{{Short description|American businessman (1883–1936)}} {{about||the New Zealand rugby union and professional rugby league footballer of the 1930s, and 1940s|Freddie French}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2020}} {{Infobox person | name =Frederick Fillmore French | image = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1883|10|14}} | birth_place =Manhattan, New York | death_date = {{Death date and age|1936|8|30|1883|10|14}} | death_place =Pawling, New York | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | nationality = | other_names = | known_for =Tudor City<br>Knickerbocker Village<br>Fred F. French Building | education = Horace Mann School, Columbia University | employer = | occupation = Real estate developer | title = | height = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | boards = | spouse = Cordelia W. French | children = 4 | parents = | relatives = }}
'''Frederick Fillmore French''' (October 14, 1883 – August 30, 1936) was a real estate developer active primarily in New York City. His largest developments include the Fred F. French Building, Tudor City, and Knickerbocker Village. He also designed and built the Everglades Hotel in Miami.<ref>https://www.miamiherald.com/living/article215508365.html</ref>
==Biography== Born in Manhattan, New York City, on October 14, 1883, French initially lived at East 86th Street on the Upper East Side.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|date=March 18, 1986|title=Fred F. French Building|url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1415.pdf|access-date=October 8, 2020|publisher=New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission|pages=2–3}}</ref>{{Rp|2}}<ref name=":1">{{cite web|date=December 19, 2003|title=Fred F. French Building|url=https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/03001514.pdf|access-date=October 8, 2020|publisher=National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service|pages=14–15|ref={{harvid|National Park Service|2003}}}}</ref>{{Rp|14}} His middle name, Fillmore, honored his great-uncle on his mother's side, President Millard Fillmore.<ref name="Alpern"/> He grew up at East 162nd Street in the Bronx and attended the Horace Mann High School through a Pulitzer scholarship.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|2}}<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|14}}<ref>{{cite news|title=Irving S. Broun, Realty Man, Dies. Retired President of Fred French Investing Was 82. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1969/01/04/archives/irving-s-broun-realty-man-dies-retired-president-of-fred-french.html |work=The New York Times |date=January 4, 1969 |access-date=January 14, 2009 }}</ref> Although French's mother was a college graduate, his father was a poor cigar maker who died when French was young. French was the oldest of four siblings and, in his youth, supported his family by taking part-time jobs.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|2}}<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|14}}
After graduating high school, French went to Princeton University for one year before moving to Mexico "for a taste of ranching". In 1905, he returned to New York City and started taking engineering classes at Columbia University.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|2–3}}<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|14–15}}
==Career== [[File:Fred-f-french.jpg|thumb|right|Fred F. French Building]]French founded the Fred F. French Companies in 1910, aged 27, with one boy on his payroll and a $15 per week salary for himself. French's first purchase was his Bronx house. French prospered in spite of a "betrayal by his first partner", and in 1920, took out a loan to build a 16-story building at 41st Street and Madison Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. By the early 1920s, French's former Columbia professor and some of his early employers were working for him. In 1925, the French Companies commissioned the Fred F. French Building at Fifth Avenue and 45th Street as its new headquarters. At the time of the French Building's 1927 completion, the company was involved in at least $90 million worth of investments.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|3}}<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|15}} [[File:Tudor City jeh.JPG|thumb|right|Tudor City]]French built Tudor City, a housing development on Manhattan's East Side, for the rising middle class in the 1920s.<ref>{{cite news |title=Mrs. Frederick French |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1960/10/31/archives/mrs-frederick-french.html |work=The New York Times |date=October 31, 1960 |access-date=January 14, 2009 }}</ref> Early the following decade, he also developed Knickerbocker Village, middle-class housing on the Lower East Side between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge. His original intention for the project was to build housing for "junior Wall Street executives".<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Knickerbocker Village |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,747998,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090130100535/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,747998,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 30, 2009|magazine=Time |access-date=January 14, 2009 |date=October 15, 1934}}</ref> Knickerbocker Village was important in the history of landlord–tenant law. When the tenants were to take possession of their apartments, they found conditions to be unlivable.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.city-journal.org/html/8_4_urbanities_who_in_the_worl.html |title=Who in the World Was Fred F. French? |first=James |last=Morrison |journal=City Journal |issue=Autumn 1998 |access-date=May 4, 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Naison|first=Mark|url=https://archive.org/details/tenantmovementin0000unse|title=The Tenant Movement in New York City, 1904-1984|isbn=0-8135-1203-4|editor-last=Lawson|editor-first=Ronald|chapter=From Eviction Resistance to Rent Control – Tenant Activism in the Great Depression: The rebirth of Activism|access-date=May 4, 2008|editor-last2=Naison|editor-first2=Mark|chapter-url=http://www.tenant.net/Community/history/hist03f.html|url-access=registration}}</ref> The tenants formed the Knickerbocker Village Tenants Association and started a strike, withholding their rent checks until their grievances were dealt with. The conflict that arose from the tenants' dissatisfaction led to New York City's rent control laws.
