Little is known of Frank Hessenmueller, who appeared in the 1907-08 and 1910\u00a0Polk\u2019s Directories<\/em>, but not in the 1912 one. His office was in the Calumet State Bank building in Calumet, and he lived in a neighboring suite, suggesting that he was not married. \u00a0In 1908 he was on the committee to investigate the potential and site for a new Elks lodge building, though it is not clear that anything came of this plan.^{1<\/sup><\/p>\n}

He seems to have been a fan of governmental process in construction and\u00a0argued for “the commission form”: “It is my belief that under the commission form of government we might arrive at a more\u00a0equitable\u00a0and fairer imposition of the burdens of taxation, among other\u00a0beneficial\u00a0results.\u00a0I am heartily In favor of a change in the form of our municipal government along the lines of the commission system, or any other system that will serve to afford us the…”^{2<\/sup> What seems to be under discussion here is a type of Progressive-era commission system that municipalities had just begun to adopt that brought together a group of experts as a\u00a0commission, to develop a master plan for the task at hand. \u00a0The system developed out\u00a0of the Daniel Burnham-era Chicago reforms and was\u00a0particularly strong in the upper midwest.<\/p>\n}

In 1906 he was practicing in Chicago\u00a0at 225 Dearborn St. and received the commission to build a four-story warehouse for Elsie Kirchner. \u00a0The $50,000 building at\u00a0Ohio and Kingsbury Streets (on the east side of the north branch of the Chicago River in RiverNorth, just north of Grand Ave.) was to be “of mill constructor, have pressed brick and stone front, and have two electric elevators.” \u00a0It appears that that building would have been demolished for the highway spur from I-90\/94 that leads to Ohio and Ontario Streets.^{3<\/sup>\u00a0Previsouly he seems to have been\u00a0part of the firm of Hessenmueler & Meldal \u00a0of Chicago that\u00a0designed and built pressed brick and stone\u00a0multi-story apartment blocks\u00a0in Chicago.4<\/sup><\/p>\n}