Ernest Coxhead (1863-1933)

Name

Coxhead, Ernest

Personal Information

Birth/Death:    deceased 03/27/1933
Occupation:    American architect
Location:    Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco, CA

AIA Affiliation

Member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) 1911-decease
Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) 1923

Biographical Sources

Biographical Directories:
Entry in Henry F. Withey, A.I.A., and Elsie Rathburn Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased) (Los Angeles: New Age Publishing Company, 1956. Facsimile edition, Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc., 1970)
Entry in Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects (New York: Macmillan, 1982)

Biographical information:
Contributed by the Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley:
Ernest Albert Coxhead was born in Eastbourne, England in 1863. He received his architectural training at the Royal Academy and Architectural Association in London. In 1886, Coxhead moved with his brother Almeric to Los Angeles, where the two began their architecture practice. Four years later they moved to San Francisco, where they remained until retirement.
At the beginning of his career, Ernest Coxhead focused on designing churches, primarily in the Gothic Revival style. His church of St. John the Evangelist in the Mission District was destroyed by the 1906 fire, but his Episcopal Church in Petaluma, California, and eleven (out of 17) church buildings remain in California.
After the mid 1890s, Coxhead focused on residential designs. He was involved in the emergence of the Arts and Crafts style in California, and his designs reflect that style. His residences include townhouses in San Francisco and large homes in Palo Alto, Alameda, and Berkeley.
From 1918 to 1919, Coxhead went to LeMans, France, to organize and direct the A.E.F. School of Architecture for members of the United States armed forces stationed in France. He was subsequently appointed Chief of the University Extension Field Work of the Fine Arts Department at the University School of Architecture in Beaune, France.
Coxhead returned to the United States and lived in Berkeley until his death in 1933.

Related Records

Archival Holdings

The American Institute of Architects Archives
      Membership file contains only his request for a copy of the 1930 convention proceedings. His application no longer exists in the AIA Archives.

Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley 
      Collection number: 1983-1. Extent: 1 half box, 3 oversize folders. The Ernest Coxhead collection consists of photographs and drawings of residences designed by Coxhead and Coxhead, photographs of the A.E.F. School of Architecture in LeMans (circa 1919), and miscellaneous clippings of images and poetry. Coxhead's personal papers, professional papers, and a few project photographs were donated to the archives in 1983, but the majority of project-related records were acquired separately by various donors. Link to online finding aid: http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf087001g5

Publications