William Channing Whitney

William Ellery Channing Whitney (April 11, 1851 – August 23, 1945) was an American architect who practiced in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He specialized primarily in domestic architecture, designing homes for many prominent Twin Cities families.

Whitney was born in Harvard, Massachusetts on April 11, 1851. The son of Benjamin F. Whitney, he was educated at the Lawrence Academy at Groton and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received a Bachelor of Science from the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1872.

Whitney worked in the Boston architectural office of William Ralph Emerson and Carl Fehmer for several years during the 1870s. After moving to Minneapolis in 1878, he formed an architectural partnership with James C. Plant which lasted six years. In 1885 he began to practice on his own and soon gained a reputation among the Minneapolis manufacturing and milling elite for his high-style residential designs. During his career he designed residences for Frank H. Peavey, James S. Bell, William H. Dunwoody, and others. The Saint Paul house he designed for Horace H. Irvine in 1911 is now the Minnesota Governor's Residence.

Whitney was known to be very style-conscious. He is credited with introducing the neo-Georgian style of architecture to Minneapolis with his design for the William J. Hinkle House in 1886. Within the tasteful exteriors that appealed to his upper-class patrons, Whitney's houses were full of modern innovations such as central vacuum cleaning plants, electrical refrigeration, and intercom systems. This allowed his houses to retain value after household staffing became less commonplace during the mid-twentieth century.

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