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Biographical Summary
Walter Thaw Stockton was born in Chicago in 1895. He studied architecture
at Princeton University and graduated in 1917. Returning to pratice
in his hometown after graduation, Stockton was a partner of Robert
DeGoyler for more than twenty years before he became associated
with architect Philip Maher in the 1950s. Stockton's commissions
were primarily for prestigious apartment buildings in Chicago.
Stockton died in 1989 in Evanston, Illinois.
Interview Highlights
Stockton speaks about studying at Princeton and on-the-job training;
Clark & Walcott; working with Robert S. DeGoyler; building
the Ambassador East Hotel in Chicago; office records of DeGoyler
& Company; working in the office of Philip Maher and others.
Robert DeGolyer, 1120 N. Lake Shore Drive; Chicago, 1926. Photograph
by Jean Jenger.
Robert DeGoyler, 1242 North Lake Shore Drive; Chicago, 1928.
Photograph by Jean Jenger.
Interview Excerpt
"We had [the Ambassador East Hotel] all designed as a cube--not
a cube, but an oblong. It was the same height all the way up.
We built it on a guarantee for Ernest Byfield. We formed an outfit
with BW Construction Company and a real estate outfit and ourselves
as architects, and we guaranteed to build a three-hundred-room
hotel for Byfield. Just at the time we were about ready to build--we
were finishing the drawings--we discovered that the building code,
the zoning code, had been changed. They never notified the architects
at all. They just came around and slapped notices on you that
you couldn't have the height limit on the street that high. But
I saved the day...I studied that thing back and foward and found
that if you set back one foot from each lot line, you could go
up two feet higher. So, if you set back ten feet, you could go
up twenty feet as a tower, and that just made three hundred rooms.
And Byfield promised me a case of his College Inn canned goods
for saving the day. I never got it. I've been waiting for it ever
since." (p.15)
Other Resources at The Art Institute of Chicago
Some office records of DeGolyer & Company (1927-1932) may
be consulted in the Ryerson & Burnham
Libraries.
Funding for this oral history was provided by the Graham
Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
Publication of this oral history in web-accessible
form was made possible by the generous support of The Vernon
and Marcia Wagner Access Fund at The Art Institute of Chicago,
The James & Catherine Haveman Foundation,
The Reva and David Logan Family Fund of the Community Foundation
for the National Capital Region, and Daniel Logan and The Reva
and David Logan Foundation.
About the Chicago Architects Oral History Project
Department of Architecture • Ryerson & Burnham Archives
Send questions or comments to:
Ryerson & Burnham Archives, Chicago Architects Oral History Project
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