Paul Theodore d'Entremont

Paul Theodore d'Entremont, AIA, (1908-1988), was an American designer and architect focused on school architecture and based in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, who practiced nationally in the mid twentieth century but particularly in Pennsylvania. He was partners in the firms of Berninger, Haag & d'Entremont (fl. 1946-1946) and Haag & d'Entremont (fl. 1946-1988).

Paul d'Entremont was born on November 18, 1908 in Pubnico, Nova Scotia, Canada, where his "family had lived in Nova Scotia since 1653." He attended high school in Pubnico, and studied engineering at the Lowell Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a member of the T-Square Club in Philadelphia where he studied architecture under Paul Philippe Cret, receiving his Certification in Architecture in 1945. In 1941 he settled in Feasterville, Pennsylvania. along with his wife, artist Grace Berst d'Entremont, graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

d'Entremont worked as a draftsman from 1928-1930 at the offices of Dwight P. Robinson of Boston and transferred to work at the United Engineers & Constructors of Philadelphia on Broad & Arch Streets until 1932. From 1935 to 1937, he worked as a draftsman for the Board of Education, thereafter from 1938 to 1939 as an architectural designer for Malone & Williams in Salisbury, Maryland. He returned to Philadelphia in 1939 to work as an architectural designer for the Ballinger Co. on 12th and Chestnut Streets until 1941 and then transferred back to United Engineers & Constructors, working there until 1943.

d'Entremont joined the Philadelphia chapter of the AIA in late 1945. He joined Harold Haag in 1946 as partner in what had been Bernigner & Bower but which now became Berninger, Haag & d'Entremont and by the end of the year just Haag & d'Entremont. The partnership appears to have lasted for the rest of his career. The firm worked from 445 Cedar Street, Jenkintown, Pennsylvania 19046.

Carrying on educational specializations and connections wrought the predecessor firm of Bernigner & Bower, the firm built many "suburban schools during the post-war boom of 1945 – 1970. Internationalism/Modernism of the 1930/1940′s was the artistic influence on [d'Entremont's] generation and his buildings expressed an exuberance in clean lines, bright open spaces and the latest technology in building materials."

On his work, a month before he died, Paul d'Entremont stated: “I wish my buildings had all been made of stone, ...Because they’d last a thousand years…”

Around 1937, Paul married Grace Berst d'Entremont, an artist, in Philadelphia while she was studying there at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. They had four children: Marc, Nicole, Peter and Philip. Marc d'Entremont, Paul's son, said of his designer father and artist mother: "They had a 51-year artistic collaboration resulting in numerous public works of art with the award-winning architectural firm of Haag & d'Entremont....Examples of her work can be found at Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Feasterville and numerous schools in Bucks and Montgomery Counties."

• 1960: Cold Spring Elementary School, Upper Moreland Township. Montgomery County, Pennsylvania (p. 28)
• 1960: Continental Arms Apartments, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania (p. 28)
• 1960: Herbert Hoover Elementary School, Middletown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania (p. 29)
• 1963-1965: Eugene Klinger Junior High School, Southampton, Pennsylvania (Honor Award, 1963)
• 1965: Unami Junior High School, Chalfont, Pennsylvania
• 1967: Willow Hill Elementary School, (Honor Award, 1967)
• 1967: Log Col. Jr. High School, Warminster Township, Pennsylvania
• 1968: McKinley Elementary School, Abington Township, Pennsylvania (Honor Award from the Pennsylvania Society of Architects, 1968)
• 1968: Myers Elementary School addition (Honor Award from the American Association School Administration, 1968)
• 1969: Cent. Bucks E. High School, Buckingham, Pennsylvania
• 1975: Abington Senior High School (credited to d'Entremont)