John A. Dempwolf

Who was John A. Dempwolf?

John Augustus Dempwolf was a York, Pennsylvania-based architect. He was born in Germany as the eldest of 12 brothers and sisters. Dempwolf immigrated to the United States at 19, and settled at York. He studied architecture at the Cooper Union in New York. He then worked in Boston, where he supervised construction of the Holy Cross Cathedral. He worked as an architect at Philadelphia with architect Steven Button and helped him design buildings for the Centennial Exposition. He started his own practice in 1876 at York, and was joined by his brother Rinehardt and later his son Frederick. The practice designed over 600 buildings through 1920.

He was made a mem­ber of the American Institute of Architects in 1901, and be­came a Fel­low of the In­sti­tute in 1910. Dempwolf died in 1926.