Charles Sumner Frost (1856-12/11/1931) Chicago, Illinois (F.A.I.A.)

Nationally known mid-west architect, formerly associated in partnership with Henry Ives Cobb, and for a number of years member of the firm of Frost & Granger.

The son of a mill owner and lumber merchant in Lewiston, Maine, Frost was educated and received an early architectural training in his native city. After continuing his studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduation in 1876, he found employment in the Boston office of Peabody & Stearns, where he worked until 1881. In the following year he moved to Chicago and began his professional career under the firm name of Cobb & Frost, a partnership in which the young won success and recognition through the years until 1898. During that period, Frost was identified with the design of a number of noteworthy buildings, such as the Union Club, 1882; the Calumet Club; Newberry Library, begun in 1887 on site of the Malcolm Ogden residence; Opera House and Office Building at Clark and Washington Streets, 1884; City Hall; Historical Society Building, 1887, at Dearborn and Ontario Streets, and the old Post Office, built between 1898 and 1905, since 1934 the U.S. Court House.

During the 1890s, Cobb & Frost were commissioned to design several buildings at the University of Chicago, including the Walker Museum; Kent Chemical Laboratory, Ryerson Physical Laboratory, the the President's house.

Following the end of the partnership in 1898, when Mr. Cobb withdrew to open an office in New York. Frost practiced jointly with Alfred H. Granger until 1910, and in the period he made a special study of Railroad Station design. Several large Terminals were built in mid-western cities from the firm's plans of which the most important were the LaSalle Station and the Northwestern Terminal in Chicago, and Union Stations at Omaha, Nebraska, and St. Paul, Minnesota. Frost & Granger were also architect of the Smith Memorial Building at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago, 1907; the Northwestern Trust & Bank Building, 1908; Memorial Hospital for Infectious Diseases; Office Building for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company; the Borland Building, and the Municipal Pier, all in Chicago. Elsewhere the Hill Office Building in St. Paul, the Church of the Holy Spirit at Lake Forest, Illinois, were among the firm's works.

Originally a member of the old Western Association of Architects and in 1889 made a Fellow of the A.I.A., Frost had long been active in both the Chicago Chapter, A.I.A., and the Illinois Society of Architects. With an expert knowledge of construction methods, he was frequently called upon to serve as Arbitrator in settlement of conflicting claims.