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firm active: 1907-1921 minneapolis, minnesota :: chicago, illinois |
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A. D. Hirschfelder residence, project
Purcell and Elmslie
Minneapolis, Minnesota 1915
Parabiographies entry, Volume for 1915
Text by William Gray Purcell
Job Date (in Parabiographies): February 13, 1915
Dr. A. D. Hirschfelder residence, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Dr. Hirschfelder, a professor from the University of Minnesota, came in when his wife was away in California on a visit, bringing her ideas and instructions on a piece of paper, and to us to proceed to plan them a house, which we did. He had been recommended to us by Dr. Owre, and everything we did seemed just perfect to him. As they were in a great hurry, he authorized us to proceed with working drawings, blueprints of which, when about half completed, were shipped to Mrs. Hirschfelder in California. But there was the rub. As soon as she received the drawings, they were all wrong, and we had a wire to stop work. When she returned a few weeks later, we not only found it impossible to convince her that there was anything right in what we had done, but she was convinced there was no possibility of producing anything that would be acceptable. We therefore placed the partially completed drawings in the file, handed them a bill for services to date and called it a day. They employed Professor Mann, who did them a conventional and practical house with no particular inspiration, and he like ourselves failed to produce his house for a lot less money than it takes to build a house, which is what they were really trying to achieve. They ended up by paying what it takes to build what they wanted.
The interesting thing about this house is that these designs, with very few changes, became the basis of the house which was finally built for the Heitmans in Helena, Montana, our building No. 299. This is one of the most interesting of our dwellings, and one which has brought much appreciative comment. In 1941, the State Architect of Montana, going through it, found it difficult to believe that its fresh, new, modern forms had been produced twenty-five years before.
Collection: William Gray Purcell Papers, Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota [AR:B4d1.9]
research courtesy mark hammons