Joe Frazer Smith
Joe Frazer Smith (March 25, 1897 – April 13, 1957) was an American architect and author.
Joe Frazer Smith | |
---|---|
Born | March 25, 1897 Canton, Mississippi, U.S. |
Died | April 13, 1957 Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
Alma mater | Georgia Institute of Technology |
Occupation | Architect, author |
Spouse(s) | Ada McDonnell |
Parent(s) | Charles Foster Smith Susan Cheek |
Early life
Joe Frazer Smith was born on March 25, 1897 in Canton, Mississippi.[1] He graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1921.[1]
Career
Smith became an architect in Memphis, Tennessee in 1922.[1] With Herbert Burnham, he designed the mansion of the president of Rhodes College in Memphis in 1926.[2] He designed Castle Crest in Jackson, Mississippi in 1929-1930, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[3] In 1938, he designed Dixie Homes, public housing for African Americans in Memphis.[4]
![](../I/m/Castle_Crest.jpg)
Smith authored a book about historic mansions in the Southeastern United States. It was published as White Pillars: Early Life and Architecture of the Lower Mississippi Valley Country and later retitled Plantation Houses and Mansions of the Old South. In particular, Smith describes plantation homes in Kentucky, Tennessee (Nashville and Franklin), Mississippi (Port Gibson and Natchez), Louisiana (East Feliciana Parish and West Feliciana Parish), and Alabama (Mobile).[5] In a review for The Journal of Southern History, Edwin Adams Davis called the book "a delightful combination of architecture and history" as well as "a major contribution to southern historiography."[5]
Personal life and death
Smith married Ada McDonnell in 1922.[1] He died on April 13, 1957 in Memphis.
Works
- Smith, Joe Frazer (1941). White Pillars: Early Life and Architecture of the Lower Mississippi Valley Country. New York: Bramhall House. ISBN 9780517034682. OCLC 691733.
References
- Van West, Carroll (1995). Tennessee's Historic Landscapes: A Traveler's Guide. Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press. p. 129. ISBN 9780870498800. OCLC 31014712.
- "Castle Crest". Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
- "DIXIE HOMES – MEMPHIS TN". The Living New Deal. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
- Davis, Edwin Adams (May 1942). "Reviewed Work: White Pillars; Early Life and Architecture of the Lower Mississippi Valley Country. by J. Frazer Smith". The Journal of Southern History. 8 (2): 288–290. doi:10.2307/2191992. hdl:2027/mdp.39015007561072 – via JSTOR.