Alexander C. Eschweiler

Alexander Chadbourne Eschweiler (August 10, 1865 – June 12, 1940) was an American architect with a practice in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He designed both residences and commercial structures. His eye-catching Japonist pagoda design for filling stations for Wadham's Oil and Grease Company of Milwaukee were repeated over a hundred times, though only a very few survive. His substantial turn-of-the-20th-century residences for the Milwaukee business elite, in conservative Jacobethan or neo-Georgian idioms, have preserved their cachet in the city.[1]

Alexander C. Eschweiler
Born(1865-08-10)August 10, 1865
DiedJune 12, 1940(1940-06-12) (aged 74)
NationalityUSA
OccupationArchitect

Early life

Eschweiler was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He studied at Marquette University and Cornell University, graduating in 1890. Eschweiler opened his practice in Milwaukee in 1892. In 1923 his sons, Alexander C. Eschweiler Jr., Theodore, and Carl joined him in practice.[2][3]

Career

A number of Eschweiler works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[4]

Eighty-one surviving commissions were listed in the exhibition "Alexander Eschweiler in Milwaukee: Celebrating a Rich Architectural Heritage" at the Charles Allis Art Museum in 2007.

Personal life

Summer home

The Eschweilers had a second home on North Lake in the village of Chenequa, Wisconsin[5] He did not design the residence. It was originally a 100-acre parcel he had purchased in the early 1900s, which included a small cottage from the 1870s.[6] It was eventually torn down and the land was subdivided to settle the estate. The property was split into a 2.8-acre parcel and an 8.3-acre parcel, but six of the acres in the larger parcel are along the lake and are placed in a conservation easement that prohibits development.[7]

Eschweiler was instrumental in the incorporation of the village of Chenequa. He was one of a handful of notable residents that testified in court that it was his residence.[8]

Death

He is buried at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, North Lake, next to his wife and daughter. His plot is near St. Teresa of Calcutta Church, "so he could overlook his 'masterpiece.'"[9] [10]

Legacy

The Eschweiler Prize, made from a bequest of Alexander C. Eschweiler, Jr., in memory of his father Alexander C. Eschweiler, is an annual award of approximately $3,000 given to a student in architecture at Cornell.[11] Eschweiler's son Carl's diploma hangs in the front office of Stone Bank School, where Alexander's children attended.

Selected works
A former Wadham's pagoda

Works include (with attribution): (by year)

  • Edward Cowdery House, 2743 N. Lake Drive, Milwaukee, 1896.
  • Milwaukee Gas Light Company, West Side works.[12]
  • John Murphy House, 2030 E. Lafayette Place, Milwaukee, 1899. A compromise with Prairie School architecture.
  • Robert Nunnemacher house, 2409 N. Wahl Avenue, Milwaukee, 1906. Symmetrical Jacobethan style, brick with stone quoins.
  • Charles Allis House, 1801 N. Prospect Avenue, Milwaukee, 1909, in a Jacobethan style. Now open as the Charles Allis Art Museum.[13]
  • James K. Ilsley House, Milwaukee.
  • Elizabeth Black residence.
  • 1919, St. John Church in Monches and St. Clare in North Lake, which together make up Blessed Teresa of Calcutta[9]
  • Thomas A. Greene Memorial Museum, Milwaukee.
  • Milwaukee-Downer "Quad", now University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, NW corner of Hartford and Downer Aves. Milwaukee, WI (Eschweiler, Alexander C.), NRHP-listed[4]
  • John Mariner Building (Hotel Metro), Milwaukee, 1937. Art Moderne in style, with curved wrap-around corners; the first commercial structure in Milwaukee to feature air conditioning.[14]
  • Wisconsin Gas Building, Milwaukee.
  • Wisconsin Telephone Building, 722 N. Broadway. Ground floor remodeled for AT&T.
  • Milwaukee Arena.
  • C. B. Bird House, 522 McIndoe St. Wausau, 1910, (Eschweiler, Alexander C.), NRHP-listed[4]
  • Chi Psi Lodge at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 150 Iota Court, Madison, 1913 (Eschweiler, Alexander C.), Madison Historic Landmarks[15]
  • First Universalist Church, 504 Grant St. Wausau, 1914, (Eschweiler, Alexander C.), NRHP-listed[4]
  • Marathon County Fairgrounds stock judging pavilion, Wausau, 1921
  • E.K. Schuetz House, 930 Franklin St. Wausau, 1922, Wausau, WI (Eschweiler, Alexander C.), NRHP-listed[4]
  • D. C. Everest House, 1206 Highland Park Blvd. Wausau, 1925, (Eschweiler & Eschweiler), NRHP-listed[4]
  • C. F. Dunbar House, 929 McIndoe St. Wausau, 1926 (Eschweiler & Eschweiler), NRHP-listed[4]
  • St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 302 Merchants Ave. Fort Atkinson, 1928 (Eschweiler & Eschweiler)[16]
  • Horace A.J. Upham House, W9888 Hwy 13, Wisconsin Dells, WI, 1899. (Pictures:1, 2, 3, 4,5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 & 12) (Wis Arch Inventory #6072)

(Others, alphabetically)

Notes
  1. "Exhibit celebrates elegance, wit of Eschweiler". Retrieved 1 July 2016.
  2. Marathon County Historical Society: Online Research
  3. "Wisconsin Historical Society". Retrieved 1 July 2016.
  4. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  5. "The Milwaukee Sentinel - Google News Archive Search". Retrieved 1 July 2016.
  6. "Architect's retreat causes rift". Retrieved 1 July 2016.
  7. "Eschweiler property to be divided". Retrieved 1 July 2016.
  8. "The Milwaukee Sentinel - Google News Archive Search". Retrieved 1 July 2016.
  9. "History - Blessed Teresa Of Calcutta". Archived from the original on 2016-01-22. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
  11. Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning Student, Faculty and Staff Handbook
  12. "Wisconsin Historical Society". Retrieved 1 July 2016.
  13. Hannah Heidi Levy, Artists and Architects (Milwaukee:Badger Books) 2004:246f. ISBN 1-932542-12-4
  14. Levy 247-48.
  15. "Madison Landmarks". www.cityofmadison.com. Archived from the original on 2016-04-19. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
  16. Carol Lohry Cartwright (1986-02-03). "NRHP Inventory/Nomination: Merchants Avenue Historic District". National Park Service. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  17. "1202 S LAYTON BLVD | Property Record | Wisconsin Historical Society". www.wisconsinhistory.org. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
  18. "South Layton Boulevard Historic District". nps.gov/Nr/. National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior. April 24, 1996. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
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  • Wisconsin Architectural Archive The archive, located at the Milwaukee Public Library contains many Eschweiler drawings as well as those of other Wisconsin architects.
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