French was reportedly most interested in his work, and he supposedly had few acquaintances.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|6}}<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|18}} One aspect of his work was what he called the "French Plan" which prioritized small returns on large ventures, rather than large returns on small ventures. As such, the French Companies were split into several smaller companies, which handled investment, design, construction, and management. After constructing a development, the French Companies turned it over at its actual cost, without additional expenses.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|4–5}}<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|16–17}} Before the construction of the Fred F. French Building, the French Plan was applied exclusively to small residential developments.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|5}}<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|17}} In addition to Tudor City and Knickerbocker Village, French was also involved in the planning of what would have been the world's tallest building on Sixth Avenue, although this plan was abandoned in 1932.<ref>{{Cite news|date=August 23, 1932|title=6th Av. Tower Plan Finally Abandoned|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1932/08/23/archives/6th-av-tower-plan-finally-abandoned-hippodrome-held-by-fred-f.html|access-date=October 8, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
==Personal life== French was married to Cordelia Williams, with whom he had four children:<ref name="NYTObit">{{cite news|last1=Special To The New York Times|title=FRED F. FREHGH DIES $tlDDEHLY IJP-STATE; Leader in Developing New York Residential Sections Rose From Poverty, HAD NOVEL FINANCE PLAN Tudor .City and Knickerbocker; Village Were the Builder's Chief Accomplishments|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9904E4DB1E30E13BBC4950DFBE66838D629EDE&legacy=true|access-date=October 28, 2016|work=The New York Times|date=August 31, 1936}}</ref> *Theodore French *John Winslow French (1918–1999), who married Adeline Greer.<ref name="JWFObit">{{cite web|title=John Winslow French '39 *42|url=https://paw.princeton.edu/memorial/john-winslow-french-%E2%80%9939-42|website=Princeton Alumni Weekly|access-date=October 28, 2016|date=January 21, 2016}}</ref> *Frederick F. French, Jr. *Ellen Millard French, who married Ernest McKay.<ref name="Alpern">{{cite book|last1=Alpern|first1=Andrew|title=Luxury Apartment Houses of Manhattan: An Illustrated History|date=1992|publisher=Dover Publications|location=New York|isbn=9780486273709|url=https://archive.org/details/luxuryapartmenth0000alpe|url-access=registration|access-date=October 28, 2016|language=en}}</ref> The Frenches lived at 1140 Fifth Avenue in New York City.<ref name="NYTObit"/>
He died on August 30, 1936, of a heart attack at his summer home, Hammersley Hills, in Pawling, New York, that he had been going to since 1929.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Died |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,847839,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081215090034/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,847839,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 15, 2008 |magazine=Time |access-date=January 14, 2009 |date=September 7, 1936}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Fred F. French Dies Suddenly|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1936/08/31/archives/fred-f-frehgh-dies-tlddehly-ijpstate-leader-in-developing-new-york.html |work=The New York Times |date=August 30, 1936|access-date=January 14, 2009 }}</ref> His estate was valued at under $10,000 and did not include any real estate holdings.<ref name="FrenchWill">{{cite news|title=F.F. FRENCH'S WILL FILED; Builder's Estate, With No Realty, Valued at 'Less Than $10,000.'|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1936/09/04/88693127.html|access-date=October 28, 2016|work=The New York Times|date=September 4, 1936}}</ref>
==Legacy== The life of Fred F. French and his contribution to the development of New York City was covered in detail by Alexander Rayden in "The People's City, A History of the Influence and Contribution of Mass Real Estate Syndication in the Development of New York City".<ref>[http://www.thepeoplescity.com www.thepeoplescity.com]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://therealdeal.com/issues_articles/french-plan-ahead-of-its-time/|title='French Plan' ahead of its time|first=Greg|last=Aunapu|date=May 29, 2009|work=The Real Deal New York}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
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==External links== * [http://archives.nypl.org/the/29996 Fred F. French Companies records] Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:French, Fred F.}} Category:1883 births Category:1936 deaths Category:Horace Mann School alumni Category:Businesspeople from New York City Category:American businesspeople in the real estate industry Category:20th-century American businesspeople