City on the Hill - John Dempwolf

John Dempwolf

John Augustus Dempwolf was born in Brunswick, Germany in 1848. He migrated to the United States and settled in York, Pennsylvania in 1867. He began his career as a carpenter and in 1870 started working for Nathaniel Weigel, a York building contractor. Dempwolf studied for two years at the Cooper Union Institute in New York. He then returned to York and established a successful architectural firm with his brother.

The Dempwolf Firm was responsible for building many schoolhouses, banks and other public buildings in central Pennsylvania. Among these were the York County Court House, the Carlisle Hospital, the National Bank Building, Saint Mary's Catholic Church in York, the Evangelical churches in Johnstown and Steelton, and several buildings on the campus of the Gettysburg College.

How he influenced the hospital:

Dempwolf was hired likely to oversee the construction of Addison Hutton's new "Cottage Plan" hospital when Hutton grew tired of commuting between Philadelphia and Harrisburg on a daily basis. When Dempwolf proved to be reliable, Hutton and the hospital trustees gradually turned over to him the responsibility of designing many of the outbuildings as well as the construction of some of Hutton's designs for several of the main structures. Dempwolf was responsible for constructing the Chapel, the Sun Parlor, the Convalescent Wards Buildings, and the male and female Nurse Buildings. Even though Dempwolf was charged with the construction of these buildings, the actual designing of them is still believed to of been mainly the work of Hutton.

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