Was one of the first African Americans to receive a civil engineering degree from Drexel University Philadelphia Pennsylvania,and was also one of the first successful African American contracting engineers in the country.
He was born in Barbados.Frederick immigrated to the United States in 1909 where he he started his career as a laborer,working during the day and studying at night.He studied architecture at the Pennsylvania School of the Fine Arts and earned a degree in civil
engineering at Drexel Institute around 1915 (now Drexel University).
By the early 1920s,he had established his own business.Frederick
became a U.S. citizen on April 29,1931.
Frederick was among the first successful African American contracting engineers in the country.He established a construction business during
a time it was almost impossible for African Americans to obtain financing,insurance,and acceptance by trade unions.
Fredrick came to public notice in the fall of 1925 he was heralded in the
press for his successful construction of an elliptical concrete dome on
the Ascension of Our Lord Roman Catholic church in Philadelphia.The dome was the first of its kind in the country.His methods of using reinforcements in concrete were prior to widespread building codes in the 1920s.Two years later,in the fall of 1927,Frederick and his construction were again featured in the press when he was selected as
the general contractor for the Walnut Plaza Apartments in West Philadelphia.Fredrick's work on this project led to his receiving the bronze medal in business by the William E.Harmon Foundation in January 1929 for outstanding work in building engineering,especially concrete construction.
As his firm's reputation grew,Frederick received numerous government
contracts.He subcontracted concrete work for construction projects
throughout the nation.During a forty-five span of activity stretching into
the late 1960s,Frederick was responsible for building numerous structures,including the William Donner X-Ray Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania;the Trenton New Jersey Sewage Disposal Plant; Army barracks at Fort Meade,Maryland; and U.S. Post Office buildings in Coatsville, Pennsylvania;Camden New Jersey; and Germantown (a section of Philadelphia ).He also built the Morton Housing Development,a $ 5 million project in Philadelphia.
Edith Lamarre and Frederick Massiah were married in 1950 and had two sons,Allen and Louis,and a daughter Frederick Jackson.Frederick was a member of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity,the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce,the Masonic Order,and the NAACP.
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