Bauer, Adolphus Gustavus (1858-1898)
Birthplace:
Martinsburg, West Virginia, USA
Residences:
- Wilmington, North Carolina
- Raleigh, North Carolina
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Trades:
- Architect
Building Types:
Styles & Forms:
Gothic Revival; Queen Anne; Romanesque Revival
A. G. Bauer (December 4, 1858-May 11, 1898), architect, designed some of North Carolina’s most imposing and ebulliently stylish buildings of the late 19th century. He came to North Carolina in 1883 as assistant to architect Samuel Sloan of Philadelphia at a time when the state was embarking on major postwar projects but had few professionally trained resident architects. After Sloan’s death in 1884, Bauer completed some of his former employer’s projects, and subsequently established his own practice that included edifices from Wilmington to Morganton and, chiefly, in Raleigh.
Bauer was born in Martinsburg, Virginia (present West Virginia), the youngest son of Frederick and Sophia Bauer, immigrants from Hanover, Germany. Soon after 1870, the family settled in Bellaire, Ohio, where he spent the remainder of his youth. He was graduated from Bethany College in West Virginia in 1879. After working in Pittsburgh for two years and studying at the Iron City Business College, he entered the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. There he met Samuel Sloan (1815-1884), an important Philadelphia architect then struggling to maintain his practice. Sloan hired him as his draftsman in 1881.
In 1883 Bauer accompanied Sloan on a trip south to assist on commissions under way in North Carolina. Sloan established an office in Raleigh in 1884. In a personal memoir, Bauer recalled that as Sloan’s draftsman, he produced all or part of the working drawings for such important North Carolina projects as the Executive Mansion in Raleigh, Memorial Hall in Chapel Hill, and the Western North Carolina Hospital for the Insane in Morganton.
In July, 1884, Sloan died unexpectedly of sunstroke, leaving Bauer to handle the projects then under construction and others only in the planning stages. To finish the Executive Mansion in Raleigh, Bauer worked closely with contractor William J. Hicks, architect and superintendent of the state penitentiary, and he finished up work on the Chapel Hill and Morganton jobs. In Raleigh, he planned and supervised the Centennial Graded School (1885), originally a Sloan commission, and he took a role in designing other buildings in the capital in association with Hicks and others.
In 1887, he set off for the burgeoning port city of Wilmington, where he assumed the role of contractor as well as designer. There he displayed his growing propensity for highly irregular and dramatic forms, as in the Queen Anne-Shingle style Rufus W. Hicks House (1887) and the Gothic Revival style St. Andrews Presbyterian Church (1887). In 1889, in the midst of a disagreement over the unfinished Hicks project in Wilmington, Bauer left North Carolina. He first embarked on a six month tour of Europe. After returning to the United States in March, 1890, he worked briefly as a draftsman in New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, Lexington, Kentucky (for local architect Herman L. Rowe), and Atlanta (for architect Gottfried L. Norrman, master of an extraordinary range of styles and forms). In the fall of 1890, Bauer moved to establish his own practice and opened an office in Chattanooga.
In 1891, however, he returned to North Carolina at the invitation of Governor Daniel G. Fowle. He promptly took on two major state-sponsored commissions, both in Morganton: the Western North Carolina Hospital for the Insane to expand the complex he had completed from Sloan’s designs; and, one of his largest and best known works, the North Carolina School for the Deaf. With these projects and added experience under his belt, Bauer entered a new chapter in his career in North Carolina. In the 1890s he designed some of the state’s premier examples of the nationally popular Queen Anne style, including large and complex buildings replete with towers and turrets and irregular and dramatic plans and forms. Although many of his buildings of this creative period have been lost, a few survive as prime landmarks of their era.
The North Carolina School for the Deaf, a grand, towered edifice, displayed Bauer’s flair for the Queen Anne style as well as his ability to organize a complex and highly specialized facility, using an E-plan scheme similar to the plan Sloan had employed at the asylum. The school is among the most important examples of late 19th century architecture still standing in the state, remarkable as a survivor from a period and mode of architecture almost entirely lost.
The Morganton projects were soon followed by other major commissions in various cities. In Raleigh, Bauer planned edifices in the High Victorian modes (all now lost), which did much to transform the architectural character of the city: the Park Hotel (1892) and the Academy of Music (1892) for Cary railroad man and contractor Alison Frank Page; the Pullen Building (1894) for Raleigh developer Richard Stanhope Pullen; the Raleigh Fire Headquarters (1895); and the huge, multi-porched Baptist Female University (1895-1899), a fitting neighbor to the Sloan’s and Bauer’s Executive Mansion just across the street.
