Faris, Faris, and Stephens, Architects, Records
Collection
Collection Number: A&M 3330
The Faris, Faris, and Stephens, Architects, Records consists of the records of approximately 300 to 350 architectural design projects dating from circa 1890 through 1990. This collection represents the architectural design work of three prominent West Virginia architects: Frederick F. Faris (1870-1927), Federic P. Faris (1901-1964), and Tracy R. Stephens (1901-2003).
Faris, Faris, and Stephens were collectively responsible for a broad range of architectural designs including private residences, banks, churches, schools, public housing, and recreational and industrial buildings. Additionally, these architects also designed furnishings, hardware, and signage for several of these design projects. Geographically, this collection is centered on Wheeling, but also includes projects from West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle and regionally including Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Series 1 consists of architectural drawings, including tracings (pencil drawings) and ink on vellum drawings of plan, elevation, and sections; structural, masonry, hardware, and furnishings detail drawings; structural steel drawings; construction drawings; and preliminary design sketches. There are also white prints and blueprints, often used for field measurements, as well as bound presentation set drawings for public and client perusal and approval. Additionally, there are sub-contractors' blueprints, mostly from local Wheeling ornamental and structural iron works. Lastly, there are architectural renderings for a number of projects, most in color. This series also includes original measured drawings prepared by other Wheeling architects including Charles W. Bates and Edward B. Franzheim. How these drawings became part of this collection is unclear, but they were probably loaned to Frederick F. Faris for use in remodeling projects and never returned. A contents list is available for series 1 upon request.
Series 2 includes textual records, such as correspondence, reports, price quotations for material and other services, and other documents regarding architectural projects.
Series 3. Addendum of 2015 October 12 includes materials regarding the accomplishments of architect Tracy Stephens and commemoration of his work in Wheeling, WV. Featured projects include Alterations to the West Virginia Independence Hall and the Paul M. McKay Residence, with drawings, notes, and specifications included. There are also project-specific financial records spanning several years of Stephens’s career; newspaper clippings featuring articles about his work, brief correspondence from the American Institute of Architects about historical research being conducted on Stephens, and materials from Frederic Faris’s education at Cornell University.
No special access restriction applies.
Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.
Frederick Fisher Faris
Frederick F. Faris was born in St. Clairsville, Ohio on August 1, 1870. His family moved to Wheeling, West Virginia two years later. Faris was educated in Wheeling public schools. He worked as a draftsman for Edgar Wells in the Wheeling firm of Klieves, Kraft and Company (a Wheeling architectural and building contractor company), before he left the city to work for architects in Chicago and New York City. Faris returned to Wheeling in 1892, where he entered into a partnership with Joseph Leiner forming Leiner & Faris. In 1894, Faris left that partnership and formed the partnership of Franzheim, Giesey & Faris, with Edward B. Franzheim and Millard Fillmore Geisey. Franzheim left the partnership in 1899, and the pair continued as Geisey & Faris. In 1911, he entered private practice as F.F. Faris Architect. Faris died June 27, 1927, at 56, from complication resulting from strep throat and is buried in Wheeling’s Greenwood Cemetery. Faris married Nellie Egerter Faris (1876-1973) in 1897. The couple had no children. Following his death, Faris’ nephews Frederic P. Faris and Philip V. Faris took over the practice.
Frederic P. Faris
Frederic P. Faris was born February 14, 1901, in Wheeling, West Virginia. He was likely educated in Wheeling public schools. He attended Cornell University, graduating with a BA in Architecture in 1923 and an MA in Architecture in 1924. Faris worked along with his older brother Philip Faris (1899-1974), an engineer, in his uncle’s practice prior to his death. After Frederick Faris’ death, the practice was styled as Faris Associates. In the early 1950s, the firm was known as Frederic Faris AIA. Faris died July 14, 1964. He is buried in Wheeling’s Greenwood Cemetery. Faris married Mary Elizabeth Steinbicker in 1947. The couple had no children. The practice passed to Tracy R. Stephens.
Tracy Ralston Stephens
Tracy R. Stephens was born in Cameron, West Virginia on November 14, 1901, but lived in Western Pennsylvania prior to the family relocating to Morgantown in the late 1910s. Stephens initially attended West Virginia University, but since WVU has no architecture program he transferred to Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, where he completed his architecture studies. He graduated in 1930. Stephen had worked for the Clarksburg firm of Edward J. Wood & Son Licensed Architects while at Carnegie Tech. Following his graduation, he became a member of the practice where he worked from the early 1930s until World War II. He left the practice during the war to work at Fairchild Aircraft in Hagerstown, Maryland. After the war, he returned to Clarksburg and started his own practice, Tracy R. Stephens Architect in 1947. In the early 1960s, Frederic Faris persuaded Stephens to join his practice to help with an abundance of commissions with West Liberty State College (now West Liberty University) in West Liberty, West Virginia, especially the Hall of Fine Arts. Upon the death of Frederic Faris, the architectural firm's name changed again, this time back to Faris Associates, and was comprised of Tracy Stephens, Philip Faris, and Merle Peterson (Peterson later became the West Virginia University Campus Architect). After Philip Faris retired in 1972, the firm became Tracy R. Stephens, AIA, Architect. Stephens died in Cumming, Georgia on November 4, 2003, and is buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery, Mount Morris, Pennsylvania. Stephens never married.
449.67 Linear Feet (185 roll boxes, 6 in. each; 161 roll boxes, 4 in. each; 1 document case, 5 in.; 2 document cases, 2.5 in. each; 2 flat boxes, 1.5 in. each; 1 flat box, 1 in.; 13 flat boxes, 3 in. each; 2 roll boxes, 9 in. each; 3 flat boxes, 4 in. each; 4 roll boxes, 5 in. each; 3 unboxed rolls, 2.5 in. each; 1 unboxed roll, 8.5 in.; 2 unboxed rolls, 8 in. each; 2 unboxed rolls, 4.5 in. each; 232 record cartons, 15 in. each; 7 map drawers, 2 in. each)
English
Includes drawings by architects Frederick F. Faris and Frederic P. Faris of Wheeling, West Virginia, as well as Tracy R. Stephens. There are three series in the collection. Series 1 includes architectural drawings documenting public and private building projects in Wheeling and the surrounding area. Series 2 includes correspondence, reports, and other documents regarding those architectural projects. Series 3 is an addendum to the collection that includes architectural drawings and project details as well as materials regarding the accomplishments of Stephens and commemoration of his work in Wheeling, WV.
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown, WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / Fax: 304-293-3981 / URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/
Gift from Stephens, Tracy, 1999 April 28
Gift circa 2015 October 12
Part of the West Virginia and Regional History Center Repository