Edwin A. Keeble

Edwin Augustus Keeble (August 18, 1905 – September 22, 1979) was an American architect who was trained in the Beaux-Arts architecture tradition. He designed many buildings in Tennessee, including homes, churches, military installations, skyscrapers, hospitals and school buildings, some of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. He is best known for Nashville's landmark Life and Casualty Tower built in 1957 which was the tallest commercial structure in the Southeastern United States at that time (31 stories). It reflected an architectural turn to modernism and was one of the first buildings emphasizing energy efficiency.

Edwin A. Keeble
BornAugust 18, 1905
Monteagle, Tennessee, U.S.
DiedSeptember 22, 1979 (aged 74)
Sewanee, Tennessee, U.S.
Resting placeMount Olivet Cemetery
EducationMontgomery Bell Academy
Alma materVanderbilt University
École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts
University of Pennsylvania
OccupationArchitect
Spouse(s)Barbara McKelvey, Alice Beasley
Children2 sons, 2 daughters
Parent(s)John Bell Keeble
Emmie Frazer
RelativesJohn Bell (maternal great-grandfather)
Edwin Augustus Keeble (paternal grandfather)

Keeble had a preference for designing tall slender church steeples, nicknamed "Keeble's needles" by architecture critics. He briefly taught architecture at the University of Pennsylvania before settling in Nashville. He was one of the founders of the "Nashville Architectural Studio" during the 1920s and 1930s. His efforts to establish a school of architecture at Vanderbilt University were unsuccessful.

Early life

Edwin A. Keeble was born August 18, 1905, in Monteagle, Tennessee,[1] a town on the Cumberland Plateau in the southeast corner of Tennessee on a direct path between Nashville and Chattanooga. Monteagle was the family's summer home, the primary home being Nashville. He was the fourth of six children.[lower-alpha 1] His father, John Bell Keeble, was the dean of the Vanderbilt University Law School.[3] His mother was Emmie Frazer.[4] His maternal great-grandfather, John Bell, was a U.S.senator and was U.S. Secretary of War in 1841 under President William Henry Harrison.[5] Bell was an 1860 U.S. Presidential candidate.[6] Keeble's paternal grandfather, Edwin Augustus Keeble, was Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives, Mayor of Murfreesboro, and represented Tennessee in the Confederate Congress of 1864.[7]

Keeble grew up in his father's house at 2114 West End Avenue in Nashville, across the street from the Vanderbilt University Campus— within sight of Kissam Hall.[8] His early schooling was at the Wallace University School,[9] which was a block from his house.[8] His high school was Montgomery Bell Academy, where his father had attended; it was a straight three-mile trolley ride down West End Avenue. He graduated in 1921[8] and went on to Vanderbilt University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in engineering in 1924.[3] He studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania with Paul Philippe Cret, a Frenchman who had trained in Lyon and Paris in the Beaux-Arts tradition.[8] This association influenced Keeble to spend the summer of 1926 studying in France at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Artistiques at Fontainebleau. The next year he studied with Georges Gromort[10] at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He then traveled through France and Italy observing architectural styles before returning to the University of Pennsylvania to complete his architecture degree in 1928.[3]

Early career

On completion of his studies, Keeble returned to Nashville and for a brief period, worked for architect Donald Southgate and for a Los Angeles architect named Kenneth McDonald Jr.[1] In 1929 he joined Francis Bodie Warfield, forming the firm of Warfield & Keeble, with whom he practiced for the next 15 years .[4] Warfield, known as "Dolly", graduated from Vanderbilt in 1915.[1] He was about 14 years older than Keeble,[11] and had served during the First World War in France with the 105th Engineers Corps.[1] Warfield was primarily an engineer, and his major solo works were two housing projects, Cheatham Place and the Andrew Jackson; Vanderbilt University's Rand Hall (1952), the First Presbyterian Church, and the Springfield Woolen Mills. With Keeble, they designed McTyeire Hall in 1940 (Vanderbilt's first women's residence hall on campus)[12] and Westminster Presbyterian Church. Warfield was a commissioner and Vice-Mayor of Belle Meade[13] but had to resign in 1957 for health reasons before finishing his term.[14] In 1964, Warfield was honored with a citation by the American Institute of Architects for his efforts "...to establish architecture as a significant art form".[15]

Throughout the 1930s, their firm was quite active and they designed college dormitories, schools, churches and many private homes. When World War II was raging in Europe, Congress authorized the president to federalize the National Guard; as a result, National Guard Armories were needed on a grand scale.[16] Warfield and Keeble received a commission from the State of Tennessee, with partial funding from the Works Progress Administration, to design and supervise the construction of National Guard Armories (see photo) in six Tennessee cities: Columbia, Lawrenceburg, Cookeville, Shelbyville, Centerville and Murfreesboro.[17] Each armory took a year or two to build and kept them busy up until the U.S. entry into the war.

