Oliver Marble

Oliver William Marble (born June 29, 1861 in Illinois; died June 4, 1908 in Sandusky, Ohio) was an architect who practiced in Birmingham with his son, Oliver P. Marble, in the 1880s. Their offices were located at 1915½ 2nd Avenue North in the Steele-Smith Dry Goods Company.

Marble worked as a superintendent for Elijah Myers during construction of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, begun in 1872 and completed in 1878. He and N. C. Hinsdale designed the Pickwick Club in New Orleans, completed in 1882.

Marble married the former Mary Philbrick and had five sons, Albert, Munton, Munroe, Oliver P., and David.

Marble's design for the Thomas Wright Dry Goods Store on the southwest corner of 19th Street and 3rd Avenue North was published in the March 15, 1884 issue of American Architect and Building News. At the time the father and son both resided in a boarding house owned by homeopathic physician A. L. Monroe on 23rd Street North and 7th Avenue. In 1886 the Marbles partnered with S. F. Bees of Edwardsville, Cleburne County, in a gold mining venture.

By 1889, Marble was practicing in partnership with Horatio Wilson in Chicago, Illinois, where he trained Benjamin Marshall. Marshall succeeded him as partner at his retirement from the firm in 1895.

Marble opened an office in Sandusky, Ohio before 1902. He is credited with designing the Crawford County (Indiana) Courthouse of 1895, the First Congregational Church in Marblehead, Ohio in 1900, the American Crayon Company factory in Sandusky, Ohio of 1901 and the White House Hotel in Cedar Point, Ohio that same year.

Marble, like his Birmingham landlord, practiced healing under the teachings of Christian Science. He was convicted in Sandusky of practicing medicine without a license in 1905. He died there in 1908.

References

• City Directory of Birmingham and Gazetteer of Surrounding Section for 1884-5 (1884) Volume II. Atlanta, Georgia: Interstate Directory Company