Personal Data

Horatio Floyd Faulkner was born in 1839-1840 in Blue Hill, Maine, the son of Jeremiah (Jerry) Faulkner and his wife, Betsey Atkins Floyd.

He married on November 28, 1867, in Boston, to Lucy A. Lyon (b. 4Nov1843 in Boston), daughter of Joseph Lyon and his wife, Mathilda Balch.

H. Floyd Faulkner died on September 25, 1875, in Boston.

Career

Horatio Floyd Faulkner began practice as an architect in about 1860, with offices at 23 Tremont and by 1862 at the newly-built Studio Building on Tremont at the corner of Bromfield.

In about 1866, he joined in partnership with George Ripley Clarke in the firm of Faulkner and Clarke. After they began working together, Horatio Faulkner practiced under the name H. Floyd Faulkner. In about 1870, Morris Dorr joined the partnership and it became Faulkner, Clarke and Dorr. He left the firm in about 1871 and Faulkner and Clarke continued under their previous name.

Faulkner and Clarke’s work included residential, commercial, and ecclesiastical commissions. In 1872, the firm’s plans were chosen in a design competition for the Church of the Messiah (Unitarian) to be built on the southeast corner of Michigan Avenue and 23rd Street in Chicago. The firm opened a Chicago office with George Clarke as the resident architect and prepared working drawings for the project. The Church subsequently opted for a different design and refused payment to Faulkner and Clarke. The firm sued for payment and their claim was paid only after the case was reviewed by the US Supreme Court (First Unitarian Society of Chicago v. H. Floyd Faulkner and George R. Clarke; decided December 13, 1875).

In May of 1873, H. Floyd Faulkner designed twelve life-size replicas of houses from different nations to be displayed as part of the “Bazaar of the Nations,” a temporary exhibition at the Boston Music Hall to raise funds for the Young Men’s Christian Association.

The partnership was dissolved on February 1, 1874. H. Floyd Faulkner continued to practice as an architect in Boston and also became a recognized artist working in silhouettes.

Back Bay Work