Klutho ) trained as an architect at Schenk's
Drawing Academy in St. Louis and apprenticed with firms in New York and New
Jersey.
He didn't go to a college of architecture, but he spent a year in Europe
making sketches of cathedrals and Renaissance buildings.
In 1901, when he heard about the great fire in Jacksonville, he was living in
New York and had been running his own architectural business. He moved to
Jacksonville to help with the city's reconstruction.
About 1904, he became acquainted with Frank Lloyd Wright, and Klutho's work
started to reflect aspects of the Prairie School, which is characterized by
spaces inside buildings that expand outdoors through porches and terraces.
Prairie-style houses are often low-slung and seem to grow out of the ground.
Among the many Klutho-designed buildings in Jacksonville are the St. James
Building at 117 W. Duval St., which now serves as City Hall; the Morocco Temple,
with its distinctive sphinx sculptures, at 219 N. Newnan St., which is now
occupied primarily by Cecil W. Powell & Co.; and Merrill-Stevens Shipyard
Administration Building at 2431 Atlantic Blvd., which now houses The Assumption
School.
Source: Jacksonville's Architectural Heritage: Landmarks for the Future by
Wayne W. Wood (University of North Florida Press).
