Louis Curtiss was born in Belleville, Ontario, Canada, on July 1, 1865, the son of Frances Elvira and Don Carlos Curtiss. He studied architecture at the University of Toronto and in Paris. In the late 1800s, Curtiss moved to Kansas City, where he became a partner of Frederick C. Gunn to form the firm of Gunn & Curtiss. Over the next ten years, Curtiss produced progressive designs for many buildings, including Kansas City's Baltimore Hotel, Willis Wood Theater, Boley Clothing Store, his own office and studio, and the Bernard Corrigan house, as well as the Missouri State Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and Fred Harvey Houses in Kansas and other states. Curtiss died in 1924 and is buried in Kansas City's Mount Washington Cemetery.
From the guide to the Research materials concerning Louis Singleton Curtiss, 1957-1990, (University of Kansas Kenneth Spencer Research Library Kansas Collection)
