William Albert Swasey was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1864 while his parents (natives of Newburyport, Massachusetts) were "temporarily sojourning abroad." Swasey's early education included attendance at the Boston Latin School and a military boarding school in Paris before he enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After graduation in 1882, he worked for architects in several cities including Chicago and New York before arriving in St. Louis in 1885.

Swasey and Charles K. Ramsey (see St. Louis Architects: part 6) formed a partnership that same year. (Their 1885 house for Fielding W. Oliver at 5334 Bartmer has been demolished. No other works by the short-lived firm have been identified.)

Swasey opened his own office in 1887. Almost immediately, examples of his work were published in major architectural magazines. Even before his 1890 marriage to a socially prominent belle from Memphis, Tennessee, Swasey had mastered the art of self-publicity. (His bride was the daughter of the Honorable Albert McNeal of Memphis and a great granddaughter of President James K. Polk.)

Swasey designed the Pastime Athletic Club opposite Vandeventer Place and a number of impressive Queen Anne and Shingle Style houses before embracing, and perhaps introducing to St. Louis, the "Colonial" style with his work for General Joseph Scott Fullerton--veteran of the Union Army and retired attorney. Fullerton's Westminster Place (the 4300 and 4400 blocks of Westminster) opened in 1892 as a private street with Swasey in charge of the design of the entrance gates and all of the developer-built houses.

In addition to Swasey's 14 designs for Fullerton in Westminster Place between 1892-95, the young architect began to attract the more baronial commissions in Portland and Westmoreland Places: #13 Portland for William K. Bixby in 1893, #1 Westmoreland for J. C. Van Blarcom in 1894, #29 Westmoreland for Judge Elmer B. Adams in 1895, etc.

For his own house in Fullerton's Westminster Place, Swasey first designed the elaborate variation on the Shingle Style at 4382 Westminster. During construction, Swasey decided that 4382 Westminster was too large for his small family and purchased the lot next door. A more modest Neo-Colonial house completed in 1893 at 4384 Westminster was the family residence until 1897 when the Swaseys moved to his Westminster Apartments at the northwest corner of McPherson and Newstead.

Swasey's first St. Louis office building, the Fullerton, was completed in 1897. The St. Louis Builder reported in 1899 that Swasey had received a commission to design an office building in Memphis:

Mr. Swasey is doing much to advance the interests of St. Louis. He is progressive, learned, has advanced thoughts and ideas on architecture, and is one of the foremost architects of the country. The Odeon and Masonic Temple, which he is now erecting on Grand Avenue, is destined to be the artistic and musical center of the Empire City of the Southwest.

The Brickbuilder had reported a Swasey commission for a ten-story office building in New Orleans earlier in 1899. Apparently, the New Orleans and Memphis projects were not built. Swasey, however, did get the opportunity to use his work for those buildings in the design of the 1902 Missouri Pacific Building in St. Louis. Best known as the Buder Building, Swasey's Beaux Arts masterpiece was imploded in August of 1984.

In 1903, Swasey became the largest investor in the Parkview Realty and Improvement Company with an agreement from the developers that he would design at least 20 of the houses in the new subdivision. Instead, he moved to New York City to design theatres for the Schuberts. For a short time, Swasey maintained offices in both cities and a St. Louis home at the St. Louis Club. His entry in the 1906 Book of St. Louisans reported that buildings designed by Swasey were under construction in St. Louis, Denver, Memphis, Louisville, Nashville, Chicago, Norfolk, Richmond, New Orleans, Boston, Providence and New York City. A less gracious local report of his activities appeared in the St. Louis Builder in 1909:

Albert Swasey formerly of St. Louis is firmly intrenched (sic) in a new suite of offices at 37 W. 34th Street, New York and fixed up in a palatial fashion. Mr. Swasey says he congratulates himself every day that he left Saint Louis and now has the regulation opinion of the West enjoyed by all New Yorkers who make good in the big town. Designing theatres seems to have put the Hon. Albert on Easy Street. [As quoted in Savage, Private Street Architecture of St. Louis.]

Swasey, of course, wrote articles of his own. In 1913, he penned the article "A Few Essentials in Theatre Construction" for The American Architect ; his house for Cushing Adams of Long Island appeared in The American Architect that same year. The last reference to Swasey in the Avery Index is the 1923 publication of a house at Great Neck, Long Island.

All information and illustrations on these pages
are from the collections of the Landmarks Association of St. Louis, Inc.
Click here to learn about upcoming changes to the website!