Oscar Wenderoth

American architect

Oscar Wenderoth

Born	(1871-04-10)April 10, 1871^[1] Philadelphia, Pennsylvania U.S.A.
Died	April 14, 1938(1938-04-14) (aged 67) New York, New York, U.S.A.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Architect

Oscar Wenderoth (1871–1938) was an American architect^[2] who served as director of the Office of the Supervising Architect from 1912 to 1915. He is identified as the architect of many government buildings built during that period, including some listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Wenderoth was born in Philadelphia in 1871 and was the son of the noted photographer Frederick August Wenderoth, a pioneer "...in addressing the public's desire for colored photographs."^[3] Early in his architectural career Oscar worked for the New York City firm of Carrere and Hastings. He first joined the Office of Supervising Architect as a senior architectural draftsman in 1897, working in the office for three separate time periods before being appointed as its director.^[4]

He was appointed to the directorship by President William Howard Taft in 1912. He resigned in 1915 without providing a public explanation of his resignation.^[4] Soon after his resignation he joined Weary & Alford in Chicago as Supervising Architect, where he worked for five years.^[5]^[6] In the ensuing years his sight failed, leading to blindness and retirement in 1920. He died in 1938 in New York City.^[7]

Selected government buildings

United States Post Office (later Senior Citizen's Center), Bowling Green, Ohio, 1913
United States Post Office, Blue Island, Illinois, 1914
United States Post Office, Oneonta, New York, 1915
United States Post Office, Miles City, Montana, 1916
United States Post Office and Courthouse, Pendleton, Oregon, 1916
James A. Redden Federal Courthouse, Medford, Oregon, 1916
United States Post Office, Port Jervis, New York, c.1920
U.S. Post Office, Berkeley, California, 1914
United States Post Office, Clarksville, Texas, 1914

References

^ "T-SQUARE CLUB MEMBER AHEAD - Oscar Wenderoth is Appointed Senior Draftsman to the Supervising Architect of the United States". The (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Times: 6. March 25, 1897.
^ Oscar Wenderoth digital.lib
^ "American Portrait and Mourning Miniatures - John Henry Brown". Yale University Art Gallery. Retrieved 2015-02-08.
^ ^a ^b New York Times April 11, 1915
^ "Personal and Trade Notes" in Real Estate Record and Builders Guide 96, no. 2490 (December 4, 1915): 973.
^ "The Bankers Magazine". 1919.
^ "Oscar Wenderoth, Architect, Was 67, Designer of Federal Buildings Had Been Blind Since 1920" in New York Times, April 16, 1938, 13.