Fitzpatrick-Francis - Zenith City Online:

Francis H. Fitzpatrick

From Walter Van Brunt’s Duluth and St. Louis County, Minnesota Vols. 1 – 3. The American Historical Society. Chicago: 1922. Available at the Duluth Public Library.

Before coming to Duluth to practice architecture Francis H. Fitzpatrick had the benefit of study and training under the greatest masters of the art in Scotland and England and also with several prominent firms in America.

Mr. Fitzpatrick was born in Scotland May 28, 1880. He was liberally educated and holds diplomas and other certificates of proficiency from the Royal Institute of British Architects, the London Institute of Technology and the Technical Schools of South Kensington, London. He came alone to the United States in 1907, and for a time was employed as an architectural engineer at Martin’s Ferry, Ohio. He was an architect’s assistant to the firm of Janssen & Abbot at Pittsburgh, and similarly was engaged at Chicago with Shepley, Rutan & Collidge, and also with two foremost Chicago architects, Jarvis Hunt and D. I. Burnham & Company.

In 1913 he came to Duluth and a year later opened an office for himself in the Alworth Building.

Mr. Fitzpatrick is associate architect of such notable homes as those of J. G. Williams, G. F. French, C. H. Bagley, M. F. Fay, G. H. Spencer, 929W. C. Agnew, and architect for P. H. Ginder, D. Holmes, Mrs. Norman McDonald, C. H. Marshall at Pike Lake, H. N. Williams, Simon Clark, etc. His work in commercial architecture is represented by the First National Bank at Nashwauk, the Northwestern Textile Factory, the United Display Company’s Factory, the People’s State Bank of Duluth, the F. A. Patrick warehouse and store, the D. & I. R. Railway office building at Two Harbors, the Duluth Edison Electric Company’s sub-station of West Duluth, etc.

Mr. Fitzpatrick is affiliated with Ionic Lodge of Masons, is a member of the American Institute of Architects and the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Duluth Engineers Club, Duluth Commercial Club, Duluth Architects Association, Kiwanis Club and attends the First Presbyterian Church.

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From Intensive Survey of Historic Resources in Duluth’s East End (Part 1), prepared by Jill Larson of Larson & Associates for the Duluth Heritage Preservation Commission, August 2007. The entire document is on file at the Duluth Public Library.

Little is known about architect Francis Fitzpatrick other than what appeared in his 1965 obituary:

Architect Fitzpatrick Dies at 85.
Francis H. Fitzpatrick, 85, a veteran Duluth architect and designer of the Ridgeview Golf Club, died Wednesday in a Duluth nursing home. Mr. Fitzpatrick, of 2318 Roslyn Avenue, had been a resident of Duluth for 52 years. A native of Scotland he was educated at the university of Edinburgh Art School. He was the holder of a degree from the Royal Institute of British Architects. He was a member and past president of the Duluth Architect’s Association, a member of the Minnesota Federation of Architects, Engineers and land Surveyors, Glen Avon Presbyterian, Glen Avon Masonic Lodge and Duluth Chamber of Commerce. In the years before the high bridge was built, he was a leading exponent of the plan to link Duluth and Superior by tunnel.

Fitzpatrick is known to have designed only one house in the East End. However, the English/Tudor Revival style house he created fits in beautifully with the neighborhood without being a mere copy of other English houses found there.

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Duluth Buildings designed by Oliver Traphagen & Francis Fitzpatrick, 1890 – 1896

°Remodeled by other architects; original work not recognizable

Non-Duluth Buildings designed by Oliver Traphagen & Francis Fitzpatrick, 1890 – 1896