John Ludwig Wees, 1861-1942 (FAIA), was born in Alsace Lorraine and educated in Heidelberg, Germany. He spent a year studying architecture in Paris before emigrating to the United States in 1879, at the age of nineteen.

Wees worked in a sewing machine factory in Bridgeport, Connecticut and studied art at night school before finding a job as a draftsman with an architectural firm. After working on projects in Bridgeport and New York City, he arrived in St. Louis around 1882 and became a draftsman for August M. Beinke--a former carpenter who opened an architectural office in 1873.

Wees married a St. Louisan in 1887; the first of four children was born the following year. By the mid 1890s, Wees' parents had left Germany to live with the young family at 1541 Marcus.

Wees became head draftsman and then partner (1890-94) in Beinke's firm. Known works designed by the partnership include numerous houses, the West End Hotel (razed), the grandstand for Sportsman's Park (razed), the Surgical & Gynecological Hospital at 410 N. Jefferson (also razed) and the former Beethoven Conservatory--still standing at the northwest corner of 23rd and Lucas Streets.

Beinke retired in 1894, the year Wees became a member of the St. Louis Chapter of the AIA. Before the turn of the century, Wees' portfolio on his own included residential work (the most prominent being the Dozier House in Westmoreland Place), mercantile and industrial buildings, a hospital and a business college. Early 20th century work was even more diversified: the loft building at 1224-26 Washington Avenue, the apartments at the southwest corner of Lindell and Boyle, a temporary hotel for the World's Fair, a saloon for the Home Brewing Co. at 300 DeBaliviere, a hospital at 4125 West Belle and the B'nai El Temple (now Temple Apartments) on Flad Avenue in the Shaw neighborhood.

Although residential commissions remained an important part of his practice (4626 Maryland, 5032 McPherson, 5239 Westminster, 4487 Westminster, 3558 Crittenden, 3225 Longfellow, 30 Brentmoor, etc.), it was a 1902 commission from wholesale grocer Henry B. Krenning that led to Wees' most innovative St. Louis work: the 1911-12 Dorris Motor Car factory and showroom at 4100 Laclede. (Krenning was President and the major shareholder in Dorris.)

The Dorris Building is the earliest known St. Louis example of mushroom capital/ paneled slab construction, the most advanced reinforced concrete technology of the day and one eminently suited for the new automobile industry.

One of Wees' last St. Louis projects was an elaborate plan for the riverfront. Published in November of 1915 by the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, the plan (prepared for the River Front Docks and Plaza Association) featured three triumphal arches, the center one topped by an equestrian statue. The organization also urged the construction of a plaza on Market Street from the river to Twelfth Street.

Wees left St. Louis in 1916 for Paris, Texas where a fire had devastated the downtown. Among the buildings destroyed were those owned by Rufus Scott, a client for whom Wees had already designed a house in Paris. In addition to work for Scott, Wees won competitions for the American National Bank, the Paris City Hall and Fire Station. By 1920, he had closed his St. Louis office. Between 1921 and 1936 Wees designed the coliseum at Paris, Texas, fountains in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Paris, a World War I monument in Paris, the Paris Public Library and numerous houses and commercial buildings. In 1936, he enrolled in the CCC camp near Tyler, Texas where he served as a foreman and taught art for 20 months.

Wees died in Paris, Texas in 1942 at age 83, survived by his wife and children who had chosen to remain in St. Louis. According to a grandson, original linen drawings of Wees' St. Louis work "were washed until white and suitable for making pillowcases, etc. during the early 30s."

All information and illustrations on these pages
are from the collections of the Landmarks Association of St. Louis, Inc.
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