Silas Edward Nelsen (July 18, 1894 – September 27, 1987) was an American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

.Silas E. Nelson
wewa docomomo He worked for the

Tacoma Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, northwest of Mount ...

, Washington firm of Heath, Gove, and Bell (see

Frederick Heath (architect) Frederick Heath (April 15, 1861 – March 3, 1953) was an American architect responsible for numerous projects in Tacoma, Washington, Tacoma, Washington. He worked out of his own office and as a senior partner at architectural firms. He was i ...

) for five years until 1917 when he started his own firm.Caroline Gallacci, Bill Evans acoma's Proctor DistrictImages of America Edition illustrated Arcadia Publishing, 2008 , 9780738548128 128 pages page 54 He designed at least 15 churches, 150 residences, and some of the buildings on the

University of Puget Sound The University of Puget Sound is a private liberal arts college in Tacoma, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1888. The institution offers a variety of undergraduate degrees as well as five graduate programs in counseling, education, oc ...

campus, as well as designs for several libraries. He was also an architect for some commercial buildings. Nelsen's works include the McCormick Branch Library and the Everell S. Collins Memorial Library at the

. Nelsen and George Gove are credited as the architects for the Tacoma Mausoleum, which is historic landmark on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. He was a member of the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

Background

Nelsen was the son of Hans Peter Nelsen (1867–1952) and Annette Peterson Nelsen (1869–1919), immigrants from Denmark and Sweden. He was born in "Stotten" (a likely misspelling of Stoughton,

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

) and went to high school in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

. He did not have formal training in architecture when he went to work for Heath, Gove, and Bell, but was able to start his own firm five years later. His first known project was a Tudor style dwelling at 2420 N. Union Avenue in Tacoma and he followed it with other residential buildings in a "twentieth century period revival styles such as Tudor Revival and Colonial Revival". By the 1930s and 1940s his work became more

modern Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philosophy ...

and streamlined in character. He designed a remodeling project for a Sears, Roebuck & Co. Store (1936), designed Fire Station No. 2 and No. 5 (1935) in Tacoma, and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he "continued in the Moderne vein with such projects as the Mueller-Harkins Buick Dealership (1948), the Temple Baptist Church (1949), and the Johnson Candy Company Building (1949)." He also designed catalog homes for '' Better Homes and Gardens''. His projects from the 1950s and 1960s include the Grace Moore Library branch (1950) and Fern Hill Library (1950) branches of the

Tacoma Public Library The Tacoma Public Library system serves residents of Tacoma, Washington. It operates eight library branches, which include a central library in downtown Tacoma, two regional locations in north and south Tacoma, and five neighborhood branch locat ...

system, "an

International Style The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...

addition to the main Tacoma library (1952), the Tacoma City Light Administration Building (1953), and a Student Center (1959)". His design for the Collins Library at UPS was completed in 1952. Nelsen was also a "coordinating architect for several fraternity buildings on the (University of Puget Sound (UPS)) campus (1961)".

Libraries

Silas designed the Charlotte White Mottet Library (1930) for businessman Frederic Mottet, who "built up one of the greatest mercantile establishments in the Pacific Northwest, the Hunt and Mottet Company. He gave the library to Tacoma "in memory of his wife who was prominent in Tacoma's cultural and social life during the late 1880s" on a site "chosen because Mottet and his wife spent many hours riding in the McKinley Hill area." It was built for $9,800, including the land. It was constructed with

whitewash Whitewash, calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, asbestis or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime ( calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk (calcium carbonate, CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes ...

ed brick library, and styled after a French provincial

cottage A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager had to provide ...

consistent with Mottet's

French Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

ancestry. Additions and renovations were carried out in 1964, 1975 and 1989 to "expand the library, bring it up to code, and add a community meeting room."

Works

*Azure Pool, 748 Market Street, Tacoma (1927) * The Charlotte White Mottet Library (1930), 3523 East G Street Tacoma The Charlotte White Mottet Library
* Tacoma Mausoleum * Everell S. Collins Memorial Library on the University of Puget Sound campus in Tacoma, Washington (1954)Library website
*McCormick Branch Library *Mueller-Hawkins Buick Dealership (1948) *Johnson Candy Co. Building (1949) *Tacoma Library addition (1952) *Central Seventh Day Adventist Church, Tacoma (1953) * Tacoma City Light Administration Building, Tacoma (1953)

Background

Libraries

Works

References

Further reading