Norman Foote Marsh (July 16, 1871 - September 5, 1955) was an American architect in practice in Los Angeles from 1900 until his retirement in 1945. He specialized in the design of schools and churches and worked mostly in California and Arizona. The firm he established in 1901 was active until its dissolution in 1997.
Norman Foote Marsh was born July 16, 1871, in Upper Alton, Illinois, to Ebenezer Marsh and Kate Marsh, née Provost. He was educated in the Upper Alton public schools and at Shurtleff College and the University of Illinois, graduating from the latter in 1897 with a BS in architecture. After graduation he joined the American Luxfer Prism Company, representing them in New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia. In 1900 he relocated to Los Angeles, where he formed the partnership of Preston & Marsh, architects, with J. N. Preston. This was dissolved after a year and he formed the new partnership of Marsh & Russell with Clarence H. Russell. [1]
Marsh & Russell served as principal architects for the design and construction of the city of Venice in 1905, working for the developer Abbott Kinney. Venice's design includes canals and a central district along Windward Avenue with the look of an Italian Renaissance street. [2]
Marsh & Russell was dissolved in 1907 and Marsh worked alone until 1915, when he formed Marsh & Howard with Herbert C. Howard, a long-time employee. [1] [3] This was dissolved in 1917 and Marsh was again a sole practitioner until 1927, when he formed Norman F. Marsh & Company with engineer David D. Smith and architect Herbert J. Powell. At this time Marsh settled into an administrative role in the firm, delegating engineering to Smith and architectural design to Powell. [4] [5] In 1928 Smith and Powell became full partners in the reorganized Marsh, Smith & Powell.
In 1912 Marsh established a branch office in San Diego under the management of architect V. O. Wallingford. [6] In 1914 Marsh and Wallingford moved the office to Phoenix, Arizona. [7] Wallingford opened his own office in 1919, though Marsh and Wallingford continued to collaborate on certain projects.
Marsh and his partners designed more than twenty churches in the Los Angeles area (in Pasadena, Glendale, San Jose, Long Beach and elsewhere) and at least seven in San Diego. He designed houses in Hollywood, Ojai and elsewhere for prominent persons. He designed dozens of elementary and secondary schools and several university buildings in Arizona and California. [2]
Marsh was married in 1901 to Cora Mae Cairns of Polo, Illinois. They had two children, one son and one daughter. [1] From 1902 he lived in South Pasadena, where he was active in the community, serving on the boards of the YMCA and the public library. In 1955, during a brief illness, he moved into a sanitarium in Pasadena to recuperate. Instead, he died there on September 5, 1955, at the age of 84. [8]
Marsh retired in 1945, but his partners kept his name as part of the firm's until 1955, when they reorganized it as Smith, Powell & Morgridge, reflecting the addition of Howard H. Morgridge. [9] Smith died in 1964, and in 1965 the firm was reorganized as Powell, Morgridge, Richards & Coghlan. [10] In 1977 Powell retired and the firm was renamed Morgridge, Bader, Richards & Coghlan. [11] In 1979 the firm was renamed a final time to Howard H. Morgridge FAIA & Associates and moved its offices out of the city proper to Tustin. After retiring from full-time practice Morgridge maintained the firm in a small way from his home in Balboa. It was dissolved in 1997. [12]
A number of his works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. [13]
Norman F. Marsh, Architect