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Background
August Fiedler (full name William August Fiedler) was an architect and interior designer and manufacturer based in Chicago, IL. He was born in Elbin, Germany and came to the United States in 1869 aboard the German sailing vessel Teutonia, locating briefly in New York City and working there as an architect before settling in Chicago in 1874 to take advantage of the rebuilding of that city after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. He was naturalized as an American citizen on October 16, 1888. He was a member of is known to have served as a judge for competitions of the Chicago Architectural Club. In the second half of the 1880's and during the early 1890s Fiedler operated his practice out of the Metropolitan Block at the northwest corner of LaSalle Street and Randolph Street (now the site of the State of Illinois Building).

Career
Fiedler's arrival in Chicago coincided with a major migration from Germany that had been underway since the middle of the ninteenth century because of adverse economic and political conditions in the German Confederation. The 1870 census showed that half of the population of Chicago at that time was foreign born, and that one in six residents specifically was a native of Germany. Many of Fiedler's clients were among the more prosperous of this German immigration. For example Fridolin Madlener, for whom Fiedler designed a residence in 1890, came to Chicago from Baden, Germany in 1858, and his wife Margaretha was the granddaughter of the Wisconsin brewer Valentine Blatz, who had arrived from Miltenberg, Bavaria to established his business in Milwaukee in 1851. Although Fiedler, especially in his early years, designed largely for this German immigrant population, he was evidently satisfied with his life in the United States, as he once expressed in an interview: "'This has been a very good country for me, and as far as my observation has gone, has been a very good country for the great majority of Germans who have emigrated here, especially for skilled mechanics...This is a good country for Germans to come to.'" Fiedler's initial efforts in Chicago were devoted to interior decoration, an art that was in its nascent stages in the United States, although it was already a more developed profession in Europe at the time thru the efforts of Richard Norman Shaw, William Morris and others. The noted architect Stanford White had also began his career as an interior designer in New York offices of Gambrill and Richardson under the direction of Charles Follen McKim. Fiedler's involvement at this point included the manufacture of high-end woodwork and furniture, first in partnership with John W. Roberts, (their premesis were located at 26 (now 59-61) Van Buren St., and later as the owner of A. Fiedler and Company. It was in these early days that he designed the interiors of the Hegeler Carus Mansion (William W. Boyington,1874–1876) in LaSalle, Illinois , and with the reputation created by the high quality of the output of this firm after it went bankrupt some of the woodwork and some of the other decoration for the Samuel Nickerson House (1879–1883) on Erie Street in Chicago (now the Driehaus Museum). He became the first chief architect for the Board of Education for the city of Chicago upon the creation of the building department for that organization on January 18, 1893 ) with a starting salary of $6,000/year, where he remained until 1896, when his departure was precipitated by a disagreement with the board. Here he designed and/or supervised the construction of fifty-eight school buildings,. The department operated out of offices in Adler and Sullivan's Schiller (later Garrick Theater) Building (1891, demolished 1961). During his time with the board of education, Fiedler became the first professional employer of the noted architect Robert Seyfarth.

August Fiedler was also responsible for the design and construction of three exhibits of the Midway Plaisance of the Worlds Columbian Exposition: The Moorish Palace, the building for the Captive Balloon, and thirty-six structures located in the German Village exhibit ) . He became a member of the American Institute of Architects at their twenty-first convention in 1887, which was held in the rooms of the Chicago Literary Club at the new building built by the Art Institute of Chicago on Michigan Avenue. Joining at the same time among others were William Holabird, Joseph Lyman Silsbee, David Adler, William LaBaron Jenney, William A. Otis, and his partner John Addison . There was an attempt made in 1892 to have Fiedler become Architect of the Cook County Board, but that opportunity disappeared when he lost the assignment to Julius B. Speyer (1845-1916).

