]
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:North Carolina State University Campus, Raleigh, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
Images Published In:Burton F. Beers and Murray Scott Downs, North Carolina State University: A Pictorial History (1986).
Facility Coordinators, http://www.ncsu.edu/facilities/buildings/.
Marguerite E. Schumann, Strolling at State: A Walking Guide to North Carolina State University (1973).Note:Ross Edward Shumaker designed the building’s east balconies.
Lewisville School
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1947-1948; 1980s
Location:Lewisville, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:150 Lucy Ln., Lewisville, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
Images Published In:Molly Grogan Rawls, Winston-Salem in Vintage Postcards (2004).
Note:The formal, modernist design defined one of the first high schools built immediately after World War II.
Mechanical Engineering Building
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1949
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:North Carolina State University Campus, Raleigh, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
Merry Acres
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsVariant Name(s):R. J. Reynolds, Jr., House
Dates:1939
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:Merry Acres Lane, Winston-Salem, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Catherine W. Bishir, North Carolina Architecture (1990).
Gwynne Stephens Taylor, From Frontier to Factory: An Architectural History of Forsyth County (1981).Note:Built for R. J. Reynolds, Jr., Merry Acres was probably the finest streamlined modernist residence in the state. It was razed in 1978. Extensive drawings survive at Special Collections Research Center, NCSU Libraries, Raleigh, North Carolina.
Methodist Children's Home
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1926-1948
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:1001 Reynolda Rd., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Institutional
Note:At the Methodist Children’s Home, established in 1909, Northup and O’Brien planned a series of buildings including the Administration Building and several dormitories, most of them in a red brick Colonial Revival style.
Morris-Early Furniture Store
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architects; Leet O'Brien, architectDates:1929
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:514 Fourth St., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Commercial
Norfleet Cottage
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1936
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:1001 Reynolda Rd., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
North Carolina Baptist Hospital
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsVariant Name(s):Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center
Dates:Ca. 1940
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:Cloverdale Ave., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Unknown
Type:Health Care
North Elementary School
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsVariant Name(s):Patterson Avenue Grade School
Dates:1922-1923
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:1500 Patterson Ave., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Educational
O'Hanlon Building
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architects; Willard C. Northup, architectDates:1915
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:105 Fourth St., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Commercial
Images Published In:Molly Grogan Rawls, Winston-Salem in Vintage Postcards (2004).
Molly Grogan Rawls, Winston-Salem: Then and Now (2008).
Gwynne Stephens Taylor, From Frontier to Factory: An Architectural History of Forsyth County (1981).
Old Town School
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1924-1926; 1998
Location:Bethania, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:3930 Reynolda Rd., Bethania, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
Images Published In:Gwynne Stephens Taylor, From Frontier to Factory: An Architectural History of Forsyth County (1981).
Pegram Hall
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1937
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:Salem College Campus, Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
Pepper Building
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsVariant Name(s):Van Dyke Building
Dates:1929
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:104 Fourth St., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Commercial
Images Published In:Molly Grogan Rawls, Winston-Salem in Vintage Postcards (2004).
Molly Grogan Rawls, Winston-Salem: From the Collection of Frank B. Jones Jr. (2006).
Gwynne Stephens Taylor, From Frontier to Factory: An Architectural History of Forsyth County (1981).
Reidsville High School
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1920-1922
Location:Reidsville, Rockingham CountyStreet Address:116 N. Franklin St., Reidsville, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
Note:In 1920 Northup and O’Brien designed a high school for Reidsville, which is presumably the one that was built; it features strong neoclassical elements including the columned entrance section and large, arched windows.
Reynolds Estate Superintendent House
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:Ca. 1926
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Richard Nathaniel Marion House
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architects; Willard C. Northup, architectDates:Ca. 1914
Location:Rockford, Surry CountyStreet Address:SR 2230, Rockford, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Catherine W. Bishir, Michael T. Southern, and Jennifer F. Martin, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Western North Carolina (1999).
