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McDonald Brothers (architects)

former American, Louisville-based firm of architects

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionOct 12, 2024
Entity authorityQ6800894 ↗
Source-derived summary

McDonald Brothers founded in 1878 was a Louisville-based firm of architects of courthouses and other public buildings. It was a partnership of brothers Kenneth McDonald, Harry McDonald (aka Henry P. McDonald), and Donald McDonald.

History

Harry McDonald was the senior member of the firm. He served in the American Civil War in the Confederate Army. He was elected to the Kentucky legislature and died while in office in 1904.

Donald McDonald graduated from Washington and Lee University in 1873.

The McDonald Brothers partnership lasted from 1874 until 1896. Kenneth McDonald practiced individually after then, until 1901.

The McDonald Brothers worked during 1896 on a redesign for the Thomas Jefferson-designed Rotunda at the University of Virginia, after it was destroyed by fire in 1895. The McDonald Brothers were already at work in Charlottesville, designing Christ Episcopal Church.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “McDonald Brothers (architects)” as former American, Louisville-based firm of architects. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around McDonald, Brothers and architects.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1878, 1904, 1873, 1874—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1878-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with McDonald, Brothers and architects providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “McDonald Brothers (architects)”, the useful work is to connect “former American, Louisville-based firm of architects” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 12, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q6800894. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1878, 1904, 1873 and 1874.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “McDonald Brothers (architects)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow McDonald Brothers (architects) primary sources, McDonald Brothers (architects) archive and McDonald research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “McDonald Brothers (architects)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.