Ernest M. A. Machado

Birth: June 30, 1868 Manchester by the Sea, Massachusetts

Death: September 30, 1907 Ossipee, New Hampshire

Burial Location: Olive Path

Ernest Machado accomplished a great deal in his life which was cut short far too soon. His father was Juan Francisco Machado, a native of Cuba. His mother was Elizabeth Frances Jones Machado, related to the Webster and Bradford families of Massachusetts.

Ernest Machado was educated in the Salem schools and then went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study architecture. He graduated in 1890 and won prizes in both design and drawing. Some of his work was displayed at the Paris World’s Fair in 1889. Machado trained in several architects’ offices in Boston, and then joined the firm of Shepley, Ruttan and Coolidge, successors to H.H. Richardson. While working there, he designed buildings at Stanford University in California, the main branch of the Chicago Public Library.

He formed his own firm with Ambrose Walker, who later became Machado’s brother in law. The firm had offices in both Boston and Salem. He went on to design private houses such as the one belonging to Harlan Kelsey, renowned landscape architect. Machado also designed public buildings in Salem, most notably the chapel at Harmony Grove Cemetery. He also worked on buildings in the North Shore of Massachusetts, New Haven, Connecticut, and Portland, Maine, and in Ottawa, Canada.

Ernest drowned in a boating accident at the age of thirty nine. He was wearing heavy clothing and was recovering from a broken bone in his arm at the time. Both factors likely contributed to his death. His nephew survived the accident. He was buried in the family plot where he had designed the borders for the flat gravestones.

Sources Consulted:

• ‍Internet
  • Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada: 1800-1950.
  • Machado, Ernest Miguel Antonio 1868-1907
  • Dictionaryofarchitectsincanada.org, machado-Ernest-Miguel-Antonio
  • Find-a-grave.com/memorial/60336723/Ernesto-miguel-antonio-machado
  • Noblenet.org/salem/wiki/index.php?title=Machado-Ernest&oldid=10492
  • Ernest M.A. Machado, Salem Architect(//streetsofsalem./2016/04/08/ernest-m.-a.- machado-salem-architect)Streets of Salem Blog