Leopold Eidlitz &
Cyrus Lazelle Warner Eidlitz
Leopold Eidlitz
B. 1823 Prague, Bohemia
Architect Leopold Eidlitz was educated at the Polytechnic School in Prague, and in Vienna. He traveled to the United States seeking work as an architect in 1843. Within three years Eidlitz moved from a job with Richard Upjohn, the English-born designer of Trinity Church, Wall Street, into his own practice. He became one of the most influential architects in the United States during the 19th century. Responsible for many New York City churches and for government buildings in the state capital of Albany, Eidlitz was also a founder of the American Institute of Architects. He was author of many articles published in journals including The Crayon and the American Architect and Building News. Eidlitz also published a major book of architectural theory The Nature and Function of Art, More Especially of Architecture (1881).
Eidlitz is best known for his work on the Temple Emanuel (New York, 1866-68, destroyed 1927); the Broadway Tabernacle (1859, demolished about 1907), St. Peter’s Church, Chapel and Cemetery in the Bronx, NY (1855); and the completion of the New York County Courthouse, better known as the Tweed Courthouse (1876-81). In 1875, with Frederick Law Olmstead and Henry H. Richardson, Eidlitz was appointed on a commission to consider the work already accomplished in the building of the capitol at Albany (Albany, New York, 1876-1881). Among other buildings designed by Eidlitz are Christ Church, St. Louis; St. George's Church, New York City; the Brooklyn academy of music; the Drydock Bank building, on the Bowery, New York; and the Continental Bank building in in NYC.
Cyrus Lazelle Warner Eidlitz
B. 1853 New York, New York
The son of Leopold Eidlitz, architect Cyrus Eidlitz, was educated in New York, Geneva, Switzerland, and at the Polytechnic Institute in Stuttgart. Among the buildings that he designed are the Michigan central railway station in Detroit (1880), the Dearborn station in Chicago (1883), and the Buffalo Library (1880). In 1868 Cyrus Eidlitz completed the renovations of St Peter’s Church in the Bronx, originally designed by his father Leopold Eidlitz. Cyrus Eidlitz is known for his New York Times Building in Times Square, New York.