Originally from Massachusetts, W.W. Boyington studied engineering and architecture in the State of New York. After this, he practiced there and served in the New York State Legislature before he decided to settle and work in the emerging metropolis of Chicago, Illinois in 1853. Many of his buildings were constructed before the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and destroyed by it; however, the Chicago Water Tower and pumping station of 1869 survived and have become well-loved landmarks.
Other buildings accredited to W.W. Boyington include: The First LaSalle Street Station, 1867-71 (cost $225,000[2]); Second Presbyterian Church, 1888 (since 1987 the Cornerstone Building) in Peoria Illinois (cost $50,000);[3] The New State Capitol Building in Springfield, Illinois; the first University of Chicago located at 34th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue (1859, 1863, 1865; all demolished); the first Sherman House located at Clark and Randolph Streets 1859, (demolished in 1910); residence for Washington and Jane Smith, 1870 (cost $75,000[4]), demolished; the entrance gate of Rosehill Cemetery; the old Second Baptist Church of Chicago (now the Aiken Institute); the 1864 Democratic Convention Hall; the old Chicago Board of Trade Building at the Head of LaSalle Street, 1885 (demolished in 1928 for construction of the present Holabird and Root Building); and the Windsor Hotels of Montreal, Canada and Denver, Colorado; the Terrace Hill Homestead (Iowa's Governor's Mansion); the Hegeler Carus Mansion of LaSalle, Illinois; Heaney's Block in Rochester, Minnesota, 1866 (destroyed by fire 1917); the Milikin Bank Building (demolished) in Decatur, Illinois; the Illinois State Building for the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition (demolished at the end of the fair) ;the Transfer House, 1896 in Decatur; and the Joliet Prison.[5] His Grand Pacific Hotel, 1871, was destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire as it was being completed but was rebuilt according to the original plans in 1873.[6]
Boyington died on October 16, 1898, in Highland Park, where he had moved in 1874 after having lost two residences in Chicago to fire in quick succession (the first one as a result of the Great Chicago Fire).[7] While in Highland Park he served two successive terms as mayor.[8] He is buried at Rosehill Cemetery on Chicago's north side.
^Written by the Best Talent of the Northwest (1868). Biographical Sketches of the Leading Men of Chicago. Chicago: Wilson & St. Clair, Publishers. p. 217.
^Mayer, Harold M.; Richard C. Wade; Glen C. Holt (1969). Chicago: Growth of a Metropolis. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. p. 42.
^"Contract News". Stone - A Journal for Producers, Workers and Users of Stone, Marble & Granite. 1 (1): 134. May 1888.
^"Building - Architectural Progress in Chicago since January 1, 1870". The Chicago Daily Tribune: 2. October 7, 1870.
^Withey, Henry F. and Elisie Withey. Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased). New Age Publishing Co: Los Angeles, 1956.
^Mayer, Harold M.; Richard C. Wade; Glen C. Holt (1969). Chicago: Growth of a Metropolis. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. pp. 120–21.
^Johnas, Julia (2007). Highland Park - Settlement into the 1920s. Charleston, Chicago, Portsmouth, San Francisco: Arcadia Publishing. p. 115. ISBN978-0-7385-5101-2.
