Francis P. Smith and Henry H. Smith Visual Materials

Francis Palmer Smith was born in Ohio on 27 March 1886. He obtained a B.S. in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania in 1907. After two years of work as a draftsman for architecture firms in Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, Smith came to Atlanta to serve as a professor and the director of the Georgia Tech Department of Architecture.

Georgia Tech began offering architecture classes in 1908 and by 1911 more than 40 students were enrolled in the program. The early years of the architecture program were shaped by the Beaux-Arts model of education. Similar to the program at Smith’s alma mater, University of Pennsylvania, the Georgia Tech architecture program was designed to prepare the student to serve as an architect’s assistant immediately upon graduation and eventually establish his own architecture practice. Design was stressed, as was freehand drawing and water color instruction. Students also studied architectural history and construction methods.

While the director of Georgia Tech’s architecture department, Francis Palmer Smith also participated in the growth of Tech’s campus. He designed several buildings on campus including the original Whitehead Memorial Infirmary (now known as the Chapin Building) and the Mechanical Engineering Building (now the J.S. Coon Building). Together with his former professors at University of Pennsylvania, Paul Cret and Warren Laird, Smith created an early master plan for Georgia Tech’s campus growth.

Smith remained the director of Tech’s Department of Architecture until 1922 when he went into private practice in Atlanta. From 1922-1934, he partnered with Robert Smith Pringle. The firm of Pringle and Smith was very prolific, completing hundreds of projects in just over a decade. Pringle and Smith designed many houses for Atlanta neighborhoods such as Peachtree Heights and Druid Hills in addition to designing well-known commercial buildings in Atlanta, including the Rhodes-Haverty Office Building and the Cox-Carlton Hotel. While much of their work was in Atlanta, other projects were located across Georgia as well as Florida and Alabama, particularly the standardized bottling plants they designed for Coca-Cola.

After Pringle retired in 1934, Smith continued as a solo architect. During World War II, Smith served in the Army Corps of Engineers and in 1943, he was named a fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

Francis Smith maintained an independent architectural practice until the mid-1950s when his son Henry Smith joined him. Henry Howard Smith, born in 1927, was the youngest child of Francis and Ella Sorin Smith. Francis and Ella, wed in 1910, had four children: Margaret Ella Smith Kingdon, Francis Palmer Smith Jr., Robert Eugene Smith, and Henry Howard Smith.

Henry received a degree in architecture from University of Pennsylvania in 1949. Prior to joining his father’s practice, Henry Smith worked for Atlanta architect William J. Creighton. He also was a part-time teacher at Georgia Tech from 1950-51 and served in the Air Force from 1951-53.

Francis Palmer Smith died on 05 March 1971. Henry Howard Smith continued working as an independent architect into the 2000s. In addition to new design work, particularly for religious and residential projects, Henry Smith's work also encompassed historical restorations and renovations, including some of his father's original work. He won an Atlanta Urban Design Commission Award of Excellence for his addition project for St. Luke's Episcopal Church in 1994.