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The Architect, the Heiress, and the Failed Coup

The 2025 special exhibit in the National Canal Museum described the life of Charles M. Schwab, who built Bethlehem Steel into the second-largest corporation in the US. The exhibit featured some of his extensive collection of autographed photographic portraits of many of the prominent people he was acquainted with during the early 20th century. Schwab was an engaging, energetic extrovert who knew many well-known people. But few were as bizarre as his nephew-in-law by marriage, Titus de Bobula.

Titus de Bobula (1878–1961) was a Hungarian American architect who married into the Schwab fortune and family through Charles’s wife’s niece Eurana (also seen in articles and research spelled Eurania) Dinkey Mock in 1910. Upon learning about our Schwab exhibit, an interested party reached out to the Museum staff, curious to see if we had anything in our archives relating to his nephew-in-law.

While we had nothing about him in the collection, we were intrigued. What we discovered was a story of concrete churches, car crashes, and an ill-conceived coup.  As you may be able to tell, a simple request for information sent us down quite the rabbit hole.

De Bobula was born in Hungary, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, into a family of architects which included both his father Janos and brother Janos Jr.

Montefiore Hall, a design by Titus de Bobula Click to enlarge image.

After arriving in the United States, Titus de Bobula briefly worked at an architectural firm in New York City before moving to Ohio in 1901. Trade publications from that period show him carving out a minor reputation as a competent but eccentric architect. In 1902 he placed an advertisement in the American School Board Journal featuring a school design complete with dimensions and estimated construction costs, which violated professional norms at the time. The American Institute of Architects discouraged self-promotion and viewed competing on the basis of professional charges as unprofessional conduct, going so far as to call it “a grave thing to put the stigma of ‘unprofessional conduct’ onto a member of the institute.” (American Institute of Architects 1909, 273). De Bobula apparently couldn’t care less about being stigmatized by his fellow professionals, and it seems that it ultimately didn’t matter. By 1903 he was doing well enough to move his office to Pittsburgh.

In Pittsburgh, his ambitions grew. One of his first major contracts was the Alpha Apartment Hotel, valued at $400,000 — roughly fifteen million in today’s money. Apartment buildings and large churches became his specialty. His self-promotional flair made him a popular interviewee for local journalists, and he even wrote his own profile for a Pittsburgh Press roundup, arguing that America was “big and strong enough” to have its own architectural style (Pittsburg Press).

He embraced reinforced concrete early, using it for houses and churches at a time when the material was still emerging in structural design. Drawing on the Art Nouveau styles he knew from his father’s architectural background, he used concrete to create organic forms and ornamental details unfamiliar in Pittsburgh. His work stood out, and his reputation grew.

In mid-1904 de Bobula was in newspapers nationwide after hitting and killing a woman with his car while leaving a cornerstone ceremony. The case fascinated readers due to the novelty of automobile accidents and the legal questions they raised. He was found not guilty of manslaughter as clear precedents for vehicular cases did not yet exist.

The following year, he delivered a strange speech at the Architectural League of America conference held in Pittsburgh. He proposed a distinctive ‘American Style’ blending architectural theory with cosmic imagery, prehistoric civilizations, rotating cycles of art, and a suggestion that Atlantis had once shaped the Americas before a cataclysm erased the evidence.  Despite this eccentricity, he continued to earn commissions.  Several of his buildings still stand today, such as the Everett Apartments in Shadyside and the First Hungarian Reform Church in Hazelwood.

Titus de Bobula was doing well financially and expanding his interests. By 1909, he was active in land speculation. That year he sold 232 acres in Waynesburg to the Gates Coal Company for two hundred fifty thousand dollars. By 1910 newspapers described him as both an architect and a businessman “interested in the coal and coke industry” (Pittsburg Post-Gazette 1910).

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This period also brought him unexpected national attention. In June 1910, Titus de Bobula eloped with Eurana Dinkey Mock, the niece of Charles M. Schwab’s wife. Allentown’s Morning Call called it a “Runaway Love Match.” The couple married just after midnight on the 1st of June. They were so secretive about the affair that journalists had to contact Titus de Bobula’s business partner for comment. Mrs. De Bobula later explained that they had been secretly engaged for six months after meeting while she was a student at Bryn Mawr College. The wedding took place without her family’s knowledge, and only afterward did she telegraph her mother in Philadelphia: “Happily Married. Send my best love to you, Dad, and Mary” (San Francisco Call 1910, p.1).

