Background
Frank Joseph Untersee was born in 1858 at Glarus, Switzerland.
Frank Joseph Untersee was born in 1858 at Glarus, Switzerland.
Untersee was sent to Germany for a technical training, and after receiving his degree in Architecture from Stuttgart University, returned to his native country.
He served for a time as assistant to the City Architect of Bern but left to broaden the scope of his education in other cities on the continent.
In 1882 Mr. Untersee sailed for America and having established residence in Brookline, a suburb of Boston, opened an office in the latter city where he continued active for forty years. He was elected a member of the Boston Society of Architects in 1896, and in 1901 became an Associate of the A.I.A.
Many of Mr. Untersee’s early works were in Brookline, including the old Public Bath House (1896), the Manual Training School (1901), the Muni¬cipal Gymnasium, and the Brookline Savings Bank (both the old and the new buildings). It was however in the field of church design that he was best known. Many Roman Catholic ecclesiastical buildings of the then popular Romanesque type were built from his plans in New England and New York state, of which the following were notable examples: Church and Rectory of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, at Brooklyn, N. Y.; St. Patrick’s Church, East Jaffrey, N. H.; St. Patrick’s at Hampton Beach, N. H.; Church of St. Lawrence, Brookline, Mass.; St. Anthony’s, at Allston, Mass.; Church and Rectory, S.S. Peter and Paul at Jamestown, N. Y.; buildings for the Redemptorist Society of Fathers at Esopus-on-the-Hudson, N. Y. (1901) and in addition he designed the towers of the Mission Church, Tremont Street, Boston, together with a renovation of the Interior. His last work, completed just before his death, was the Mission Church High School, Roxbury, Mass.
He was elected a member of the Boston Society of Architects in 1896, and in 1901 became an Associate of the A.I.A.