Architect Frank Russell White was born in Brooklyn, New York
on May 2, 1889. He attended public
schools in New York, and attended the Pennsylvania Military College between
1903 and 1904. He first came to
Washington in 1908 to work as an architect for the Harry Wardman Company, for
whom he worked for the next twenty-five years.
He specialized in apartment building designs for Harry
Wardman, but also designed more than 5,000 single dwelling houses for the
Wardman Company. He and his wife Carolyn
resided for most of his career at 4645 Alton Place, NW.
Perhaps his best known apartment building is the Wardman
Park Hotel & Apartments at 2660 Woodley Road in Woodley Park, completed in
1917. White also designed three of the buildings
at Clifton Terrace, 14th and Clifton Street, in 1917, and the famed
Chateau Thierry at 1920 S Street, in 1918.
White established his own practice in 1922 with an office at
1340 F Street. One of his primary
clients included Christian Heurich, for which he designed the Heurich Building
at 1627 K Street in 1939.
The Great Depression was difficult for many of the country’s
architects, but apparently especially so for Frank White. He was arrested on October 26, 1931 in
Baltimore, on the charge of altering and raising $1 notes to represent $100
notes. He pleaded guilty in December of
that year, and served a two year prison sentence.
Copyright Paul K. Williams
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