Louis Edwin Fry Sr.

Louis Edwin Fry Sr., FAIA, NOMA^[1] (1903–2000) was an American architect and professor.^[2][3] He was a former chair of the department of architecture at Howard University, a historically Black university in Washington, D.C..^[4] Fry was a registered architect in Alabama, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Missouri, and Pennsylvania.^[5] He was known for his college and university campus architectural designs. Fry primarily worked at HBUs and state school designing buildings and campus plans, such as Prairie View A&M University; Howard University; Tuskegee University; Alabama State University in Montgomery, Alabama; and Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. Fry was a founding member of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA).^[1] He was a partner in the architectural firm of Fry & Welch.

Louis Edwin Fry Sr. was born on January 10, 1903, in Bastrop, Texas.^[5] His parents were Pleasant Ann and Henry Bowers Fry, he had one older brother.^[5] He attended Emile High School, a segregated Black high school and graduated from the 12th grade at the age of 15.^[5]

Fry attended Prairie View State College (now Prairie View A&M University), and graduated in 1922 with a B.S. degree in mechanical arts.^[5] He continued his studies at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, where he received B.S. degree (1927) in architectural engineering,^[6] and M.S. architecture (1929); and later returned to classes at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, where he received a M.Arch. degree (1945).^[5] While attending Kansas State University graduate school, Fry was a member of Phi Beta Kappa; and he received the Lorentz Schmidt Award for his draftsmanship and an award from the AIA.^[7]

In 1927, Fry married Obelia E. Swearingen from Kansas City.^[4] Together they had two children; Louis Jr., who became and architect, and Gladys-Marie, an academic of folklore.^[4]

After graduating from Kansas State University's undergraduate program in 1927, Fry worked at Prairie View State College in Prairie View, Texas teaching engineering and math.^[5] He designed a Prairie View State College new campus dormitory for women called Evans Hall (1927), and a fifty bed hospital (1929, demolished in 1980).^[5] He was the second African-American licensed to practice architecture in the state of Texas.^[5]

After completing his master's at Kansas State University, Fry was hired as a senior designer by architect Albert Irvin Cassell, replacing Hilyard Robert Robinson on Howard University projects.^[5] He completed the Howard University women's dormitory project, started by Robinson.^[5] Other buildings at Howard University he worked on included the Douglas Hall classroom building, the Founders Library, the Chemistry Building, a power plant, the university entrance gate, and the campus master plan.^[5] Fry left Cassell's office after receiving and offer to teach from Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1935.^[5]

Fry was appointed as the first chair of the architecture department at Tuskegee Institute, a newly formed department.^[5] Architecture was not a new field to the school, it had been taught since 1893, but Tuskegee Institute had reorganized the department structure.^[5] Fry worked on planning for department accreditation, and completed a campus master plan.^[5] While at Tuskegee Institute, Fry also worked to design nine buildings at Alabama State College (now Alabama State University) in Montgomery, including a library building.^[5][8] Fry left Tuskegee after receiving an offer in 1940 as campus architect from Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri.^[5]

At Lincoln University, he designed the Journalism Building and the Page Library. In 1983, the Page Library was added as a contributing building to the "Lincoln Univ. Hilltop Campus Historic District", listed in the National Registrar of Historic Places in Cole County, Missouri.^[9][10] Fry finished designing the campus master plan working alongside Charles Edgar Dickinson.^[5] He took a sabbatical and enrolled in Harvard University's Graduate School of Design in 1944, working under Walter Gropius.^[5] When he graduated in 1945, he was the first Black graduate from the master's degree program in architecture.^[5] He briefly worked under Marcel Breuer as a draftsman, before returning to Lincoln University.^[5]

From 1947 until 1972, Fry worked as faculty at Howard University in Washington, D.C., while maintaining his private architectural practice (which included designing for other school campuses).^[5] Howard Hamilton Mackey Sr. served as the department chair at Howard University during his hire.^[5] Fry worked in helping the department achieve accreditation.^[5] He maintained his private architectural practice as a sole proprietor until 1954, when Fry partnered with John Austin Welch to form Fry & Welch.^[5] Fry & Welch designed 16 campus buildings in 5 states, and roughly a third of the campus for Tuskegee Institute.^[5] The partnership lasted until 1969.^[5]

In 1960, his son Louis Jr. joined his firm and helped him design in Washington, D.C.^[5] Throughout his career he maintained teaching at the college level.^[5] In 1967, Fry was named a fellow by the American Institute of Architects (AIA).^[5] He was a member of the Washington, D.C. Board of Examiners and Registrar.^[5]

Fry died from viral pneumonia on June 10, 2000, at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C..^[4] He was survived by his wife of 73 years and two children.^[4] His son Louis Jr. died of complications from cancer a few years later, in 2006.^[11]

Fry mentored hundreds of African American architecture students. Fry's profile was included in the biographical dictionary African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865–1945 (2004). The Kansas State University, Morse Department of Special Collections contains an archive named Louis Fry (folder 21).^[12]

• 1966, Distinguished Service Award, Kansas State University^[13]
• 1967, College of Fellows, American Institute of Architects (AIA)^[13]
• 1995, Centennial Award, American Institute of Architects D.C. Chapter

• Fry, Louis Edwin (1981). Louis Edwin Fry, Sr: His Life and His Architecture. L.E. Fry.

• African-American architects