Archives West Finding Aid

Taylor A. Woolley (1884-1965) was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on October 10, 1884, the second child of Taylor Harrar Woolley and Caroline Louise Ahlstrom Woolley. After receiving architectural training in the Salt Lake City firm of Ware and Treganza, Woolley moved to Chicago where he attended classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. Beginning in 1908, he worked in the studio of Frank Lloyd Wright, and in 1910, Woolley accompanied Wright to Italy where they worked on the " Wasmuth Portfolio," a monograph of Wright's early work. Between 1911 and 1917, Woolley frequently moved between Salt Lake City, Chicago, and New York, working with Wright, Howard Shaw, von Holst and Fyfe, and Grosvenor Atterbury. He married Dorit Evans in Salt Lake City on December 15, 1915.

In 1917, Woolley returned to Salt Lake City permanently and entered a partnership with Miles Miller and Clifford Evans. Their firm practiced architecture and landscape architecture which was a new innovation in Salt Lake City at that time. Their early work was in the prairie style reflecting Wright's influence on Woolley's work. In later years, their designs moved more towards historical eclecticism. After the firm of Miller, Woolley, and Evans was dissolved in 1922, Woolley reopened an office with Evans. Woolley planned Highland Park, Wasatch Lawn Cemetery, Memory Grove, and the Utah State Capitol grounds. He also designed the Belvedere Apartments, automobile showrooms along Social Hall Avenue, " This Is The Place" Monument, and several L.D.S. chapels (some of these designs are included in Ms0466). He was elected to the presidency of the Salt Lake Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and was appointed State Architect under the administration of Governor Henry H. Blood. Woolley retired from active work in 1950. He had two children, a son, Nathan, and a daughter, Ellen Louise " Blossom." Woolley died on February 2, 1965.