Wilson Eyre Jr.

In part­nership with J. Gil­bert McIl­vaine.

Born in Flo­rence to a Phil­adel­phia fa­mily, Wil­son Eyre, Jr., en­joyed a pro­li­fic prac­tice in the Phil­adel­phia area and bey­ond over the course of five de­ca­des. After briefly at­ten­ding M.I.T. and working in the of­fice of James Pea­cock Sims for se­veral years, Eyre took over the latter's prac­tice fol­lo­wing Sims's pre­ma­ture death in 1882. He soon achie­ved na­tio­nal re­pute for his Shingle-style hou­ses and his en­ga­gingly free ren­de­rings. The heart of his work was do­mestic, with se­veral very no­ta­ble ex­cep­ti­ons such as the Uni­ver­sity Mu­seum. He was one of se­veral foun­ders of the T Square Club of Phil­adel­phia in 1883. Through it and the wi­de­s­pread ex­hi­bi­tion and pu­bli­ca­tion of his drawings, his in­flu­ence was felt wi­dely, both lo­cally and na­tio­nally.

Eyre worked in the firm of Eyre & McIl­vaine, de­si­gners of the Uni­ver­sity of Penn­syl­va­nia Mu­seum and other pu­blic buil­dings.