Ellis, Harvey, b. 1852

Architect and artist Harvey Ellis was born in Rochester, New York, on October 17, 1852. After attending West Point for a brief time in 1871 he is thought to have studied architecture and painting in New York. In 1877 he helped found the Rochester Art Club and during the next few years gained local acclaim as an artist. Between 1879 and 1885 he and his brother maintained a successful architectural practice in Rochester, H. and C. S. Ellis, that was known for small commercial buildings and Queen Anne houses.

In 1886 he worked in St. Paul, first for Charles Mould and then for J. Walter Stevens, for whom he designed the West Publishing Company and Goodsel Observatory at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. In 1887 he joined the Minneapolis office of Leroy Sunderland Buffington as chief draftsman. The Samuel C. Gale house, F. B. Hart house, and Pillsbury Hall at the University of Minnesota exemplify his Richardsonian Romanesque designs for Buffington during 1887 and 1888.

...