Charles Alfred Hausler (January 27, 1889 – July 12, 1971) was an American architect. Over his long career he had a major impact on the built environment of

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, ...

. As the first person to hold the office of city architect, he designed many public buildings, including Saint Paul's three Carnegie libraries. He also designed churches, commercial buildings, and homes in a variety of styles, including Neoclassical,

Prairie School Prairie School is a late 19th and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped i ...

, and

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

Early life and education

Hausler was born in Saint Paul's West Seventh neighborhood in 1889. After attending

Mechanic Arts High School Mechanic Arts High School was a high school in Saint Paul, Minnesota, which operated from 1911 to 1976. The school was part of the Saint Paul Public Schools district. Located near downtown, Frogtown and the Rondo neighborhood, it was a prominent ...

for a few years, he apprenticed for several of the top architects in the American Midwest, including Clarence H. Johnston Sr. in Saint Paul,

Harry Wild Jones Harry Wild Jones (June 9, 1859 – September 25, 1935) was an American architect based in Minneapolis who designed throughout the country and the world. Born two years before the start of the American Civil War, Jones, a twelfth-generation New ...

in Minneapolis, and

Louis Sullivan Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago school (architecture), Chicago ...

in Chicago. This was all before Hausler was twenty, by which time he had returned to Saint Paul and begun practicing architecture. He worked with a number of young, talented partners, including

Percy Dwight Bentley The English surname Percy is of Norman origin, coming from Normandy to England, United Kingdom. It was from the House of Percy, Norman lords of Northumberland, and derives from the village of Percy-en-Auge in Normandy. From there, it came into ...

, who became one of the leading Prairie School architects.

City architect

Saint Paul created the office of the city architect in 1914, and Hausler, who was only twenty-five, was the first person to hold the position. Under his direction the office designed schools, fire stations, police stations, garages, and park buildings. In 1915, Hausler hired Clarence W. Wigington as the office's senior draftsman; this was the beginning of Wigington's career as a municipal architect in Saint Paul.

One of Hausler's first duties as city architect was overseeing the construction of the

Saint Paul Public Library The Saint Paul Public Library is a library system serving the residents of Saint Paul, Minnesota, in the United States. The library system includes a Central Library, twelve branch locations, and a bookmobile. It is a member of the Metropolitan ...

's downtown main building.

Electus D. Litchfield Electus Darwin Litchfield, Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, FAIA (1872–1952) was an American architect and town planner, practicing in New York City. Meanwhile,

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

donated money to Saint Paul to build the Arlington Hills, Riverview, and St. Anthony Park Branch Libraries. Hausler designed each of these in Neoclassical style. All three were added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1984. Hausler also designed several Saint Paul Public School buildings in Neoclassical style, including Como Park Elementary School and Randolph Heights Elementary School. He designed Prairie School buildings for the city, including a variety of park structures. One of them—the pavilion in Indian Mounds Park—became a popular picnicking site.

Private practice and politics

During Hausler's years as city architect he continued his private practice, specializing in Prairie School home designs. Examples include the homes at 1058 St. Clair Avenue in Summit Hill and at 633 Holly Avenue in the Summit-University neighborhood. Hausler's own 1917 home (now at 526 Grace Street, St. Paul) has been described as influenced by

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

. Hausler's eight-year tenure as city architect came to an end in 1922 when he was elected to the

Minnesota Senate The Minnesota Senate is the upper house of the Minnesota Legislature, Legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota. At 67 members, half as many as the Minnesota House of Representatives, it is the largest upper house of any State legislature (Unite ...

. He represented Saint Paul in the Senate until 1939, starting out as a

progressive Republican The Republican Party in the United States includes several factions, or wings. During the 19th century, Republican factions included the Half-Breeds, who supported civil service reform; the Radical Republicans, who advocated the immediate and t ...

and ending up as a member of the

Farmer–Labor Party The first modern Farmer–Labor Party in the United States emerged in Minnesota in 1918. The American entry into World War I caused agricultural prices and workers' wages to fall, while retail prices rose sharply during the war years. Consequent ...

. His architectural practice thrived during this period, and he enjoyed success designing Art Deco buildings. Two of these—the Minnesota Building in

downtown Saint Paul Downtown Saint Paul is the central business district of Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Its boundaries are the Mississippi River to the south, University Avenue to the north, US 52 to the east, and Kellogg Boulevard to the west. It is b ...

and the Minnesota Milk Company Building on University Avenue in

Frogtown Frogtown is a neighborhood in Saint Paul in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Built around University Avenue, the Thomas-Dale neighborhood is colloquially known as Frogtown (, meaning ''"Frogmountain"''). Historically, Frogtown was a subsection ...

—are listed on the National Register. Although Hausler remained centered in Saint Paul, he designed buildings throughout the Midwest into the 1950s. A significant part of Hausler's practice involved churches, which he used to experiment with

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, a Germanic people **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Gothic alphabet, an alphabet used to write the Gothic language ** Gothic ( ...

, Romanesque, and

Byzantine Revival Neo-Byzantine architecture (also referred to as Byzantine Revival) was a revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It incorporates elements of the Byzantine style associated with Eastern and Or ...

styles. One of these, St. Mary’s Catholic Church in

Hague, North Dakota Hague is a city in Emmons County, North Dakota, United States. The population was 70 at the 2020 census. Hague was founded in 1902. History Hague was laid out in 1902 when the railroad was extended to that point. The community took its name f ...

(built 1930), was listed on the National Register as part of the St. Mary's Church Non-contiguous Historic District. It is a Romanesque Revival building with Byzantine touches, designed for a German-Russian parish that had lost its original church to fire. The Roman Catholic Church of St. Andrew in St. Paul has been described as "a rare example of 1920s American ecclesiastical architecture in the style of Byzantine and North Italian Lombard Romanesque."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hausler, Charles A. 1889 births 1971 deaths 20th-century American architects Architects from Saint Paul, Minnesota