Ernest R. Graham

Who was Ernest R. Graham?

Ernest Robert Graham was an American architect.

Graham was born in Lowell, Kent County, Michigan, the son of to Robert William and Emma Elizabeth Graham. Employed first by Burnham and Root in Chicago, then by D.H. Burnham & Co., Graham was involved in the engineering and design of Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1893. He was a co-founder of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, the successor firm to Daniel Burnham's practice. Graham designed the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C. and the Equitable Building in New York City, among many others.

According to an obituary in the New York Times: "For nearly half a century, he was one of the great builders of Chicago." Among the buildings that Graham planned or contributed to in Chicago were the Merchandise Mart, Field Building, Wrigley Building, Field Museum of Natural History reconstruction, Shedd Aquarium, Continental Illinois Bank Building, Union Station, Marshall Field & Company Stores, the old Chicago Main Post Office Building, Pittsfield Building, State Bank of Chicago Building, and the Civic Opera House.