Westport Historical Society

Betty and Ralph Sheffer Gallery
Frazier Forman Peters:  At Home With Stone
Little Gallery: Earth, Air, Water, Fire
The Wit & Wisdom of Frazier Forman Peters
Through December 31,  2011

This exhibit will honor Peters contribution to the landscape of Westport.  The exhibit will include photographs of his houses, artifacts and a model of stone construction method and materials highlighting his construction methodology and stylistic characteristics. Text will illuminate his story and progression from chemist, to farmer, to builder, writer and architect, his attention to site planning, and philosophy.  His family home built in Westport will be the focus of a case study.

Frazier Forman Peters, architect, builder, teacher, writer was born July  20, 1895 at the end of the Victorian era and on the eve of the 20th Century to a New York Episcopalian clergy family. Peters graduated from Columbia University as a chemical engineer but was quickly disgruntled with the chemical industry and he came to Westport in 1919 with the desire to work the land as a farmer.  He soon found his calling as a designer and builder  of stone houses gaining his architecture license from the state of Connecticut in the 1930′s.  Frazier Forman Peter’s  homes can be found from Virginia to Maine with a concentration in Connecticut.  He designed and built over 36 known stone houses in Westport between 1924 and 1936.  His designs are well known for his unique fieldstone wall construction method as well as their spatial organization and sensitive placement in relation to the natural environment.