Abraham M. Radcliffe

Who was Abraham M. Radcliffe?

Abraham M. Radcliffe was an architect born in New York. He opened a Minneapolis office in 1857 and a St. Paul office in 1858. He closed his Minneapolis office in 1868. He designed early commercial buildings in St. Paul and Minneapolis, as well as the Dakota County Courthouse in Hastings, Minnesota. Radcliffe inspired the architectural career of Cass Gilbert, the skyscraper pioneer who designed the Woolworth Building in New York City and the United States Supreme Court building, among many important public structures.

Radcliffe designed the Isaac Staples House in Stillwater, Minnesota, in 1875. This was a tall stone mansard-roofed mansion which dominated the bluff on what is now Pioneer Park. He built several other large residences on Summit Avenue. These include the Charles Paul House, mildy Italianate in style, built in 1882 and the Walter J. S. Traill/Homer P. Clark House, Victorian in style, built in 1882. He designed the William G. LeDuc House in Hastings in 1863-66, as well as the Philo Q. Boyden House in Hudson, Wisconsin in 1879.