Murry S. King

Who was Murry S. King?

Murry S. King was Florida's first registered architect, a noted American architect with a successful practice in Orlando, Florida, in the 1910s and 1920s.

King was born on July 13, 1870 in East Deer Township, Allegheny County, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Robert and Mary King. He moved to Orlando from Pennsylvania in 1904.

From offices in Rooms 22 and 23 of the Watkins Block in Orlando, King designed handsome, dignified buildings, primarily in the Neo-Classical, Spanish Revival, Renaissance Revival and Prairie Style. King is noted for civic buildings of lasting elegance and beauty, the best known of which may be his last completed work, the stately Orange County Courthouse building which is now the headquarters of the Orange County Regional History Center. Constructed of variegated Indiana limestone from the Clear Creek Quarries of the Indiana Limestone Company, the completion of the building was supervised by Murry S. King's son, James B. King.

King was a charter member of the Florida State Association of Architects and served on the Florida State Board of Architecture. He was a member of the American Institute of Architects.