Charles Sumner Frost


Charles Sumner Frost was an American architect. He is best known as the architect of Navy Pier and for designing over 100 buildings for the Chicago and North Western Railway.

Biography

Born in Lewiston, Maine, Frost was first a draftsman in Boston, and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1876. While working in Boston he worked for the firm of Peabody and Stearns from 1876 to 1881. He moved to Chicago in 1882, when he began a partnership with Henry Ives Cobb. Together, they established the firm Cobb and Frost, which was active from 1882 to 1898. After the partnership ended, he worked alone. Frost married Mary Hughitt, a daughter of Marvin Hughitt, the President of the Chicago and North Western Railroad, in 1897. On January 1, 1898, he partnered with his brother-in-law, Alfred Hoyt Granger, to form the firm of Frost and Granger. Frost and Granger were known for their designs of train stations and terminals, including the now-demolished Chicago and North Western Terminal. Frost designed 127 buildings for the Chicago and North Western Railroad alone. After Frost and Granger dissolved in 1910, Frost continued to work independently, designing such structures as the Navy Pier Auditorium.
Frost was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. He retired on December 31, 1928 and died on December 11, 1931 in Chicago. The city of Frost, Rome Township, Faribault County, Minnesota, was named for Charles S. Frost.

Notable buildings