Visual art
Julius Melchers
1829–1908 · sculptor, woodcarver, teacher
German-born sculptor, often called Detroit's first, who carved the statues of the city's French founders for the old City Hall and fathered the painter Gari Melchers.
- Born
Soest, Westphalia, Prussia- Died
- Birth name
- Julius Theodore Melchers
- Also known as
- Julius Theodore Melchers · Julius T. Melchers
- Detroit years
- 1855–1908
- Field
- Visual art
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Melchers trained as a carver in Prussia and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, then worked in London as a modeler at the Crystal Palace and a carver of ship figureheads. Like many Germans after the failed revolutions of 1848, he left Europe, and from 1855 he lived in Detroit, where he became the city's leading sculptor and a teacher of drawing and carving. Lumber baron Bela Hubbard commissioned him to carve larger-than-life sandstone statues of four French pioneers, Marquette, La Salle, Cadillac and Father Gabriel Richard, which were set on the new Detroit City Hall in 1874; when the hall was torn down in 1961 the statues were saved and moved to Wayne State University. He carved the gable of his family's house on Seyburn Street in Indian Village. His son Gari became an internationally known painter, and his daughter Hettie married Julius Stroh of the brewing family; Melchers himself was a vice president of the Stroh company.
Highlights
- Settled in Detroit in 1855
- Carved four statues of French pioneers for Detroit City Hall (1874)
- The statues survived City Hall's 1961 demolition, now at Wayne State
- Father of the painter Gari Melchers
- Vice president of the B. Stroh Brewing Company
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1874
Statues of Detroit's French pioneers (Wayne State University)
Melchers's sandstone figures of Marquette, La Salle, Cadillac and Gabriel Richard, made for the 1871 City Hall and moved to Wayne State's campus after the hall's 1961 demolition.
Lived here · 1897–1908
Julius T. Melchers House
Status being checked
Donaldson and Meier-designed house of 1897 in the Indian Village Historic District, with a gable carved by Melchers; a private residence.