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Carl Fehmer

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Carl Fehmer
Steel engraving c. 1916
Born(1838-11-10)November 10, 1838
Dargun, Mecklenburg, Germany
Died1923 (aged 84–85)
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Spouse
Therese Wahl
​
(m. 1872⁠–⁠1914)​
Military career
AllegianceUnion (American Civil War)
Service/branchFourth Battalion
Signature

Carl Fehmer (November 10, 1838 – 1923) was a prominent German-American Boston architect during the 19th century.

Fehmer had already started his architectural career before his service in the Civil War, but became well-established afterward. With two key partnerships (with William Ralph Emerson from 1867 to 1873, and with Samuel Francis Page from 1882 to 1908), Fehmer designed a long list of residences in the Back Bay, department stores, major civic buildings, and landmarks such as the Boylston Building. All but a few of his designs are in Boston.

Life and career

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Fehmer was born in Dargun, Mecklenburg, Germany, on November 10, 1838, to Heinrich Fehmer and Maria (Zerrahn) Fehmer.[1] His father died in Germany when he was five; the mother and children came to America in 1852 and settled in Boston.

Fehmer attended public school in Boston, and showed an early aptitude for drawing and painting. At the age of 16 he began studying architecture in the office of George Snell, a prominent Boston architect. Fehmer remained in Snell's office for eight years before beginning his own architectural practice. In 1861 Fehmer was associated with architects Gridley James Fox Bryant and Arthur Gilman, at least to the extent of producing their presentation drawing of their 1862-65 Boston City Hall, one of the first Second Empire buildings in the country.[2]

During the Civil War, Fehmer served in the militia at Fort Independence as a member of the "New England Guards" Fourth Battalion under Major Thomas Stevenson.[1]

After the war, Fehmer returned to practice under a short-lived partnership with Thomas E. Coburn from 1865 to 1867. He then partnered with William Ralph Emerson, which lasted from 1867 to 1874.

Fehmer's fortunes improved along with his good personal relationship with the Boston benefactor Oliver Ames. In 1882 Fehmer designed his palatial showpiece Ames Residence, at Massachusetts and Commonwealth Avenue. The plan included a drawing room with furnishings and decorations by the Herter Brothers dating to 1883, the last of that firm's great commissions.[3][4] A later account ("Costliest in the City") describes Ames and Fehmer decorating it with a summer buying trip through Europe.[5] Ames was lieutenant governor at the time. When Ames became governor, Fehmer received a consulting role over the expansion of the Massachusetts State House beginning in 1889, then was also awarded the commission for the Oliver Ames High School in Easton, funded by the governor.

Also in 1882 Fehmer formed a third partnership, with Samuel Francis Page, which lasted until Fehmer's own retirement in 1908. The office continued to innovate, and even help bring Boston into the skyscraper era: Fehmer & Page's Worthington Building in 1894 was one of the first steel-framed office buildings in the city.[2]

On April 20, 1872, he married Therese Wahl, who died in 1914. Fehmer was a charter member of the Boston Society of Architects and the St. Botolph Club. Fehmer retired to Kingston, New York, where he died in 1923.[6]

Work

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Retailer C. Crawford Hollidge Building, Boston, 1890
Fehmer & Page's Worthington Building of 1894 at left; Cass Gilbert's Second Brazer Building of 1897 at right

Several of his works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[7]

Fehmer's works include:

References

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  1. ^ a b Eliot, Samuel Atkins, ed. (1916). Biographical History of Massachusetts. Vol. VI. Boston, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Biographical Society. Retrieved June 8, 2022 – via Internet Archive.
  2. ^ a b c d "Carl R. Fehmer". Back Bay Houses. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Oliver Ames Mansion". Society of Architectural Historians. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
  4. ^ Banham, Joanna, ed. (January 1, 1997). Encyclopedia of Interior Design. Routledge. p. 559. ISBN 9781136787584. Retrieved June 21, 2021.
  5. ^ "Costliest in the City". The Boston Sunday Globe. July 13, 1902. p. 46. Retrieved June 8, 2022 – via NewspaperArchive.
  6. ^ "Notice to Creditors". Kingston Daily Freeman. February 18, 1924. p. 4. Retrieved June 8, 2022 – via NewspaperArchive.
  7. ^ a b c d "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  8. ^ Catherine W. Bishir (2009). "North Carolina Architects & Builders: Emerson and Fehmer (fl. 1870s-1880s)".
  9. ^ "1 Winthrop Square". Society of Architectural Historians - SAH Archipedia. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
  10. ^ "Tremont Temple". The Boston Post. October 24, 1879. p. 3. Retrieved June 8, 2022 – via NewspaperArchive.
  11. ^ "Self-Guided Scholar's Tour". Forest Hills Cemetery. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
  12. ^ "The Randidge Tomb at Forest Hills". Boston Evening Transcript. October 17, 1891. p. 16. Retrieved June 8, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
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  • Carl Fehmer at the Wayback Machine (archived February 16, 2012) – photos, history, and architecture of Fehmer's extant Boston buildings
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