Life History

Other facts

Notes

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  "William M. Woollett was born in Albany and after attending R.P.I. he went on to M.I.T. where he was awarded high honors at graduation in 1870. Back in Albany he joined his fathers practice, and assumed full charge of the office after his fathers death.
  
  In his brief ten year career, William attracted national attention through the wide publication of his designs. He published two influential books - Villas and Cottages or Homes for All (1876) with plans, elevations and views of twelve villas and ten cottages, and Old Homes Made New (1878) showing modernisation of older houses to 1870's styles. A number of his designs for town houses, store fronts, cottages, villas (including one under construction in central new York State), and architectural details were included in A.J. Bicknell's Wooden and Brick Buildings With Details (1875), and two of his three houses on Englewood Place in Albany were published in the American Architect and Building News in 1879.
  
  Although he probably designed a number of houses in Albany (especially in the Washington Park area, which was rapidly developing in the 1870's), the only known surviving building in the city by William Woollett is the Benjamin Wooster House (1 Englewood Place), an imposing free standing brick villa with a corner tower. Woollett was made a Fellow of the A.I.A. at the age of twenty five and died of consumption in 1880. At the time his Calvary Baptist Church was under construction on a prominent site on State Street next to the new State Capitol. The church was probably completed by Franklin H Janes, Woollett's partner who purchased the business. Woollett left his widow with a large family of small children to raise."
  
  His obituary in "The Argus", Albany 10 Oct 1880, says he had five children, all boys, the eldest of whom is seven. An entry in "History of the County of Albany" says he died age thirty leaving four children.