Warfield and Keeble also designed houses like the P. D. Houston Jr. House in Forest Hills in 1941, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places;[18] but with the advent of the war, Keeble entered the military in 1944, at age 39, and this effectively dissolved their association. Stationed in Washington, D.C., Keeble served as a lieutenant in the United States Navy.[4][3] He was assigned to the "Bureau of Ordnance" where he worked in the planning of rocket-producing plants, for which there existed no industrial precedent.[8] The expertise developed during this led him many contracts for these facilities.

Post-war career

Private homes
The Dr. Cleo Miller House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

After the war, in 1946, Keeble opened his solo practice, Edwin A. Keeble & Associates.[4] He designed private residences and several are on the National Register of Historic Places.[17] Examples are the Dr. Cleo Miller House at 1431 Shelton Avenue in Nashville, and the 4410 Truxton Place house in Belle Meade.[19] The latter house was designed in the 1960s for Keeble's nephew, Sydney Keeble and is the "French Regency" style.[20] According to the Nashville Post, the description, "It's a Keeble" is used as a symbol of added desirability in describing upscale Nashville homes.[19] Keeble was quite busy during his prime years, with up to 100 projects per year. He designed seven houses, including his own, on Nashville's Stanford Drive, and the enclave was unofficially called "Keeble Heights". Here are selected examples of his private homes, all designed by Keeble unless otherwise noted; not intended to be complete:

  • 5403 Stanford Drive, the Walter Stokes Jr. House, (1930), Colonial Revival Style, Forest Hills, Tennessee[21][22]
  • 30 Castlewood Court, the Richard E. Martin House (1931), Forest Hills, Tennessee (Warfield and Keeble), NRHP-listed[23]
  • 5134 Stanford Drive (1932)[24]
  • The Guilford Dudley Jr house, "Northumberland", Hillsboro Pike at Harding Place, Colonial Revival style[22][25]
  • John H. Dewitt Jr. home (now demolished), Stanford Drive, International Style
  • 1431 Shelton Avenue (see photo), the Dr. Cleo Miller House, Tudor Revival style (1934–36), Nashville, Tennessee, NRHP-listed[23][26]
  • 5335 Stanford Drive, the Dr. Cobb Pilcher House, "Deepwood".[22] This was one of the first Modernist homes in Nashville.[27] (1936), Forest Hills, Tennessee (Warfield and Keeble), NRHP-listed[23]
  • 5401 Stanford Drive, the Dr. Frank Luton house, (1938), Country French
  • 5405 Stanford Drive, the Edwin A. Keeble House. (1936) He designed his own house on Stanford Drive.[21]
  • 1301 Chickering Road, the William J. Tyne House (1936) demolished 2017.[28]
  • 1315 Chickering Road, Einer Nielsen house (1938), Forest Hills, Tennessee. Keeble added to it in 1978.
  • 5617 Hillsboro Pike, the P.D. Houston Jr. House (1941), Forest Hills, Tennessee (Warfield and Keeble), NRHP-listed[23][18]
  • 4410 Truxton Place house, the Sydney Keeble house, French Regency style Belle Meade (1967)
  • 5415 Stanford Drive (1970)[22]
  • 5400 Stanford Drive[22]
  • 5520 Stanford Drive[22]
  • 6129 Hillsboro Pike, The Snodgrass House, "Cedarwood" (1938) Colonial Revival style[22]
Vine St. Christian Church, Nashville

Churches

Keeble designed churches in Nashville and elsewhere. Some include:

