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Millard F. Giesey

Architect Millard F. Giesey (September 9, 1856-December 22, 1931) designed buildings found in many parts of West Virginia. He was born in Wheeling and attended the local public schools. He then studied architecture at home. After five years of local study and apprenticeship, Geisey opened his office in 1886. For several years he was located in the Reilly Building at the corner of 14th and Market streets in downtown Wheeling. Giesey practiced with Edward Bates Franzheim and sometimes Frederic F. Faris, a partnership which led the profession in West Virginia.

During the 1890s, Giesey designed the Pocahontas County Courthouse, the Towers School in Clarksburg, and Ladies Hall, which is now Agnes Howard Hall, at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon. In July 1899, he formed his partnership with Faris, and they maintained offices in the Masonic Temple Building in Wheeling. One of the most famous designs by Giesey and Faris was the West Virginia Building, of Neoclassical Revival design, at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904.

Several of Giesey’s buildings have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Pocahontas County Courthouse and Jail, the L. S. Good House in Wheeling, the War Memorial Building in Wetzel County, the Fayette County Courthouse, and the Warwood Fire Station.

Giesey died in Wheeling.