Where have all the records gone?

Wood's office during his final illness had been relocated into his Summer Street home in Newark's North Ward. As with many nineteenth century architectural offices, however, Halsey Wood had no successor. Upon his death in 1897 at the tender professional age of forty-one, Wood's widow was left with three young children and several incomplete projects, the largest of them an Episcopal cathedral for Memphis, Tennessee. A local Memphis architect completed that project, changing it beyond recognition. But what became of his office records?

Florence Hemsley Wood was devoted to her husband during his life and remained so until her own death many years later, never remarrying and carrying the banner of his memory before all who would listen. In all likelihood, she kept his drawings for both sentimental and professional reasons. Who knew whether a former client might need to consult them? But ultimately they probably found their way to a land fill. Libraries and archives were disinterested in collecting such bulky stuff until fairly recently. Equally tragic is the loss of his correspondence with clients; lists of names and addresses where one might look for extant work.

I have seen a handful of rare survivors: two pencil drawings (one plan, one side elevation) for an unidentified church on a gently sloping site, and three pen-and-ink working drawings for St. Mary's, the 1888 Episcopal church in downtown Kansas City. I have faith that others will surface as research continues on this project.