Dwight Heald Perkins (March 26, 1867 - November 2, 1941) was an American architect and planner.

Perkins was born in Memphis, Tennessee and moved to Chicago with his family at age 4. His mother was widowed a few years after his family completed their move.

Perkins attended only 3 months of high school, having to find work to help support his family. He worked initially at the Chicago Stockyards and later at the architectural firms Wheelock & Clay and for a few months for Frederick Schock. He was accepted to study architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1885. A family friend, Mrs. Charles Hitchcock, helped finance his education there.

He studied at MIT for two years and was so skilled that he was invited to serve as an instructor for a third year. Also while in Boston, he met Lucy Fitch, who would become his wife on August 18, 1891.

Perkins left Boston in late 1888. In January 1889 he interviewed at Burnham & Root in Chicago and was employed in early February of that year. He remained for 5 years, gradually assuming more and more responsibility. He left at the end of 1893 to form his own firm.

On January 1, 1894, he opened the office after receiving his first major commission,with help from Daniel Burnham, the Stevens Point, Wisconsin Normal School. In 1894 he was commissioned to design a new building for the Steinway Piano company. This building bore little resemblance to the work he would do later, often in the style which became known as "Prairie School" of architecture.

Perkins was offered the commission for Charles Hitchcock Hall as a result of his connection with the donor for the building, Mrs. Charles Hitchcock, who had previously helped fund his college education^[1].

Perkins was appointed the Chief Architect for the Chicago Board of Education by Mayor Edward F. Dunne in 1905. He was responsible for the design of 40 public schools.^[2] His five-year service in this role ended when he was accused of incompetence, inefficiency, and insubordination and was dismissed following a trial in which only the insubordination charge was upheld. However, it is generally accepted that the true reason for his firing was that he refused to bow down to the demands of the corrupt members of the Board of Education who insisted that he give contracts to their cronies.

Perkins had maintained a private practice with John L. Hamilton in addition to his service on the board. In 1911, with the addition of William K. Fellows, the firm of Perkins, Fellows, & Hamilton opened with offices in Chicago's loop. Perkins left the firm in c.1929 and joined what became Perkins, Chatten, and Hammond, which he left in 1933.

Perkins died in Lordsburg, New Mexico, in 1941 of a cerebral hemorrhage while traveling to his winter home in Pasedena, California.

Other works by Dwight Perkins firm include the Lincoln Park Zoo Lion House, the Alfred Nobel School, and many other residential homes.

[edit] References

1. ^ http://brycelanham.com/mediawiki/index.php/Charles_Hitchcock_Hall
2. ^ Stuart Cohen and Susan Bejamin; North Shore Chicago; Houses of the Lakefront Suburbs 1890-1940 Acanthus Press, 2004, p.316

• "Dwight Heald Perkins."Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 3: 1941-1945. American Council of Learned Societies, 1973.
• Dwight Perkins at the Prairie Styles Web site

Hasbrouck, Wilbert R.,The Chicago Architectural Club, Prelude to the Modern, 2005, Monacelli Press, N.Y.