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Silas E. Nelsen

Silas Edward Nelsen was an American architect. He worked for the Tacoma, Washington firm of Heath, Gove, and Bell for five years until 1917 when he started his own firm. He designed at least 15 churches, 150 residences, and some of the buildings on the University of Puget Sound campus, as well as designs for several libraries. He was also an architect for some commercial buildings.

Background
Nelsen was the son of Hans Peter Nelsen (1867–1952) and Annette Peterson Nelsen (1869–1919), immigrants from Denmark and Sweden. He was born in "Stotten" (a likely misspelling of Stoughton, Wisconsin) and went to high school in Portland, Oregon. His projects from the 1950s and 1960s include the Grace Moore Library branch (1950) and Fern Hill Library (1950) branches of the Tacoma Public Library system, "an International Style addition to the main Tacoma library (1952), the Tacoma City Light Administration Building (1953), and a Student Center (1959)". His design for the Collins Library at UPS was completed in 1952. Nelsen was also a "coordinating architect for several fraternity buildings on the (University of Puget Sound (UPS)) campus (1961)". ==Libraries==
Libraries
Silas designed the Charlotte White Mottet Library (1930) for businessman Frederic Mottet, who "built up one of the greatest mercantile establishments in the Pacific Northwest, the Hunt and Mottet Company. He gave the library to Tacoma "in memory of his wife who was prominent in Tacoma's cultural and social life during the late 1880s" on a site "chosen because Mottet and his wife spent many hours riding in the McKinley Hill area." It was built for $9,800, including the land. It was constructed with whitewashed brick library, and styled after a French provincial cottage consistent with Mottet's French Huguenot ancestry. Additions and renovations were carried out in 1964, 1975 and 1989 to "expand the library, bring it up to code, and add a community meeting room." ==Works==
Works
• Azure Pool, 748 Market Street, Tacoma (1927) • The Charlotte White Mottet Library (1930), 3523 East G Street Tacoma • Tacoma MausoleumEverell S. Collins Memorial Library on the University of Puget Sound campus in Tacoma, Washington (1954) • McCormick Branch Library • Mueller-Hawkins Buick Dealership (1948) • Johnson Candy Co. Building (1949) • Tacoma Library addition (1952) • Central Seventh Day Adventist Church, Tacoma (1953) • Tacoma City Light Administration Building, Tacoma (1953) ==References==
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