Alexander C. Eschweiler

Alexander C. Eschweiler

Alexander Chadbourne Eschweiler (August 10, 1865 – June 12, 1940) was an American architect, with a practice in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that built both residences and commercial structures. His eye-catching Japonist pagoda design for filling stations for Wadham's Oil and Grease Company of Milwaukee were repeated over a hundred times, though only a very few survive. His substantial turn-of-the-twentieth-century residences for the Milwaukee business elite, in conservative Jacobethan or neo-Georgian idioms, have preserved their cachet in the city.

Eschweiler was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He studied at Marquette University and Cornell University, graduating in 1890. Eschweiler opened his practice in Milwaukee in 1892. In 1923 his sons, Alexander C. Eschweiler Jr., Theodore, and Carl joined him in practice.

The Eschweiler Prize is made from a bequest of Alexander C. Eschweiler, Jr., ’15 in memory of his father Alexander C. Eschweiler, Sr., ’90. An annual award of approximately $3,000* is given to a student in architecture with high scholastic achievement who has been accepted in one of the architecture graduate programs at Cornell. *Amount of award may vary from year to year. .

A number of Eschweiler works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Eighty-one surviving commissions were noted in the exhibition "Alexander Eschweiler in Milwaukee: Celebrating a Rich Architectural Heritage" Charles Allis Art Museum, 2007.