Interior decoration and manufacturer
Fiedler arrived in Chicago in the early part of 1874 and a year later, after a brief partnership in which he produced furniture with Roberts, formed A. Fiedler and Co., where he manufactured custom furniture and woodwork of the "highest quality" and provided interior design services that would help to create the interiors of some of Chicago's most prominent homes and businesses. Although the company specialized in the design and creation of "Modern Gothic" furniture, unlike many in his profession Fiedler advocated the use of different styles in the decoration of a building's various rooms "in order to avoid...monotonous effect". He also went so far as to suggest that the design of the woodwork be done in conjuction with the selection of the furniture so that the two could be made to compliment each other. In 1876, he submitted a sideboard to the Household Art exhibition which was selected as one of the five pieces that The Art Journal chose to feature in an article the publication wrote about the event. Coincincidently a library chair designed by his future partner John Addison (and executed by the noted furniture maker Issac E. Scott) was also displayed at the exhibition and was also featured in the Art Journal article. The exhibition had been mounted by the Art Committee of the Interstate Industrial Exposition (whose members included William LaBaron Jenney and Peter B. Wight) to celebrate the talent of local designers and manufacturers and noted that, except for a few decorative touches, "...Everything contained in the exhibition was of original design and manufactured in Chicago" In that same year a dining room set and mantlepiece of Fiedler's design and manufacture appeared at the exposition which American Cabinetmaker magazine refered to as "equal to anything we have seen in Chicago". Fiedler also built built custom furniture on a small scale that was designed by others. "With discrimination and judgement, it need cost no more to make your house beautiful than it has cost to make it ugly." Isaac E. Scott : reform furniture in Chicago: John Jacob Glessner House

Samuel M. Nickerson (1830-1914) came to Chicago with his wife Matilda Crosby in 1858, when he started a distilling business that was only moderately successful until he received a contract during the Civil War to produce alchohol for the production of gunpowder for the Union Army.

Fiedler was driven to bankruptcy in 1877, according to one observer,"...by giving rich people better work than they will pay for." . In 1884 George Fromm, who had worked as a wood carver for him, went into business with the Berlin and Paris-trained cabinetmaker Nicholas Kies designing everything from woodcarving details to entire buildings worth of furniture for others to manufacture.181

Architect
Fiedler was a member of the American Institute of Architects.

Chicago
John Addison had come to Chicago for James Renwick, Jr. (1818-1895) to supervise the construction of New York architect's Second Presbyterian Church (1874, extant) at 1936 S. Michigan Ave. Fiedler's partnership with Addison lasted until September of 1888.

The author and historian David Garrard Lowe considered Henrici's to be one among the places that "...had given the city it's special personality...". He had this to say about their destruction: "They were an incomparable heritage mindlessly squandered, pieces of gold minted by the fathers and thrown away by the sons."

World's Columbian Exposition
MOORISH PALACE This is pronounced on all hands the most interesting exhibit on the Plaisance, partly because of the beauty of its architecture, and of the exhibition which it contains. The building, strange to say, was designed by August Fiedler, a Chicago architect. Among the exhibits is a palm garden with its contiguous labyrinth copied from the famous Alhambra at Granada. The splendid appointments, elaborate decorations, and fine groups in wax, which pictures the palace as it stood in the days of its Arabian owners, realize the pen pictures of Washington Irving. As the visitor steps into the palm garden, he finds himself in what appears to be a boundless space. Far as the eye can reach, the ingeniously arranged mirrors create the illusion of endless rows of stately palms, casting their shade over hundreds of lifelike figures in the gaudy costumes of the lords of he desert. There are so many attractive and enchanting things to be seen here that I must forego the pleasure of describing them.

