 | |
| Industry | Architecture Engineering Construction |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1905; 120 years ago (1905), as solo firm 1922, as McKissack & McKissack partnership |
| Founder | Moses McKissack III Calvin Lunsford McKissack |
| Headquarters | United States  |
Area served | New York,[1]Pennsylvania,[2]New Jersey,[3]Connecticut,[4]Georgia,[5] andLouisiana[6] |
Key people | |
| Services | |
| Website | https://www.mckissack.com |
McKissack & McKissack is an American design, program management andconstruction firm based inNew York. It is the oldest Black-owned architecture and construction company in the United States.[7]
The firm was founded in 1905 inNashville, Tennessee by Moses McKissack, the grandson of an enslaved person brought to the United States from West Africa and put to work making bricks. Moses III became an accomplished carpenter and eventually teamed with his brother Calvin McKissack to found the company.[8][5][9]
Over its 120-year history, the company has completed over 6,000 public- and privately-funded planning, design, and construction projects.[10][11]
The firm was founded byMoses McKissack III (May 8, 1879 – December 12, 1952) in 1905, who was later joined by his brother Calvin Lunsford McKissack (February 23, 1890 – March 2, 1968) to form the McKissack & McKissack partnership in 1922.[12] The brothers were natives ofPulaski, Tennessee.[13][12] Their father (Moses McKissack II) and grandfather (Moses McKissack) were both trained builders.[13][12] Moses McKissack was sold into slavery after being captured in West Africa and was sold to an American contractor named William McKissack of North Carolina.[14] Moses was trained to make bricks for construction projects and became amaster builder.[14] When Moses was eventually granted his freedom, he began to sell his bricks.[14][15]
Moses McKissack II became a master carpenter and built the gingerbread finishes on theMaxwell House Hotel.[16] Moses McKissack III entered the architecture trade by working as anapprentice to a builder in Pulaski who hired him in 1890 to assist with architectural designs, drawings and building construction.[5]: 3 His formal education was obtained at the Pulaski Colored High School.[5]: 3 Calvin McKissack was educated atFisk University in Nashville, which he attended from 1905 to 1909.[5]: 5 Both brothers obtained architectural degrees through acorrespondence course.[5]: 5 [12]
Between 1895 and 1905, Moses McKissack built houses inDecatur, Alabama, andMount Pleasant andColumbia, Tennessee.[13] In 1905, Moses officially launched McKissack & McKissack as a construction firm.[14] Also in 1905, Moses received a commission to build a new house for the dean of architecture and engineering atVanderbilt University in Nashville.[13] He opened his first architectural office in Nashville in 1907.[5]: 5 The firm's first major project was to design theCarnegie Library on theFisk University campus, a two-storyClassic Revival building constructed from brick with a stone columned porch, featuring an interiorlight well. Itscornerstone was laid in 1908 byWilliam Howard Taft, then theU.S. Secretary of War.[17][18]
Significant projects designed by Moses McKissack during the 1910s include the dormitories forRoger Williams University in Nashville andLane College inJackson, Tennessee.[14] From 1918 and 1922, Moses designed more than one dozen residences in Nashville andBelle Meade, largely in theColonial Revival style.[5]: 5
Calvin McKissack started an independent practice inDallas, Texas, in 1912, specializing in the design and construction ofdormitories andblack schools.[5]: 5 In 1915, he returned to Tennessee, becoming superintendent of industries and a teacher of architectural drawing at theTennessee Agricultural and Industrial State Normal School.[14] In 1918, Calvin joined the faculty ofPearl High School as director of theindustrial arts department and later became the first executive secretary of the Tennessee State Association of Teachers in Colored Schools.[17][14] In 1921, McKissack & McKissack built the historicHubbard House in Nashville.[14]When Tennessee instituted a registration law for architects in 1922, the McKissack brothers were initially denied their licenses.[5]: 6 However, after petitioning the state and obtaining architectural degrees, the brothers got their licenses and became the first licensed black architects in the United States[5]: 2 [15]
Moses McKissack III died on December 12, 1952. Calvin McKissack remained with the firm until he died in 1968.[17] William DeBerry McKissack, the youngest son of Moses III, then succeeded his uncle as president of the firm.[17][9] After suffering astroke, he retired due to illness,[17] and his wife, Leatrice Buchanan McKissack, became chief executive officer.[19]
Leatrice's daughter Cheryl McKissack Daniel opened a McKissack & McKissack office in New York City in 1990.[16] In 2000, Cheryl McKissack Daniel bought the company from her mother and dissolved the original business, paying out shareholders and closing their offices in the south.[16][20] She then re-established McKissack & McKissack as sole owner of the company.[16] The company closed its Nashville office in May 2002, making its New York City offices its corporate headquarters.[18]
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McKissack & McKissack is headquartered inManhattan, with additional offices in Philadelphia and Mount Vernon.[10] Since her 2000 purchase of the company, McKissack Daniel has served as CEO and President.[16][20] As of 2019, McKissack & McKissack has approximately 150 employees.[21]
As of 1975, McKissack & McKissack had completed over 3,000 building projects, including about 2,000 churches.[5] Several buildings designed by Moses McKissack, Calvin McKissack, or the McKissack & McKissack firm are listed on theNational Register of Historic Places (NRHP).[5][22]
