An Illustrated History of the State of Washington, by Rev. H.K. Hines, D.D., The
Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, IL., 1893, pages 362-363 

	WILLIS A. RITCHIE, Spokane, Washington, is one of the most successful of the
high-grade architects of the Pacific coast.
	Mr. Ritchie was born in Van Wert county, Ohio, July 14, 1864. His father is
the Hon. John E. Ritchie, Judge of the Common Pleas Court of Allen and Shelby
counties, Ohio. Young Ritchie's mother was a McCoy. Both parents were born in
eastern Ohio.
	The subject of this sketch was educated in the public schools of Lima, but
before he had finished the course assigned him at school he had attained
sufficient knowledge as a draughtsman and left school and began the building of
a home for his father upon plans he had matured while in school. He was not
quite sixteen at this time. He was apprenticed to a carpenter and contractor,
with whom he remained two years, during which time he pursued a course of study
in architecture that had been mapped out for him by a prominent architect in the
service of the government. During the next two years he devoted his time to work
under the supervision of the above named architect, after which he returned to
his home in Lima, where he hung out his shingle as his own master and general.
He was not yet nineteen.
	His first work aside from the home he had planned for his father was two
dwellings and a business block at Bucyrus, Ohio. Then he planned business houses
and dwellings at Delphos, Ottawa, Columbus Grove and at other places in Ohio. He
then competed with architects from Dayton, Ohio, for a business block at Troy,
Ohio, and while it was admitted that his plans were the best it was thought best
not to award him the contract on account of his extreme youth and inexperience.
	He met the same fate for the same reason on buildings he bid for at
Wapakoneta and Van Wert, Ohio. This was in 1885. He had been working hard, and
thought that a few weeks' vacation on the lakes would do him good, but before he
was ready to leave an offer came to him from Winfield, Kansas, where he went,
and contracted for the Farmers' Bank building. He found this field ripe for
architectural work, and instead of staying away one month, as he had
contemplated, he remained until the following December. During his stay in
Kansas he remodeled, planned and built the following structures: Central School
building at Winfield, at a cost of $20,000; St. James Hotel, $20,000; Banker
Eaton's residence, $10,000; Southwestern Kansas Methodist Episcopal Colleges
$60,000. In this work he had to compete with architects from St. Louis, Topeka,
Wichita, Parsons and Denver. All these contracts were secured within six weeks
after his arrival at Winfield. This shows that not only was the character of his
work good, but that his reputation had already taken wings and was flying with
the rapidity of a bird across the western plains. His office during all this
time was in the room at the hotel where he boarded.
	When he returned to Ohio in December it was not for the purpose of remaining
there, but to clean up his business and get back to Kansas at the earliest time
possible. This was accomplished within two weeks, and when he again reached
Kansas he found work piling in upon him thick and fast, which necessitated the
employment of six other draughtstmen at his headquarters and the establishing of
branch offices at Wellington and Arkansas city, where five assistants were kept
busy. During this period he was appointed Superintendent of Architect the on the
Government building to be utilized for United States courthouse, post office and
laud office, at Wichita. Kansas. The building cost $200,000. Mr. Ritchie held
the above superintendency until May, 1889.
	In the year 1886 Mr. Ritchie was appointed Civil Engineer for the city of
Winfield, Kansas, and served in that capacity until forced to abandon it because
of his Government contracts. This was in 1887, when all Kansas was at a red hot
heat with the boom fever. As civil engineer and architect Mr. Ritchie found his
hands full, platting town sites, surveying railroads and constructing houses,
besides attending to his Government contracts. He planned numerous schoolhouses
during that year in all parts of southwestern Kansas, besides building two
courthouses, one for Meade county and the other for Barber county: also the city
buildings at Winfield.
	Mr. Ritchie had acquired such a fame as an architect that there was erected
in that section of the country scarcely a prominent building in the construction
of which he did not take part, and the bank buildings, churches, colleges,
hotels, opera houses, business blocks and dwellings he constructed were numerous
indeed. He put up nearly $2,000,000 worth of buildings in one season. All at
once there came a depression in Kansas, and Mr. Ritchie sought a new field. He
had selected Salt Lake City as his next point, and would have remained there but
for the great fire in Seattle, June 6, 1889. He landed in Seattle three weeks
after the fire, and his record since that time has been a memorable one. Coming
here an entire stranger, and being forced to compete with many older and more
experienced architects, he surmounted all obstacles and to-day stands in the
front ranks of architects on the Pacific coast. His abilities were soon
recognized, and the first work of magnitude secured by him was the King county
courthouse, a $200,000 structure, and one of the grandest buildings for that
purpose on the coast. Then came the Whatcom county courthouse, $75,000, two
$25.000 school buildings at Olympia, high-school building at Ellensburgh,
costing $40,000, and the Jefferson county courthouse, at a cost of $100,000,
besides innumerable smaller contracts.
	Mr. Ritchie is a natural-born draughtsmnan. When a little boy his father
noticed this peculiar gift, and rendered his son all the assistance he could by
furnishing him with instruments for that purpose. The father's ambition was to
make a lawyer of his son, but genius would out, and Judge Ritchie has the
satisfaction of knowing that while his son might have done fairly well at the
bar, he stands second to no man west of the Rocky mountains as an architect.
	In March, 1892, he moved to Spokane, where he is now permanently
established. Since that time he has erected the following buildings: the Clark
county courthouse at Vancouver, Washington, $40,000; Thurston county courthouse,
Olympia, Washington, $115,000; a school building at Wallace, Idaho, $11,000;
Prescott and Lincoln school buildings, Anaconda, Montana, costing $15,000 and
$25,000 respectively; and Spokane city building, $60,000. He took the first
prize in competing for the Washington State building for the World's Fair, there
being twenty-three architects of the State of Washington in the competition.
	Mr. Ritchie was married to Miss Etta Reid on his twenty-third birthday. As a
coincidence it may be added that his father was also married on his twenty-third
birthday, a matter the son had not thought of at the time. Mrs. Ritchie has
proven herself an able and willing assistant to her husband, and much of his
success is due to the good judgment and enthusiasm of his wife.
	Mr. Ritchie is a member of the Knights of Pythias at Lima, Ohio. 

Submitted to the WA. Bios Project in September 2003 by Jeffrey L. Elmer 

* * * *

Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies
Project.  Unless otherwise stated, the transcriber has no further information on
the individual featured in the biographies. 

* * * * 

Jeffrey K. Oschner, Professor in the Department of Architecture at the
University of Washington, recommends the following resources for those wishing
to learn more about Willis Alexander Ritchie:

Willis A. Ritchie is profiled in a six-page essay in SHAPING SEATTLE
ARCHITECTURE:  A HISTORICAL GUIDE TO THE ARCHITECTS (Seattle: University of
Washington Press, 1994) on page 40.  (Copies of this book are still available in
paperback--try the University of Washington Press web site or any on-line
bookseller.)

There is a longer essay on Ritchie's career in DISTANT CORNER:  SEATTLE
ARCHITECTS AND THE LEGACY OF H. H. RICHARDSON (Seattle:  University of
Washington Press, 2003).

There is also a detailed essay on Ritchie's career, "Willis A. Ritchie and
Public Architecture in Washington, 1889-1905," in PACIFIC NORTHWEST QUARTERLY 87
(Fall 1996):  194-211.