William Resor Stokes

William Resor Stokes (September 30, 1854 – January 18, 1935) was an American architect and contractor, who garnered significant recognition for designing residential and educational structures in the Portland, Oregon, area.

His son, Francis Marion Stokes, later went on to continue making significant contributions to the architecture of the Portland Area.

William Stokes learned the profession from his father, who was a brick mason,[1] and trained under John Ashar, a homebuilder in Cincinnati.

In 1882, he boarded the transcontinental railroad to San Francisco, then sailed north to Portland[2] where he made the majority of his career while working with Richard L. Zeller.

[6] The architect was instructed that there was no money to be spent on ornaments which were non-essential to construction, and that beauty would instead have to be sought in lines of form framed in bricks and mortar.