TROMANHAUSER BROTHERS, of Minneapolis, Minn., specialists in the design of grain elevators and grain storage buildings in the United States and Canada. The firm consisted of three brothers, Jesse Herlin Tromanhauser (1856-1953), Edwin Henry Tromanhauser (1859-1954), and Seneca Haver Tromanhauser (1866-1925). All three were Canadians, born at Hustonville, Ontario (near Elora, in Wellington County) and they were the sons of Michael Tromanhauser, a German-born engineer, architect and builder. Jesse H. Tromanhauser moved to Minneapolis in 1886 and received his architectural training with the local firm of Lewis C. Barnett (1848-1936) and James L. Record (1857-1944), architects who also specialized in both the design and construction of early grain elevator buildings in the American midwest. Much of his knowledge of industrial architecture was gained from his mentors Barnett & Record, Architects.
The three Tromanhauser brothers established their own business in Minneapolis in 1890, and they advertised themselves as “ architects, contractors and builders”, competing directly with other industrial architects such as Clarence D. Howe, John S. Metcalfe, and James Stewart. Collectively, they dominated the field of grain elevator design in North America, providing the services of the planning and construction of hundreds of wood frame or reinforced concrete elevators erected during the period from 1895 until after 1930. In Canada, the Tromanhauser Brothers can be credited with three elevator buildings, one in Kingston, one in Goderich, and the other in London, Ontario (inf. Alan K. Lathrop, Minnesota Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 2010, 11 and 181-82).
KINGSTON, ONT., Mooers Grain Elevator, at the foot of Gore Street, 1897; demol. c. 1920 (Daily British Whig [Kingston], 30 Sept. 1897, 2, detailed descrip.; and 15 Dec. 1897, 2; and 22 March 1898, 6; Jennifer McKendry, Architects Working in the Kingston Region 1820-1920, 2019, 110, illus. & descrip.)
GODERICH, ONT., Mooer's Grain Elevator, 1898 (Clinton New Era, 21 April 1898, Supplement, p. 1)
LONDON, ONT., Hunt Brothers Milling Co., Nightingale Avenue, grain elevator for the City Flour Mills, 1916 (C.R., xxx, 26 July 1916, 44)