PF Pattison Family
  1. Family tree
  2. Charles
  3. Frank
  4. Shared office

Charles and Frank

Two brothers, two kinds of work.

Charles comes into view through practical responsibility in the station world. Frank comes into view through public technical argument and landmark rooms. Their shared office matters most when each brother remains distinct.

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Charles Edward Pattison

The practical brother in the station world.

Charles's record is quieter than Frank's authored writing, but it is not smaller. It is the record of station construction, operation, partnership, and practical responsibility.

Station construction and operation He came out of the practical Edison station world.

The 1897 trade item gives Charles six years in Boston Edison station construction and operation before his return to the firm.

 Partner in the shared office He stood under the Pattison Brothers name from the beginning.

The firm notice and office papers make Charles part of the working business, not a background family name.

 Edison Pioneer memory His later obituary keeps the Edison identity attached to him.

Charles's obituary helps hold together Rutgers, Edison work, partnership, and the end of his public trace.

Franklin Ambler Pattison

The public technical mind.

Frank is easiest to hear because he wrote and appeared in public accounts. The strongest papers show him explaining buildings as systems and moving through landmark work.

Authored technical voice He explained the modern tall building as an electrical plant.

Frank's 1897 article is the clearest doorway into his mind: elevators, light, heat, ventilation, power, economy, and safety treated as one system.

 Public landmark work He appears inside the New York Public Library story.

The New York Times puts Frank in the room with engineers and ties him to supervision of the library's electrical equipment.

 Long professional scale The later record gives the work a much larger horizon.

The 1922 professional summary gives scale, while later records keep the firm visible into public and civic work.

The shared office

What Charles and Frank built together.

The firm joins the brothers' abilities into business language: estimates, specifications, supervision, inspections, tests, reports, and responsibility for building systems.

The firm begins facsimile

Electrical World / August 16, 1890

The firm begins

For the family, this is a beginning in public print. It gives memory a date, a place, and two brothers standing under one name.

It carries formation and intended scope. It does not carry a completed client job.

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The firm in its own voice facsimile

Pattison Brothers letterhead / July 20, 1891

The firm in its own voice

This is not a later description of the brothers. It is the office saying what work it could undertake.

It carries a solicitation and service model. It does not carry proof that the Mint gave them the work.

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A skyscraper proof facsimile

Electrical World / March 27, 1897

A skyscraper proof

It is the kind of concrete paper a family can hold: a building name and a description of what the office did.

It carries the electric and telephone plant role, not ownership or every mechanical system.

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Charles Leaves Boston Edison to Rejoin the Firm facsimile
Charles returns from Boston Edison

Trade note / June 5, 1897

Charles returns from the station world

The trade item gives Charles six years in Boston Edison station construction and operation. It restores the practical brother to the center of the family undertaking.

Where this page comes from Electrical World, June 5, 1897
Why it changes the telling Charles can vanish behind Frank's writing. This paper gives him back responsibility, experience, and weight.
How far it carries us It carries Charles's station experience and return to the office. It stands beside later career papers rather than replacing them.
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The Electric Plant of the Modern Tall Building facsimile
Frank's title and opening argument

Frank-authored technical article / 1897-08

Frank writes the building as a system

Frank treats a building as a living plant: elevators, light, heat, ventilation, boilers, batteries, switches, cost, safety, and common sense made to work together.

Where this page comes from The Engineering Magazine, August 1897
Why it changes the telling The article lets the family hear Frank think. He was not merely attached to projects; he had a way of seeing buildings whole.
How far it carries us It gives Frank's engineering philosophy. It does not by itself name every later building remembered in family memory.
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