31 Facts About Robert Seyfarth

Robert Seyfarth was an American architect based in Chicago, Illinois.

Robert Seyfarth spent the formative years of his professional career working for the noted Prairie School architect George Washington Maher.

Robert Seyfarth grew up as a member of a prominent local family.

Robert Seyfarth was a member of the school board when Blue Island built its first brick schoolhouse in 1856, and served as clerk and later as assessor for the township of Worth from 1854 until he died in 1860.

Edward Robert Seyfarth was active in community affairs on many levels.

Charles A Seyfarth was one of the founding members of the Blue Island Elks in 1916.

Robert Seyfarth began his architectural education at the Chicago Manual Training School, which was founded by the Commercial Club out of a concern for the quality of the education of skilled labor in the Chicago region.

Besides his classes in drawing Robert Seyfarth studied mathematics, English, French, Latin, history, physics, chemistry, foundry and forgework, machine shopwork, woodwork, political economy and civil government.

Robert Seyfarth attended classes and graduated in 1895 with the son of Dankmar Adler, the son and the nephew of Henry Demarest Lloyd and with Henry Horner who was the governor of Illinois from 1933 until the time of his death.

Robert Seyfarth is known to have entered his work at two of these exhibitions - the first time in 1903, when his submission was listed as a "Library", and again in 1905, where the subject of the entry was his own house in Blue Island.

Robert Seyfarth graduated from the Chicago Manual Training School in 1895, and literature published by the school shows his position upon graduation to be that of a "Draughtsman" for the Chicago architect August Fiedler.

Robert Seyfarth designed some of the woodwork and other decoration for the Samuel Nickerson House on Erie Street in Chicago, and the interiors of the Hegeler Carus Mansion in LaSalle, Illinois.

Robert Seyfarth began his career as an architect at the age of 17 working for Fiedler during the time the latter was architect to the board of education, and records show his position at the time he was hired to be "messenger", for which he was compensated with a salary of $6.00 per week.

Fiedler operated out of offices in Adler and Sullivan's Schiller Building, and Robert Seyfarth was almost certainly introduced to him through his uncle Henry Biroth, who was one of the earliest pharmacists in Chicago and served at various times as the secretary and president of the Illinois Pharmaceutical Association, which occupied offices down the hall from Fiedler.

The Robert Seyfarth family had been acquainted with Fiedler for several years before Robert Seyfarth began to attend Chicago Manual Training School.

How long the young Robert Seyfarth worked for Fiedler and the board of education is not known, but by 1900 he was working for George Washington Maher on the renovation of the interior of the Nickerson mansion for Lucius Fisher.

Robert Seyfarth was born in Mill Creek, West Virginia, and at about the age of five, due to the adverse economic conditions in Mill Creek at the time, his family moved to New Albany, Indiana.

Robert Seyfarth briefly enjoyed a professional relationship with Northwestern University in Evanstion, Illinois, where in 1909 he designed Swift Hall and the first Patten Gymnasium.

Robert Seyfarth began to offer his services as an independent architect almost immediately after his graduation from Chicago Manual Training School.

Robert Seyfarth earned his architectural license from the state of Illinois in October 1908 and continued to work for Maher until about 1909, at which time he opened his own practice.

Robert Seyfarth later moved into the newly completed Tribune Tower, where he had an office on the twenty-first floor until 1934 when the Depression forced the move of his business to his home in the North Shore community of Highland Park.

Robert Seyfarth's was a small office - he did the design, drafting and supervision work himself, and for many years was assisted by Miss Eldridge, who typed specifications and generally kept the office running.

Robert Seyfarth's houses were all true to the North Shore.

Robert Seyfarth had a knack, kind of a freshness to it, and it was good.

Robert Seyfarth continued to live and work in Highland Park until his death on March 1,1950.

The Chicago History Museum Research Center has an archive consisting of drawings for 70 of Robert Seyfarth's projects dating after 1932.

Robert Seyfarth is sometimes considered to be a "society architect", and an examination of the body of his known work will bear this out, but only to a certain extent.

All of this notwithstanding a careful analysis will show that Robert Seyfarth served a broad-based clientele, and although he has a number of small houses to his credit the largest percentage of his work was done for what would be considered upper middle-class clients.

Robert Seyfarth had designed a house for him at 230 Fairview Road in Glencoe in 1919 that appeared in The Western Architect the following year, and an addition to the Dartnell Corporation building at R avenswood and Leland Avenues in Chicago in 1932.

Robert Seyfarth later sold the property for a $500,000 loss and returned to California.

Robert Seyfarth's buildings provided their owners with architecture that offered the most up-to-date conveniences and floorplans that were considered modern - but that was carefully imbued with the warmth and character of earlier times.