Van Osdel, John M.

From HistoryWiki

John M. Van Osdel Soundex Code V523

Wikipedia page about John M. Van Osdel

Born: July 31, 1811, Baltimore, Maryland

Died: December 21, 1891, Chicago, (age 80)

John Mills Van Osdel planned the first architect-designed house in Chicago for the first Mayor of Chicago, William Butler Ogden. The house was located on Rush Street. Ogden commissioned Van Osdel, who came from New York City to Chicago for the job. By 1844, he had opened Chicago's first architectural firm.

Van Osdel is considered a Chicago-school architect and a peer of William LeBaron Jenney, Dankmar Adler, Louis Henry Sullivan, Daniel Hudson Burnham, John Wellborn Root, and Frank Lloyd Wright. In fact, he and William Warren Boyington are considered the most prominent Chicago architects of the period from the city's incorporation in 1837 until the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Ira Couch hired John M. Van Osdel, the city’s first professional architect, to design a family mausoleum (Couch Tomb) in the Chicago City Cemetery.