ALFRED F. ROSENHEIM

Los Angeles County

Biographies

ALFRED F. ROSENHEIM

    ROSENHEIM, ALFRED F., Architect, Los Angeles, California, was born in St. Louis, June 10, 1859. His father was Morris Rosenheim and his mother, before marriage, was Mathilda Ottenheimer. In 1884 he married Frances Graham Wheelock, at Boston, Massachusetts.
    His equipment for the important works which have stamped his name permanently on the history of Los Angeles was thorough; from the public schools of St. Louis he went in 1872 to Hassel’s Institute at Frankfort-on-Main, Germany, staying there over two years and achieving an absorption of broad European standards which were to be of great value to him in later life. He returned to this country and during the terms 1874-79 he was a student at Washington University in St. Louis. The years 1879-81 he spent at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, as a “special student” in architecture, entering the same as a third year “regular” on the strength of the record made at St. Louis.
    In 1884, after his marriage, he returned to his native city, St. Louis, where he began his professional career by entering the employ of Major Francis D. Lee, then by far the leading architect of that city.
    Mr. Rosenheim’s progress was rapid and forecasted the remarkable success he was to attain; for Major Lee died in August of 1885, and in that brief space of time Mr. Rosenheim found himself in a position to practice on his own account and succeeded to the business of his late employer January1, 1886.
    At once he was placed in a foremost position in his profession by the number and importance of his undertakings; from this date until his removal to Los Angeles, Feb. 1, 1903, his work was constant and varied in all important departments of construction; all classes of structures mark his efforts in and about St. Louis, and as far north as Minneapolis, south as far as New Orleans and east as far as Boston.
    The knowledge of the quality of his work and his comprehensiveness spread to such an extent that when in 1903 the late Herman W. Hellman devised his project of erecting the monument to his memory—the magnificent structure on the north-east corner of Fourth and Spring streets, he selected Mr. Rosenheim as his architect, after carefully investigating his record and personally inspecting his work in the East. Mr. Rosenheim moved to Los Angeles Feb. 1, 1903, to commence actual operations on the H. W. Hellman Building.
    The result was such a commanding success that Mr Rosenheim found his services in great demand, and opened permanent offices in Los Angeles, where many of his creations in beauty and utility are found among the most imposing of the buildings which grace the city.
    His next important undertaking was the magnificent building of the Hamburger Department Store at Eighth street and Broadway, an edifice which has been pronounced by experts to be the equal of any and superior to most of similar establishments of the world. Another and most impressively beautiful edifice from the capacity of Mr. Rosenheim’s brain is the remarkable Second Church of Christ, Scientist, on West Adams street, which is deservedly a building of great pride to its congregation and a show place for visitors of discernment of the beautiful.
    Other equally important structures created by Mr. Rosenheim are “Mercantile Place,” the original Security Banking Room in the Hellman Building; the premises occupied by Montgomery Brothers, Jewelers; banking room of the Merchants’ National Bank, buildings for Anheuser-Busch and the Los Angeles Brewery. The list includes buildings for the Hicks-Hager Estate, for Newmark Brothers, Wm. H. Clune and for many others.

    His capacity for the designing, both in point of effectiveness and resourcefulness, has been shown in his plans for the offices occupied by James H. Adams and Company, R. A. Rowan and Company, Robert Marsh and Company and many others. Cafe Bristol and the Bristol Pier (Santa Monica) are also his work.
    In no less degree than his work for commercial undertakings has Mr. Rosenheim achieved a deserved renown as a designer of beautiful homes. Those who have seen the houses occupied by Mr. Carl Leonardt, Robert Marsh, E. W. Britt, John Howze, Edward L. Doheny, D. A. Hamburger, A. C. Bird, Jas. B. True have enjoyed the symmetry and adroitness of perception of environment shown by Mr. Rosenheim.
    Mr. Rosenheim is a “Fellow Member” of the American Institute of Architects and a member of its Directory; he is a member of the Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and has been its past president for three consecutive terms; he is a member and director of the Engineers and Architects’ Association of Southern California and is its past president; he is also president of Architectural League of the Pacific Coast; member Municipal Art Commission of the City of Los Angeles; president Fine Arts League of Los Angeles; member Los Angeles Architectural Club; member Board of Governors of Museum of History, Science and Art, at Exposition Park, and member of the American Society for Testing Materials.

Transcribed 4-9-11 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 633, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.

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