Alfred Eichberg, Father of Brunswick’s Landmarks

Alfred S. Eichberg - Colorized by Josh Dukes

This story was originally appeared in the November 2022 issue of Discover Downtown Brunswick, published by The Brunswick News in Brunswick, Georgia. Story by Josh Dukes.

If you walk into the echoing, marble-floored lobby of Brunswick's Old City Hall, you'd be forgiven for not immediately noticing the oval portrait gazing at you to your right. City Hall's main floor is chock full of local history of all kinds, from an antique sign that once graced Newcastle Street to a scale model of the Oglethorpe Hotel. In addition to the local treasures, Old City Hall still serves as a public gathering place for parties and public events and hosts both the City Commission Meetings and the offices of the Downtown Development Authority.  All of this is made possible by the architect who designed the building 136 years ago; the man in the oval portrait - Alfred Eichberg.  

 

Alfred Salom Eichberg (1859-1921) was one of the most influential Georgia architects of his time.  He was born in New York but his family soon moved to Atlanta, where his parents became influential in the German-Jewish community.  Eichberg received his formal training in Heidelberg, Germany.  As a young architect, he partnered with Calvin Fay to form Fay and Eichberg (1881-1888). Their first works together were small buildings for the 1881 International Cotton Exposition in Atlanta.  The pair soon obtained larger commissions in Atlanta and Savannah.  They designed the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Telfair Hospital for Females in Savannah, which still stands at Forsyth Park.  Eichberg officially established his own firm in Savannah, where he created the Red Building (now SCAD's Clark Hall) for the Central of Georgia Railroad.  They also expanded to create many designs in North and South Carolina as well as Florida.  

 

Old City Hall c. 1903, Mayor Alfred J. Crovatt
inset. Colorized by Josh Dukes

Though Eichberg's full-time headquarters were in Savannah he also kept an office on Newcastle Street in Brunswick to oversee his many projects here. His partner Calvin Fay was in failing health by the mid-1880s, which led to many projects on his own, particularly in Brunswick.  With a design style described as eclectic, Eichberg worked with a special focus on Romanesque Revival. His designs also included elements of Italianate, Queen Anne, Chateauesque, and Neoclassical Revival. Many of his buildings incorporate red brick or terra-cotta with ornate stonework trim, arches, spiky rooflines, and other decorative features. These features are especially prominent in his Brunswick work.  

 

Old City Hall was designed by Eichberg in 1886 in the Richardsonian Romanesque style.  The building was completed in 1889, with the clock tower added in 1893.  By the 1940s the building was in serious need of repairs. Timbers from the clock tower fell on the mayor's desk. The clock tower was removed down to the roof level in 1951.  In 2003, a massive renovation of Old City Hall was completed. The project including rebuilding clock tower spire, which once again stands 110 feet above Newcastle Street.  

 

First National Bank of Brunswick
Currently the site of the Kress

Eichberg designed the First National Bank of Brunswick building in 1894.  It once stood at the edge of Machen Square on Newcastle Street.  Kress Corporation opened their store next door in the years after the bank opened.  In 1958, they purchased the bank building and razed it to enlarge their original store into the bank's footprint.  This building is now being redeveloped as The Kress, a multi-use building  slated to open its doors to the public in the coming months.   

 

Temple Beth Tefilloh (1886) is another Eichberg design, completed in 1889. The synagogue has been in continual use ever since and still retains its original stained glass windows.  It was not Eichberg's only work reflecting his Jewish heritage - he also designed the synagogue in Sumter, South Carolina.  Reflecting on Eichberg's career, architectural historian Richard Funderburke wrote, “I am pretty sure he was the first Jewish professional architect to maintain a practice in Georgia, and probably in the Deep South. It is my contention that he led the way for Jews in this profession in the South.”  

 

  Eichberg didn't only design public and commercial spaces.  One of the

crown jewels of Brunswick's Old Town Historic District is The Columbia Downing House, aka Brunswick Manor.  It was designed in 1886 by Eichberg for Major Columbia Downing.  Downing, his wife Mary Helen Frances Downing, and daughters Mary Ethel and Madeline called the mansion home for many years. The mansion's original 1886 front porch was more modest than the current classical columned portico, which was added circa 1916 by Major Downing.

Temple Beth Tefilloh, built 1886

 

Eichberg remained in high demand through the early 1890s.  The economic depression of 1893 seems to have dried up his commissions.  Changing taste of the new decade also moved more toward the Neoclassical and Colonial Revival styles rather than Eichberg's signature Romanesque red brick and marble.  He never married, and by the turn of
the 20th century he returned to Atlanta permanently to assist running a family ironwork firm and manufacturing business.  

Columbia Downing House with 
original porch, circa 1886

Alfred Salom Eichberg is buried in a shared tomb with his parents Joseph and Caroline Eichberg at Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, which he designed himself in 1906. Perhaps fitting for such a prolific designer, his tombstone is the only copyrighted stone in the cemetery.