Maximilian (“Max”) Toltz

Maximilian (“Max”) Tolz was a prominent engineer who is pictured in Figure 4-6 of the book.

Born in Germany in 1858 and a graduate of Berlin’s Royal Academy of Science and Engineering in 1877, Toltz emigrated to the U.S. and arrived in St. Paul in 1882.  He became the Chief Engineer for James J. Hill’s Great Northern Railway.  

Historian William J. Brown described Toltz in American Colossus as the “engineering genius” of the railway’s “golden age.”  Among his many projects with Hill, he designed the huge steel-binned grain elevator and the Allouez Bay Dock No. 4 at Superior, Wisconsin, which were owned for many years by Great Northern Iron Ore Properties.

In 1910, Toltz formed his own engineering consulting firm, now known as TKDA and still based in St. Paul in 2020.  The holder of several U.S. patents, Toltz was hired in 1915 by well-known architect Emmanuel Louis Masquaray to design the mechanical and structure systems for the notable St. Paul Cathedral.  In 1926, he was retained by the City of St. Paul to design the 1,500-foot rainbow arch reinforced concrete Robert Street bridge, now a national historic landmark.

Toltz also designed and built his own residence in the Dayton’s Bluff area of St. Paul in 1902, located a block from his neighbor, Andrew H. Stolpestad, the author’s great grandfather.