Baumann family (architects)

Joseph Baumann, the son of a carpenter, began working as an architect in Knoxville in 1872, when he designed the city's first opera house, Staub's Theatre.

[5] Several of their works, which range from downtown high-rises to suburban cottages, have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[3] By the 1840s, the family had moved to East Tennessee, where Baumann found ample work as a carpenter and house builder in various growing towns around the region.

[3] During the Civil War, the Baumann house, located on what was then the outskirts of town, was occupied by both Union and Confederate soldiers, and suffered considerable damage.

[3] After the war, Baumann and his sons continued working as carpenters, and helped to rebuild Knoxville.

[3] He initially worked in the carpentry trade alongside his father, but began listing his services as an architect in 1872.

[3] Other major commissions during this period included the Hattie House Hotel (1879), the East Tennessee National Bank (1886), and large mansions for businessmen such as C. J. McClung and James D.

[3] One of Baumann's most well-known projects, the Church of the Immaculate Conception, was completed atop Summit Hill in 1886.

"[3] This firm's early work included several large warehouses with ornamented storefronts on Jackson Avenue,[6] campus buildings for the Holbrook Normal College and Baker-Himel School,[3] and elaborate houses, such as Westwood on Kingston Pike and Park Place in Fountain City.

[11] He also remodeled the Charles McClung McGhee House (which had been one of his brother's first commissions in 1872) as a Masonic Temple in 1915.

[1] He studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania under French-born architect Paul Cret, who is credited with spreading the Beaux-Arts style in America (Baumann's chief competitors, Charles I. Barber and Benjamin McMurry, also studied under Cret).

[2] Along with their architectural services, the Baumanns also supervised the construction of several notable Knoxville buildings, including the Knox County Courthouse and St. John's Cathedral (designed by J. W.