John Rudolph Niernsee

John Rudolph Niernsee (1814–1885) was an American architect, the head architect for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He was born as Johann Rudolph Niernsee in Vienna, Austria and immigrated to the United States in 1837, at age 22. He apprenticed to Benjamin Latrobe.^[1]

In 1847, with James Crawford Neilson, he formed the Niernsee & Neilson architectural firm that largely served the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.^[1]

He is credited with having mentored Ephraim Francis Baldwin.

Selected works

• The Green Mount Cemetery hilltop chapel, in Baltimore, Maryland, which he designed with Nielsen, is a Gothic Revival work.
• Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Johns Hopkins Colored Children Orphan Asylum.
• 1855-56: St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church (by Niernsee & Neilson), Baltimore, Maryland, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.^[2]
• 1868: Aigburth Vale (by Niernsee & Neilson), listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.^[3]
• 1870: Churchville Presbyterian Church (clock tower by Niernsee & Neilson), Churchville, Maryland, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.^[2]
• ca. 1870: Clifton Park, Baltimore (by Niernsee & Neilson), listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.^[2]
• The Greek Revival South Carolina State House is another National Historic Landmark building which he designed, c. 1851, although full implementation was delayed. From 1888 to 1891, a time when much of the interior work was completed, it was in fact Niernsee’s son, Frank McHenry Niernsee, who served as architect.
• His Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Martinsburg Shops that he worked on together with Albert Fink were declared a National Historic Landmark in 2003.^[1]

References

External links

• John Rudolph Niernsee, at Maryland ArtSource