(rshsdepot) Depot Architect

[Jim Dent <jdent1_@_optonline.net>]

Louis Fry Jr., 77; Architect for Black Colleges

By Joe Holley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 21, 2006; Page B06

Louis Edwin Fry Jr., 77, a Washington architect whose designs included 
buildings for Tuskegee University and other historically black campuses, 
died of complications from cancer March 7 at Washington Hospital Center.

Mr. Fry told The Washington Post in 1993 that his firm, Fry and Welch, 
was the oldest continuously operating African American architectural 
firm on the East Coast. Founded in 1954 by his father, Louis E. Fry Sr., 
the firm continues to design large commercial and institutional projects 
under the direction of Mr. Fry's son, Louis Fry III.
	
Mr. Fry's notable designs include Reed and Fort Lincoln elementary 
schools in the District and Baltimore's North Avenue subway station. In 
addition to a hotel and convention center at Tuskegee University, he 
designed buildings for Morgan State University, the University of 
Maryland Eastern Shore and Coppin State University. With his interest in 
black colleges and universities, he was following in the tradition of 
his father, who helped design Howard University's Founders Library and 
Douglas Hall and who was chairman of the architecture departments at 
Tuskegee and Lincoln University of Missouri.

According to his son, Mr. Fry's favorite project was the Baltimore & 
Ohio Railroad Station in Aberdeen, Md. "He took a run-down old station 
of historic significance and not only restored it, but restored the 
character and vitality to the area," Fry said. "The community responded."

Louis Fry Jr. was born in Prairie View, Tex., and grew up in the 
District. He attended Lincoln University in Jefferson City and received 
two undergraduate degrees, one from Howard in 1947 and the other from 
Harvard University in 1953. He also studied architecture in Delft, the 
Netherlands, on a Fulbright fellowship. In 1962, he received a master's 
of architecture degree in urban design at Harvard, where he studied 
under Walter Gropius, a famed German architect and architectural 
theorist. Mr. Fry also was a visiting professor at Harvard.

He served on architectural review panels for Washington and Baltimore 
and was a member of the Joint Committee on Landmarks of the National 
Capital.

In 1993, The Post reported on Mr. Fry's penchant for making changes to 
his own home, a glass-walled house on a tree-covered hill in upper 
Northwest Washington. His goal over the years was to open up the 
traditional two-story house to surrounding views, including Rock Creek 
Park and the Walter Reed Army Medical Center campus. He added windows to 
the dining room, living room, master bedroom and family room and built 
fish ponds, carved patios, paths and terraces into the steep embankment 
on which the house is perched. He also built a deck that cantilevers 
over the edge of the hill. He was still making changes at the time of 
his death, a daughter said.

Mr. Fry's wife, Genelle Wiley Fry, died in 1994.

In addition to his son, of the District, survivors include three 
daughters, JoNisa Fry Oliver of the District, Dr. Vicki-Lynn Wilson of 
Louisville and A'Lexa Genelle Hawkins of Hockessin, Del.; a sister, Dr. 
Gladys Marie Fry of College Park; seven grandchildren; and a 
great-granddaughter.

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1320
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org