Percy Parkes

Percy Parkes (May 2, 1884 –October 23, 1955) was an American master builder in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Parkes was one of the main progressive builders in Monterey County through the 1920s and 1930s, and the first contractor to build homes on Scenic Drive. His best known commercial buildings are the Seven Arts Building (1928), the Dummage Building (1924), and the Percy Parkes Building (1926). His American Craftsman-style, influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, is evident in the buildings he constructed during that time.

Percy Parkes was born on May 2, 1884, in Port Clinton, Ohio. He is the son of William H. Parks and Louise Barnes. He was raised in Port Clinton, a town on Lake Erie. He graduated from high school in Port Clinton. Parkes worked as an excursion manager in the passenger department of the Rock Island Railroad Company. In his traveling for the company, he moved to California in 1911. He entered the University of Los Angeles to study law, but left his studies to start his career as a builder. He married Charlotte Maud Janoushek (b. 1888) on December 9, 1910, in Los Angeles and had one child, Earl Percy Parkes Jr., who died in a plane crash while serving as 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces. The couple divorced in May 1920. He married again on December 1, 1921 in Monterey, to Jeannette Hoagland (1893-1964), founder of an early dance troupe, "The Woodland Dancers,". and a longtime resident of Robles del Rio, California. They had three children together. They divorced in June 1932.

Parkes became involved in real estate in Los Angeles, and in 1911, started his career as a building contractor. He worked as a builder for eight years before he moved his business to Carmel in 1919. Through the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the main local builders and did residential and commercial work in different architectural styles. He was the first contractor in Carmel to build homes on Scenic Drive.

In 1924, he and other Carmel residents owned shares in the formation of the Building and Loan Society, located in the Carmel Realty Company offices. He was a member of the Monterey County Builders' Association.

In the 1930s, Parkes led the business and civic development of Dolores Street, between Ocean and 7th Avenues. Some of the buildings he constructed on Dolores Street are the old Pacific Telephone Company office, the Carmel Pine Cone was in the De Yoe Building, Gene and Parvin's Restaurant, and the Dummage Drive-in Market. The Pacific Bell building was originally built by Parkes for Mary Louise Dummage (1870-1952), one Carmel's' first residents, at a cost of $8,000 (equivalent to $132,241 in 2022) to house the office of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company.

Mary Louise (Pearce) Dummage (1870-1952), one of Carmel’s first residents, hired Parkes to design and build a two-story Pueblo Revival style building in 1924, called the First Mary Dummage Shopor the "Corner Cupboard Gift Shop" for $2,500 (equivalent to $42,689 in 2022). It is one of the only Pueblo Revival-style commercial buildings in the village, and is located on the corner of Ocean Avenue and Dolores Street. In 1926, Parkes built and designed a Craftsman Fairy tale building for Dummage, based on Hugh W. Comstock's Tuck Box design, for $1,450 (equivalent to $23,969 in 2022). The Mary Dummage Shop is on Dolores Street between Ocean Avenue and 7th Avenue.

The Seven Arts Building is a one-and-one-half-story, commercial building in downtown Carmel. It was built in 1925, for poet mayor Herbert Heron. Parkes built the Tudor Revival-style building that was used as an art gallery and frame shop. The building was designated as a significant commercial building in the city's Downtown Historic District Property Survey, and was recorded with the Department of Parks and Recreation on January 31, 2003.

In 1924, Parkes was hired to undertake a remodel of the El Monte Verde Hotel run by Mary L. Hamlin.

In 1926, Parkes built, designed, and owned the Spanish Colonial Revival style Percy Parkes Building on Dolores Street between Ocean Avenue and 7th Avenue. He advertised his company as "Percy Parkes, Contractor, Designer, and Builder,” located in the Percy Parkes Building on Dolores Street.

Parkes died on October 23, 1955 in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.