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Frank W. Crimp
Born(1899-07-04)July 4, 1899
DiedJanuary 9, 1990(1990-01-09) (aged 90)
NationalityUnited States
OccupationArchitect
The Stoneham Town Hall, completed in 1939.
The Wakefield Memorial High School, completed in 1955.
The former North Reading High School, completed in 1955 and demolished in 2015.

Frank W. Crimp FAIA (1899–1990) was an English-born American architect in practice in Boston from 1930 until 1970.

Life and career[edit]

Frank William Crimp was born July 4, 1899 in London to Joseph Crimp and Kate Sarah (Beckanham) Crimp. He was educated at the Beaufoy Institute in Lambeth. The family immigrated to the United States in 1915, settling in Boston. As a teenager Crimp worked as a drafter for architects James H. Ritchie and Adden & Parker, specialists in school design, until the outbreak of World War I in 1917, when he enlisted in the Canadian Military Engineers. In 1919, after his return to Boston, he worked for the Housing Company, a private corporation modeled after the United States Housing Corporation, but returned to Adden & Parker in 1920. In 1929 Crimp and another associate, Howard T. Clinch, were admitted to the partnership, the firm being renamed Adden, Parker, Clinch & Crimp.[1][2] Crimp took a leave of absence in 1941 to serve in World War II, serving with the United States Army Corps of Engineers. From 1943 until 1947, when he returned to Boston, he served with the military government of Lichtenfels.[2][3] Adden and Parker retired in the 1940s, after which Clinch and Crimp assumed control of the firm. They maintained the firm's specialty in schools, but redirected their practice away from Adden's traditionalism to then-nascent modernism. In 1959, after the deaths of the founders, they were joined in partnership by Arthur W. Brown and Herbert R. Fisher Jr. and renamed the firm Clinch, Crimp, Brown & Fisher.[4] Clinch died in 1965, and in 1966 Crimp incorporated the firm as Crimp, Brown & Fisher. He retired from practice in 1970.

In 1958 Crimp was appointed architect member of the city Government Center Commission by Mayor John B. Hynes. This commission was in charge of the design and construction of the new Boston City Hall.[5] In 1960, at the urging of Crimp and the Boston Society of Architects, this commission organized a design competition, the jury of which in 1962 awarded the project to Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles of New York City, a decision which Crimp supported.[6][7] Crimp was a member of the commission until it was dissolved upon the building's completion in 1968.

Crimp joined the American Institute of Architects in 1930, and served as a director of the Massachusetts State Association of Architects.[8] In 1966 he was elected a Fellow, the organization's highest membership honor, for service to the profession and for public service.[9]

Crimp was a member of the Military Government Association and the Massachusetts Building Congress, and served on a number of state commissions and committes.[1][8]

Personal life[edit]

Crimp became a naturalized citizen in 1923. In 1925 he was married to Ruth E. Thompson, and they had three children, one son and two daughters. Crimp made his home in Milton, where he died January 8, 1990 at the age of 90.[3]

Legacy[edit]

The firm Crimp ran lasted a decade past his retirement. It was reorganized as Brown, Fisher, Nickerson & Todisco after his retirement and as Brown, Fisher & Nickerson circa 1972 before being dissolved in 1979.[10]

Two buildings designed by Crimp and his associates contribute to historic districts listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places.

Architectural works[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ A contributing property to the Little Boar's Head Historic District, NRHP-listed in 1999.
  2. ^ A contributing property to the Vermont Academy Campus Historic District, NRHP-listed in 2015.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Crimp, Frank William" in American Architects Directory (New York: R. R. Bowker Company, 1956): 116.
  2. ^ a b Adden, Parker, Clinch & Crimp, AIA Historical Directory of American Architects.
  3. ^ a b "Frank W. Crimp, 90" in Boston Globe, January 9, 1990, 53.
  4. ^ "Notices," Progressive Architecture 40, no. 4 (April 1959): 260.
  5. ^ "Mayor's Committee For New City Hall Has First Meeting" in Boston Globe, November 27, 1958, 67.
  6. ^ Robert B. Hanron, "Hub Wants Best City Hall in U. S., Plans Nationwide Contest to Get It" in Boston Globe, November 18, 1960, 1 and 10.
  7. ^ "And Here's New City Hall, Apt to Stir Controversy" in Boston Globe, May 4, 1962, 1 and 17.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g "Crimp, Frank William" in American Architects Directory (New York: R. R. Bowker Company, 1962): 143.
  9. ^ "Sixty to Gain Status Of Institute Fellowship" in AIA Journal 45, no. 6 (June, 1966): 16–17.
  10. ^ Massachusetts corporation records
  11. ^ Engineering News-Record (February 3, 1949): 128.
  12. ^ Historic Building Detail: MLT.690, Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System.
  13. ^ a b Vermont Academy NRHP Registration Form (2015)
  14. ^ Historic Building Detail: LEX.1639, Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System.
  15. ^ Historic Building Detail: LEX.1640, Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System.
  16. ^ Historic Building Detail: BED.312, Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System.
  17. ^ Historic Building Detail: WNT.1868, Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System.
  18. ^ a b "Fisher, Herbert Robson Jr." in American Architects Directory (New York: R. R. Bowker Company, 1970): 278.
  19. ^ Engineering News-Record (July 10, 1969): 62.