By 1895, the maturing architect was at the height of his powers. His patrons included many prominent institutions and people, and with news and images of his projects appearing regularly in the Raleigh newspapers, he was something of a local celebrity. Meanwhile, in his personal life, after returning to Raleigh in 1891, he fell in love with the beautiful young Rachel Blythe, the daughter of a Cherokee mother and a white father. Because of state law forbidding marriage between whites and Indians, the two married in a secret ceremony in 1894, and then, after Rachel became pregnant, held a more official service in Washington, D. C. in June, 1895. After the second wedding, they lived openly and happily as man and wife, together with their daughter, Owenah, who was born in October, 1895.
In 1896, however, Bauer’s fortunes took a sudden turn for the worse. On May 2, he was riding in an open carriage in Durham along with contractor Charles N. Norton to visit a building site (Durham’s First Baptist Church). Their carriage was struck by a fast-moving train at a railroad crossing, and both men were severely injured. After the accident and a period of hospitalization at the North Carolina Hospital for the Insane (Dorothea Dix Hospital) in Raleigh, Bauer suffered continually from spells of dizziness and depression and was unable to concentrate long enough to design new buildings. He wrote to his sister in July, 1896, “Last May, when the accident occurred, it seemed to me I was going to do a better years business than ever. I had a great many orders on hand, but when people read from the papers that I was dying, or if I did not die, I would never be able to do work again, they all went to other Architects, and so when I got well enough to get out and try to do work, there was nothing to do but a couple of jobs. If I had them on hand, however, I [would] not feel competent or able to attend to them.”
A suit against the railroad company proceeded slowly and without results. Rachel, who had been ill much of the fall, gave birth to their second child December 27, 1896. On January 9, 1897, Rachel died at age 26. Bauer was forced to disperse their “little family” by sending their infant children to live with Rachel’s relatives. Settling with the railroad company for a reduced sum in order to erect a memorial for Rachel, Bauer created a lovely monument in Raleigh’s Oakwood Cemetery, with a little Classical temple and Rachel’s wedding photograph in a porcelain plaque. Over the next year, despite intensifying headaches, dizziness, and amnesia, Bauer managed one last flurry of public and residential work in Raleigh. Continuing his favored Queen Anne style, he planned the Lucy Catherine Capehart House (1897), one of Raleigh’s best examples of the late Queen Anne mode; the remodeling of the William H. Worth House (1898); and additions to the Colored Deaf and Dumb School (1898). On May 11, 1898, alone in his room, Bauer killed himself with a single gunshot.
As he desired, Bauer was buried beside Rachel in Oakwood Cemetery. Though dying before he was forty, he left a legacy of some of the state’s most dramatic “New South” buildings, displaying the eclectic styles of the day at their most ebullient. Many of his buildings were destroyed in the mid-20th century, some of them only a few years before the pendulum of taste swung back to appreciation of the architecture of the Victorian era. These survive in photographs, complementing the standing monuments of his short, creative, and restless life.
- Charlotte Vestal Brown Papers, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, North Carolina.
- William B. Bushong, “A. G. Bauer, North Carolina’s New South Architect,” North Carolina Historical Review, 60.3 (July 1983).
- Carmine Prioli, “The Indian ‘Princess’ and the Architect: Origin of North Carolina Legend,” North Carolina Historical Review, 60.3 (July, 1983).
Academy of Music
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architect; Allison F. Page, contractorDates:1892
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:302-304 S. Salisbury St., Raleigh, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Educational
Images Published In:William B. Bushong, “A. G. Bauer, North Carolina’s New South Architect,” North Carolina Historical Review, 60.3 (July 1983).
Steven Stolpen, Raleigh : A Pictorial History (1977).
Anson County Courthouse
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architect (remodeling)Dates:1893 [remodeled]
Location:Wadesboro, Anson CountyStreet Address:Wadesboro, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Public
Images Published In:Mary Louise Medley, History of Anson County, 1750-1976 (1976).
Note:The towered building near the center of the postcard view is probably the courthouse as remodeled by Bauer.
