Oscar Wenderoth

Oscar Wenderoth
Born(1871-04-10)April 10, 1871[1]
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania U.S.A.
DiedApril 14, 1938(1938-04-14) (aged 67)
New York, New York, U.S.A.
NationalityAmerican
OccupationArchitect

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]

  1. ^ "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.
  2. ^ Oscar Wenderoth digital.lib
  3. ^ "American Portrait and Mourning Miniatures - John Henry Brown". Yale University Art Gallery. Retrieved 2015-02-08.
  4. ^ a b New York Times April 11, 1915
  5. ^ "Personal and Trade Notes" in Real Estate Record and Builders Guide 96, no. 2490 (December 4, 1915): 973.
  6. ^ "The Bankers Magazine". 1919.
  7. ^ "Oscar Wenderoth, Architect, Was 67, Designer of Federal Buildings Had Been Blind Since 1920" in New York Times, April 16, 1938, 13.