Merritt Starkweather


Merritt H. Starkweather was a Tucson, Arizona, architect and civic leader. A native of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, after visiting the Panama-California Exposition, he moved to Tucson and began working in an elegantly simplified Spanish Colonial Revival Style architecture.

Life and work

Starkweather buildings reflect a sophisticated understanding of the Art Deco movement – both the Starweather Home on Adams Street and in El Encanto Estates are examples of Pueblo Deco Style. Perhaps his most significant building is the Arizona Inn: a series of lush courtyards and pink plastered buildings commissioned by Isabella Greenway.
Starkweather was a founder of the Tucson Rodeo. In 1937, he founded the Arizona chapter of the American Institute of Architects and in 1968 was named an AIA Fellow.
He founded the Tucson Blueprint Company before World War I.
Starkweather married Otilia Jettinghoff on August 6, 1921 and died in 1972 in Tucson.

Major Tucson buildings