Baptist Female University
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architect; North Carolina Car Company, contractorsVariant Name(s):Mansion Park Hotel
Dates:1895-1899
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:N. Blount St. at E. Jones St., Raleigh, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Educational
Images Published In:Catherine W. Bishir, North Carolina Architecture (1990).
William B. Bushong, “A. G. Bauer, North Carolina’s New South Architect,” North Carolina Historical Review, 60.3 (July 1983).
Elizabeth C. Waugh, North Carolina’s Capital, Raleigh (1967).Note:Considered to be Bauer’s masterpiece. Along with his School for the Deaf and Dumb in Morganton, the huge brick edifice was one of the state’s premier examples of the Queen Anne style. It was demolished by the state as a site for an office building in 1967, but the site remains vacant and used for a parking lot as of 2008.
Centennial Graded School
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architect; Ellington, Royster, and Company, contractors; Leonard H. Royster, contractor; Samuel Sloan, architectDates:1883-1885
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:South St. at S end of Fayetteville St., Raleigh, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Educational
Note:The commission for Raleigh’s Centennial Graded School was awarded to architect Samuel Sloan on August 1, 1883, and construction began in November. After Sloan’s death in 1884, the project was completed by his associate A. G. Bauer in 1885. The public school opened in 1876—thus the name—in the old Governor’s Palace (see James Calder) that stood in a prominent position “at the foot of Fayetteville Street.” Notable as an early graded school in the state, Centennial encompassed primary grades through high school. It marked the beginnings of Raleigh’s public school system. After the Governor’s Palace was torn down, the new school was built in 1883-1885, reusing bricks from the previous building. The 1880s school was razed in 1931 and replaced by Raleigh’s Memorial Auditorium (see Atwood and Weeks). See Harold N. Cooledge, Jr., “Samuel Sloan, Architect of Philadelphia” (1986); William B. Bushong, “A. G. Bauer, North Carolina’s New South Architect” (1983); and Murray and Johnson, “Wake: Capital County of North Carolina, Vol. II: Reconstruction to 1920” (2008).
Colored Deaf and Dumb School
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architectDates:1897
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:S. Blount St., Raleigh, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Educational
Images Published In:William B. Bushong, “A. G. Bauer, North Carolina’s New South Architect,” North Carolina Historical Review, 60.3 (July 1983).
Eagle Hotel
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architect (1883, remodeling); William Collier, probable brickmason (1812); Pearson and Ashe, architects (1899); Charles A. Pearson, architect (1899)Variant Name(s):State Agriculture Building; Guion Hotel; National Hotel
Dates:1812; 1870; 1883 [remodeled]; 1899-1900 [addition]
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:NW corner Edenton St. and Halifax St., Raleigh, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Commercial
PublicImages Published In:William B. Bushong, “A. G. Bauer, North Carolina’s New South Architect,” North Carolina Historical Review, 60.3 (July 1983).
Elizabeth C. Waugh, North Carolina’s Capital, Raleigh (1967).Note:The hotel facing the North Carolina State Capitol was built for Charles Parish and began operation in 1812 as the Eagle Hotel, and operated under various names over the years. It was considered Raleigh’s finest hotel for years. By 1870, it had been expanded into a large brick building with double porches. In 1883 it was remodeled by A. G. Bauer to house state offices, and it was headquarters of the state’s agricultural department. It was expanded dramatically in 1899-1900; the News and Observer of August 24, 1899, cited the State Agriculture Building then under construction as the work of Pearson and Ashe. In 1896 it appeared on the Sanborn Map as the State Agriculture Building and State Museum, and by 1903 (Sanborn Map), it had an immense addition that extended down Halifax Street and around the corner on Jones Street. That building was razed to build the current Agriculture Building (1922-1923) by G. Murray Nelson and Thomas Wright Cooper.
Executive Mansion
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, draftsman and architect; William J. Hicks, architect and superintendent; North Carolina Car Company, contractors; Samuel Sloan, architectDates:1883-1891
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:N. Blount St., Raleigh, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Public
Images Published In:Catherine W. Bishir, North Carolina Architecture (1990).
Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina (2003).
William Bushong, North Carolina’s Executive Mansion: The First Hundred Years (1991).Note:For the full story of the development of the Executive Mansion, including the original design by Samuel Sloan and its alterations, see William Bushong, North Carolina’s Executive Mansion: The First Hundred Years (1991).
