Samuel Brook Wetherald (1825-1854)

The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) ·  5 Dec 1851, Fri ·  Page 2

Samuel Brook Wetherald was born in Washington D. C. on July 12, 1825, the son of the Quaker Minister Thomas Wetherald (1791-1832) and Ann Earnshaw Wetherald (1789-1857). He lectured on architecture at the Maryland Institute while he resided at Rachel Price's boarding house at 18 South Calvert. He practiced as an architect in partnership with W. H. Reasin in Baltimore from about 1851 until 1853. He died at his residence in Sandy Spring, Montgomery County in October 1854. His namesake, born the year he died, was later Postmaster of Sandy Spring.

The architect George A. Frederick, misspelling Reasin and Wetherald's names, reflected on their work in Baltimore in his 1912 unpublished memoir dictated to J. B. Noel Wyatt, who was then President of the Baltimore Chapter of the AIA:

Courtesy of Special Collections, Johns Hopkins University

The year before he died, Wetherald published his thoughts on street architecture in an illustrated pamphlet that examined the streetscapes of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. He certainly had a distinctive individuality in criticizing the work of his competitors and their patrons.

Ed Papenfuse, 11/5/2022