Jeremiah O'Rourke

Jeremiah O'Rourke, FAIA, (6 February 1833 – 22 Apil 1915), was an Irish-American architect known primarily for his designs of Roman Catholic churches and institutions and Federal post offices.

O'Rourke was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1833 as one of eight children and graduated in 1850 from the Government School of Design, Queens College, Cork.

In 1870, in anticipation of erecting a cathedral, James Roosevelt Bayley, Bishop of Newark, sent O'Rourke and Monsignor George Hobart Doane on a tour of England and France to study European churches.

[3] O'Rourke was appointed from April 1893 to September 1894 to the office of the United States Supervising Architect[4] in Washington, D.C., during the presidency of Grover Cleveland on the recommendation of both New Jersey senators.

Succeeding W. J. Edbrooke of Chicago in this job, O'Rourke's designed several federal post offices with his annual salary of $4,500 (about $130,000 in 2020 adjusted for inflation).