First Baptist Church
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architect (ca. 1895-1896); Charles H. Norton, builder (ca. 1895-1896)Dates:1877; ca. 1895-1896 [remodeled]
Location:Durham, Durham CountyStreet Address:N. Mangum St., Durham, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Religious
Images Published In:William B. Bushong, “A. G. Bauer, North Carolina’s New South Architect,” North Carolina Historical Review, 60.3 (July 1983).
Joel A. Kostyu and Frank A. Kostyu, Durham: A Pictorial History (1978).
First Presbyterian Church
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architectDates:1894
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:Raleigh, NC
Status:Unbuilt
Type:Religious
Note:A design for Raleigh’s First Presbyterian Church, prepared by Bauer, was exhibited in 1894, but it was several years before the congregation erected a church, which was designed by architect Charles E. Cassell of Baltimore.
Lucy Catherine Capehart House
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architect; Coffey Family, contractors; John W. Coffey, contractorDates:1897-1898
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:400 block N. Blount St., Raleigh, NC
Status:Moved
Type:Residential
Images Published In:William Bushong, North Carolina’s Executive Mansion: The First Hundred Years (1991).
Linda L. Harris and Mary Ann Lee, An Architectural and Historical Inventory of Raleigh, North Carolina (1978).Note:The Capehart House originally stood on N. Wilmington St. but was moved to N. Blount St. in the late 20th century to avoid demolition for development of the state government mall.
Memorial Hall
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, draftsman and architect; Samuel Sloan, architectDates:1883-1885
Location:Chapel Hill, Orange CountyStreet Address:University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Educational
Images Published In:Catherine W. Bishir, North Carolina Architecture (1990).
William B. Bushong, “A. G. Bauer, North Carolina’s New South Architect,” North Carolina Historical Review, 60.3 (July 1983).
Norburn Terrace
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architectDates:1898
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:N. Person St., Raleigh, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Linda L. Harris and Mary Ann Lee, An Architectural and Historical Inventory of Raleigh, North Carolina (1978).
Note:Family tradition credited Bauer with the design of the brick house with tower; no documentation supports the attribution.
North Carolina Insane Asylum for the Colored
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architectVariant Name(s):Eastern Insane Asylum; Cherry Hospital
Dates:1895
Location:Goldsboro, Wayne CountyStreet Address:Goldsboro, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Health Care
Images Published In:William B. Bushong, “A. G. Bauer, North Carolina’s New South Architect,” North Carolina Historical Review, 60.3 (July 1983).
North Carolina School for the Deaf
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architectVariant Name(s):School for the Deaf and Dumb
Dates:1891
Location:Morganton, Burke CountyStreet Address:US 64 at Fleming Dr., Morganton, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Health Care
Images Published In:Catherine W. Bishir, Michael T. Southern, and Jennifer F. Martin, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Western North Carolina (1999).
William B. Bushong, “A. G. Bauer, North Carolina’s New South Architect,” North Carolina Historical Review, 60.3 (July 1983).
Odd Fellows Home
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architectDates:1895-1896
Location:Goldsboro, Wayne CountyStreet Address:Goldsboro, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Fraternal
Images Published In:William B. Bushong, “A. G. Bauer, North Carolina’s New South Architect,” North Carolina Historical Review, 60.3 (July 1983).
Park Hotel
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architect; Allison F. Page, contractorVariant Name(s):Park Central Hotel
Dates:1891-1894
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:S. McDowell St., Raleigh, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Commercial
Images Published In:William B. Bushong, “A. G. Bauer, North Carolina’s New South Architect,” North Carolina Historical Review, 60.3 (July 1983).
Elizabeth C. Waugh, North Carolina’s Capital, Raleigh (1967).Note:Allison F. Page is described as the developer and evidently the builder of the fashionable Queen Anne style hotel with its striking corner tower. It was located beside Nash Square and convenient to the railroad depot. Page’s biographer said, “It is known to his intimate friends that he built the Park Hotel in Raleigh because he wanted to see in the capital of his State a first class hotel without a saloon.” (J. N. Cole, “Allison Francis Page” in Ashe, ed., Biographical Dictionary of North Carolina.)
Pullen Building
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architectDates:1894
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:336 Fayetteville St. (at Davie St.), Raleigh, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Commercial
Images Published In:William B. Bushong, “A. G. Bauer, North Carolina’s New South Architect,” North Carolina Historical Review, 60.3 (July 1983).