  • Westminster Presbyterian Church, 3900 West End Ave, Nashville, (With Warfield), 1938; 150 foot steeple; cost, $137,000. Its significance was that it was the first classically-inspired Georgian church in Nashville (others were typically Romanesque or Gothic).[8]
  • Woodmont Christian Church, 3601 Hillsboro Pike, Neo-Classical style with a 220-foot spire, 1949; cost, $350,0000. The tall narrow steeple has been referred to as one of "Keebles needles" says architectural writer Trish Elston .[1]
  • Vine Street Christian Church[3] (see photo) 4101 Harding Pike, Nashville, 1958; it features a 187-foot steeple and working shutters for the windows. During the construction, Keeble personally supervised the brickmasons to take five bricks from separate piles to minimize color variations; cost, $900,000.[1]
  • Nashville First Baptist Church (see photo), 7th and Broadway, Nashville (1970); Keeble had to please two factions of the congregation; preservationists cherished the existing 1886 Victorian Gothic design; others wanted to rebuild an entirely new church. Keeble elected to keep the original tower, which was achievable since the tower stood on its own foundation and to build a new structure partially around it. An architecture critic said the addition "did nothing to complement the powerful steeple"; cost, about $2 million. The main design inspiration for First Baptist Church, Nashville came from the completed 1962 Coventry Cathedral in Coventry, England. Most notable similarities are the tall, vertical windows on the North and South sides of the Sanctuary that go back through the Nave and the Schantz Pipe Organ with its stacked tiers of organ pipes, modeled after the 1962 Harrison and Harrison organ which is housed in Coventry Cathedral.[1]
  • Immanuel Baptist Church[29] Belle Meade Boulevard, Nashville, Neo-Classical, 1954. It features an unusually tall steeple over a columned portico.[30]
  • Donelson Presbyterian Church, 2305 Lebanon Road, Nashville, (1952); cost, $85,000.
  • First Christian Church, Glasgow, Kentucky
  • Warren Chapel, Monteagle, Tennessee
  • Bellevue Baptist Church, Memphis.

Life and Casualty tower
Life & Casualty Tower, Nashville, 2018

Keeble designed the Life & Casualty Tower, a skyscraper in downtown Nashville completed in 1957.[4] Architecture critics called it "Nashville's first landmark" and said, "it was clearly the pivotal building on which the course of Nashville's architecture turned finally to modernism."[1] USA Today (with input from the American Institute of Architects) named it as one of "The 25 must-see buildings in Tennessee" in 2017.[31]

At the time it was built, it was the tallest commercial structure in the Southeast.[32] Writing in The Tennessean, Keeble described his thinking in designing the 31 story tower and said, "...every line in the Life and Casualty tower has a reason".[33] His mission, as he described it, was to build a 409-foot tower providing light and a view; that only required one fourth of the present property area; with enough office space to meet the company's need for 25 years.[33] His use of four-foot aluminum "fins" running up the side of the building (see photo) was designed to afford views but protect offices from the direct sun. In his planning, he consulted a Vanderbilt astronomer to map the site's exposure to the sun's rays.[34] Keeble's intent was to maximize available sunlight in the building in winter; in summer, direct sun did not enter after 9:30 a.m. or before 5:15 p.m. Now called "passive solar architecture",[35] this resulted in significant energy savings for the Life and Casualty owners two decades before energy conservation in buildings became a national concern.[1] He said the aesthetic appeal of the fins is as "entirely incidental as it is welcome".[33] He wanted to use even more aluminum in the structure, but limestone was needed for weight against wind pressure, and was less expensive.

The top 20 floors were designed to be free of internal columns, another first for a building of this height.[33] This required more steel and therefore higher cost, but created an additional 4000 square feet and more flexibility of arrangement without columns in the way.[33] The building cost about six million dollars.[36]

Other designs

He designed buildings on the campus of his alma mater Vanderbilt University, like McTyeire Hall and Memorial Gymnasium.[17] On the campus of Sewanee University, Keeble designed McCready Hall, Hamilton Hall, and Cravens Hall.[1][3] He was also the architect behind the Franklin County Airport in Sewanee.[17] Outside Tennessee, Keeble designed the Milliken Building in Bowling Green, Kentucky, completed in 1963; it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[37] Keeble designed the Veterans Administration hospitals in Nashville and Washington, D.C.[4]

In 1970 Keeble retired, transferring his firm and its management to his long-time associates: Arnold Nye, William Lincoln, Louis C. Daugherty, Henry C. Waechter, and John F. Caldwell Jr. The new firm was named "Architect-Engineer Associates, Inc." Keeble remained a consultant.[38]

Works include: (Keeble unless otherwise noted):

Educational pursuits

Keeble briefly taught architecture at the University of Pennsylvania but when he moved to Nashville, he had a desire to raise the entire profile of architecture there.[43] Early in his career, he felt that a prestigious school of architecture could be founded at Vanderbilt University; writing in a 1932 letter, he said "If we would realize our own strength and the possibilities of it, Southern architecture would follow Southern literature".[43] Many young people who wished to study architecture came to him during the 1920s and 1930s. Rather than set them up in his office as apprentices, he did what his teacher Paul Cret had done[8] and organized the "Nashville Architectural Studio".[3] Working without pay, Keeble involved other architects in the teaching project including Edward E. Dougherty, Granbery Jackson Jr. and Henry C. Hibbs. Through Keeble's efforts, this group became associated with the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York and was recognized as the institute's "Nashville Atelier".[lower-alpha 2] This meant that its students were able to transfer credits to almost any school of architecture in the United States. They met from 1930 to 1932 in a room provided by Vanderbilt University.[8] Vanderbilt would not commit to the project to establish a school of architecture—[1] a decision which, says Architecture historian Christine Kreyling, "still inhibits the seriousness with which the design of the built environment is taken in the city".[43]

