During his third year of studies, Purcell entered the Andrew D. His mind was already made up to pursue the study of the building arts in college and, following his graduation from Oak Park High School in 1899, he entered the School of Architecture at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. In Chicago, where Purcell went frequently to visit his grandfather at The Interior offices, the work of Louis Sullivan continued to impress the young architect-to-be. When Purcell was fifteen, Frank Lloyd Wright built his Oak Park studio on the same block where Charles A. Gray in 1888, a Kodak model given to The Interior office just before public release of the product. Purcell received his first camera from W. During this time Purcell also became skilled as a photographer, his hobby made possible by the newly available commercial outfits which supplied camera, photographic plates, processing chemicals and printing papers in one package. Every following summer from 1887 until his death in 1901, Gray brought his family, friends, and associates to Island Lake Camp, as the isolated forest enclave came to be called. In 1886 Gray arranged the purchase of three square miles of land surrounding an island on a lake in northern Wisconsin, in co- ownership with the recently widowed Nettie Fowler McCormick, also of Chicago. In 1885, however, he was saddened to realize the extent to which the environment had been despoiled by destructive logging and mining practices. Gray, editor of The Interior, had taken fishing vacations on the peninsula of upper Michigan. In 1886 another family event occurred that was critical to his future development. In 1886, William Gray Purcell began living permanently with them at his own request. Although the Purcells eventually moved into their own home, except for brief periods the young boy remained with his grandparents over the next five years. and Anna Cora Purcell lived first with William Cunningham and Catherine Garns Gray, Anna's parents, in Oak Park. William Gray Purcell was born in Oak Park, Illinois in July, 1880.

Europe with Kids by William Gray