ECKERMAN, Oscar Alvin (1873-1950), of Moline, Illinois was the chief architect for the John Deere Plow Co. for more than 40 years, and he was credited with the design of dozens of office and warehouse buildings erected in the United States and Canada by this manufacturer of agricultural implements. Born in Moline, Ill. on 19 April 1873, he attended Augustana College but he had a particular interest in art and architecture, and he was attracted to the nearby city of Chicago, the centre of innovation and creativity for the architectural profession in the American midwest. In 1891 he moved there and obtained a position as a clerk and bookkeeper in an architectural office which was located in “ Room 17, 53 Dearborn Street” (City of Chicago Directory, 1891, 701). New research has revealed that the occupant of this office was the architect Arthur W. Cole (1846- c. 1920), and the name of Cole was acknowledged as his mentor when Eckerman submitted his application for membership to the Alberta Association of Architects in 1928. It was likely Cole who persuaded Eckerman to broaden his knowledge of architecture, and to enroll in drawing classes at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1892-93. While living and working there, Eckerman was undoubtedly exposed to many new projects by luminaries such as Louis Sullivan, Daniel H. Burnham, and Jenny & Mundie, and the appearance and style of these works must have had a lasting impression on him.
On January 1, 1897 Eckerman accepted a position with the John Deere Plow Co. in his hometown of Moline in western Illinois, and he remained with the company until his retirement in 1942, overseeing the design and construction of office and warehouse buildings in the American midwest, and in the Canadian prairies. He was among the first architects to experiment with new reinforced concrete construction methods, adopting the flat slab structural system invented by Charles A.P. Turner of Minneapolis for the John Deere warehouse erected in Omaha, Nebraska (1908). In his Canadian commissions, however, Eckerman chose the more traditional structural system of wood post and beam mill construction, likely because the techniques of reinforced concrete had not yet been approved by municipal building authorities in Canadian cities.
Eckerman retired from the John Deere Co. in early 1942 (biog. and port. Daily Times [Davenport, Iowa], 25 March 1942, 19). He later died in Pittsburgh, Penn. on 3 March 1950 (obit. & port. Moline Daily Dispatch, 3 March 1950, 2; obit. and port. Daily Times [Davenport, Iowa], 3 March 1950, Section B, p. 7; inf. from Alberta Association of Architects, Application for Membership signed by Eckerman and dated 24 February 1928). A detailed examination and appraisal of the American and Canadian works of Eckerman, written by Prof. Leonard K. Eaton of the Univ. of Michigan, was published in the Canadian journal called RACAR – The Canadian Art Review, iii, No. 2, 1976, pp. 89-99 [now online].
(works in Canada)
SASKATOON, SASK., John Deere Plow Co., 25th Street at Ontario Avenue, a large four storey office and warehouse block, 1910 (Daily Phoenix [Saskatoon], 21 July 1910, 4, descrip.; Saskatoon Phoenix, 16 Dec. 1912, Harvest Number, Trades & Building Section, p. 4, illus.)
CALGARY, ALTA., John Deere Plow Co., First Street East at Tenth Avenue, a major 4 storey addition to existing building, 1911 (Calgary Herald, 14 June 1911, 1, descrip.)
EDMONTON, ALTA., John Deere Plow Co., warehouse, Columbia Avenue near 5th Street, c. 1911; burned May 1924; replaced by a new warehouse designed by Eckerman in 1928; converted to residential lofts in 2001, and now called The Seventh Street Lofts (C.R., xlii, 30 May 1928, 172)
REGINA, SASK., John Deere Plow Co., Broad Street at Seventh Avenue, 1913 (The Leader [Regina], 29 Jan. 1913, 17, descrip.; Leonard K. Eaton, “Oscar Eckerman: Architect to Deere & Co. 1897 to 1942” in RACAR – Canadian Art Review, iii, 1976, No. 2, pp. 98-99, illus. & descrip. of the Regina warehouse)