Gustav Adam Maass, Jr. (1893-1964) was born in New Orleans, the third of eight children of German immigrants. His father was a mechanical engineer. Maass grew up in New Orleans and Birmingham, Alabama. He received a degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania in 1917, and worked during World War I in the U. S. Civil Service at League Island Navy Yard in Philadelphia. After the war Maass returned to Birmingham, where he designed a variety of structures, including a Masonic Temple, power plants, schools, churches, and houses. There he met and married Helen Hensley (1904-2001).
In 1921 Maass joined Harvey and Clarke (architectural firm) in West Palm Beach, where he participated in the design of railroad stations on Florida’s east and west coasts, including the Seaboard Railway Station in Delray Beach. Maass designed many buildings in Delray Beach in the 1920s; his Art Deco style was reflected in commercial buildings along Atlantic Avenue.
Maass was partners with John L. Volk from 1927 to 1935 in Palm Beach, when he started his own firm. He designed the American Red Cross building in West Palm Beach and the original Rehabilitation Center for Children and Adults facility in Palm Beach and he alsoredesigned the interior of the First Presbyterian Church, West Palm Beach.
The Palm Beach Town Council designated several Maass-designed houses as landmarks to be preserved, many of which were in the Mediterranean Revival style featuring simple windows, barrel clay tile roofs, and stucco exteriors. He also used Neo-Classical and Colonial Revival styles, and in Delray Beach, designed a home in the Virginia Colonial Farmhouse Style (1936) for farmers Marshall and Jeannette Butts DeWitt.