SMITH, Fred Louis (1862-1941) represented the third generation of the prolific Smith architectural family of Detroit, Mich. He trained under his father Mortimer L. Smith and was briefly in partnership with him before establishing a new firm in 1906 with Theodore H. Hinchman Jr. and H.J. Maxwell Grylls (1865-1942) as partners. For the next thirty years the firm grew rapidly, emerging as one of largest architectural firms in Detroit and the American mid-west. In Canada they completed several commissions for the booming automobie industry, but their commissions never had the innovative character of works by their chief competitor Albert Kahn, who obtained the lion's share of work from the Detroit industrial sector.
In Detroit some of best known projects of Smith Hinchman & Grylls include Fyfe's Building (1919), Buhn Building (1925), Penobscot Building (1928), Guardian Building (1929), and the sprawling mansion for Matilda R. Dodge at Rochester, Mich. (1929). Smith died in Detroit on 25 February 1941 (obituary Pencil Points [New York], xxii, March 1941, 86). Grylls died the following year on 21 June 1942 (obituary New York Times, 22 June 1942, 15). Biographies on both Smith and Grylls appear in H. Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, 1956, 252, 559).
TORONTO, ONT., Ontario Motor Car Co., Bloor Street East near Yonge Street, showroom, 1910 (Const., iv, March 1911, 60, illus.)
WINDSOR, ONT., Fisher Body Co., Edna Street, factory, 1919-20 (C.R., xxxiii, 27 Aug. 1919, 47)
WALKERVILLE, ONT., major addition to factory for Motor Products Corp. of Canada, Walkerville Road, 1929 (C.R., xliii, 18 Sept. 1929, 52)