Edwin C. Doeppers

Edwin C. Doeppers was an Indiana engineer active in the early and mid 20th century. He designed the following buildings in Bloomington:

• J. H. Nolan Residence, 1912, 421 S. College Avenue (no longer standing)

• H. U. Grant Residence, 1914, 701 East 8th Street

• Banneker School, 1915, 930 West 7th Street (Banneker Community Center)

• Oscar Williams Residence, 1915, 609 South Fess Avenue

• Wilson Bungalow, 1915, 403 East Smith Avenue

• Stroup Residence, 1915, 521 South Park Avenue

• Louis Becovitz Residence, 1915, North Indiana Avenue (no longer standing)

• Nat U Hill, Jr. Residence, 1915, 603 N. Walnut Street (no longer standing)

• Monroe County State Bank remodeling, 1915, 100 N. Walnut Street

• Schuman Duplexes, 1916, 622 and 624 East Eighth Street and at 315 and 317 North Fess Avenue

• Vermilya Residence, 1916, 713 East Eighth Street

• Feltus Bungalows, 1915 & 1916, 516 and 520 South Fess Avenue

• Logan Residence, 1917, 924 East Atwater Avenue

• Indiana Avenue Church of Christ, Northeast corner of Indiana Avenue and 11th Street, 1917

• Charles Johnson Residence, 1921, 421 North Fess Avenue (no longer standing)

• Fred Owens Residence originally located at 402 North Park but later moved to Eighth Street

On April 3, 1915 The Daily Student reported that Doeppers has produced plans for a proposed Bible Chair Hall. The American Contractor, a trade publication, had reported in February that the budget for the project was $65,000, but the Daily Student report that only $15,000 had been raised. The building was intended to face Indiana Avenue at the northeast corner of 3rd Street and Indiana Avenue, but was never built. At that time the lot was owned by the Christian Church.

There are several Doeppers projects in Bloomington listed in the construction press of the 1910s and 1920s that have not yet been identified.

Doeppers birthdate is variously reported as July 8, 1882, 1883 or 1884, with 1883 being the most frequently reported and most likely. He was born in Indianapolis to August B. and Louisa Gompf Doeppers, both first generation Americans of German descent. August Doeppers was a salesman for the German Insurance Company of Indiana. He died in 1902.

Early in Edwin’s career he worked as a draftsman and blue printer in Indianapolis. In 1908 he was partners with Frank Woerner in a drafting firm known as Doeppers & Woerner. In 1911 he was chief draftsman in the Indianapolis City Engineer’s Office. The 1913 Indianapolis City Directory lists Doeppers & Myers, Architects under the heading ‘Architects’; Myers is identified as Clarence Myers. The Construction News of August 16, 1913 reports that Clarence Meyers (sic) of Bloomington has opened an office for the practice of architecture in Bloomington. Data in the American Contractor trade publication indicates that Doeppers & Myers were doing business in the Henry & Kerr Building in Bloomington in 1914. The Construction News of December 19, 1914 reports that Doeppers and Meyers (sic) have dissolved their partnership, and that Edwin C. Doeppers and Company will continue to do business at the Rauh Building in Indianapolis and the Henry & Kerr Building in Bloomington. Myers made no mention of his association with Doeppers when responding to American Institute of Architecture questionnaires in 1956 and 1962.

The Bloomington Telephone reports on January 11, 1915 that Doeppers and his family are moving into their new home on South Park Avenue in Bloomington. The 1915 Indianapolis City Directory lists an office for Doeppers & Co. at 122 E. Ohio St. The 1916 Bloomington City Directory lists the firm of E. C. Doeppers & Co. in the Henry & Kerr building (Oddfellow’s Hall) on Kirkwood Avenue, with Walter B. Stern listed in an unstated capacity.

Doeppers appears in construction publications as architect for several projects in the early 1920s. For these projects his address is listed as the City Engineer’s office. He registered as a civil engineer when the architects and engineers registration law was enacted in Indiana in 1921. In the late 1920s his contact information in the construction press changes to Doeppers & Lennox or E. C. Doeppers and Co., with addresses in both Indianapolis and Bloomington. Richard C. Lennox, a member of the American Institute of Architects, reported in 1970 that he had been a partner in Doeppers & Lennox from 1926 to 1929. On the 1930 Census Doeppers reported his occupation as maintenance engineer. He was living and apparently also working at the Soldier’s Home in Tippecanoe County, Indiana at the time.