Personal life

Keeble married Barbara McKelvey from Youngstown, Ohio, a graduate of Smith College, in 1936.[44] She was studying music at Ward-Belmont in Nashville. They had a daughter, Kezia and a son, Edwin A. Keeble Jr. The junior Keeble, a Marine, was killed in the Vietnam War when his helicopter was shot down by enemy ground fire February 28, 1969. He had attended Deerfield Academy and had graduated from Princeton a couple of years prior.[45] The daughter, Kezia Keeble was one of Vogue Magazine's youngest editors at age 24[46] and a founder of A New York public relations and advertising firm, Keeble, Cavaco, and Duka. The New York Times called Keeble "a shaper of American Fashion".[46] She died of breast cancer at age 48.

Keeble married Alice Beasley on December 15, 1950 in LaGrange, Tennessee.[47] They resided in a home he designed in the Classical Revival architectural style on Stanford Drive[47] in Forest Hills, a suburb of Nashville. They had a son, Peter and a daughter, Lucy Keeble Wilkinson.[4]

Edwin Keeble died on September 22, 1979 in Sewanee, Tennessee at the age of 74.[4] His funeral was held in the Warren Chapel (which Keeble designed)[1] located at the Monteagle Sunday School Assembly in Monteagle, Tennessee, and he was buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville.[4] Keeble's business associate in the 1930s, Francis B. Warfield died August 6, 1975 at age 84.[11]

Notes
  1. The others were John Bell Keeble Jr., Sydney F. Keeble, David M. Keeble, Cornelia Keeble and Emmie Keeble.[2]
  2. The official name was "The Nashville Atelier of the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York"[8]

