Photographe - Frank Oscar Larson (1896-1964)

 

Frank Oscar Larson

New York City - the 1950's

 

Frank Oscar Larson was born in Greenpoint, Brooklyn in 1896, the son of Swedish immigrants who moved to New York in early 1890's. At the turn of the century Greenpoint and the surrounding area was home to a sizable Swedish population , most of them recent arrivals who worked in the factories of what was then a heavily manufacturing area. Frank's father John Larson was a foreman at Hecla Iron Works in Williamsburg, one of the nation's premier manufacturers of decorative wrought iron gates and installations.

 

After serving in World War I as an artillery man and then completing his college education, Frank took a job with Empire Trust Company in Manhattan, where he worked his way up the company ladder to become an auditor for the bank. He worked there until he retired in the late 1950's.

 

 

 

In the early 1920's, Frank married Eleanora Friberg, also a first-generation Swedish immigrant. Eleanora's father, John Friberg, also worked at Hecla Iron Works as a pattern maker. It is likely it was though their fathers' job that Frank and Eleanora met.

 

 

 

After their marriage, Frank and Eleanora moved to a modest house on Oak Avenue in the Flushing section of Queens, where they lived for about 40 years, raising two boys, Franklin and David. When Frank retired in 1960, he and Eleanora moved to Lakeville, Connecticut.