Henry Atherton Frost, (February 8, 1883 – May 26, 1952) was an American architect and instructor at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
. He was largely responsible for inaugurating and overseeing an early graduate program in architecture and landscape architecture for women that became known as the
Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.
[
]
Early life
Henry Atherton Frost was born in Newton Centre, Massachusetts
Newton Centre is one of the thirteen villages within the city of Newton in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The main commercial center of Newton Centre is a triangular area surrounding the intersections of Beacon Street, Centre St ...
, on February 8, 1882, to William Atherton and Myra Ames (Tilton) Frost.[ ] Frost attended Fitchburg High School
Fitchburg High School is a public high school in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The school is part of the Fitchburg Public Schools district.
History
Fitchburg High School has existed in some capacity since 1830, when its fir ...
and received his bachelor's degree from Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
in 1905 and master in architecture at Harvard University in 1910. Frost married Anna Partenheimer Lochman in 1911.
Frost was a member of the firm Frost and Raymond of Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
and president of Nichols and Frost of Fitchburg. He went on to the Harvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urban ...
.
His great-great grandmother Eunice Atherton (17711839) was a direct descendant of James Atherton, one of the founders of Lancaster, Massachusetts. His son, Henry Atherton Frost Jr., would become an architectural designer in the Boston area.
Career
Frost helped to inaugurate one of the earliest combined programs in architecture and landscape architecture for women. The Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture developed as a result of the fact that in 1915 a recent graduate of Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...
, Katherine Brooks, who intended to study landscape architecture at the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture, wanted to begin by taking architectural drafting at Harvard but was refused entry because the school did not admit women.[
Brooks consulted with the head of Harvard's school of landscape architecture, ]James Sturgis Pray
James Sturgis Pray (February 26, 1871 – February 24, 1929) was an American educator. Pray was president of the American Society of Landscape Architects from 1914 to 1918 and held the post of chairman of the Department of Landscape Architecture ...
, who then arranged for Frost, then a young instructor in architecture, to tutor Brooks privately. Somewhat to his surprise, Frost found his unexpected pupil an apt and enthusiastic student, and in an account of the school's founding he wrote: "Teaching a woman what we had always considered strictly a man's job was not the painful ordeal it had promised to be."
Within a year, Frost had four women students and another professor, the landscape architect Bremer Whidden Pond
Bremer Whidden Pond (June 23, 1884 – September 2, 1959) was an American landscape architect and professor at Harvard University. He was deeply involved with two early graduate programs in landscape architecture for women: the Cambridge School of ...
, had come on board.[ Even though the women followed the same curriculum as their male peers, Harvard students tended to dismiss the school with belittling terms such as the "Little School" and the "Frost and Pond Day Nursery".][ Word about the informal program spread, and by the 1916–17 academic year, the college was advertising the experimental program and its curriculum as the Cambridge School of Architectural and Landscape Design for Women.][ The first two women to complete the school's three-year program were Brooks and landscape architect ]Rose Greely
Rose Ishbel Greely (1887–May 23, 1969) was an American landscape architect and the first female licensed architect in Washington, D.C.
Early life and education
Rose Isabel Greely was born in Washington, D.C. in 1887. She was the daughter of A ...
; a later graduate was Eleanor Raymond
Eleanor Raymond (March 4 1887 – July 24 1989) was an American architect.
During a professional career spanning some sixty years of practice, mainly in residential housing, Raymond explored the use of innovative materials and building system ...
.[
In 1919, the school's name was changed to the Cambridge School of Domestic and Landscape Architecture for Women, a shift that Frost later regretted for its implication that women were only suited to residential (i.e. domestic) architectural design.][ A problem in the school's early years had been its inability to issue formal degrees, which are required in most states in order to register as a licensed architect.][ In the 1930s, after Harvard refused to become a formal degree-granting partner for the school, it moved its affiliation to ]Smith College
Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...
.[
Apart from teaching, Frost had his own solo architectural practice specializing in private residences, with an office in Harvard Square.][ Shortly after her graduation from the Cambridge School, Eleanor Raymond joined Frost as his partner (she had previously been working for him as a draftsperson while a student at the school).][ In 1920, the team won a $1000 prize in a competition to design a plan for the University of Buffalo's new undergraduate college.][ Around the same time, Frost brought Bremer Pond into the partnership.][
After retirement from Harvard in 1940, Frost went to ]Ohio University
Ohio University is a Public university, public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confeder ...
where he became visiting professor in 1950.
Frost died at Sheltering Arms Hospital
Sheltering Arms Physical Rehabilitation Centers (previously Sheltering Arms Hospital) are rehabilitation and health services facilities in the Greater Richmond Region of Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a sta ...
on May 26, 1952, in Athens, Ohio
Athens is a city and the county seat of Athens County, Ohio. The population was 23,849 at the 2020 census. Located along the Hocking River within Appalachian Ohio about southeast of Columbus, Athens is best known as the home of Ohio Universit ...
, due to injuries he suffered from an automobile crash. Police say he either suffered a heart attack or fell asleep driving which sent his car into a ditch. His wife, Anna, suffered facial injuries and a fractured shoulder. He is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery
Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural cemetery, rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middl ...
.
Frost was a member of the American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...
and the Boston Society of Architects.
References
Further reading
* Anderson, Dorothy May. ''Women, Design, and the Cambridge School''. PDA Publishers Corp., 1980.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frost, Henry Atherton
20th-century American architects
1880s births
1952 deaths
Architects from Cambridge, Massachusetts
Harvard University faculty
Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni
Brown University alumni