The building was designed by August Fiedler, a Chicago Architect. It is a beautiful reproduction of Moorish architecture. The palm garden with its continuous labyrinth, copied from the famous Alhambra at Granada, is one of the leading attractions, but the splendid appointments, elaborate decorations, and fine groups in wax which picture the palace as it stood in the days of the Arabian owners recall to the visitor vividly the pen pictures of Washington Irving. As the visitor steps into the palm garden he finds himself in what appears to be a boundless space. Far as the eye can reach the ingeniously arranged mirrors create the illusion of endless rows of stately palms, casting their shade over hundreds of life-like figures in the gaudy costumes of the lords of the desert. Groups of men and women, talking, lounging or amusing themselves, each group multiplied again and again in the perspective of mirrors, are seen on every side. Tiring of this he finds his way out by the aid of a guide. The transition is into a fairyland filled with startling surprises. The first thing which impresses the observer within the palace are the elaborate decorations. He is in a maze of Alabaster-like columns, stretching away in long vistas. The columns are covered with curious hieroglyphics and support a dome and arched ceiling reflecting from its mother of pearl a softly radiant light. Standing on the tiled floor of mosaics, the visitor may cast his eves upward, and admire the delicate filigree in gold, purple and silver, sweeping in flowing lines, here and there gracefully crossing and forming an intricate net-work of beautiful curves. From the arch depend pretty little stalactites, in gilt, producing a very pleasant effect on the pearly back-ground. Stepping on through the mystic passages, the visitor suddenly catches a glimpse of landscape through what appears to be an oval window. It is really the effect of the omnipresent mirror and the charming stretch of beach and deceptive foam-capped waves is but the reflection from a concealed painting. Turning about, another window on the other side of the palace exposes to view a ravine-cleft mountain, with leaping cascades. Another step, and the holy of holies appears — a realistic group in the innermost recesses of the harem, a shiek surrounded by his favorites. The central figure is the brawny chieftain himself, for the moment at luxurious ease. For his amusement an odalisque is tripping through a dance. The favorite wife, a beauty with pink cheeks, plump arms and long dark tresses, has fallen asleep, with her head resting on her lord's knee. The figures are of wax, of course, but are very realistic. You meet with a life-like black eunich, who is supposed to guard the way to the harem." . GERMAN VILLAGE. Extraordinary space was given to this concession, and it is deserving of all the room it occupies. Inside is represented not only the Germany of the feudal times, with its walled city and baronial castles, but the Germany of to-day, with all its progress, force and enlightenment. Here, one may traverse a district made to represent a German Village, with all of its accessories, including the ancient castle, the beer hall and the cross roads dancing pavilion. The representation of scenes in Germany is perfect. German peasants from the Black For- est, as well as from the more progressive districts in the Empire are present to wait on you. Amusements of all kinds are going on inside in a pleasant German fashion. There is good music, abundance of beer, and refreshments of every description to be had here.

School Board architect
The history of education in Chicago is a long and storied one that precedes the incorporation of the city by many years. The city’s first school was established in 1816 by John Kinzie (1763-1828), a fur trader and the settlement’s first justice of the peace, who employed a teacher to serve his children and those of other settlers in the nascent community. Kinzie had many years earlier purchased the cabin which had been built at some time previous to 1790 by Jean Baptiste DuSable (c.1745-1818) at the mouth of the Chicago River, where in doing so DuSable had become the first long-term non-Native American settler in the area that would eventually become Chicago.

The city’s first taxpayer supported public school building was a frame building constructed in 1844 which served a student body which by that time had reached 915. By the second half of the 19th Century Chicago was building schoolhouses at a frantic pace in a desperate attempt to keep up with the explosive growth of the city, where existing schools were dealing with serious overcrowding (it was reported that, in the primary schools, one teacher might be called upon to serve a class of 300 students). By 1856 it was estimated that the city had 17,000 children between the ages of five and fifteen, "regarded as the limits of the school age", of which 8,306 were students in the public school system. By that year the school system consisted of eight frame buildings and had erected its first three "first class" schoolhouses in an area that today would be considered close to the city center. These new buildings (the first, a "primary" school by Francis Foster, the second a "grammar" school by John M. Van Osdel (1811-1891) and Frederick Baumann (1826-1921) and the third being the first high school building for both sexes by J.C. Doyle) were all brick and stone buildings that were considered modern and, it was hoped, would help to ameliorate overcrowded conditions. The design of school buildings continued to be the responsibility of architects and others from the general population until 1893, when August Fiedler became the first Chief Architect for the Board of Education of the city of Chicago upon the creation of the building department by board action on January 18 of that year. For his services he was paid a beginning salary of $6,000 per year. By then the student body had swelled to an estimated 170,000, and the system had yet to effectively deal with the issue of overcrowding. As an example, consider that the West Pullman School (which was designed by Fiedler and constructed in 1894) had by 1896 a student body of 557 in its eight classrooms and two rented rooms outside of the facility.