The couple eventually settled in New York City, where de Bobula designed a Bronx mansion on the cliffs overlooking the Hudson and Harlem Rivers. His wife’s expensive taste quickly placed a strain on de Bobula’s resources, and he became increasingly reliant on his wealthy uncle-in-law. Over the next nine years, de Bobula received $208,831 in advances from Schwab — around four million dollars in 2025. This information came to light in 1919, when de Bobula, whether out of financial desperation or a genuine feeling of disparagement, sued Schwab for defamation. In court, Schwab was accused of calling de Bobula “incompetent” and “dishonest” and offering him “1 million dollars if he’d jump out of a window” (New York Times 1919, p. 15). One of the ventures Schwab had bankrolled was an asbestos company, which de Bobula ran into bankruptcy in 1917 while misappropriating at least $18,000 for personal expenses. The suit was dismissed by the New York Supreme Court in the summer of that same year.

River Front House at Spuyten Duyvil, New York City. Click to enlarge image.

De Bobula yet again came to national attention in 1923 when, while living in Hungary, he was caught attempting to overthrow their government. He played a role in a failed putsch that would have would have established an ultra-reactionary Hungarian state. Described by international observers as “ludicrously infantile,” (Boston Globe 1923, p. 7) de Bobula was working with Adolf Hitler and his co-conspirators in Bavaria. The day before Hitler’s infamous failed Beer Hall Putsch, de Bobula was arrested in Munich exiting a train bound from Budapest. He was travelling with a member of the Hungarian parliament, Francis Ulain. In the December 1923 edition of The Nation, the plot was described in detail:

“Ulain’s errand was to have the agreement signed by Adolf Hitler as the supposed representative of the sovereign Bavarian state. The document, which is now in possession of the Budapest police, contains provisions of a diplomatic and military nature. It virtually restores to Hungary the territory adjudicated to the succession states by the Treaty of the Trianon. At the same time, it provides, in the main, that Bavaria is to supply Hungary with soldiers, particularly with such as have some special training, and which, it is implied in the text of the agreement, could be used in case Hungarian labor should strike as a protest against the ‘liberating action’ of the reactionaries.”

Titus de Bobula, from the Cement Era. Click to enlarge image.

The plot was quickly foiled by the authorities and Titus de Bobula found himself in a Hungarian jail. News spread quickly of a wealthy American expatriate involved in a failed coup attempt and speculation ensued. Early reporting in Hungary was confusing; they initially mistook Charles M. Schwab for Henry Ford, leading reports to claim that de Bobula was Ford’s brother-in-law. Ford had to release a statement to the paper Das Jüdische Echo denying any relation to the Hungarian and distancing himself from the plot. American papers soon followed with clarifying details. In one report, Schwab apparently requested that his niece return home, telling her to bring her dogs, but doesn’t mention the return of his nephew-in-law. That same article revealed that Titus de Bobula had pawned nearly $15,000 of Eurana’s jewelry – a gift from her uncle – to bail himself out.

Bobula disappeared from the public record until 1935, when his name came up in connection with a Captain Tauscher of the B & T Munitions Company during a special Senate investigation into the munitions industry violating the Neutrality Acts. Apparently, de Bobula had been running guns to and from Germany during the 1930s.

It seems it was not just firearms that de Bobula dealt in. In 1939 a story about de Bobula once again became national news. A cache of tear gas, shrapnel bombs, and dynamite was discovered in the basement of his Bronx home. Police initially suspected a terrorist cell until de Bobula returned home and explained himself later that night. He claimed that the explosives were merely “dummies” that his wife had stowed downstairs and that they were part of his “munitions business”. (Daily News 1939, p. 8)

That same year, Eurana de Bobula took Charles M. Schwab to court. After Emma Eurana Dinkey Schwab died, Schwab inherited his wife’s estate. Eurana sued her uncle, disputing his inheritance and claiming that fraud and undue influence had been exerted on her aunt. The case was dismissed. Later, she fought to have her aunt disinterred from the family mausoleum, claiming that six people, including her aunt, had been interred there without her consent.

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Titus and Eurana de Bobula spent the rest of their lives in relative poverty. They remained in the Washington D.C. area, and one of the last times de Bobula appeared in the public record was in 1952, when he entered negotiations with a CIA employee over a parcel of land in Virginia. It was perhaps a fitting final act for a man who had spent his life convincing people he was more impressive than he was – CIA officials looking into his case described de Bobula as a “litigious crank.” In 1962, Titus de Bobula passed away at the age of 83. Eurana died 8 years later in 1970. Her obituary claimed that the couple were interred in Nisky Hill Cemetery in Bethlehem, although that was not confirmed.

