Philip H. Frohman - Education and Early Career

Education and Early Career

Frohman’s interest in architecture was evident even in his early years. At the age of eleven, he enrolled in the Throop Institute in Pasadena, California. He designed his first house when he was fourteen. In 1907, he graduated from what is now the California Institute of Technology, and became the youngest person ever to pass the state architectural examination. The following year, at the age of twenty-one, he opened his own office in Pasadena. In his early practice he focused on the design of both churches and houses. Early Frohman-designed churches include Trinity Episcopal Church in Orange, California in 1909, and other parish churches in Santa Barbara and Inglewood, California between 1909 and 1917.

During World War I Frohman served in the ordnance construction section of the Army and was stationed in the Washington, D.C. area. Placed in charge of the architectural division at Aberdeen Proving Ground, he designed buildings there and at Rock Island Arsenal. It was at this time that he made the acquaintance of dean of the National Cathedral and, later, the Episcopal bishop of Washington.