The impetus for this project was an unsual promotional book by an obscure local architectural firm. Greater Cleveland Architecture by Godfrey Fugman and C. Frank Cramer presented a unique glimpse into the nearly forgotten firm. Its meticulously photographed, pristine images of buildings in their intended environment provided crucial visual primary source material for my work.
Investigating the firm of Cramer and Fugman (1887-1896) naturally led to its successor firm of Fugman and Uhlrich (1899-1903). Primary research was conducted working with building permits, newspapers and periodicals of the profession such as Inland Architect and Builder, Interstate Architect, and Ohio Builder and Architect, None of them is fully indexed. This research was compiled chronologically in a catalogue of works containing over 100 buildings by the firms. After biographic details and information about the state of the profession and the firms, discussion of the structures in the text was done in terms of building type.
While not of national repute, the architects were, nonetheless, very talented men who worked in the nationally popular styles during the Golden Era of Cleveland. Innovative in design, technology and use of material, active in the continuing development of their profession, they were important architects for Cleveland at turn of the 20th century.