Lewis Frederick Pilcher (1871-1941)

B. 1871 Brooklyn, NY
D. 1941 Philadelphia, PA

Lewis F. Pilcher was born in Brooklyn, New York into the family of the prominent physician, Dr. Lewis Stephen Pilcher.  He studied at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and continued his studies at Wesleyan University from 1889 to 1890 and then Columbia University from where he received a degree in Architecture in 1895.  He spent the next 5 years on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1900 he left Philadelphia to take a position with Vassar College. There he established a partnership with W.G. Tachau.  Together they designed public and private buildings in Poughkeepsie as well as the Milo P. Jewett House, dormitory, The Goodfellowhsip Club House on the Vassar campus. In 1911 Pilcher resigned from Vassar College to devote his time to independent practice. Two years later he was appointed New York State Architect by then Governor Sulzer. He completed extensive renovation and addition to Sing Sing Prison. Two years later he was appointed consulting architect for the U.S.Veterans Bureau. In 1926 he returned to the University of Pennsylvania where he was assistant Professor of Architecture from 1926-1927.  He was a member of the American Institute of Architects, the T-Square Club and both the Philadelphia Chapter of the AIA and the Southern Pennsylvania Chapter of the AIA. He died in Philadelphia in 1941.

 

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