Harry Franklin Robinson moved from Alliance, OH with his family, to Matoon, IL, In the late 1880's.

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He graduated High school in 1901 and was then offered a scholarship to attend the University of Illinois, but started as a draftsman for a St. Paul, MN architectural firm. He enrolled at the University of Illinois in the Fall of 1902 and became president of the college's Architectural Club. In this role, it was his duty to procure speakers for club functions and as a result he met the famous Chicago architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.

In 1906, he began working as a draftsman in Wright's Oak Park studio. He worked with Wm. Drummond, F. B. Byrne and M. Mahony. He left the studio in 1908, accepting the job as Griffin's chief draftsman, working mainly on residential commissions. In 1911, he left Griffin's employ to manage Wright's Chicago office. Robinson was mainly responsible for the supervision of the construction of Wright's projects in the Chicago area as most of the design work was done at Wright's Taliesin home and studio in Wisconsin.

While working for Wright, Robinson had several commissions in Naperville, Glen Ellyn and River Forest, IL. Allegedly, this included 24 houses in River Forest on Williams Street, for developer Henry Hogan & Sons. Robinson left Wright's office forever in 1916 over a dispute on Wright's failure to pay his salary. He then joined the firm of Dean & Dean as its chief draftsman, supervising a workforce of 20 draftsmen.

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After Dean & Dean went out of business in 1923, Robinson started his own private practice. He had offices in both Chicago and Riverside, Illinois. His private practice focused on single family residences, apartment buildings, churches and schools. The Great Depression forced Robinson to close his office in 1932.

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Source: http://www.prairiestyles.com/robinson.htm