Works Cited

“$510,000 Damage Suit Asks Disinterment of Schwab Widow’s Body.” Evening Star (Washington, DC), February 21, 1948. Associated Press.

“Arsenal Is Harmless.” Daily News (Lebanon, PA), August 2, 1939, 8.

“Able Architects the Authors of City’s Architectural Beauty.” Pittsburg Press. 1905. April 29, 1905.

“Bobula Married Niece of Schwab; Hungarian Revolutionist Made Fortune Here.” Boston Globe, November 18, 1923, 7.

“Charges of Tauscher Denied by Partner; De Bobula Fights Associate’s Suit to Put Munitions Firm Into Receivership.” The New York Times, July 26, 1934.

“Coal Transfer Made: Latrobe Broker Closes Big Sale to Pittsburg Company.” Pittsburg Post-Gazette, March 11, 1910.

“Convention of the American Institute of Architects Held at Washington, D.C., December 14, 15, and 16, 1909.” The American Architect 96, no. 1774 (December 22, 1909): 272–274.

“De Bobula Is Before Court; Automobilist, Charged With Voluntary Manslaughter, On Trial.” Pittsburg Press, December 7, 1904, 1.

“De Bobula Is Let Off.” Pittsburg Post, December 10, 1904, 12.

“De Bobula Not Guilty; Jury Declares Young Architect Innocent of Manslaughter in Death of Mrs. Mary Stauffer.” Pittsburg Press, December 9, 1904, 1.

“Henry Ford bestreitet die Unterstützung des europäischen Antisemitismus” [Henry Ford Denies Support for European Antisemitism]. Das Jüdische Echo (Munich), Edition A, no. 51, December 31, 1923, 3.

International Cable Directory of the World, in Conjunction with Western Union Telegraphic Code System. New York: International Cable Directory Company, 1912.

Kingsbridge Historical Society. “Spuyten Duyvil Architect Titus de Bobula.” Kingsbridge Historical Society Forums. Accessed February 2026. https://kingsbridgehistoricalsociety.org/forums/topic/spuyten-duyvil-archtect-Titus de Bobula-de-bobula/.

Lengyel, Emil. “‘Reactionaries of the World, Unite!'” The Nation 117, no. 3050 (December 19, 1923).

“Mrs. Schwab’s Will Attacked.” Los Angeles Times, April 7, 1939. Associated Press.

“No Malice Says Schwab to Suit; Admits Saying He Would Give Million if Nephew Jumped Out of Window.” Reading Times, August 8, 1919, 1.

Pittsburg Press. 1905. “Able Architects the Authors of City’s Architectural Beauty.” April 29, 1905.

“Schwab Answers Suit of de Bobula.” The New York Times, August 17, 1919, 15.

“Schwab Asks Niece to Bring Dogs Home; Steel Magnate’s Cable, However, Is Silent As to Husband, Titus de Bobula.” Baltimore Sun, April 14, 1924, 1.

“Schwab’s Body to Rest in Family Vault Today.” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 30, 1940, 32. Associated Press.

“Schwab Disclaims Malice in Reply to Slander Suit.” New-York Tribune, August 7, 1919, 20.

“Schwab’s Eloping Niece Sails to Visit Husband’s Parents.” Allentown Leader, June 6, 1910, 12.

“Schwab’s Niece Elopes from School to Marry.” The San Francisco Call, July 15, 1910, 1.

Titus de Bobula. “American Style.” The Inland Architect and News Record, June 1905, 51.

Titus de Bobula. “House at Spuyten Duyvil, New York City.” The American Architect 117, no. 2319 (June 2, 1920): 668–669.

“Titus de Bobula.” Encyclopedia of Father Pitt [annotated online reference with cited primary sources]. Accessed January 2026. https://encyclopedia.fatherpitt.com/architects-Titus de Bobula-de-bobula.html.

“Titus de BobulaJailed in Budapest; Husband of Mrs. C.M. Schwab’s Niece Arrested for Plot to Overthrow Government.” The New York Times, November 10, 1923.

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. “Item from the Daily Log — 18 December 1952.” CIA-RDP57-00384R000400020015-2. Approved for Release August 23, 2001. CIA Electronic Reading Room. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/cia-readingroom-document-cia-rdp57-00384r000400020015-2.

U.S. Congress. Senate. Special Committee Investigating the Munitions Industry. Munitions Industry: Hearings Before the Special Committee Investigating the Munitions Industry, United States Senate, Seventy-Third–Seventy-Fourth Congress, Pursuant to S. Res. 206. 73rd–74th Cong. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1934–1936.