John Keys Winchell

Thomas P. Kennard House

John Keys Winchell (1841 - 1877) was an architect in Chicago who worked on buildings in Nebraska's then newly designated capitol of Lincoln.[1] He designed the state's first insane asylum. He also designed the Thomas P. Kennard House for the state's first secretary of state and Butler Mansion for Nebraska Governor David Butler in Lincoln, Nebraska.[2]

The Butler House was used by a Klavern of the KKK before the great depression, was then a clubhouse for a golf course, and was also a radio station and Ideal Grocery before being razed by 1960.[3] Winchell designed houses for all three commissioners who oversaw the relocation of Nebraska's Capitol from Omaha to Lincoln, including the Thomas Kennard house. It is the oldest extant building in the original plat of Lincoln, Nebraska. It was designated the Nebraska Statehood Memorial in 1965.[4]

A May 27, 1875 news brief in the Sacramento Daily Union described Winchell as the architect of Nevada's state capitol grounds and building.[5] Other sources credit the Nevada State Capitol to Joseph Gosling, a San Francisco architect.[6]

Work

Kennard and Gillespie houses in 1872

• Thomas P. Kennard House (1869) at 1627 H. Street

Original Nye County Courthouse in Belmont, Nevada, closed for renovation, October 2009

Original courthouse in Belmont

• John Gillespie (auditor) House (1869)
• David Butler House (1869) for Nebraska Governor David Butler
• Nebraska Asylum for the Insane (1870), burned down in 1871
• State Prison in Reno, Nevada[7]
• Bigelow House Hotel (1871), destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire in 1871[8][9]
• Nye County Courthouse (1875)[10][11]

Further reading

• Nebraska entry on Winchell

References

1. "The Kennard House – Lincoln Today Magazine".
2. Column, JIM McKEE /. "Jim McKee: The many lives of the Butler Mansion". JournalStar.com.
3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2019-12-30. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
4. team, The Explore Nebraska History. "Nebraska Statehood Memorial". Explore Nebraska History.
5. "Sacramento Daily Union 27 May 1875 — California Digital Newspaper Collection". cdnc.ucr.edu.
6. "Nevada State Capitol--Three Historic Nevada Cities: Carson City, Reno and Virginia City--A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary". www.nps.gov.
7. Legislature, Nevada (December 30, 1875). "Appendix to Journals of Senate and Assembly ... of the Legislature" – via Google Books.
8. Randall, Frank Alfred; Randall, Frank Hall; Randall, John D.; Randall, Both Are Professors of Mathematics John (December 30, 1999). History of the Development of Building Construction in Chicago. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252024160 – via Google Books.
9. "Bigelow Hotel". chicagology.com.
10. "Nye County Courthouse | ONE". www.onlinenevada.org. Archived from the original on 2021-10-01. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
11. "courthousehistory.com | a historical look at out nation's county courthouses through postcards". courthousehistory.com.