John Lawrence Mauran,

FAIA Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) is a postnominal title or membership, designating an individual who has been named a fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Fellowship is bestowed by the institute on AIA-member ...

(1866–1933) was an American architect responsible for many downtown landmarks in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. He was also active in

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

Life

Mauran was born in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

and studied at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

from 1885 through 1889, under the French-American educator Eugene Letang. While there, he was a member of the fraternity of Delta Psi St. Anthony Hall).

Career

He entered the Boston office of

Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge was a successful architecture firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, operating between 1886 and 1915, with extensive commissions in monumental civic, religious, and collegiate architecture in the spirit and style of Henry ...

as a young draftsman. There he helped design the 1893 Chicago Public Library (now the

Chicago Cultural Center The Chicago Cultural Center, opened in 1897, is a Chicago Landmark building operated by Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events that houses the city's official reception venue where the Mayor of Chicago has welcomed presid ...

) and the 1894 Art Institute of Chicago. Sent by the firm to establish a branch office in St. Louis, his employers closed shop there in 1900 and Mauran formed his own partnership, Mauran, Russell & Garden, with Ernest John Russell and Edward Garden. After the departure of Garden in 1909 it was briefly known as Mauran & Russell, but with the addition of William DeForest Crowell it became Mauran, Russell & Crowell in 1911. The firm carved out a niche designing Carnegie libraries in towns in Missouri, Wisconsin, and Kansas. Mauran had also married a local socialite, Isabel Chapman, in 1899, which aided his social connections, bringing commissions for local churches, office buildings, and a number of sizable mansions in St. Louis's new

private place A private place is a self-governing enclave whose common areas (e.g. streets) are owned by the residents, and whose services are provided by the private sector. The history of St. Louis, Missouri, and its near suburbs is significant in the deve ...

s. He himself lived at #40 Vandeventer Place, on the most prestigious street in the city. In 1902, Mauran became a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and was appointed by

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

to the first

United States Commission of Fine Arts The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States, and was established in 1910. The CFA has review (but not approval) authority over the "design and aesthetics" of all construction wit ...

in 1910. In 1915, he was elected President of the AIA; in 1925, he served as head of the St. Louis Memorial Plaza Commission. Mauran died unexpectedly after an appendicitis attack in 1933, at the family's summer home in New Hampshire.

Work

Stylistically versatile through its decades of activity, Mauran's office was more commercially than artistically oriented, with work concentrated in the St. Louis area and a large number of hotel commissions in Texas. The St. Louis high-rises of the 1900s and 1910s show a clear influence from the Sullivan skyscrapers they stand next to, like the

Wainwright Building The Wainwright Building (also known as the Wainwright State Office Building) is a 10-story, terra cotta office building at 709 Chestnut Street in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. The Wainwright Building is considered to be one of the first aestheti ...

, without Sullivan's distinctive ornament. The stripped-classical style of the St. Louis Soldiers' Memorial, in 1939 a late example of its kind, is appropriate for its civic presence. Like other public buildings in the downtown Civic Plaza, the initial plans were far more elaborate, before delay and budget pressures left the actual results simplified and scaled down. W.O. Mullgardt joined the firm in 1930. When Mauran died in 1933, this left William Crowell as its principal designer. The modernist 1941 Post-Dispatch Printing Plant, with its long ribbons of windows, preceded other International Style buildings in St. Louis by about nine years. This was the firm's final major work.

Select projects

* Laclede Power Company plant, St. Louis, Missouri,1901 * First Church of Christ Scientist, St. Louis, Missouri, 1903 (Holy Corners Historic District) * Racine Public Library, Racine, Wisconsin, 1904 * residences in

s Portland Place and Washington Terrace, St. Louis, Missouri, 1905-1909 * Racquet Club, St. Louis, Missouri, 1906 (Holy Corners Historic District) * Second Baptist Church, St. Louis, Missouri, 1907 (Holy Corners Historic District) * Grand Leader Department Store, later

Stix Baer & Fuller __NOTOC__ Stix, Baer and Fuller (sometimes called "Stix" or SBF or the Grand-Leader) was a department store chain in St. Louis, Missouri that operated from 1892 to 1984. Founders and History Originally called the Grand-Leader, the original centr ...

, Washington and 6th Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri, 1906 * Gunter Hotel,

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

, 1909 * Grand Leader Department Store Model Annex, Washington and 6th Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri, 1911 * Laclede Gas Light Company Building, St. Louis, Missouri, 1911 *

Dallas Municipal Building The Dallas Municipal Building is a Dallas Landmark located along S. Harwood Street between Main and Commerce Street in the Main Street District of downtown Dallas, Texas that served as the city's fourth City Hall. The structure is also a Recorde ...

(as associate architects),

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

, 1912 *

Galvez Hotel The Grand Galvez Resort & Spa is a historic 226-room resort hotel located in Galveston, Texas, United States that opened in 1911 as the Hotel Galvez. It was named to honor Bernardo de Gálvez, 1st Viscount of Galveston, for whom the city was na ...

, Galveston, Texas, 1912 * Railway Exchange Building, St. Louis, Missouri, 1913 * Empire Theater and Brady Building, San Antonio, 1913 *

Rice Hotel The Rice, formerly the Rice Hotel, is an historic building at 909 Texas Avenue in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States. The current building is the third to occupy the site. It was completed in 1913 on the site of the former Capitol buildin ...

, Houston, Texas, 1913. * St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad Building, Joplin, Missouri, 1913 *

Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is one of 12 regional Reserve Banks that, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., make up the United States' central bank. Missouri is the only state to have two main Federal Reserve Banks ( K ...

, St. Louis, Missouri, 1923 * Union Market, St. Louis, Missouri, 1924 *

Southwestern Bell Building The Southwestern Bell Building is a 28-story, skyscraper constructed to be the headquarters of Southwestern Bell Telephone in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. At the time of its construction it was Missouri's tallest building. The building, which ...

, St. Louis, Missouri, 1926 * Police Headquarters and Police Academy, St. Louis, Missouri, 1927-1928 * Missouri Pacific Building, St. Louis, Missouri, 1928 *

Blackstone Hotel The Blackstone Hotel is a historic 21-story hotel on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Balbo Drive in the Michigan Boulevard Historic District in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. Built between 1908 and 1910, it is on the Nation ...

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. Accord ...

, 1929 * St. Louis Globe-Democrat Building, St. Louis, Missouri, 1931 * Federal Courts Building, St. Louis, Missiouri, 1932-1934 * Soldiers' Memorial, with architectural sculpture by

Walker Hancock Walker Kirtland Hancock (June 28, 1901 – December 30, 1998) was an American sculptor and teacher. He created notable monumental sculptures, including the Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial (1950–52) at 30th Street Station in Philadel ...

, St. Louis, Missouri, 1936 *

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-De ...

Printing Plant, St. Louis, Missouri, 1941

References

External links

online biography with photograph
* '' Architecture in Texas, 1895-1945'', by Jay C. Henry
National Historic Register application discussing Mauran's career

emporis list of commissions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mauran, John 1866 births 1933 deaths 19th-century American architects Fellows of the American Institute of Architects Architects from Providence, Rhode Island St. Louis Globe-Democrat people 20th-century American architects Architects from St. Louis Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni St. Anthony Hall