The interpreter of buildings
Frank A. Pattison
Frank is clearest when he is allowed to explain. His 1897 article gives the family a mind at work: systems, economy, safety, and the hidden order of tall buildings.
- Parents
- Brothers
- Households
- Branches
Family tree
The family line holds the work.
The tree is the first orientation. Parents, marriages, children, Charles and Frank, Mary, and branches still being gathered all stand around the office and give it proportion.
Pattison family
The family, in view.
A living map of households, marriages, books, work, and younger branches still coming into view. The office and the buildings matter because people carried them.
Verified
Unverified
Parents
Households
Children
People in the tree
Each person keeps a separate role.
Frank, Charles, and Mary do not blur into one office story. Their records do different work: technical writing, station practice, public memory, domestic reform, and business responsibility.
The practical brother in the station world
Charles E. Pattison
Charles asks to be restored from the margins. The papers give him station construction, operation, Edison identity, and partnership in the office.
The writer of home and memory
Mary Pattison
Mary is both public author and later family rememberer. Her own work gives her a voice before memory asks anything of her.
The brothers' working name
Pattison Brothers
The office belongs here as Charles and Frank's public working name, the place where family skill met institutions, buildings, and the demands of a changing city.
Enter the officeBranches still being gathered
The tree stays open where the proof is still growing.
The office and the buildings make better sense when parents, spouses, children, and the branches still being gathered stand around them.
Father
Walworth PattisonNew York grain broker and commercial household anchor
Produce Exchange and grain-broker papers give the commercial household its footing.
Mother
Mary A. Hitchcock PattisonHitchcock family line and mother of the brothers
Funeral and death notices, with the family graph, give the mother line its present footing.
A branch still being gathered
Charles + Grace PaddockWalworth Paddock, Lee Paddock, Charles E. Jr., Adele Blackmar
This branch is being reconciled against notices, directories, and later family papers.
Diantha firmer; Maynicke still under care
Frank + Mary Stranahan HartDiantha Hart, Maynicke Munn
Mary's authorship and memoir make this branch central to the way Frank is remembered.
Trade note / June 5, 1897
Charles returns from the station world
The trade item gives Charles six years in Boston Edison station construction and operation. It restores the practical brother to the center of the family undertaking.
Where this page comes from Electrical World, June 5, 1897
Why it changes the telling Charles can vanish behind Frank's writing. This paper gives him back responsibility, experience, and weight.
How far it carries us It carries Charles's station experience and return to the office. It stands beside later career papers rather than replacing them.