Garber & Woodward
The names of Frederick W. Garber and Clifford B. Woodward are known among businessmen as two of the rising young architects of Cincinnati.
The lives of the two men have been so closely associated that it is difficult to write of one and not the other. They are now in business together, under the firm style of Garber & Woodward, architects. Both men are natives of Cincinnati, and graduates of the old Cincinnati Technical School, where they first became friends.
As draughtsmen they worked together in the office of Elzner & Anderson, architects, where their friendship was strengthened. In a few years they went to Boston together to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where they specialized in a two-years' course of architecture, studying under the famous French Professor Despradelles.
While at the Boston School Mr. Garber won the Roach Scholarship, and at the end of his course went abroad. In 1904 the next year after their return to Cincinnati, they formed a co partnership on the strength of one client only, in a very small room in the Johnston building. Being young, they forged ahead with small incomes but large hope, till now after seven years they rank among the foremost architects in the city.
Their cleverness in design, their honesty and ability, have won for them a name, here and elsewhere.
Among their buildings in Cincinnati, are the Westwood, the Frederick Douglas, the Guilford, and the Fifteenth District schoolhouses, the Avondale and Price Hill Branch Libraries, and the Anna Louise Inn of the Union Bethel; the Wyoming Club house, Wyoming & Lockland engine houses and a schoolhouse in Lexington, Kentucky, are also examples of their work.
They are associated with architects Tietig and Lee in designing the gymnasium, the engineering building, and the power plant of the University of Cincinnati, having also laid out a scheme for the buildings of the future on the University grounds.
They have also erected many fine residences in the city, in Avondale, Clifton, Wyoming, Glendale, and Devon, Long Island.
They are now associated with Mr. Cass Gilbert, an eminent architect of New York City, on the plans for the erection of a twenty-seven-story building, to be erected on the old Chamber of Commerce site, for the Union Central Life Insurance Company.
The Cincinnati Art Museum also shows signs of their work in the new addition, the new skylights and lighting system throughout.
Mr. Garber, the senior partner, was born in Cincinnati, in 1887, and is the eldest son of Frederick H. C. Garber, a native of Hanover, Germany, who was for some time associated with one of the German papers in the city. He is now retired. Frederick W. in 1907 married Miss Woodward, the only sister of his Partner. They reside in Glendale, and have two sons.
Mr. Woodward was born in Walnut Hills, but has spent most of his life in Glendale, where he now resides with his wife and two sons. Mr. Woodward is the third son of Henry L. Woodward, who for some years before his death was in the First National Bank. Both partners of the firm are members of the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Mr. Garber being also identified with the Art Club and Chairman of the Jury of the Society of Crafters. The interest these two men take in the progress of the city, is not of a secondary character, their marked ability in their special line is winning for them wide recognition and advancement in the field of architecture.
From Cincinnati, The Queen City, Volume III, by Rev. Charles Frederic Goss, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1912