E.T. Carr was born in Greenfield, New York and from an early age interested himself in the crafts related to building, including bricklaying, masonry, and carpentry. In 1852 he moved to Syracuse, New York and worked as a builder until 1855 when he moved to St. Paul, Minnesota.

While in St. Paul, Carr was offered the assistant superintendency of repairs for Fort Leavenworth in Kansas Territory, which he accepted. He opened an architect's office in Leavenworth soon after moving there and designed several buildings for the fort, the Kansas State Penitentiary, Morris School, the county courthouse, and the Leavenworth Sugar Company, among other buildings in Leavenworth.

Carr also designed several other state government buildings, including for the Normal School at Emporia (later Emporia State University), the Agricultural College at Manhattan (later Kansas State Univesity), the state hospitals at Topeka and Osawatomie, and served as State Architect on the Kansas Capitol from 1879-1885. He also designed several other county courthouses and schools, including in Wyandotte, Brown, Nemaha, Dickinson, and Morris Counties.

E.T. Carr married Margaret Red Fern Cubbins in 1859, with whom he had one daughter, Addie Bell Carr. After his wife's death, Carr retired to Montana and then moved to California to live with his daughter. E.T. Carr died May 12, 1915.

[Information retrieved from findagrave.com.]