Whiteley, Harry Hayden, 1890-1970

Architect Harry Hayden Whitely, born in 1890 in Bakersfield, California, studied drafting and worked as the chief draftsman for Twentieth Century Fox in 1920 after serving in World War I. Whiteley graduated in 1924 from the University of Southern California with a degree in engineering. He designed elegant residences in Beverly Hills before World War II, working among the architects Paul Revere Williams, Frank Taylor, and Adrian Wilson. He came to Henderson, Nevada in 1942 to work for McNeil Construction Company designing workers housing for the Basic Magnesium Incorporated (BMI) plant. He returned to San Diego in 1943, where he worked until returning to Las Vegas in 1951. Upon returning, he designed ten million dollars’ worth of public school buildings in three years before developing a business designing tract housing for the new subdivisions. He also designed a number of commercial and public buildings and recreational spaces, including work as the consulting architect for Adrian Wilson on the Las Vegas convention center. Whiteley died in 1970.