Career
During the Gilded Age, he became a "sculptor of great renown in the Detroit area." The Julius T. Melchers House (1897) by Donaldson and Meier is located at 723 Seyburn, in the Indian Village Historic District on which Julius carved the ornate gable. Julius Theodore Melchers, was born in Soest, Westphalia, Prussia At age fifteen, while still in Prussia, Julius T. Melchers studied carving then studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris with Carpeaux and Étexas Before moving to the United States he worked as a modeler at the Crystal Palace in London as well as carving ships figureheads.
Julius T. Melchers served as Vice President of B. According to Nawrocki and Holleman, Julius T. Melchers was Detroit"s first sculptor.
Bela Hubbard (1814–1896), a lumber baron and real estate mogul, commissioned Julius T. Melchers to carve the "larger than life" sandstone statues of Detroit"s four French pioneers, French Jacques Marquette, Sieur de LaSalle, Antoine Cadillac, and French
Gabriel Richard installed in 1874 on the old Detroit City Hall (1871). Architect John M. Donaldson had created the model Melchers had used for the statue of Marquette.
When the old Detroit City Hall was demolished in 1961 the statues were saved and moved to the campus of Wayne State University.