20th Century Architect: Edgar Lee Love

Y.M.C.A. Building (203 Greene Street SE)

Huntsville was alive in the early twentieth century, booming with activity brought on by newly established cotton mills which transformed a once sleepy agrarian town into a bustling industrial city. The sharp population growth brought on by the mills helped to underpin the flourishing economy. As the population grew so too did new construction, and with the construction of buildings came new and innovative architects set on transforming the city. One such architect was Edgar “Ed” Lee Love.
Ed Love was born in Missouri in 1868 to William Daniel Love (1829-1906) and Francis Rebecca (Powell) Love (1835-1895). At the age of 17, Edgar and his brother Preston moved to Tipton, Nebraska for a short time where they were listed as “servants” on a farm in the 1885 U.S. Federal Census. By the early 1890s, Love moved to Huntsville, Alabama, and on May 22, 1894 he married Mollie E. Spence. By 1900, the couple had made their home at 105 Greene Street while Edgar worked as a local carpenter. Fortune struck that same year when Herbert Cowell, an architect from Joliet, Illinois, moved to Huntsville and took Love on as an assistant.
Under the tutelage of Cowell, Love began to expand his expertise, building his reputation as a local architect. The two worked on several projects together including the Carnegie Library in Decatur, (1903) and the Struve-Hay building in downtown Huntsville. In 1905, Cowell returned to Illinois, leaving Edgar behind to continue their practice. Love continued to build his reputation in Huntsville and even opened a practice in Birmingham, building and designing several commercial buildings and residential homes including: Mason’s Furniture Company (115 E. Clinton Ave.); West Clinton Grammar School (no longer standing);the YMCA building (203 Greene Street SE); the Masonic Temple (409 Lincoln Street SE); the Dunnavant’s building (100 North Washington Street); Butler Wills Taylor School (no longer standing); the Elks Theatre (no longer standing); the Jermiah Murphy House (406 Eustis Ave); the McDonnell House (531 Franklin St.); the Richardson House (608 Franklin St.); and the Michell Payne house (516 Randolph Ave.).

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One of the last buildings that Love designed was the United States Court House and Post Office building located at 101 Holmes Avenue NE. Unfortunately, Edgar never saw the building completed as he passed away from a prolonged illness in his hotel room at the Yarbrough Hotel on May 22, 1936. For more than 30 years Ed Love served as one of the premiere architects in Huntsville, leaving behind a wonderful architectural legacy.

United States Court House and Post Office (101 Holmes Avenue NE)