Will Price

Their first major commission came in 1888, to design suburban houses in Wayne, Pennsylvania for real estate developers Wendell & Smith. The brothers' partnership lasted until 1893. Price designed suburban houses for another Wendell & Smith development, "Overbrook Farms," including his own house, "Kelty" (1894). Read Less

Price was a Quaker, and his early commissions may have come through religious ties. The owners of Philadelphia's Strawbridge & Clothier Department Store were investors with George W. Vanderbilt in a proposed resort hotel in Ashville, North Carolina, and may have recommended Price to design the Kenilworth Inn (1890–91, burned 1909). Price's familiarity with Vanderbilt's then-under-construction chateau and estate, "Biltmore," seems to have gotten him his next major commission, "Woodmont."

For steel magnate and former U.S. Congressman Alan Wood, Jr., Price designed "Woodmont" (1892–94), a chateauesque mansion built on the highest point in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, a bluff overlooking the Schuylkill River, the industrial town of Conshohocken, and the Alan Wood Iron & Steel Company Plant. Price would design other palatial residences, but never again on this scale.

Price experimented with new materials, especially reinforced concrete, that were cheaper for constructing hotels and industrial buildings, and allowed wide spans and soaring spaces. At Rose Valley, a utopian community he co-founded, he built new buildings and altered existing ones, creating an Arts & Crafts village. Read Less