Gustaf Adolph Johnson was born September 9, 1889, in Worcester to John A. Johnson and Christina (Fors) Johnson, both of whom had immigrated from Sweden in 1884. He attended public schools, graduating from the English High School in 1907. He then went to study in the Washington-based atelier of Glenn Brown, an MIT-trained architect. When he returned to Worcester, he took a job with the architect George H. Clemence. After a brief period, he accepted a position in the Worcester Boys' Trade High School, where he was an instructor in drawing. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Johnson served in the governmental service department for the rehabilitation of disabled soldiers. This eventually took him to Chicago, where he attended classes in architecture at the Armour Institute. In Chicago he worked for Patton, Holmes & Flinn, where he worked on buildings for Carleton College in Minnesota.[1]
When Johnson returned to Worcester in 1922, he opened his own office and began to practice as an architect.[1] For forty years he was associated with fellow architect Jasper Rustigian.[a] Though for the most part they shared only their resources, not their projects, for part of the 1940s and 1950s they were in a formal partnership, the firm then being known as Johnson & Rustigian, and briefly as Johnson, Rustigian & Kunz with a third partner. Johnson continued to practice into the 1960s.
Johnson was a member of the Worcester chapter of the American Institute of Architects, but was not a member of the national organization.[1]
Political and personal life
Johnson was a Republican. He was a member of the Worcester City Council from 1924 to 1926, and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from the 17th Worcester district in 1927–28.[1][3] In addition to his professional affiliations, Johnson was also a member of a number of social and fraternal organizations. He was a director of the Skandia Bank and Trust Company of Worcester and a trustee of Fairlawn Hospital.[1]
Johnson married in 1914, to Signe C. Thorn of Worcester. They had no children.[1] He died June 27, 1985, in Westborough.[4]
^Jasper Rustigian (1882-1965) was born in Harpoot, now part of Turkey. An Armenian, his family immigrated to Worcester in 1891. He received his architectural training with Fuller & Delano and established his practice in about 1919. Among Rustigian's independent designs is the Duprey Building in Worcester, completed in 1926, where Johnson and Rustigian kept their office until the late 1930s.[2] Not to be confused with the Rhode Island lawyer of the same name, born in the same town in 1876.
^The building material from this church was reused to build Immanuel Lutheran Church in Holden, completed in 1949.[5]
^The original church was built in 1850 to a design by Sidney Mason Stone. This was almost completely destroyed in the 1938 New England hurricane. Johnson rebuilt the church to the original design, using salvaged materials where possible.
^Alterations and the addition of a fourth floor to the central building, originally used for the display of modern art.
