Lake County Ohio GenWeb

Franz C. Warner

As published in the Alumni Record, Painesville High School, Painesville, Ohio
Compiled and Published by the Painesville High School Alumni Association in 1925

Transcribed by Linda Jeffery, November 2004.

Franz C. Warner, ’96

If the class prophet of the Class of ’96, P.H.S., pictured one of its boys, Franz C. Warner, as the future architect of great city public buildings, he was a better prophet than he thought. Class mates remember Franz, even in his early ‘teens, a deeply interested in everything related to construction and as possessing a decided talent for drawing. And so it was but natural that he selected Case School of Appl;ied Science for his college instruction where he graduated in 1900.

For a short time he was associated with Mr. Thayer of Painesville, who built our local telephone exchange, and later entered the office of F.A. Hopkinson, a prominent architect, of Cleveland. He was subsequently employed by other Cleveland firms in the same business. From the beginning his advancement was rapid, and by intense study he soon was ready to assume greater responsibilities. His first independent venture was as junior partner of Greble and Warner, Cleveland. Soon Mr. Greble retired and Mr. Warner, continued alone. He decided to specialize in school architecture, though he did not confine himself entirely to that. After the Collinwood fire there was a universal demand for better school buildings, and in the last fifteen years there has been a complete transformation. A new era of fireproof and sanitary construction has set in.

The first buildings designed by Mr. Warner attracted the favorable attention of school boards and his business has had a remarkable growth. He has designed and supervised the construction of buildings aggregating over $80,000,000. Among these are some of the most beautiful and well planned structures in his own home city and county, such as the new home of the Andrews Institute for Grils, the Willoughby High School, the Willoughby Junior High, now nearing completion, the Mentor Village School, considered by many the most beautiful of our smaller schools, the new Lake County Hospital, one of the best and most modern buildings of the kind to be found anywhere. His first building in this county was the Plum Street School in Fairport. But his chief building activity has been centered in the growing residential suburbs of Cleveland. He was the Architect of all of the school buildings, except one, in Cleveland Heights, also of the Shaker Heights High School, as well as the new high schools of Warren and Oberlin. He is the consulting architect for the Diocese of Cleveland, and the new buildings of St. Joseph’s Convent and the Seminary of “Our Lady of the Lake” were designed by him. One of his outstanding city business buildings is the Euclid Arcade, extending from Euclid Avenue to Prospect Avenue in Cleveland.

Mr. Warner is a member of the American Institute of Architects and the American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers. On the social side he is a member of the Cleveland Union Club, Cleveland Athletic Club and City Club, the Civic League and Real Estate Board. He is a member of the Masonic order and holds membership in the Beta Theta Pi College fraternity.

In 1904 he was married to Miss Hazel V. Ward. His present home is in a residential suburb of Cleveland, Hunting Valley Village, in which he is member of the Village Council.