Paul Johannes Pelz was born on November 18, 1841 in Poniatów, Waldenburg, Silesia, Poland (then Seitendorf, Waldenburg, Silesia, Germany). He was the son of Eduard L. and Henriette (Helfensreiter) Pelz. His father was a historian and writer, and in the revolutionary movement of 1848 was a member of the Frankfort parliament. He found it, therefore, advisable to leave Germany in 1849, and two years later settled in New York, where he wrote copiously on subjects interesting to German immigrants, publishing his work in Chicago, New York, and Germany.
Education
Paul Johannes Pelz remained behind in Germany, receiving his academic education at the colleges of St. Elizabeth and of the Holy Spirit in Breslau.
Career
In 1858 Paul Johannes Pelz came to New York to join his family. The next year he became an apprentice in the architectural office of Detlef Lienau. Here he stayed until 1866, becoming chief draftsman in 1864. After leaving Lienau, he was briefly employed by an architect named Fernbach; but within a few months left New York and went to Washington, where he entered the service of the United States Lighthouse Board. As its chief draftsman from 1872 until 1877, he was concerned in the designing of a great number of lighthouses, including such beautiful towers as those at Body's Island, Noth Carolina, in brick and stone, and Spectacle Reef, Lake Huron, all in stone, with a fine stone balcony cornice. In 1873 he was sent with Maj. George H. Elliot on a tour of inspection to study the lighthouse services of the European powers and contributed many illustrations to Elliot's report. Meanwhile, outside of his lighthouse work, he was making designs in association with various other architects.
In 1873, with John L. Smithmeyer, Paul Johannes Pelz entered the competition for a plan for the Library of Congress, and their design received the first prize. For more than a dozen years thereafter there was vacillation on the part of Congress with regard to the Library, and the plan was studied and restudied; twelve entirely different designs are said to have been prepared. In 1886, the building was authorized and Smithmeyer was appointed architect, but in 1888 the Library Commission was legislated out of existence and the work placed in the hands of Brig. -Gen. Thomas L. Casey, chief of engineers of the army. Smithmeyer was removed but Pelz was retained and directed to prepare a new design, which was followed. In it Pelz returned to the basic ideas of the first competitive scheme.
On the completion of the drawings (May 1, 1892) his connection with the building ceased, and it was executed under the supervision of E. P. Casey, of New York, the General's son. The exterior and interior design of the building are far inferior in dignity to the plan, which was epoch-making in its day; at the time of the competition, when the general lines were determined, there was not a contemporary building to compare with it in monumental conception, clarity of thinking, and functional directness. The arrangements for architectural fees on the work were vague, and Smithmeyer and Pelz brought suit in the Court of Claims for $210, 000 (or 3% of the alleged cost of the building, a standard architect's fee).
On appeal, the Supreme Court, January 23, 1893, upheld the decision of the Court of Claims, awarding Smithmeyer and Pelz six years' combined salary at $8, 000 a year over and above their office and drafting costs. Besides the lighthouses and the Library, Pelz's work (mainly in association with Smithmeyer) included the Academic Building of Georgetown University; Carnegie Library and Music Hall, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; the federal army and navy hospital, Hot Springs, Ark. ; the Chamberlain Hotel, Fortress Monroe, Virginia; the Aula Christi, Chautauqua, New York; and the Administration Building of the Clinical Hospital of the University of Virginia. He died in Washington, D. C. on March 30, 1918.
Achievements
Connections
Pelz's first wife, Louise Dorothea Kipp, died in 1894. On February 23, 1895, Paul Johannes Pelz was married to Mary Eastbourne (Ritter) Meem, daughter of Gen. Horatio Gates Ritter. They had a son and a daughter.