Ralph Gerganoff

Ralph Stephens Gerganoff (19 January 1887 - 25 November 1966), born Rashko Stoyan Gerganoff, also frequently referred to as R.S. Gerganoff was an American architect.

Gerganoff was born in Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria on 19 January 1887 and emigrated to the United States via Boston, Massachusetts on 14 Oct 1905. He graduated from high school at Fredonia State Normal College, Fredonia, New York in 1913 and moved to Michigan shortly thereafter where he studied architecture at the University of Michigan, one of nine architecture graduates in 1917. His classmate Robert B. Frantz (1894 in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania – 1971 in Saginaw, Michigan), who began his career with a similar design aesthetic, formed the firm of Frantz and Spence with James A. Spence Sr. (1899 in Saginaw, Michigan – 1970 in Higgins Lake, Michigan) which prospered in Saginaw from 1925 through 1960,. Classmate Lynn W. Fry (1894–1976) formed the Ann Arbor firm of Fry and Kasurin, and produced some of the University of Michigan architectural drawings held in the collection of the Bentley Historical Library., and a number of notable structures such as the Women's Athletic Building and the First National Bank Building. Classmate Chester G. Henninger designed the 1930 Boca Raton Depot in Florida.

Gerganoff worked for several years in Detroit, became a naturalized U.S. citizen on 22 January 1920, then in 1927 opened an office in Ypsilanti, Michigan. In time he was to erect many buildings in Ypsilanti, and nearby Ann Arbor.

From the late 1920s through the 1950s, Gerganoff was to become the unofficial architect of the city of Ypsilanti and its surrounding townships, designing virtually all the public schools, firestations, the hospital, and other public buildings, as well as Cleary College, the Washtenaw Country Club, numerous churches, business, factories, union halls, and the Salvation Army headquarters in Ypsilanti. He also designed many private dwellings, ranging from small Cape Cod cottages to large Eclectic and Tudor styled mansions, and apartment buildings.

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