Lost Tacoma

Ambrose James Russell

1857-1938

Lost Tacoma Locations: Lost Tacoma Locations:
Mottau Building
Pacific Savings and Loan
Point Defiance Pavilion

Ambrose James (sometimes Janvier) Russell was born in Trivandrum, India to a Scottish missionary and an English mother who died early in his life. Russell studied at the University of Glasgow and the Ecole des Beaux Arts before coming to America in 1884. In 1895, Russell was the Director of the Watercolor Sketch Club, which displayed work at the Ferry Museum (now the Washington State Historical Society) and curated work from future partner Everett Phipps Babcock. In 1896, Russell was appointed as a professor of architecture at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Russell formed partnerships with Albert Walter Spaulding and Frederick Henry Heath in 1901, Everett Phipps Babcock in 1905, H.G. Ripley in 1908, Walter E. Rice and Irving Harlan Thomas in 1908 and finally Gaston C. Lance, A. Gordon Lumm and Irwin Muri in 1930. Russell was a member of the American Institute of Architects, Secretary of the Tacoma Society of Architects and a Mason. When Russell passed, three of his pallbearers were architects featured in this collection: Gaston Lance, Ernest Mock and Earl N. Dugan.

Other Work: The Rust Mansion
Rhodes Department Store
James & Elizabeth McCormack House

_{Sources: Washington State Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation (DAHP). “Ambrose J. Russell.”, “Our Tacoma Artists. Reception at the Ferry Museum - Tacoma Daily News - July 5, 1895 - Page [3],”, “PCAD - Ambrose James Russell.”, “Tribune (Published as THE TACOMA NEWS TRIBUNE) - March 19, 1938 - Page 1,”, “Tribune (Published as THE TACOMA NEWS TRIBUNE) - November 11, 1936 - Page 2,”“Tribune (Published as The Tacoma Sunday Ledger AND THE TACOMA NEWS TRIBUNE) - March 20, 1938 - Page 15,”, “Tribune (Published as The Tacoma Sunday Ledger AND THE TACOMA NEWS TRIBUNE) - October 17, 1937 - Page 28”}

_{Pacific Savings and Loan
TPL Historic Building Files (BU-11000), 11-04-1928
Courtesy Tacoma Public Library Northwest Room}