Walter T. Downing (1865-1918) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and moved to Atlanta, Georgia, with his mother in 1876. He worked as a draftsman for Hannibal I. Kimball from 1884-1885 and then as an apprentice at the architectural firm, L. B. Wheeler and Company. Downing formed the firm W. T. Downing, Architect, in 1890. He won the design award for the Fine Arts Building for the Cotton States and International Exposition of 1895. He was responsible for designing several of Atlanta's oldest extant churches including Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1898), Trinity United Methodist Church (1911), and First Presbyterian Church (1919). Downing designed office buildings for the Fairlie Poplar district in Atlanta with architect Thomas Morgan. He also designed buildings at Oglethorpe University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Shorter University in Rome, Georgia, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Downing changed his focus to residences, and in 1897 he published Domestic Architecture. He is best known for his designs of private residences in Atlanta including the Wimbish House (1898); the Frank Ellis House (1910-1914); the John Grant House (1921); and the Dodson House (1915-1918). He died in 1918 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after being struck by an automobile.