Frederick Armbrust Fritsch was born in Portland, Oregon on April 1, 1891. His parents were of German and French descent, and his Grandfather, F.J. Fritsch, a painter and engraver by profession, came to the United States from Germany about 1841, making his living by preparing colored engravings of historical American scenes. Fred Fritsch's father, Charles Fritsch, a skilled upholsterer and cabinetmaker, came to Portland about 1883.
Fred Fritsch finished his formal education upon graduation from high school, working as a helper in his father's upholstery shop, and also was employed as a clerk for the Mutual Life Insurance Company and for the Blumauer-Frank Drug Co. He then apprenticed in the office of Whidden & Lewis, Portland's leading architects at the time. About 1911 Fritsch went to work for Whitehouse & Fouilhoux, another prominent architectural firm, where he continued off and on as a draftsman and designer until 1917, when he joined the staff of the Architecture Department of the University of Oregon as an instructor under Dean Ellis F Lawrence. In July 1917, Fritsch joined the University of Oregon Medical Corps unit, entering active service in March 1918 and serving in France. He received his discharge from the Army in June 1919.
Upon his return to Portland, Fred Fritsch went to work with the firm of Sutton & Whitney, where he was chief designer, and after the death of Albert Sutton in 1923, an associate of the firm. During this period, between 1919 and 1929, Fritsch produced his finest work. In 1922 Fritsch's design won the competition for the proposed Scottish Rite Cathedral of Oregon, which was, however, never built. In 1924 another competition was won by Fritsch's design, this time to be constructed in 1927 as the Masonic Temple.Other outstanding work included the Shriners Children's Hospital, the Blumauer-Frank Drug Co. Building, the Meier & Frank Warehouse, the J.K. Gill Building, the Meier & Frank Delivery Building, the John A. Roebling Building, the Multnomah County Hospital, Emmanuel Hospital, the Weatherly Building, the Beth Israel Sunday School, the Bates Motoramp Garage, Neighbors of Woodcraft Building, and the Fruit and Flower Mission.
In 1928 Fritsch married Margaret Goodin, also an architect. In 1929 ill health, from which he had suffered since 1924, caused him to leave Sutton & Whitney to seek medical treatment inPhiladelphia, where he and his wife collaborated on the design of the Delta Delta Delta sorority house at the University of Pennsylvania, his last job.
Too ill to work, Fritsch and his wife returned to Portland where he seldom left his home because of his illness. On October 27th, discouraged by his apparently incurable illness, Fritsch took his own life at the age of 43, a sad loss to the Portland architectural profession. - NRHP, 1 September 1989