Monday, October 1, 2012

Alvin M. Strauss 1895-1958

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
An Advertisement in the Kendallville
paper for A.J. Strauss' store
Alvin Max Strauss was born to German immigrant parents in Kendallville, Indiana on April 8, 1895  A.J. and Freida owned a grocery store.   A.M. found he was very interested in Art and Architecture while he attended grammar and high school in Kendallville.  A.M. graduated from Kendallville High School in 1911.  A.M. studied under prominent architects in Chicago for 6 years and returned to Ft. Wayne to study further.  In 1912 it was reported in the newspaper that he was attending Illinois University.  He established his own practice in 1916 in Fort Wayne.  He served in WWI from July 1918 until April 1919 in the engineers corps. 

Alvin designed many prominent buildings in the area such as the Emboyd Theater including the Indiana Hotel (now the historic Embassy), the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, St. Vincent Villa (now the Imagine Master Academy Campus), and the administrative offices of the Auburn Cord Duesenberg factory. 



A.M. also designed the Lincoln Bank Tower which was the tallest building in Indiana from 1929 until 1962.  The Lincoln National Bank and Trust was originally the German American National Bank, but changed the name in 1918 due to anti-German sentiment.  The president of the bank in 1929 commissioned the building as a monument to the German immigrants who settled in Ft. Wayne.  It originally cost $1,300,000.


 
Alvin died in 1958, leaving behind his wife Madelyn.  He is buried in Lakeview Cemetery.
Posted by at

2 comments:

  1. DianeDecember 12, 2012 at 11:54 PM

    I stumbled across your blog when looking up family history. Alvin Strauss was my great uncle. He was married to my grandmother's younger sister, Madelyn. I spent many holidays at their homes (both designed by him).

    ReplyDelete
  2. AtrueoriginallAugust 31, 2013 at 3:41 PM

    I grew up in Fort Wayne. My sisters and myself would frequent the Embassy. We were grade school age and would walk from Lake and Anthony all the way to the Embassy by ourselves.

    My favorite structure in Fort Wayne is the Embassy. I was always in awe of not so much the theater floor however, the basement floor where the bathrooms were. WOW! So beautiful.

    Just today I discovered the on who built the embassy and was I flabbergasted. Now I can put the name with the place. Great architect! Classy!

    As far as the coliseum goes, it's pretty certainly but, I wish they would have exposed more of the rotunda. The rotunda made the coliseum what it was and the rotunda was an icon. So much for progress and capitalism I guess. I went to many hockey games there each year. I happen to have a colored post card of the original structure before it was renovated, I'm framing it!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)