Fred Carter Williams, FAIA, (June 13, 1912-April 23, 2000) was a prolific Raleigh architect who practiced, mainly in the Modernist mode, from 1940 into the 1990s. Trained in architectural engineering at North Carolina State College (now University) before the establishment of the Modernist-focused School of Design, he also studied at the University of Illinois and Columbia University. He established an eponymous firm that remained in business for roughly half a century and made an indelible mark on the architecture of Raleigh. He is regarded as a Modernist but also as a practical architect who delivered projects that met his clients’ needs and did not simply satisfy his own design preferences. Well connected in Raleigh, Williams and his firm won numerous prominent commissions and appeared frequently in articles in the Raleigh News and Observer.

Williams was born in Churchland, near Lexington, North Carolina. He grew up in Greensboro with his parents and younger siblings and graduated from Greensboro High School. Williams then studied at North Carolina State College, earning a degree in architectural engineering in 1935 while participating in Army ROTC. Next, Williams earned a degree in Architectural Design from the University of Illinois in 1939. From 1939 to1941, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture within the engineering school at NC State College. In 1942, the US War Department appointed him, still a captain in the Army, to a teaching position in topography and graphics at West Point Military Academy. He did additional graduate work at Columbia University in 1944-1945.

Williams was also practicing architecture in the early 1940s. He designed a few houses in Raleigh and New York State and a restaurant in West Point between 1940 and 1945. Williams had married Alice Virginia “Avie” Poe of Rocky Mount in the late 1930s, and they soon started a family, raising two daughters. They lived in a boxy, hip-roofed house of Williams’s design at 809 Gardner Street in West Raleigh in this period, and Williams maintained an office and photo studio in the basement. The significant Modernist dwelling he designed and built for his family, Blue Haven, was completed in 1959 on Rest Haven Road in Raleigh. He and Avie lived there until 2000.

Williams established his architectural firm in 1946, upon returning to Raleigh from his time teaching at West Point and studying at Columbia. Early commissions centered on residential and retail projects, but the firm quickly expanded into health care, education, government, and institutional contracts. He is known for his residential work in the humanist Modern mode, incorporating wood, brick, and stone structurally and decoratively inside and out and blending interior space with naturalistic settings through large windows and window walls. A News and Observer article credits Williams with designing the first Modernist church in eastern North Carolina in 1947, the Wendell Christian Church. While the article noted that “church leaders” as well as Raleigh architects John Holloway and Ralph Reeves cited the lower cost of Modernist architecture for churches—eschewing costly colonial trim or expensive Gothic designs—Williams was more philosophical in preferring Modernism. “We do not make lasting contributions nor truly revere the past by adapting for today’s needs the evidence of former progressive minds,” he told the newspaper. Larger, later projects employed other Modernist idioms, including Brutalism and New Formalism.

In 19489, North Carolina State College established its decidedly Modernist School of Design, replacing the architectural program that had been housed in the School of Engineering. Dean Henry Kamphoefner was a strong Modernist and a devotee of the Wrightian mode. Williams was an associate professor at the School of Design in its first year. Most of the new faculty were, like Williams, practicing architects as opposed to pure academics. This group of designers would go on to produce a significant body of Modernist work throughout the state.

Williams’s progressive design work was being recognized as early as the late 1950s, and he won design honors from the NC AIA on multiple occasions. He was also prominent in the state and national American Institute of Architects. In 1965, Williams became the thirteenth architect in the state to be recognized as a Fellow (FAIA) by the American Institute of Architects (FAIA), a national distinction that honored his body of work. Ten years later, the AIA presented him with the Edward C. Kemper Award for service to the architectural profession. By that time, Williams had cycled through nearly all the elective positions in the state chapter of the AIA. In 1977, the AIA recognized his work on the 1883-1891 Queen Anne-style North Carolina Executive Mansion with a Historic Preservation and Restoration award.

By 1955, Macon Smith, FAIA, and Turner G. Williams, FAIA, Carter’s younger brother, were partners in Williams’s firm. Later partners included Gene W. Jones, AIA; Mark R. Dickey, AIA; and G. Thomas Wells, AIA. In 1987, the firm merged with Willis Architects, a Morehead City, North Carolina practice, but retained the name F. Carter Williams, Architects, P.A. James B. Willis, AIA, became a partner at that time. The firm is credited with over 600 projects, including houses, schools, churches, university buildings, health care facilities, and government buildings. Williams retired from the practice of architecture in 1991.

Williams was as active in the Raleigh community as he was in the architectural field, serving on the city Board of Adjustment, Parks and Recreation Board, and Planning Commission. He also served on the board of directors for Raleigh Savings and Loan and the board of trustees for Campbell College, and maintained memberships at many local clubs and civic organizations. He was also a member of White Memorial Presbyterian Church. To honor his memory and his contributions to North Carolina architecture, the NCAIA’s highest honor is named the F. Carter Williams Gold Award. It is presented yearly in recognition of an individual’s distinguished career or extraordinary accomplishment as an architect. The building list presented here features only a fraction of Williams’s extensive work.

“Architects Honor Two as ‘Fellows,” News and Observer, May 9, 1965.

“Architects Name Officers,” News and Observer, January 20, 1958.

David R. Black, “Early Modern Architecture in Raleigh Associated with the Faculty of the North Carolina State University School of Design, Raleigh, North Carolina,” National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form (1984).

Cynthia de Miranda and Jennifer Martin, “Fayetteville Street Historic District,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination (2008).

Cynthia de Miranda, Heather Fearnbach, Clay Griffith, Jennifer Martin, and Sarah Woodard, “West Raleigh Historic District,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination (2003).

“F. Carter Williams Obituary,” News and Observer, April 25, 2000.

“F. Carter Williams,” NC Modernist Houses website, http://www.ncmodernist.org/williams.htm.

F. Carter Williams Drawings and Files 1928, 1940-1994, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Jane Hall, “Architect F. Carter Williams Pushes Toward Future,” News and Observer, October 10, 1965.

M. Ruth Little, “G. Dewey and Elma Arndt House,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination (2011).

“Little Known City Boards Occupy Many,” News and Observer, December 18, 1955.

New partners’ announcement, News and Observer, June 30, 1985.

Merger announcement, News and Observer, March 7, 1987.

“Raleigh Architect Honored,” News and Observer, May 27, 1975.

“Raleigh Man Heads Tar Heel Architects,” News and Observer, January 30, 1955.

Jeff Scullin, “Influential architect F. Carter Williams dies at 87,” News and Observer, April 27, 2000.

Robin Yigit Smith, “The Warmth of Glass and Stone,” Our State Magazine, February 26, 2019.

“West Point Gets State Professor,” News and Observer, August 3, 1942.

Alexa C. Williams, “Church Design Going Modern,” News and Observer, October 14, 1956.