Raleigh Fire Headquarters
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architectDates:1895
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:Morgan St., Raleigh, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Public
Images Published In:Steven Stolpen, Raleigh : A Pictorial History (1977).
Rufus W. Hicks House
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architectDates:1887
Location:Wilmington, New Hanover CountyStreet Address:Wilmington, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:William B. Bushong, “A. G. Bauer, North Carolina’s New South Architect,” North Carolina Historical Review, 60.3 (July 1983).
Emma Woodward MacMillan, Wilmington’s Vanished Homes and Buildings (1966).
Rufus W. Hicks Store
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architectDates:1887
Location:Wilmington, New Hanover CountyStreet Address:Wilmington, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Commercial
St. Andrews Presbyterian Church
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architectDates:1888-1889
Location:Wilmington, New Hanover CountyStreet Address:520 N. 4th St., Wilmington, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Religious
Images Published In:William B. Bushong, “A. G. Bauer, North Carolina’s New South Architect,” North Carolina Historical Review, 60.3 (July 1983).
Beverly Tetterton, Wilmington: Lost But Not Forgotten (2005).
St. Mary's School
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, possible architect; Samuel Sloan, possible architectVariant Name(s):Language Arts Building
Dates:1883-1887
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:St. Mary’s Campus, Hillsborough St., Raleigh, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Educational
Note:The News and Observer of June 20, 1883, cited a commission for Sloan and published specifications. The Language Arts Building, dated 1887, has features in common with the Executive Mansion; whether it was the work of Sloan or perhaps Bauer after him has not been determined.
State Exposition Building
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architect; William J. Hicks, contractor, architect; North Carolina Car Company, contractor; Samuel Sloan, architectDates:1884
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:Raleigh, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Public
Images Published In:Catherine W. Bishir, Charlotte V. Brown, Carl R. Lounsbury, and Ernest H. Wood III, Architects and Builders in North Carolina: A History of the Practice of Building (1990).
Note:The large, impermanent exhibition building, prefabricated of wood and encompassing 75,000 square feet of exhibit space, was built by the North Carolina Car Company for a state exposition that represented rebuilding and renewal after the Civil War.
Supreme Court Building
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architect; William J. Hicks, architectVariant Name(s):Labor Building
Dates:1885
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:W. Edenton St. at Salisbury St., Raleigh, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Public
Images Published In:William B. Bushong, “A. G. Bauer, North Carolina’s New South Architect,” North Carolina Historical Review, 60.3 (July 1983).
Elizabeth C. Waugh, North Carolina’s Capital, Raleigh (1967).Note:The photograph shows the Supreme Court Building on the left.
Tabernacle Baptist Church
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architect (1891); James Matthew Kennedy, architect (1909)Dates:1879-1881; 1891 [remodeled]; 1909 [remodeled]
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:E. Hargett St. at Person St., Raleigh, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Religious
Images Published In:Linda L. Harris and Mary Ann Lee, An Architectural and Historical Inventory of Raleigh, North Carolina (1978).
Western North Carolina Hospital for the Insane
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architect (1886); Samuel Sloan, architect (1875-1883); James Walker, contractor (1875-1883; 1886)Variant Name(s):Broughton Hospital
Dates:1875-1883; 1886 [addition]; 1890s [addition]
Location:Morganton, Burke CountyStreet Address:Broughton Rd., Morganton, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Health Care
Images Published In:Catherine W. Bishir, North Carolina Architecture (1990).
Catherine W. Bishir, Michael T. Southern, and Jennifer F. Martin, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Western North Carolina (1999).
William B. Bushong, “A. G. Bauer, North Carolina’s New South Architect,” North Carolina Historical Review, 60.3 (July 1983).
Harold N. Cooledge, Jr., Samuel Sloan, Architect of Philadelphia, 1814-1884 (1986).Note:Completion of the Western North Carolina Hospital for the Insane, as designed by Samuel Sloan and with James Walker serving as contractor, was delayed due to financial problems and stopped in 1883, with only the central section and one wing completed. After Sloan’s death in 1884, A. G. Bauer designed the building’s north wing, which was built in 1886. An annex was added a few years later.
William H. Worth House
Contributors:A. G. Bauer, architectDates:1898 [remodeled]
Location:Raleigh, Wake CountyStreet Address:Raleigh, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Residential