Personal Data

Julius Adolphe Schweinfurth was born on September 20, 1858, in Auburn, New York, the son of Charles j. Schweinfurth and his wife, Katherine Ammon.

He married on April 29, 1889, in Boston, to Mary Frances (Fannie) Bellows (b. 2May1860 in Chelsea; d. Jun1936 in Wolfeboro NH), daughter of Charles Franklin Bellows and his wife, Mary Frances Snow.

Julius Schweinfurth died on September 29, 1931, in Wellesley Farms.

Career

Julius Schweinfurth and his three brothers, Charles Frederick Schweinfurth, Albert C. Schweinfurth and Henry G. B. Schweinfurth, all were architects.

In about 1880, Julius and Albert Schweinfurth joined the firm of Peabody and Stearns as draftsmen. They remained there until about 1883, when Julius moved to Cleveland to join his brother Charles’s firm. Albert moved to New York at about the same time to join the firm of A. Page Brown.

In 1884, Julius Schweinfurth traveled to Europe to photograph and sketch cathedrals and other buildings. Bainbridge Bunting’s Houses of Boston’s Back Bay indicates that he traveled under the auspices of the Rotch Travelling Fellowship of the Boston Society of Architects. Stephen Neitz’s Julius A. Schweinfurth Master Designer, however, states that Bunting was incorrect and that he did not receive the Fellowship, which was open only to graduates of MIT.

Julius Schweinfurth returned to Peabody and Stearns, rising to chief designer before starting his own firm in 1895. Thereafter, he gradually built up a large, national practice, working in the full range of revived styles available before and after the turn of the Twentieth Century.

His works include numerous schools, the Baptist Church in Brookline (1907; demolished 1973), the dormitory quadrangle and Hemenway Gymnasium at Wellesley College (1903-1909), and the Garden Building at 248 Boylston (1911).

For more information, see Julius A. Schweinfurth Master Designer 1858-1931, by Stephen J. Neitz, edited by Wheaton A. Holden; Northeastern University (1975)

Back Bay Work