Pioneer Information
Born in Catonsville, Maryland, Fowler earned a bachelor’s degree in general studies at Johns Hopkins University in 1898 and a B.S. in architecture at Columbia University in 1902. He remained in New York City following his graduation, accepting positions in the architecture firms of Bruce Price and Boring and Tilton. After traveling to Italy and France in 1904, he was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts but instead returned to his native Baltimore. After a short stint with the architecture firm Wyatt and Nolting, Fowler established his own firm in 1906, opening an office at 347 North Charles Street and working primarily on residential designs. In 1922 he won a competition to design Baltimore’s War Memorial. The design of the monument and the surrounding plaza would occupy Fowler for more than a decade. It was during this period that he joined the Architectural Review Board for the Roland Park Company, where he exerted great influence over the designs of both the Roland Park and Guilford suburbs. Fowler continued to receive commissions throughout Baltimore, completing renovations on the David G. McIntosh House at Dumbarton Farms, the Greenwood School, and the Safe Deposit and Trust Company. He closed his office in 1945 but continued to be active within the architecture community. He was a fellow of the American Institute of Architecture and served actively within the Baltimore chapter. He was also one of Baltimore’s earliest proponents of historic preservation, serving as the director of the Preservation of Maryland Antiquities. He is buried in the city’s Loudon Park Cemetery.
