Wallace Frost (October 27, 1892 – June 24, 1962) was an American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Early life

Frost was born in Uniontown,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. He studied architecture with

Paul Cret Paul Philippe Cret (October 23, 1876 – September 8, 1945) was a French-born Philadelphia architect and industrial designer. For more than thirty years, he taught at a design studio in the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylv ...

at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

World War I

During the war, Frost designed hangars for military installations in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

at the Naval Air Force. While he was there, he met Detroit architect Albert Kahn. Kahn asked Frost to come to Michigan to work with him and Frost moved there in 1919.

Career

Frost settled in

Birmingham, Michigan Birmingham is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Detroit located along the Woodward Corridor ( M-1). As of the 2010 census, the population was 20,103. History The area comprising what is now the c ...

in 1921 and worked with Albert Kahn. In 1926 he started his own practice and mostly designed homes in the Detroit suburbs. Frost designed 44 houses in or near Birmingham and he is also famous for designing the

Michigan Governor's Mansion The Michigan Governor's Mansion and summer residence are located in the U.S. state of Michigan. The primary residence is a gated mansion in a secured area of a private neighborhood of Lansing. The second home, a summer residence, is located on M ...

. He is known for midsize cottage houses that are flooded with natural light and that feature woodwork, architectural details and

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

frames around windows and doors. Frost created a Birmingham house for himself at 579 Tooting Lane in 1921. People who lived in houses he built often called them "Wally" houses. A number of them are near Quarton Lake and in the Holy Name neighborhood. Frost worked in Europe in 1932 and 1933 and then worked from 1933 until 1938 in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

. He built his own large home in

Montecito, California Montecito (Spanish for "Little mountain") is an unincorporated town and census-designated place in Santa Barbara County, California.McCormack, Don (1999). ''McCormack's Guides Santa Barbara and Ventura 2000''. Mccormacks Guides. p. 58. . Located ...

in 1936. He returned to Birmingham in 1939 and practiced until 1961. In 2005, basketball star

Chris Webber Mayce Edward Christopher Webber III (born March 1, 1973) is an American former professional basketball player. Drafted number one overall by the Orlando Magic, though arguably best known and remembered as the star forward for the Sacramento King ...

purchased a 1927 Wallace Frost mansion in Grosse Pointe Park. As Webber said about the purchase, "I'm a lover of history and a Wallace Frost fan and I was completely blown away by this house."

Birmingham homes

In August 1992, the Historic District and Design Review Commission published a report titled "Wallace Frost: His Architecture in Birmingham, Michigan." The report includes a list of homes in Birmingham that were designed by Frost.

Family life

Frost married Grace Bierer in 1917. They had one son, Jon, born in 1920 (d. 2002). Wallace Frost died in 1962, of a heart attack at the age of 69.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frost, Wallace 1892 births 20th-century American architects 1962 deaths Architects from Michigan People from Uniontown, Pennsylvania University of Pennsylvania School of Design alumni