Rondthaler Memorial Building
Contributors:Fogle Brothers, builders; Northup and O'Brien, architects; Willard C. Northup, architectVariant Name(s):Home Moravian Church Sunday School Building
Dates:1913
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:500 block S. Church St., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Religious
Images Published In:Molly Grogan Rawls, Winston-Salem in Vintage Postcards (2004).
Note:Northup planned the additional building for Home Moravian Church (1797-1800; see Johann Gottlob Krause and Frederic William Marshall) in an early example of his Salem Moravian Revival style with the distinctive bonnet hood repeating the motif from Home Church.
Rondthaler Science Building
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1951; 1960; 1963
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:Salem College Campus, Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
Images Published In:Molly Grogan Rawls, Winston-Salem in Vintage Postcards (2004).
S. Douglas Craig House
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1925-1927
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:1935 West First St., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Note:The original address was 1945 West First St.
Salem Town Hall and Fire Station
Contributors:Fogle Brothers, builders; Northup and O'Brien, architects; Willard C. Northup, architectDates:1912; 1915
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:50 Cemetery St., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Public
Images Published In:Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina (2003).
Gwynne Stephens Taylor, From Frontier to Factory: An Architectural History of Forsyth County (1981).Note:In this red brick municipal building, Northup created one of the first of Winston-Salem’s “Salem Revival” buildings featuring the distinctive “bonnet” hood at the entrance. It was built shortly before Salem formally became part of the city of Winston-Salem.
Snow Building
Contributors:Northup and O’Brien, architects; George Watts Carr, Sr., architectDates:1933
Location:Durham, Durham CountyStreet Address:333 W. Main St.
Status:Standing
Type:Commercial
Images Published In:Ill. Claudia Roberts [Brown] et al., The Durham Architectural And Historic Inventory (1982)
Note:One of the state’s most elegantly rendered Art Deco buildings, in a blend of that style with the Gothic Revival, the stone-faced commercial building with spiky roofline and intricate recessed entry was the product of the office of Northup and O’Brien, which was headed by George Watts Carr of Durham in the 1920s; after that office closed in 1929, Carr completed the building as part of his own practice. Further information is sought about the various architects’ roles in the design.
Sosnick's Department Store
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsVariant Name(s):Loewy Building; Thalhimers Department Stores Department Store
Dates:1929; 1949
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:500 Fourth St., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Commercial
Images Published In:Molly Grogan Rawls, Winston-Salem: From the Collection of Frank B. Jones Jr. (2006).
Spach-Alspaugh House
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1930
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:373 Stratford Rd., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
St. Mary's School Dormitory
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1928
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:St. Mary’s School, Hillsborough St., Raleigh, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
St. Paul's Lutheran Church
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1927
Location:Durham, Durham CountyStreet Address:Durham, NC
Status:Unknown
Type:Religious
Strong Residence Hall
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1942
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:Salem College Campus, Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
W. H. Slane House
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsVariant Name(s):Three Musketeers
Dates:1929-1930
Location:High Point, Guilford CountyStreet Address:1204 Westwood, High Point, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Benjamin Briggs, The Architecture of High Point, North Carolina: A History and Guide to the City’s Houses, Churches and Public Buildings (2008).
W. Luther Ferrell Residence
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:Ca. 1924
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:536 West End Blvd., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Residential
West Highlands Presbyterian Church
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1922
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:2380 Cloverdale Ave., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Religious
Winston-Salem City Hall
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsDates:1926
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:101 Main St., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Public
Images Published In:Molly Grogan Rawls, Winston-Salem in Vintage Postcards (2004).
Molly Grogan Rawls, Winston-Salem: Then and Now (2008).
Gwynne Stephens Taylor, From Frontier to Factory: An Architectural History of Forsyth County (1981).
Winston-Salem City Market
Contributors:Northup and O'Brien, architectsVariant Name(s):The Downtown School
Dates:1925
Location:Winston-Salem, Forsyth CountyStreet Address:601 N. Cherry St., Winston-Salem, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Commercial
Images Published In:Molly Grogan Rawls, Winston-Salem in Vintage Postcards (2004).