George Feick Papers, 1889-1996, n.d.
| Oberlin College Archives
Administrative/Biographical History
George Feick was a builder and contractor in a family of German carpenters in Sandusky, Ohio in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. George was born in Steinau near Darmstadt, Germany, in 1849 and migrated to this country in 1866, following his brothers Johann Philip (1847) and Adam (1849). They all worked for Adam Bauer until Adam Feick formed his own company with George in 1872, Adam Feick and Brother. During this partnership, which lasted until Adam’s death in 1893, the brothers constructed substantial buildings in Ohio and Wyoming, including the Erie County Jail, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad stations in Sandusky and Painesville, Ohio, the Cheyenne, Wyoming State Capitol Building, and at Oberlin College, Talcott Hall and Lord Cottage. In that period, builders had to be skilled at design work as well as masonry, stone cutting and timber sawing, and many of them were considered on a par with architects, although they were not classically trained. Lord Cottage is an example of a building in Oberlin entirely designed and built by Adam Feick and Brother, in 1892.
On Adam’s death the company became George Feick and Company Builders. Later the name changed to George J. and John A. Feick, Builders, consisting of George and his nephew John. This company lasted several years until the uncle and nephew separated and formed separate companies: The George Feick and Sons Company in 1916, and John A. Feick, Builder. The contracting firm of The George Feick and Sons Company was incorporated with George Feick Sr., President, Emil A. Fieck ,Vice President and George Feick Jr., Secretary-Treasurer. They built the Savings Bank and Mohican buildings at Mansfield, Ohio; the Hotel and Administration Building for the Lakeside Association at Lakeside, Ohio; the St. Josephs Church at Marblehead, Ohio; and various buildings in Sandusky, Ohio, including the Feick Building, an eight-story building.
During this period of shifting corporate names George Feick erected a number of buildings at Oberlin College by designing architects, including the Severance Chemical Laboratory (Howard Van Doren Shaw, 1901), Warner Gymnasium (Patton, Fisher & Miller, 1901), the Carnegie Library (Patton & Miller, 1908), Finney Memorial Chapel (Cass Gilbert, 1908), Rice Memorial Hall (Arthur Bates Jennings, 1910), Keep Cottage (Patton & Miller, 1913), and Wilder Hall (Joseph Lyman Silsbee, 1911). The firms also handled building contracts at Lake Erie College, Ohio State University, Ohio Wesleyan University, and Capital University.
George Feick’s first wife was Augusta Ernestine Klotz, born in Dresden in 1852. Together they had five children: Emil Augustus, Clara Sofia, George Jr., Ernestine, and Olga Charlotte. Mrs. Augusta Feick died in 1888. In 1892 George Feick married Minnie A. Klotz; the only child of this union was Augustus H. Feick, born in 1893. George Feick died in November 1932. The Feick family is still in business in Sandusky as Feick Contractors, with John A. Feick as architect for the Feick Design Group. In 1945 Edward L. Feick, an architectural engineer, established the current emphasis on designing and building for clients. John A. Feick III joined his father in 1973 and is the fifth generation Feick builder.
Sources Consulted
George Feick Papers, RG 30/303, Oberlin College Archives.
Feick Design Group website at http://www.feickdesigns.com/feick-builders-history.html, accessed July 21, 2015.
Author: Anne Cuyler Salsich Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative InformationAdditional materials relating to George Feick can be found in several other collections held by the Oberlin College Archives. Correspondence regarding buildings on campus to and from Feick can be found in Records of Oberlin College Presidents, the Henry Churchill King Papers (RG 2/6), and Records of the Office of the Treasurer (RG 7).
The Feick Family Papers, 1810-1982 (MS 0681) reside at the Center for Archival Collections, Bowling Green State University.
The George Feick Papers consist of contracts, architectural plans and specifications for Oberlin College buildings as well as specifications for the Ohio State University Athletic Field. Also included are copies of biographical information about George Feick and Feick family members assembled by Archives staff.
Architectural records by George Feick himself include details for parts of the interior of the Cox Administration Building, the Athletic Field Grandstand, and the Ohio State University Athletic Field. The other plans and specifications in the papers are by supervising architects for certain Oberlin College buildings: Cass Gilbert (Finney Chapel, Cox Administration Building); Patton and Miller, Architects (Carnegie Library, Keep Cottage, Warner Gymnasium); J. L. Silsbee (Men’s Building, dormitories); and R. S. Silsbee (a garage).
The papers have been organized into three series: Biographical, Contracts, and Drawings and Specifications.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Series I. Biographical, 1889, 1910, 1916-17, 1925, 1932, 1984, 1987, 1996, n.d.
The materials in Series I are, with the exception of one item, copies of articles, clippings, and pieces on George Feick and other family members published in secondary sources. The exception to this is a copy of correspondence by Anita Gundlach Feick addressed to Karl Kurtz, columnist for the Sandusky Register, written in response to Kurtz’s undated piece on George Feick located in this series.
Series II. Contracts, 1900, 1907
This series comprises four contracts for work by George Feick on Oberlin buildings under the direction of professional architects. The contract dated 1900 is between Patton, Fisher and Miller, Architects and George Feick for work on the Men’s (Warner) Gymnasium. The other three contracts, dated 1907, are between George Feick and Oberlin College for the Carnegie Library under the direction of Patton and Miller, Architects, and Finney Chapel and the Cox Administration Building under the direction of Cass Gilbert, architect.
Series III. Drawings and Specifications, 1905-10, 1912-14, n.d.
The last series, Drawings and Specifications, includes working sets of architectural records for certain Oberlin College buildings and the Ohio State University Athletic Field. The Oberlin buildings include the Cox Administration Building, the Athletic Field Grandstand, Finney Chapel, the Carnegie Library, Keep Cottage, Warner Gymnasium, Men’s Building (Wilder Hall), dormitories, and a car garage.