Gustave W. Drach

Gustave W. Drach (November 26, 1861 – July 18, 1940), also spelled Gustav W. Drach, was an American architect. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, he was a prolific designer in the Cincinnati area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Biography The 1910 iteration of Woodward High School, designed by Drach. Drach was a graduate of an earlier version of the school

Drach was born in Cincinnati to French immigrant parents on November 26, 1861. In his childhood, Drach's family lived near the city workhouse in Camp Washington. His father worked as a liquor dealer and tavern owner. Drach and his three siblings, Cecilia, Louis, and Adolph, were all educated in Cincinnati. He attended an early iteration of Cincinnati's Woodward High School, graduating in 1879. He also attended the Ohio Mechanics Institute (OMI). In 1880, he received a bronze medal from OMI's architectural department, which was its highest honor. In 1883, he graduated from the School of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), becoming one of the first Cincinnatians to attend MIT's architecture school.

Drach was employed by Boston-based architectural firm Cummings and Sears for a year before finding employment with Herter Brothers in New York City in 1884. From 1884 to 1885, he worked for George W. Rapp in Cincinnati. In 1885, he began practicing architecture under his own name, which he would continue to do for the remainder of his life. Drach was an early adopter of reinforced concrete, employing it in his own work prior to the construction of Elzner & Richardson’s Ingalls Building, which became the world’s first reinforced concrete skyscraper in 1903.

In the 1890s, the affluent suburb and future Cincinnati neighborhood of Mornington changed its name to Hyde Park at Drach's suggestion.

Drach was active in local politics. He served as an assistant secretary for an 1897 convention of the Hamilton County Republican Party. In 1907, he campaigned on behalf of the municipal City Party, which sought to fight the rule of political bosses in Cincinnati. The following year, he served on the executive committee of the Roosevelt Republican Club, which campaigned for William Howard Taft in the 1908 presidential election.

In 1886, Drach married Cincinnatian Martha Heinrichsdorf. The couple had two sons, Edgar and Karl. Drach lived in the Clifton neighborhood for much of his adult life. Martha Drach died on July 8, 1939 at the age of 78. Drach himself died of tuberculosis on July 18, 1940, also aged 78.

Notable works Textile Building (1906), downtown Cincinnati Hotel Gibson (1913), downtown Cincinnati Good Samaritan Hospital (1915), CUF, Cincinnati Good Samaritan Hospital (1932), Dayton, Ohio