The Baumann family was a family of American architects who practiced in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the surrounding region, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It included Joseph F. Baumann (1844–1920), his brother, Albert B. Baumann, Sr. (1861–1942), and Albert's son, Albert B. Baumann, Jr. (1897–1952). Buildings designed by the Baumanns include the Mall Building (1875), the Church of the Immaculate Conception (1886), Minvilla (1913), the Andrew Johnson Building (1930), and the Knoxville Post Office (1934).
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. In 1887, his brother, Albert, became a full partner in the firm, which then began operating under the name, Baumann Brothers. Joseph left the firm in 1913, and Albert worked alone until 1922, when his son joined the firm, which then changed its name to Baumann and Baumann. The firm continued working under different partners following the death of Albert Baumann, Jr., in 1952. It currently operates as Kaatz Binkley Jones and Morris (KBJM).
The Baumanns have been called Knoxville's first architectural "dynasty."<ref name=neely>Jack Neely, Wallace Baumann, 1925–2009, Metro Pulse, 19 August 2009. Accessed at the Internet Archive, 2 October 2015.</ref> They designed many of the major buildings constructed in the city during the late 19th century. Several of their works, which range from downtown high-rises to suburban cottages, have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
History
William Baumann, the father of Joseph and Albert Baumann, Sr., was born in Kirchheimbolanden, Germany, and immigrated to America in the 1830s. In 1837, he married Catherine Schneider. The family briefly lived in Savannah, Georgia, where Baumann worked as a shipbuilder. 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. The Baumanns moved to Knoxville in 1855.
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. Some of the Baumann children were sent to Charleston, Tennessee, to stay with family friends, while remaining family members hid out in the Second Presbyterian Church. After the war, Baumann and his sons continued working as carpenters, and helped to rebuild Knoxville.
Joseph Baumann, 1872–1887
Joseph Francis Baumann, the second son of William and Catherine Baumann, was born in Tellico Plains, Tennessee, on January 16, 1844. He initially worked in the carpentry trade alongside his father, but began listing his services as an architect in 1872. That year, he designed two important Knoxville landmarks, the Second Empire home of financier Charles McClung McGhee on Locust Street, and Staub's Theatre, the city's first opera house, on Gay Street.
In 1875, Baumann designed Odd Fellows Hall (now called the Mall Building, or Hotel St. Oliver) for confectioner Peter Kern, as well as the Third Presbyterian Church, of which the Baumanns were members. 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. Cowan. One of Baumann's most well-known projects, the Church of the Immaculate Conception, was completed atop Summit Hill in 1886.
Baumann Brothers, 1887–1913
Joseph Baumann's younger brother, Albert Benjamin Baumann, was born in Knoxville on August 30, 1861. He joined Joseph's firm as a draftsman in 1882, and upon his promotion to full partner in 1887, the firm began operating under the name, "Baumann Brothers." This firm's early work included several large warehouses with ornamented storefronts on Jackson Avenue, campus buildings for the Holbrook Normal College and Baker-Himel School, and elaborate houses, such as Westwood on Kingston Pike and Park Place in Fountain City.
In the 1880s, Joseph Baumann helped renovate and expand Knoxville's first Market House, a one-story shed-like structure which occupied much of Market Square. The Baumanns subsequently designed an imposing two-story replacement for this building, which was completed in 1897. That same year, the Monroe County Courthouse in Madisonville was completed, one of several courthouses designed by the Baumanns. Later courthouses included the Blount County Courthouse (1906) in Maryville and the Washington County Courthouse (1912) in Jonesborough.