Paul Revere Williams (1894-1980) was a talented and dedicated man who overcame obstacles that would have daunted almost anyone else. He dreamed of designing buildings and went on to become the first certified African American architect west of the Mississippi.
For fifty years and over 3000 projects, Paul Revere Williams was extremely influential in helping to establish Southern California style. Despite the adversity, he became highly sought after for his architectural work.
He designed hundreds of public and private buildings in southern California. Among his best-known works are iconic public landmarks like the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, and the “flying saucer-like” Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport (co-designed with Pereira & Luckman). He was also hired by many homeowners and provided design work for private estates for Hollywood stars including Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball.
Table of contents
Paul Revere Williams: Childhood
When Paul Revere Williams was four, both his parents died of tuberculosis. He and his brother were put into separate foster homes. Paul was fortunate that his foster mother was kind and supportive. As Paul began to show interest and ability in drawing, his foster mother encouraged him. Soon he never went anywhere without a sketchbook and pencil. Though he was the only African American in his elementary school, he was recognized for his artwork which helped ease his school years.
In high school, a guidance counselor tried to discourage his plan for becoming an architect. While the counselor could not see much value in Williams pursuing architecture, he was not totally discouraging. He noted that Williams should become a doctor or a lawyer “because the Negro people would need those types of professionals.” (In that era, those professions were not impossible, but far from welcoming to Blacks.)
Arts Education
Williams was not to be dissuaded. After graduation, he attended the Los Angeles School of Art and Design followed by a Los Angeles branch of the New York-based Beaux-Arts Institute of Design.
Williams needed to work while in school, so he used the telephone directory to create a list of architectural firms. He then went door-to-door offering his services. He had little luck until he approached a well-respected landscape architecture firm where they offered him a position as “office boy” at no pay. Though he needed the money, Williams saw it as an opportunity to learn the business. He accepted. Fortunately, the firm recognized his talent relatively quickly. Soon he was earning $3 per week.
Even with balancing work and school, Williams carved out time to enter a national competition for students to design a civic center for Pasadena. His plan emphasized open space, which became a Williams characteristic that he used in much of his design work over the decades. It won first place.
More Education
As he attended classes, he saw that design was only part of what he wanted to do. Understanding the engineering for a building would be key. He applied and was accepted to the University of Southern California School of Engineering. He got his engineering degree in 1919, and in 1921 he became a certified architect–the first certified African American architect west of the Mississippi.
During these years, he married Della Mae Givens (1917) at the first AME Church in Los Angeles (co-founded by Biddy Mason). They had two daughters and a son. (The son died during infancy.) Williams was a devoted and caring family man to his children as well as his grandchildren.
To Be a Black Architect
In 1921, Louis Cass, a white high school classmate, hired Williams to build a house for him. Cass recognized his friend’s talent but also saw the challenges Williams would face in getting hired by an architectural firm. Cass encouraged Williams to set up his own firm, which he did when he was only 28.
Williams learned that clients and builders sometimes didn’t realize he was Black. When they arrived at the office, he wrote: “their one remaining concern was to discover a convenient exit without hurting my feelings.”
Writing Upside Down
Williams wanted the work, so he thought about how he could put his clients at ease. He saw that people were uncomfortable when he needed to sit by them to show them a floor plan or a drawing. That was when he came upon the idea of learning to write upside down. If he sat on the opposite side of the table and worked “upside down,” writing or drawing clearly so that the work faced the client, then client and architect could still have a collaborative, productive discussion. It worked.
Making Strides
One of Paul Williams’s early jobs was a big one in Washington, D.C. He was hired as co-designer on the first federally funded public housing project, Langston Terrace in Washington, D.C. The project was undertaken under FDR, and it was the first public housing project that was open to African American families.
Williams was delighted for the work, but his trip to the East Coast exposed him to what it meant to travel through the Jim Crow south.
Los Angeles Work
Over time, he began to get major commercial commissions in Los Angeles. He designed the Beverly Hills headquarters of Music Corporation of America and the interior of the retail outlet in Los Angeles for New York’s Saks Fifth Avenue. The Beverly Hills Hotel hired him to oversee a restoration which included the famous Polo Lounge and the Fountain Coffee shop.
In 1945, he was hired to plan a unit of the L.A. General Hospital, thus becoming the first African American to design a major public building.
When the Los Angeles International Airport determined that their center property should feature a building that harked to the future, he and designer William Pereira came up with the flying saucer look that straddles Los Angeles International Airport.
Architect to the Stars
Celebrities saw the interesting work that Paul Williams was doing, and he soon was working for many of them. His portfolio included Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz, Tyrone Power, Lon Chaney, Bert Lahr and Zsa Zsa Gabor. Though the homes of the stars were in locations like Bel Air, Beverly Hills, and San Marino, Williams knew that those locations would not yet welcome African Americans.
Designing for African Americans, Too
Though he was very successful working for white Californians, Paul Williams didn’t want to forget his roots. He often chose to accept jobs for African Americans. Among the buildings he designed were the Second Baptist Church and the 28th Street YMCA, Los Angeles’ first Y for “colored boys and young men.” Among the Williams touches were hand-carved images of Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass.
He served on several statewide commissions and for eleven years he served as president of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Commission. He gained influence and added awards, commendations, and honorary degrees and he continued to give back to Los Angeles.
Paul Revere Williams and His Legacy
His granddaughter, Karen E. Hudson, created a wonderful legacy about Paul R. Williams, Paul R. Williams, Architect, a Legacy of Style—Rizzoli. In the book, she includes a quote from an essay written by Williams about the racial divide: “Inevitably such contacts [client contacts between black and white] have influenced my beliefs about the relationship, present and future, between the races in America. I see a present which demands a closer bond of understanding. I foresee a future in which the two races, although forever divided, and rightly so, will work side by side toward the achievement of common goals which are not racial.”
While today’s readers might take issue with the added “and rightly so” that may have been necessary at the time Williams wrote it in 1937, most would agree that Williams was correct in predicting that over time more people would be working toward racial-free goals.
*** On the other coast, another Black family was making progress as architects and builders. To read their story, see Woman-Owned, Minority-Owned Construction Company: McKissack & McKissack.