The output of the Fiedler office was prodigious, especially considering that each structure that came from his office was unique. "Before his time, all the school buildings were built practically on one plan, and the designs, plans and specifications for one answered for a dozen others. But owing to the requirements of a growing public taste he was compelled to design each building in conformity with its environment."

Fiedler's style
Despite the fact that Fiedler produced astonishing diversity in the designs he provided for the dozens of school buildings that were constructed during his four years of service, the stylistic elements that defined his work were remarkably consistant from building to building. His unique interpretation of the prevailing Richardsonian Romanesque tended to give his buildings an identifiable quality. particularly in his use of round-topped windows in series in the form of an arcade, usually on the uppermost floor. First of all his exteriors were not finished overall with the rock-faced rusticated stone that was a common feature of the best examples of that style of work. Instead, the first floor of classrooms usually sat on a raised basement that was covered with this stone, but the upper floors were universally finished with pressed brick. And while Richardsonian Romanesque tended to eschew elaborate exterior decoration in order to concentrate on the building's surface finishes and geometry, Fiedler lavished many of his buildings with it.

It is conceivable that the need to create singular structures for each project percipitated Fiedler's departure from the school board. In the spring of 1896 the expenses for his department were audited, and during this process it was discovered that the cost of the design and superintendence of his buildings had jumped 61% during his tenure, largely due to extenuating circumstances that weren't a consideration when when designs came from outside. The analysis suggested that the chief problem was a direct relationship to the many people that it became necessary to hire in order to accommodate the burgeoning workload (although at least one board member indicated that "...the committee will not hesitate to pursue its inquiries into the province of morals if necessary." ) Beginning with a staff of two superintendents and two draftsmen at the time he was appointed in 1893, the workload in Fiedler’s office grew such that in the nearly four years to include thirteen draftsmen and six superintendents. Although Fiedler was exonerated by the findings of the investigation, he resigned his position on December 2, 1896 and returned to private practice with his reputation intact.

The board must have been a challenge to work with, and American Architect and Building News watched with interest the line of succession in the School Board Architect's office: "It is a very hopeful sign of not entire corruption in matters politic that so excellent a man as Normand S. Patton has been elected architect to the Board of Education. When the trouble arose between Mr. August Fiedler and the Board is was feared it was simply an attempt to get rid of an honest man who knew his business, but the election of a man of such established reputation as Mr. Patton makes one hope that good work on school buildings will not be a thing of the past .  The magazine's optomism was dashed quickly, however, as Patton lasted less than two years . He was summarily fired when he was accused and found guilty of "disobedience of orders and impugning the honesty of one of the committeemen, and violation of discipline." Circumstances were such that when Patton was replaced by William Bryce Mundie (1863-1939) the board declared that "every employe (sic) of the architect's office [was] at once required to send to the board his resignation.", at which point it was up to Mundie to decide who should be allowed to stay. Mundie continued his service to the board until 1905. The post at that time was filled by Dwight Perkins (1867-1941), whose masterpiece Carl Schurz High School was finished by the time of his departure in 1910. True to form, both of these architects also departed under tempestuous circumstances, and The Western Architect took a dim view of the way in which the school board treated its professional staff when it stated the following in a commentary that appeared in March of 1910: “It will be hard after the experience of the past incumbents of the office of the School Architect to obtain an architect of equal talent and equal probity. The "cold-blooded corporate lines" under which the president proposes to "run" the school board smacks of political subsidies. It certainly guarantees, if carried out in principal, the dead level of mediocrity in future school design in Chicago”.

Historic Landmarks
Although the traditional nature of his work will likely preclude the placement of Fiedler’s name among the pantheon of Chicago’s great nineteenth century architects, his work was nonetheless highly regarded in his time and continues to be so today. He was once considered for the position of county board architect (but lost to). Several of his buildings have been distinguished over the years by having become local landmarks, and at least four are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The best known of Fiedler's work is probably Germania Hall on Clark Street on Chicago's north side, of which he was a member.

Not all of Fiedler's work was done in the Chicago area after he arrived there in the early 1870's. Not surprisingly, with its large German population at the time, at least two clients from Milwaukee, Wisconsin provided him with projects in the mid 1880's, although it remains to be discovered how the connection was made between him and that city

.

Selected projects
http://blog.chicagoarchitecture.info/tag/clark-street/