CORBUSIER, JOHN WILLIAM CRESWELL

CORBUSIER, JOHN WILLIAM CRESWELL (31 Oct. 1878-8 June 1928), a national authority on church architecture who helped design the CHURCH OF THE COVENANT in UNIVERSITY CIRCLE and the CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR in CLEVELAND HTS., was born to Francis H. and Mary Nagle Corbusier of Rochester, N.Y. Educated in Rochester and in Paris at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts, he moved to Cleveland in 1905 and practiced architecture under his own name, as well as in a partnership called Corbusier, Lenski & Foster. Corbusier was the architect for at least 30 churches throughout the U.S. Two examples of his work extant in Cleveland in 1984 are the Church of the Saviour (1928) at 2537 Lee Rd. in Cleveland Hts., and the Church of the Covenant (1911) at 11205 Euclid Ave., a design in which he was associated with the national architectural firm of Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson. Corbusier, Lenski & Foster were the architects for the home of Salmon P. Halle, a prominent Cleveland department store owner who built a grand French provincial villa on Park Rd. in SHAKER HTS. A resident of Hudson from 1913-28, Corbusier was an elder at the First Congregational Church of Hudson, a former director of the choir at the Church of the Covenant, and a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Cleveland Athletic, Kiwanis, and Hudson clubs. He married Katherine Lyman (1881-1932) in 1905. Both are buried in Hudson, Ohio. They had four children: Henry L., Margaret, John W.C., and Philip Giles.


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