Name Percy Turner | Died 1958 | |
Percy Pamorrow Turner (1891–1958) was an American architect who, in the 1920s-1950s practiced in Baltimore Maryland, Houston, Texas, Orlando, Florida, and Miami, Florida.
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Early years
Turner was born on December 28, 1891, in Frederick County, Virginia, the son of Leonidas (Lonnie) Grant Turner and Amelia Archer. They were leading citizens of Baltimore, listed in the city’s social register.
Architectural career
Turner was engaged in the United States Air Service toward the end of World War I.
Turner's father was in the real estate business in Baltimore, interested in the development of suburban property. Turner and his brother Robert joined with their father in this enterprise in the period around 1920. In 1922, the Turner family created a suburb called “The Pines on the Severn” in Arnold, Maryland, which continues today as a noted historic suburb along the Severn River north of Annapolis.
On December 18, 1928, in Temple, Texas, Turner married Temple native Marie Christine Robertson Bailiff, the daughter of Huling Robertson and Mary Gatlin Cooke; thereafter she seldom used her first name but went by Christine Robertson Turner. After their wedding, they made their home in San Antonio, Texas, where Turner was a practicing architect and a member of the AIA. Their only child was Suzanne Christine Turner, b. Sept. 8, 1935, Miami, Florida. incorrect information from DAR.
By 1926, Percy, who used his middle name (Pamorrow) in business, had relocated to Orlando, Florida, where Turner’s office was located at 19 Court Street. In Orlando, Turner specialized in residential architecture. An example of his work stands at 219 Phillips Place in the Lake Copeland Historic District. Built in 1926, this is a finely preserved interpretation of the New England Colonial Revival style. It has a very wide board siding which is quite unusual for Orlando, and an unusual red slate roof. It also has fluted Doric columns supporting the entry pediment. Turner's was one of only 10 architectural firms listed in 1926, the others including: Ryan and Roberts (Ida Annah Ryan and Isabel Roberts), Frank L. Bodine, Fred E. Field, David Hyer, Murry S. King, George E. Krug, Howard M. Reynolds and Frederick H. Trimble. And one of 12 firms so listed in Orlando in 1927, which included Maurice E. Kressly.
(This is incorrect. Pamorrow moved to Texas when he married Christine Bailiff.) Following the Florida land bust, the Turners relocated to Texas, where they lived in San Antonio until mid-1935, when they returned to Florida, settling in Miami. Turner’s architectural style had changed with the times. Among his work in Miami was 1000 71st Street, Normandy in the Isles Historic District (circa 1935) with Art Moderne radiused corners, chevron details, and raised stucco banding.
Later years
Turner continued to practice architecture in Miami and Miami Beach until WW II broke out, and then he joined the U.S. Army Engineer Corps, and was sent to Port of Prince, Haiti, for a while, then reassigned to Trinidad. In 1944 he was further reassigned to Hanford, Washington, where he worked on the atomic bomb in secret. He left the service at the end of the war and returned to Miami. Christine had become ill with a brain tumor and died in 1946, leaving him to raise their daughter, Suzanne, alone. He rebuilt a small architectural practice and designed many outstanding buildings into the mid-1950s. He left Miami in ailing health in 1958, moving to his daughter's home in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he died in September,1958. (Corrected by Suzanne Turner Barber, June 7, 2012.)