Justus F. Krumbein (1847November 1907) was an architect based in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, United States, whose work included

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanesque ...

designs and

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

cast-iron architecture Cast-iron architecture is the use of cast iron in buildings and objects, ranging from bridges and markets to warehouses, balconies and fences. Refinements developed during the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century made cast iron relative ...

. Little of his work survived the 20th Century.

Early life and education

Krumbein was born in 1847 near

Hamburg, Germany (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. At the age of 15, he became a student of architecture at the Hannover Polytechnic School, and he graduated with honors in 1867. He returned to Hamburg and worked as an architectural

drafter A drafter (also draughtsman / draughtswoman in British and Commonwealth English, draftsman / draftswoman or drafting technician in American and Canadian English) is an engineering technician who makes detailed technical drawings or plans for m ...

for two years, then in 1869 he immigrated to the United States under the name Fritz Krumbein.

Career

Krumbein arrived in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

on July 9, 1869, and he worked in architectural firms until 1871. In that year he moved to Portland and formed a partnership with

contractor A contractor is a person or company that performs work on a contract basis. The term may refer to: Business roles * Defense contractor, arms industry which provides weapons or military goods to a government * General contractor, an individual o ...

Elwood M. Burton. Soon thereafter he formed a partnership with W. G. Gilbert.

Gilbert and Krumbein

During his partnership with Gilbert, Krumbein designed the 1871

Jacob Kamm House The Jacob Kamm House, also called the Jacob Kamm Mansion, is a French Second Empire style mansion in Portland, Oregon, built in 1871. It was moved from its original location on SW 14th and Main to its current location in Goose Hollow in 1950 to m ...

. Gilbert and Krumbein were selected in 1872 to design the Oregon State Capitol Building in

Salem Salem may refer to: Places Canada Ontario * Bruce County ** Salem, Arran–Elderslie, Ontario, in the municipality of Arran–Elderslie ** Salem, South Bruce, Ontario, in the municipality of South Bruce * Salem, Dufferin County, Ontario, part ...

. The building featured cast-iron ornamentation over brick and limestone, and construction required 400 masons. Total cost was less than $200,000. When construction was completed in 1876, Krumbein was forced to petition the Oregon legislature for remittance of his unpaid fees in the amount of $733.80. The building burned in 1935 and was replaced in 1936.

Williams and Krumbein

The firm Gilbert and Krumbein dissolved soon after the Oregon State Capitol Building award, and in 1874 Krumbein formed a new partnership with

Warren Heywood Williams Warren Heywood Williams (1844 in New York City – January 1888) was an American architect, who spent most of his career working in the U.S. state of Oregon. Starting in 1860, he apprenticed in San Francisco as a draftsman at the architectur ...

. The partnership lasted until 1878, and in at least one case the design credit between the two partners would later be in dispute. Williams and Krumbein designed the First Presbyterian Church of Seattle in 1876, later demolished. The architects also have been credited with designing the Fechheimer & White Building, although the building was constructed after the partnership ended. In characterizing the differences between Williams and Krumbein, architectural historian William J. Hawkins observed, "Of the two major architects of the cast-iron era in Portland, Warren H. Williams and Justus Krumbein, the latter probably left the more exuberant legacy. While Williams' work displayed the elegance and refinement for which Victorian Portland was famous, Krumbein's work often veered toward the spectacular."

Other projects

After his work with Williams ended, Krumbein continued in business without a partner. He designed the Couch and Failing schools (both demolished) for Portland Public Schools in the early 1880s. In 1892 Krumbein designed the

Ancient Order of United Workmen Temple The Ancient Order of United Workmen Temple, also known as the Tourny Building, was a historic building located at the intersection of Southwest 2nd Avenue and Taylor Street in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. The six-story building was comp ...

at SW Second and Taylor Street in downtown Portland. The Richardsonian Romanesque building has been described as "brooding" and "foreboding." Although attributed to Krumbein, the building may have been designed by his drafter, Lionel Deane. The Bickel Block at NW First and Couch Street was constructed in 1883 and became part of the Portland campus of the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

, known as the White Stag Block, in 2006. The Bickel building features Italianate, cast-iron architecture. In 1884 Krumbein designed the Kamm Block, a building that has been described as one of Portland's most decorative and palatial. After fire destroyed parts of the building in 1892 and again in 1939, it was demolished in 1948. Krumbein was one of seven architects chosen to design exhibition halls for the 1905

Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition The Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, commonly also known as the Lewis and Clark Exposition, and officially known as the Lewis and Clark Centennial and American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair, was a worldwide exposition held in Portlan ...

. After a brief illness, Krumbein died in 1907 at the age of 60.

References

External links

A Timeline of Oregon's Capitols - 1859 to Present

Photograph of the Krumbein House
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Krumbein, Justus 1847 births 1907 deaths 19th-century American architects 20th-century American architects Architects from Portland, Oregon German emigrants to the United States Architects from Hamburg University of Hanover alumni