Butterfield was born October 22, 1860, in Sidney, Maine.[2] His father, Chesmon Butterfield, was a carpenter and builder. The family moved to Waterville in 1871, when young Butterfield was 11 years old. At that time, his father established himself as an architect as well as a builder. He trained with his father and, at the age of 16, took a job with Foster & Dutton, a Waterville contracting firm with a statewide reputation. He quickly rose through the ranks, and by the age of 17 was supervising the construction of large structures, most notably a major expansion in 1879 of the Hotel Wentworth in New Castle.[1]
Upon his arrival, he formed a partnership with Albert E. Bodwell, who would later become Edward Dow's head designer.[3] The partnership, Bodwell & Butterfield, had been dissolved by September. Butterfield remained in private practice for the duration of the 19th century. In about 1907 he took his son Clinton C. Butterfield and Parker K. Weston into the firm, which became the William M. Butterfield Company.[4] By 1920, Butterfield was managing the practice alone. In 1924 Butterfield formed a partnership with architect Jean-Noël Guertin. The firm was known as the Butterfield-Guertin Company and lasted until 1927,[5] after which Butterfield resumed his private practice until his death in 1932. During his final years, his chief associate was Norris W. Corey.[6] Corey would be Butterfield's successor,[7] and practiced until his retirement in the 1970s.[6] Among Corey's designs is the Town Hall of Goffstown, New Hampshire, built in 1947.[8]
Personal life
Butterfield was married twice. First in 1882 to Rose E. Annis of Peterborough. She died in 1884, not long after giving birth to their son, Clinton Chesmon Butterfield. He married again in 1885, to Belle Knox of Manchester.[2]
Butterfield died June 6, 1932, in Manchester.
Legacy
Butterfield was the leading architect in Manchester and New Hampshire from about the 1890s until the time of World War I. During that period he was highly sought after as a designer of town halls, courthouses, churches, and other public and private buildings.[3]
At least nine of his designs have been placed on the United States National Register of Historic Places, and many others contribute to listed historic districts.
^"John F. Stanton" in The Province and the States: A History of the Province of Louisiana Under France and Spain, and of the Territories and States of the United States Formed Therefrom, ed. Weston Arthur Goodspeed, vol. 7. (Madison: Western Historical Association, 1904): 468.
^"Stray Chips," Carpentry and Building 3, no. 9 (September 1881): 162.
^ abcRobert B. Perreault Manchester (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2005)
^Twenty-first Report of the Board of Trustees of the College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts to the New Hampshire Legislature (Concord: Edward N. Pearson, printer, 1893)
^Annual Reports of the Board of Visitors, Trustees, Superintendent, Treasurer, and Financial Agent of the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane to the Governor and Council, November, 1900 (Manchester: Arthur E. Clarke, printer, 1900.
^"Building Intelligence," American Architect and Building News 75, no. 1369 (March 22, 1902): xi.
^ abTenth Annual Report of the Receipts and Expenditures of the City of Laconia, New Hampshire for the Year Ending February 15, 1903 (Laconia: Laconia Press Association, printers, 1903)
^ abcEarle G. Shettleworth Jr., Waterville (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2013)