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Henry Moellhausen (or Mollhausen) was a surveyor in the New Orleans area from about 1837 to the late 1840s.  

A single mention of Mollhausen in local newspapers can be found in the 1830s.  The New Orleans Times-Picayune of October 31, 1838 provides an early article advertising Moellhausen's services as:

Architect, Civil Engineer and Surveyor, Exchange Place, No. 12, corner of Canal Street,

Respectfully, offers his services to the inhabitants of New Orleans and the country

Original Planr (sic) for public edifices, as well as for country seats, dwelling houses, &c. . . . will be be executed with strict regard to  solidity, comfort and architectural proportions. Projects for railroads, water-works, and improvements of every description will be made in accordance with all the information to be derived from the most recent experience and practice. . . 

Surveys of lands and real estate will be attended to with dispatch . . .

Charges will be moderate, and the best references given, if required. . .

The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association notes:

Moellhausen worked in New Orleans from 1841-49 conducting surveys and producing architectural renderings. His topographical maps accompanied an 1840 report in which George Dunbar, engineer of the state of Louisiana, recommended an underground drainage system for the New Orleans area. Two brick cottages in the downtown Treme Faubourg and two brick stores in the St. Mary Faubourg are the only extant buildings that have been attributed to Moellhausen but his renderings show his remarkable skills as a draftsman. Yet he… did not make any distinctive contribution to the architectural development of New Orleans, though something of his influence lived on in students.” (Irvin, Hilary S. “The Impact of German Immigration on New Orleans Architecture. 

The Topeka Daily Capital of January 16, 1892 notes that "Henry von Mollhausen" the great German author, and at the present time Royal librarian of Germany, was at one time employed as a common laborer upon a farm near Mascoutah, Ill." (may be a different Mollhausen).


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