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FREDERICK C. BAKER (1887-1981)

Frederick Charles Baker was born in Bay City, Michigan, on August 15, 1887. His family moved to southern Oregon in 1892. Baker opened his own business in 1912 with the Pittock Mansion being his first major lighting fixture commission in 1914. He typically created works by first making a drawing, then creating a model in clay, then plaster, and the finally using a lead model for the final work in bronze.

His numerous works include fixtures at the Lloyd Frank home (Lewis & Clark College administrative building), Oregon State Capitol, Temple Beth Israel, Timberline Lodge, University Club, California Bank, University of Oregon's Straub Hall, Oregon State University's Memorial Union. The Oregon Historical Society holds the Baker archives which include thousands of his designs. In the 1970s and 1980s, Baker's workshop occupied a building at 6501 SW Macadam Avenue in Portland, Oregon.

Frederick Baker died in Portland, Oregon on October 1, 1981 at age 94. In 1986, an anonymous donor gave the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts a gift of $1 million to established an endowed chair in Baker's honor.