William Crawford Smith

William Crawford Smith (November 26, 1837 – February 5, 1899) was an American architect who served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War and in the United States Army during the Philippine–American War. He designed many buildings in Nashville, Tennessee, including Kirkland Hall, the first building on the campus of Vanderbilt University, and the Parthenon in Centennial Park. Kirkland Hall on the Vanderbilt University campus, designed by Smith. Memorial Hall on the Cumberland University campus, designed by Smith.

Early life William Crawford Smith was born on November 26, 1837, in Petersburg, Virginia. He moved to Nashville, Tennessee in the 1850s. He fought in the First Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Richmond, the Second Battle of Bull Run, and the Battle of Gettysburg. The building burned down in a fire in 1905, and it was later rebuilt with only one tower. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 16, 1973.

Smith was commissioned to design the Masonic Temple in Columbia, Tennessee in 1883. A decade later, in 1893, Smith designed the Colemere Mansion in Nashville for Confederate Colonel Edmund William Cole, who served as the President of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway after the war. The house burned down in October 1929. Meanwhile, Smith designed Memorial Hall on the campus of Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, built from 1892 to 1896.

Additionally, Smith was commissioned to two buildings in Downtown Nashville in 1893: a four-storey building on the corner of Printer's Alley and Church Street and a five-story building at 317 North College Street. He was also commissioned to restore a three-story building at 315 North College Street.

Smith quit his architectural career to serve in the Philippine–American War, where he commanded the 1st Tennessee Infantry Regiment of the United States Army in 1898–1899. Following his death from apoplexy in battle, he was succeeded as Colonel of the 1st Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment by Francis Gracey Childers.

Personal life Smith was married. and a daughter, who married Hart B. Blanton.

Death and legacy Smith died of heat exhaustion during the Battle of Manila February 5, 1899, in the Philippines. His corpse was shipped back to San Francisco, California, where it received a Masonic service. Shortly after, his corpse was returned to Nashville, where it lay in the Nashville Masonic Temple, followed by a service in the Tabernacle.

In 1903, an honorary plaque from the Nashville Red Cross Society was installed inside the Parthenon. Meanwhile, one of Smith's apprentices, Clarence Kelley Colley, went on to become a renowned architect in his own right, with buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places.