Francis W. Wynkoop

His grandfather was Edward W. Wynkoop (1836-1891), one of the founders of the city of Denver, Colorado.

Wynkoop Street in Denver is named after him.

His father was Francis Murray Wynkoop (1869-1954) and mother was Leona Mehan (1880-1951).

Francis W. Wynkoop (January 24, 1902 – September 2, 1978), was an American architect, known for building educational school buildings in Pacific Grove and San Carlos, and oceanfront homes in Carmel Point at the southern city limits of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

One of them is the noted Butterfly House on Scenic Drive.

Wynkoop was born on January 24, 1902, in Denver, Colorado.

In 1904, when Wynkoop was two years old, his parents moved from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Long Beach, California.

In 1910, he lived with his parents in Vallejo, California.

By 1920, when he was 17 years old, he was living with his family in Pomona, California.

In early 1921, Wynkoop opened an office on 1261 American Avenue, in Long Beach and was connected with D. H. Archibald, a city contractor and builder.

In December 1921, he completed the design for two $6,000 brick one-story four family apartment buildings at 620 New York street.

The buildings would house eight families.

On July 27, 1924, Wynkoop won second place out of fifty-two plans submitted in the McGrath & Selover contest under the direction of the Long Beach Architectural Association.

The plan he submitted provided the design of a small two-bedroom one bath Spanish style home.

At this time Wynkoop moved his office to the entire eighth floor of the Kress building (listed among the Long Beach historic landmarks).

About 1930, Wynkoop married Adabelle May Roberts (1899-1953) in California.

They had one son and one daughter.

In 1931, during the Great Depression in the United States, Wynkoop moved with his wife to Seattle, Washington, where he was a draftsman at the Metropolitan Building Company.

Dudley Francis Wynkoop (1931-2012) was born on September 8, 1931.

In 1935, Wynkoop and his family moved to Fresno, California.

On February 8, 1936, Nancy Wynkoop (1936-1975) was born in Fresno.

In 1937, Wynkoop relocated his family to Bakersfield, California, where he became the local architect with the Adams and Wynkoop firm.

His office was at the Haberfeld building where he worked on nine Kern County schools and war housing in Lerdo, California.

Architect Eugene Kinn Choy worked for Wynkoop in Bakersfield.

Wynkoop divorced Adabelle May Roberts in Reno, Nevada, in October 1944 and married Virginia Rosemary Floyd-Tracy (1918-1998) in Carson City, Nevada.

They had two children together, Jay and Thor Wynkoop.

By 1945, Wynkoop was principal for the Frank Wynkoop and Associates, Architects in San Francisco.

Wynkoop and his family moved to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, in the early 1950s.

His mother, Leona, died soon after, on December 13, 1951, at a San Bernardino, California, hospital.

On January 1951, Wynkoop designed a 800 student capacity scale model for the San Carlos-Belmont high school, at an estimated cost of $1,225,000.

Construction began in 1951 and was completed in 1952.

"Old-timers in Carmel, shaking their heads, speak of it as the 'Butterfly House.' Poised at the edge of the breakers, it gives from a distance almost a fragile appearance. But the imaginative architect has anchored his sea-sprayed home, built for himself, his wife and three children, firmly in solid rock."

On January 25, 1952, Wynkoop placed an ad in the Carmel Pine Cone advertising his architectural office at Dolores Street at 7th Avenue in Carmel-by-the-Sea, with 18 employees working for him.

He built the Pacific Grove High School and the San Carlos High School.

As a school planning specialist, he served on the Educational Advisory Boards of Great Britain and Australia.

Models of his architectural plans were on exhibition in Boston, St. Louis, and Los Angeles.

Wynkoop designed two houses on the Carmel Point coastline.

The Butterfly House was the first one, at 26320 Scenic Road.

He received national attention in numerous newspapers and magazines such as The Californian in 1952, and the National Geographic in 1954 Wynkoop lived in the house with his wife and children until the death of Adabelle in 1953 and the death of his father in 1954 forced him to sell the $135,000 house in 1955 to Stephen Kahn for only $15,000.

Wynkoop designed and built a second home on Carmel Point in 1953 called Seaburst House, also called the Henry Johnson House.