Frank E. Larscheid

FRANK e. Larscheid

Ecclesiastical designer

(1885-1944)

(Stained glass windows-altars-lighting fixtures and various church adornments)
Text Box: Larscheid was born January 9, 1885, the eldest child of Joseph and Anna Mary Larscheid. After completing eighth grade, he worked as an office boy at a fuel company. In 1900 Larscheid apprenticed in stained glass painting at Ford Bros. Glass Company and studied art in the evenings at the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts. In 1903 he went to work for Robert Tate Giles Studios and studied under Giles tutelage. In 1907 Larscheid joined Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company of Minneapolis. In 1918 he returned to Ford Glass Company as Superintendent of the stained Glass Department. In 1920 Larscheid moved to Milwaukee to form the Wagner-Larscheid Glass Company. In 1926 the Larscheid Van Treeck Studios was formed. It was during this association that Larscheid would do some of his most important work at the Shrine of Mary-Help of Christians located at Holy Hill, Hubertus, WI. Larscheid would design the altar, the shrine altar, all of the stained glass (made at the Van Treeck Glass Works in Munich, Germany), candlesticks, communion railing, sanctuary lamp, lighting fixtures, confessionals, pews, votive stands and vestment cases. After Holy Hill was completed, the Depression was taking its toll on church work and Larscheid would rejoin his friend Rupert Schmitt at Conrad Schmitt Studios. In 1939 he would form the F. E. Larscheid Studios, but World War II stopped new church construction. Larscheid passed away April 24, 1944 at age 59. The boom in church building and renovation after World War II had come too late for this ecclesiastical genius. Larscheid married Mary Ann White in 1907, a marriage that was blessed with ten children. Text Box: This web site was constructed by F. E. Larscheid’s granddaughter from personal papers, records, newspaper clippings and renderings of the artist.