Eisenmann, John

Biography

John Eisenmann was born in Detroit and educated in Monroe, Michigan. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1871. He served as the assistant United States engineer in the Lake Survey Service. He then went to Europe to study architecture, graduating from the Polytechnical School at Stuttgart. He then took a course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He came to Cleveland in 1878. In 1882 he accepted a position as professor of engineering at Case School of Applied Science. In 1887 he went into private practice. He was the landscape architect and superintendent of parks while Wade Park was improved and was the supervising architect for the Board of Education from 1883 until 1889. He supervised the construction of many local schools, as well as hospitals, churches, and other small public buildings in Pennsylvania and other states. He is best known as the architect, along with George Smith, of the Old Arcade, the stellar example of that building type in the country.He was appointed by Governor McKinley as member of the state house commission and was the architect of the Ohio Building at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo (1900). In 1903 Mayor Tom Johnson appointed him to a new building code commission.