Background
Allen H. Stem was born in 1856 in Van Wert, Ohio, United States.
Allen H. Stem was born in 1856 in Van Wert, Ohio, United States.
He moved to Indianapolis to attend Art School.
He began architectural training in the office of J. H. Ste, and during six subsequent years (1878-84) practiced jointly with the elder architect.
During the partners thirty years of practice they designed the Civic Audi¬torium in St. Paul, (1907), Athletic Club, the St. Paul Hotel, Medical Buildings at the University of Minnesota, the Denver (Colorado) Auditorium, and in Michigan City, Ind., the City Public Library. They were more widely known however as specialists in Railroad Station work, with over a hundred such buildings designed by them on several main lines. Reed & Stem’s outstanding achievement was the Grand Central Station and the adjoining Biltmore Hotel in New York, on which they were associated with the New York architectural firm of Warren & Wetmore. At the opening of the Station in 1913 (two years after Mr. Reed's decease) his firm was given credit for the "engineer- architect" features of the vast structure, and Warren & Wetmore for the broad outlines of design and "general esthetic treatment."
For a decade prior to his retirement in 1920, Mr. Stem was associated in practice with Roy H. Haslund, maintaining an office in St. Paul under the firm name of Stem and Haslund.