S. Scott Joy

Samuel Scott Joy (died 1942) was an architect active in Birmingham in the late 19th and early 20th century. He was born in Deleware, Ohio, the son of attorney Frederick Merrick Joy and Hattie Hitchcock. He and his brothers Tom and Todd, who were both engineers, moved to Birmingham with their parents in the late 19th century.

Joy found work with the notable firm started by Charles Wheelock and his son, Harry. He rose within the firm and, for several years it did business as Wheelock, Joy and Wheelock. At the same time he designed several houses in Forest Park, mainly for his successful family. His residential designs reveal an influence of Frank Lloyd Wright not present in his more run-of-the-mill institutional buildings.

Joy made an attempt to start his own construction firm. He designed and constructed the 20th Street YMCA (on the site of the current AmSouth Center. With few apparent prospects for success in Birmingham, Joy moved to Chicago and became the primary architect for the Chicago Manufacturing District, an early prototype for an industrial park. He designed numerous large buildings there, perhaps the most expressive of which is the Power House and Clock Tower of 1917.

Joy's later years apparently signaled personal and professional decline. The depression years were particularly dry for architects. He died in Orlando, Florida in 1942.

Notable works

Birmingham

• Wheelock, Joy and Wheelock
  • Cathedral Church of the Advent, 1883
  • Anheuser-Busch distribution center (now Center for Regional Planning and Design), associated firm, 1890s.
  • Molton Hotel
  • Lakeview School
• S. Scott Joy residence, 4141 Crescent Road, 1910
• Hattie Hitchcock Joy residence, 4011 Clairmont Avenue, 1912
• Frederick Merritt Joy residence, 4215 Glenwood Avenue, 1922
• Todd Joy residence, 900 42nd Street South,
• Hawthorne residence, 4001 Clairmont Avenue (attributed)
• Brown-Lowe residence, 4007 Clairmont Avenue
• 20th Street YMCA, architect and builder, 1912

Other

• Chicago
  • Warehouses, Pershing Road from Paulina Street to Western Avenue, 1912-1922
  • Starck Piano Factory, 1913
  • Union Bag and Paper Co. Building, 1915
  • American Ever Ready Building, 1916
  • Central Bag Co. Building, 1916
  • Central Manufacturing District Power House/Cloctower, 1917
  • White City Storage Shipping Platform, 1917
  • U. S. Quartermasters Depot, 1918
  • City Furniture Co. Building, 1919
  • Calumet Refining Co. Building, 1919
  • Edgar T. Ward's Sons Co. Warehouse, 1919
  • Fairbanks Morse Co. Building, 1919
  • Pullman Coach Co. Building, 1919
  • Thompson's Restaurant, 1919
  • American Glue Co. Building, 1920
  • Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Building, 1920
  • Pullman Car Co. Building, 1920
  • Central Manufacturing District Lunchroom, 1923
  • Blue Valley Creamery Co., 1924
  • Kellogg-Mackay Mercantile Building, 1924
  • Mack Truck Factory and Sales Room, 1925
• Kansas City Cold Storage Co. Building, Kansas City, Missouri, 1922
• Pere Marquett Building, New Orleans, 1925 (with Charles L. Franck and William E. Spink)

Publications

• Joy, S. Scott (April & May 1921) "The Central Manufacturing District, Chicago, Illinois." Architectural Forum 34.

References

• Browne, Catherine Greene (1992) The History of Forest Park. Birmingham: Cather Publishing Company