User:JPRiley/Wait

Olin W. Cutter (1851-1921) was an American architect from Boston best known for his designs for large public buildings.

Life and career
Olin Wesley Cutter was born September 1, 1851 in Charlestown, Massachusetts to Marshall Ney Cutter and Lauranna (Johnson) Cutter. He was a draftsman in the office of Samuel J. F. Thayer by 1872. In 1879 he formed a partnership with R. Pote Wait, another Thayer employee, which was known as Wait & Cutter. Though many of their early projects were small scale public and private buildings, in 1885 they were selected to design the new City Hall of Richmond, Virginia in competition. However, the award was overturned and given over to Elijah E. Myers in 1886. In 1888, they participated in the competition to design the Lowell City Hall and Lowell City Library, though their proposals were not accepted. These two losses were quickly followed by a series of state armories and county courthouses.

Wait & Cutter were selected as architects of many of the armories built in Massachusetts in the 1880s and 1890s. These were authorized by the Massachusetts General Court in 1888 in what was commonly called the Armory Act. The Act created the Armory Commission, which built the armories, and the Armory Loan Fund, which funded them. Built in response to the perceived threat of the labor unrest of the 1870s and 1880s, these buildings were typically built in a crenellated style to assert authority. In contrast, their courthouses were all inspired by Beaux-Arts architecture. Wait and Cutter worked together for over fifteen years, but dissolved their partnership effective January 1, 1897 when Wait retired due to his failing health. This may have been exacerbated by investigations into potential political corruption surrounding the reconstruction of the courthouse in Dedham.

After Wait's retirement and death, Cutter continued the practice under his own name for another twenty five years. He designed one more armory, in New Bedford, as well as courthouses in Malden and Utica, New York. In 1903 Cutter was chosen architect of the new Oneida County Courthouse in Utica in association with Ward & Turner, also Boston architects. By the time construction began in 1905, the partnership of Ward & Turner had been dissolved, with junior partner Alfred C. Turner continuing as Cutter's associate. Like his other courthouses, Cutter looked to Beaux-Arts architecture for inspiration. After construction got underway, Ward and Turner also were chosen as architects of a local department store. The former project was completed in 1909, the latter in 1907. Cutter designed fewer buildings after the completion of the courthouse, possibly as a result of further corruption allegations as well as litigation with Middlesex County. He designed a few more projects towards the end of his life, including an unbuilt tuberculosis hospital in Waltham for Middlesex County. Just before his death in 1921 he was chosen as architect for a new district courthouse in Malden, but due to his death the project was carried out by his former employee, Charles R. Greco.

Personal life
Cutter married Ida Gist Kingsley in 1879. They had one child, Harold Francis Cutter, a civil engineer who commited suicide in 1910 at the age of 28.

From about 1882 until 1888 Cutter and his family lived in Newton, and then in Boston. About 1900 they moved to Brookline, where they lived for the remainder of Cutter's life. The family moved frequently, but from about 1908 to 1912 they lived in a Colonial Revival house at 16 Emerson Street which Cutter had designed for George P. Davis in 1893. After 1913, they lived in an apartment on Gorham Avenue.<ref name="Directories"/

Cutter practiced architecture until his death, which occured March 10, 1921 in Brookline.

Legacy
The architect Charles R. Greco worked for Wait & Cutter from 1893 to 1899, and received Cutter's full support in 1902 when Cambridge Mayor John H. H. McNamee attempted to appoint Greco to the office of Superintendent of Buildings in place of William H. Gray. After his death, Greco took over Cutter's unfinished work.

At least five buildings designed by Cutter have been listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places, and many others contribute to listed historic districts.

Architectural works

 * Pilgrim Congregational Church, Nashua, New Hampshire (1881-82, demolished)
 * Phillips School (former), Salem, Massachusetts (1882-83)
 * Evangelical Congregational Church of Easton, Easton, Massachusetts (1883)
 * Hamilton School, Wakefield, Massachusetts (1883, demolished)
 * Merrick Public Library, Brookfield, Massachusetts (1883-84)
 * Greenwood Union Church, Wakefield, Massachusetts (1884-85, NRHP 1989)
 * House for R. Pote Wait, Wakefield, Massachusetts (1886-87, NRHP 1989)
 * Hall Memorial Library, Northfield, New Hampshire (1887, NRHP 1978)
 * South Armory, Boston, Massachusetts (1889-91, demolished 1962)
 * Middlesex County Clerk of Courts Building, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1888-89)
 * Fitchburg Armory, Fitchburg, Massachusetts (1891)
 * Lawrence Armory, Lawrence, Massachusetts (1892-93, demolished)
 * Lincoln School (former), Wakefield, Massachusetts (1892)
 * Expansion of the Norfolk County Courthouse, Dedham, Massachusetts (1892-95, NHL and NRHP 1972)
 * House for George P. Davis, Brookline, Massachusetts (1893)
 * Springfield Armory, Springfield, Massachusetts (1894-95, NRHP 1976)
 * Fall River Armory, Fall River, Massachusetts (1895-97)
 * Expansion of the Middlesex County Courthouse, Lowell, Massachusetts (1895-97)
 * Middlesex County Registry of Deeds and Probate Court, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1896-1900)
 * Remodeling of the Middlesex County Courthouse, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1898-1901)
 * New Bedford Armory, New Bedford, Massachusetts (1902-04)
 * Oneida County Courthouse, Utica, New York (1905-09, altered 1955-59)
 * Robert Fraser Department Store, Utica, New York (1905-07)