References
  1. Orr, Frank; White, Elbridge; Warterfield, Charles, Jr (1989). Notable Nashville Architecture 1930–1980. Dallas: Taylor. Retrieved May 13, 2018.
  2. "John Bell Keeble Funeral Will Be At Two Today" (Vol.124, No.156). Nashville, Tennessean. October 12, 1929. pp. 1 & 5. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
  3. Van West, Carroll. "Edwin A. Keeble". The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History & Culture. Tennessee Historical Society and the University of Tennessee Press. Retrieved February 18, 2018.
  4. "Edwin A. Keeble Services Scheduled" (Vol.74, No.168). The Tennessean. September 23, 1979. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  5. Atkins, Jonathan M. (October 8, 2017). "John Bell". tennesseeencyclopedia.net. Tennessee Historical Society. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
  6. "John Bell". biography.com. A&E Television Networks. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  7. Kestenbaum, Lawrence. "Keeble, Edwin Augustus (1807–1868)". politicalgraveyard.com. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  8. Elston, Patricia Breland; Folgarait, Leonard, Editor (1990). The Architecture of Edwin Augustus Keeble: A Dual Allegiance to Historic and Modern Disciplines. Nashville: Vanderbilt University/Art History/Master of Arts Thesis.
  9. Wills, Ridley II (October 8, 2017). "Wallace University School". tennesseeencyclopedia.net. Tennessee Historical Society. Retrieved May 17, 2018.
  10. Gromort, Georges (with original text translations from the French by Henry Hope Reed ... H. Stafford Bryant, project) (2001). The elements of classical architecture (1 ed.). New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0-39373051-7. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
  11. "Francis Bodie Warfield/Obituary" (Vol.70, No.122). The Tennessean (Nashville). August 7, 1975. p. 50. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  12. "The Traveling Tombstone of Bishop McTyeire". news.vanderbilt.edu. Vanderbilt Magazine. December 23, 2014. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  13. "Acknowledgement–Francis Warfield". citybellemeade.org. City of Belle Meade (Nashville). July 1, 1975. Retrieved May 13, 2018.
  14. "Warfield Post Goes to Hale" (Vol.50, No.303). The Tennessean. February 24, 1957. p. 5–E. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  15. Hieronymus, Clara (October 29, 1964). "3 Buildings get A.I.A. Nod" (Vol.59, No.181). The Nashville Tennessean. p. 10. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  16. Ohl, John Kennedy (2001). Minuteman : the military career of General Robert S. Beightler. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers. pp. 67–68. ISBN 978-1-55587-923-5.
  17. "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Miller, Dr. Cleo, House". National Park Service. Retrieved August 23, 2016.
  18. Philip Thomason (April 23, 2003). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: P.D. Houston, Jr., House / Woods Cote". National Park Service. Retrieved February 19, 2018. With 12 photos from 2002.
  19. "Headline Homes: November 2013". Nashville Post. December 19, 2013. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
  20. Parr-Moody, Karen (2017-10-23). "French Regency Keeble Home in Belle Meade". nashvillelifestyles.com. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
  21. "First neighborhood in future Forest Hills dates to late '30s". cityofforesthills.com. City of Forest Hills, Tennessee. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
  22. "Historic and Architectural Resources of Forest Hills, Davidson County, Tennessee". npgallery.nps.gov. U.S. Department of the Interior/National Park Service. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
  23. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  24. "5134 Stanford Drive". redfin.com.
  25. Firshein, Sarah (August 23, 2011). "Come, Let's Tour Taylor Swift's Stunning New Southern Estate". curbed.com. Vox Media. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
  26. Trina Binkley (May 1995). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Dr. Cleo Miller House / Ivy Hall". National Park Service. Retrieved February 22, 2018. With 37 photos from 1994.
  27. Lind, J.R. (June 16, 2016). "Last month's top Nashville-area home sales include a member of Sawyer Brown, a member of the E Street Band and ... Yoda?". nashvillescene.com. Retrieved May 13, 2018.
  28. "APTA Announces Homes on Tour" (Vol.58, No.31). The Nashville Tennessean. April 5, 1964. p. 6–G. Retrieved March 12, 2019.
  29. "Designed for Worship". wnpt.org. Nashville Public Television. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
  30. Tidwell, Oliver Cromwell (1983). Belle Meade Park. Nashville, Tennessee. pp. 36–37.
  31. "25 must-see buildings in Tennessee". usatoday.com. July 25, 2017. Retrieved March 12, 2019.
  32. Fullerton, Garry (April 28, 1957). "L & C Tower Fulfills Long Dream" (Vol.51, No. 1). The Nashville Tennessean. pp. 3–1. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
  33. Keeble, Edwin A. (April 28, 1957). "Tower Was No Idle Whim" (Vol.51, No.1). Tennessean (Nashville). pp. 2–1. Retrieved May 13, 2018.
  34. Thompson, E.D. (2004). More Nashville nostalgia. Nashville, Tennessee: Westview. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-9755646-7-7. Retrieved June 6, 2018.
  35. "Heavenly Mathematics/Sun and Architecture" (PDF). math.nus.edu.sg. GEK 1506. p. 3.0. Retrieved June 6, 2018.
  36. "The 45th Is The Biggest" (Vol.51, No.1). The Tennessean. April 28, 1957. pp. 5–1. Retrieved May 13, 2018.
  37. "Milliken Building". National Park Service. United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
  38. Cason, Albert (June 7, 1970). "Keeble Associates Form New Architectural Firm" (Vol.65, No.40). Tennessean (Nashville). newspapers.com. pp. 12–F. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
  39. Philip Thomason; Teresa Douglass (August 2002). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Woodmont Terrace Apartments". National Park Service. Retrieved February 21, 2018. With 19 photos.
  40. Kreyling, Christine (April 11, 2002). "The Nashville Scene/City Life/Best Architect". nashvillescene.com. The Nashville Scene. Retrieved March 12, 2019.
  41. Kenyon, Nellie (April 23, 1959). "Keeble To Design New VA Hospital" (Vol.52, No.360). Tennessean (Nashville). newspapers.com. p. 1. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
  42. Gross, Allie; Williams, Lily (June 17, 2015). "The 14 New Historical Landmarks Nashville's Mayor Is Asking For". nashvillepublicradio.org. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
  43. Kreyling, Christine; Egerton, John; Wood, E. Thomas, Ed. (2001). Nashville : an American self-portrait (1st ed.). Nashville, Tenn.: Beaten Biscuit Press. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-9706702-1-2. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
  44. Garland, Dorothy (August 9, 1936). "Engagements/McKelvey–Keeble" (Vol.31, No.42). The Nashville Tennessean. p. 1. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  45. "Lt. E.A. Keeble Services Today" (Vol.63, No.327). Tennessean (Nashville). newspapers.com. March 20, 1969. p. 67. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
  46. Hochswender, Woody (June 17, 1990). "Kezia Keeble,48, a Top Publicist And Shaper of American Fashion". The New York Times (National). p. 30. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
  47. "Keeble-Beasley Vows Said At Impressive Ceremony". The Tennessean. December 16, 1950. p. 6. Retrieved February 22, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
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