By Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr.
Frederick Augustus Tompson (1857-1919) was born in Portland in 1857. His father John A. Tompson was a trucker who transported goods and produce in the city. Frederick Tompson graduated from Portland High School in 1876 and immediately entered the office of Francis H. Fassett, the city’s leading architect. In doing so, Tompson followed John Calvin Stevens, who joined the Fassett firm upon completing Portland High School in 1873. Fassett trained both young men as draftsmen. From 1880 to 1884 Stevens served as Fassett’s junior partner, the position Tompson would hold from 1886 to 1891. That year Tompson opened his own office in Portland, which he maintained until his death in 1919.
During his twenty-eight-year practice, Frederick Tompson gained a reputation as a skilled designer of houses, schools, churches, public buildings, and commercial blocks. Notable extant examples of his work in Portland include the West Mansion on the Western Promenade (1911), the Emerson School on Munjoy Hill (1897-98), the Wilde Chapel in Evergreen Cemetery (1902), the Castle in Deering Oaks (1894), the Armory on Milk Street (1895), the Masonic Temple on Congress Street (1912), the Exposition Building on Park Avenue (1914), and the Rich Building (1892) and the Union Mutual Life Insurance Company Building (1900-01), both on Exchange Street. The Walker Memorial Library in Westbrook (1892) is considered one of his finest buildings.
In addition to his work as an architect, Frederick Tompson was an accomplished landscape painter, sculptor, and photographer. He belonged to the Brush’un painting group with John Calvin Stevens. He was also active in Portland musical organizations.
Dying at the age of 61, Tompson was eulogized by the Portland Evening Express on February 3, 1919 as “a courteous and affable friend, neighbor, and companion whose sudden demise brings the sincere regret that he could not have been spared longer to continue his usefulness and uplifting influence in the city which he loved and to whose civic improvement he devoted much attention and energy.”