| Louis Warren Ross | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Birth Date: | 1893 7, mf=yes |
| Birth Place: | Arlington, Massachusetts |
| Death Place: | Newton, Massachusetts |
| Spouse: | Dorothy M. Pickett |
| Significant Buildings: | Arnold House Brooks House New Africa House Thatcher House[1] Van Meter House Skinner Hall Student Union Butterfield House Greenough House Wheeler House |
| Significant Projects: | Central Residential Area Northeast Residential Area |
| Awards: | 1938- Massachusetts State College Gold Medal for Roscoe W. Thatcher House[2] |
Louis Warren Ross (July 18, 1893 – September 8, 1966) was an American architect from Boston, Massachusetts, perhaps best known for his work at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he designed over thirty of the campus buildings there.
Ross was born in Arlington, Massachusetts on July 18, 1893,[3] [4] the third of the five children of Louis Hall Ross and Mable Louisa Rawson. He was the grandson of agriculturalist Warren Winn Rawson and Helen Maria Mair.[4] Graduating from Arlington High School in June 1913, he entered the Massachusetts Agricultural College (presently the University of Massachusetts Amherst) as a pomology major in the fall of that same year.[5] [6] [7] During his time at the college he was notably active in college sports, having played on the football, baseball, and hockey teams, serving as captain of the latter. He was also a member of the campus "mandolin club" and the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity.[5]
Ross graduated in 1917, entering the army soon after. He would serve as an infantry lieutenant in the 166th Regiment of the 42nd Infantry Division, better known as the "Rainbow Division", in France during the First World War. By the end of the war he had been awarded a Purple Heart with an oak leaf cluster.[8]
After the war, Ross entered the Harvard Graduate School of Architecture in 1921, graduating four years later in 1925.[6] [7] [8] He would spend the next ten years working as a draftsman for prominent Boston architect, Edward T. P. Graham before starting his own firm in 1935.[6] [7] One of his first independent projects, Thatcher House, was designed for his alma mater as the first dorm of the Northeast Residential Complex and the oldest dormitory still in use on campus today.[8] His first design was seen as such a success by the university (by this time known as Massachusetts State College) that he was given a gold medal at the 1938 commencement for his design and oversight of the building's construction.[9] This would be the first of over 20 dormitories that he would design for the university, among other buildings.
Although not as widely known as his campus work, Ross would also design a variety of buildings in the towns of Amherst, Northampton