Birth Dates of Notable Kentuckians: March 1, 1900 - Clarence Julian Oberwarth

  

Image from the Historic American Buildings Survey

  

  

From The Kentucky Encyclopedia -

Clarence Julian Oberwarth, architect, was born on March 1, 1900, in Frankfort, Kentucky, to Leo L. and Ruth Oberwarth. After serving in the navy in World War I, he attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, where he received a B.S. degree in architecture in 1924. He then returned to Frankfort and became a partner with his father in the architecture firm Leo Oberwarth & Son.

During the 1930 session of the General Assembly , Oberwarth represented the Kentucky chapter of the American Institute of Architects as a lobbyist, succeeding in passage of the Architectural Registration Law. Under the law, persons using the title of "architect" must be sufficiently trained to protect the public safety. Oberwarth was assigned the first registration in the state -- No. 1.

Oberwarth designed a number of Frankfort landmarks, including the Second Street School for the Works Progress Administration; several buildings at Georgetown College, Kentucky State University, and the Kentucky School for the Deaf; the Frankfort Municipal Building; and the State Police Barracks and Training Center. He restored the state capitol and the Dr. Ephraim McDowell house in Danville. After retiring in 1965, Oberwarth became the first executive director of the Kentucky Board of Examiners and Registration of Architects. He left this post in 1974, spending the next four years preparing a history of the registration law and its effect on the profession. He died in 1983.

WILLIAM B. SCOTT, JR., Entry Author

Selected Source from UK Libraries:

Oberwarth, C. Julian, William B. Scott, and Kentucky. State Board of Examiners Registration of Architects. A History of the Profession of Architecture in Kentucky : Relevant to the Concept and History of Legal Registration within the Domain of the Kentucky State Board of Examiners and Registration of Architects. Frankfort, Ky.]: Board, 1987. Print.
NA730.K4 O260 1987, Design Library - Special Collections