Frederick Frizell, 1864-1937

No. 18806 Frederick Frizell

Frederick Andrew Frizell (1864-1937) was a photographer in the Lower Mills area of Dorchester in the early 20th century.

Born in Dorchester, October 5, 1864, Frederick married Amelia Eliza Adams  August 6, 1889, when he was 25 and she was 27.  They had two children: a son, Lee Adams Frizell, born October 12, 1890, and a daughter Dorothy Ruth Frizell  born December 16, 1893.

Frederick’s father Charles was a contractor, and Frederick worked as a carpenter and ladder maker for his father and brother.  The census shows Frederick as a carpenter through 1899.  In 1900 both the census and the Boston Directory show him as a photographer at Lower Mills.  At first he kept his studio in the house where the family was living at 27 Sanford Street.  Later he established a studio at Pierce Square.  The family moved to King Street in 1900 and later to Butler Street in 1912.

Frederick probably opened his studio at Pierce Square prior to the family moving to King Street but  at least as early as 1904, since his advertisement in the 1904-1905 Milton Directory places him there.

No. 16307 Frederick Frizell

Frederick A. Frizell

Photographer

House Portraiture a Speciality

Portrait Studio, Pierce Sq., opp. W. Bakers Chocolate Mills. Telephone Connection.

In December 1906, Frederick exhibited a large number of photos of Milton scenes at the Milton Public Library.  Some of these views may be the same as postcards that he published the year before: Moonlight on the Neponset, Mattapan Bridge, The Big Chimney at the Baker Chocolate Factory and the view from the top of the chimney.

His entry in the 1916 Boston Directory for Frizell is under Portrait Photography.

Frederick’s favorite subjects for studio photographs were his daughter Dorothy Ruth Frizell, born 1893, and later her daughter Eleanor Louise Merrill, born 1924.

Dorothy married Everett F. Merrill in 1919. They moved to Worcester, where Everett became the City Manager in later years.  Eleanor Louise Merrill, the only grandchild, was born in Worcester on October 21, 1924. Eleanor eventually married J. William Dwyer and became the parent of Janet Dwyer, now Schiavoni, who has shared many of the family photographs and has brought new attention to the photographer Frederick Frizell, her great-grandfather.

Frederick passed away in 1937, and Amelia in 1949.

No. 17840 Photograph of trees on a postcard

 

No. 21939 Prize-winning photograph of Dorothy Frizell, 1903

 

See also House history report by Dorchester Historical Society for 2 Butler Street.

Skills

Posted on

December 26, 2021

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