Donald F. White

Donald Frank White (1908 – 2002) was a Canadian-born American architect and engineer, of African descent. He was the first Black architect registered in the states of Alabama (in 1935) and Michigan (in 1939). He had been a partner of the firm of White & Griffin Architecture–Engineering Associates; and he later worked in the firms of Giffels & Vallet, and Nathan Johnson & Associates. He also worked in the 1950s for the United States government in designing structures in Liberia. He was the first Black member of the Detroit chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and an early member of the national chapter.

Early life and education Donald Frank White was born on May 28, 1908, in Canada, and he was raised in Cicero, Illinois. In 1934, he received a master's of science degree in architecture from the University of Michigan's Rackham School of Graduate Studies.

In 1944, White joined the Detroit chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA); making him the first Black local chapter member, and either the second or third Black national member. He later worked in the firms of Giffels & Vallet, and Nathan Johnson & Associates, Inc., both in Detroit. The Donald F. White Fellowship was established in 2003 at the University of Michigan, for graduate students of architecture. White is profiled in the biographical dictionary African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865–1945 (2004).

Many of White's buildings in the Detroit neighborhoods of Black Bottom and Paradise Valley were demolished in the 1950s and 1960s during the time of city "urban renewal" projects.

Works

1931, Prairie View A&M College (now Prairie View A&M University) registrars office, Prairie View, Texas 1932, Prairie View A&M College dorms for unmarried men 1933, Prairie View A&M College duplex, Prairie View, Texas 1934, Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) Chambliss Hotel alterations, Tuskegee, Alabama 1934, Tuskegee Institute Cottage No. 34, Tuskegee, Alabama , Tuskegee Institute Kay Barn, Tuskegee, Alabama , Tuskegee Institute Russell Barn, Tuskegee, Alabama , Tuskegee Institute Tompkins Dining Hall, Tuskegee, Alabama 1938, Sanitarium, Selma, Alabama 1938, Mt. Meigs School for the Deaf, Mount Meigs, Alabama; as associate architect 1940, St. Stephens African Methodist Episcopal Church addition, Detroit, Michigan 1944, Paradise Bowling Alley, Detroit, Michigan (destroyed in a fire in 1950) 1944, Friend Baptist Church Auditorium, Detroit, Michigan 1944, Milton Medical Clinic, Detroit, Michigan 1950, Aijalon Baptist Church, Detroit, Michigan 1954, Lincoln University Library, Jefferson City, Missouri; as associate architect , Rightway Baptist Church, Detroit, Michigan