Charles E. White, Jr. was a noted Chicago area architect who for a time worked in the Oak Park studio of Frank Lloyd Wright and who, both before and after that time, had a successful and influential career as an architect and a writer on architectural subjects. It is fair to say that White is an under-appreciated member of Wright’s Oak Park studio staff.

Charles White worked in the East for 8 years after graduating from the architecture program at MIT, He chiefly practiced architecture with Walter Wilcox in Burlington, VT. In 1903, he moved to Chicago to work for F. L.  Wright at his studio, along with W. B. Griffin, Marion Mahony, Isabel Roberts and artist Richard Bock. In 1905, White founded his own studio in Oak Park and in 1909, he had 15 different projects listed in the Chicago Architectural Catalogue. During the World War, White served in the quartermaster corps. In 1922, he partnered with architect Bertram A. Weber. The firm of White & Weber practiced in the Chicago area until White’s death in 1936.

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In addition to the practice of architecture, White wrote a number of influential articles about home building, ranging from matters of taste and design to construction methods. For 10 years, he served on the staff of Ladies Home Journal, which published many of his designs. He also authored 2 architecture textbooks: Successful Houses and How to Build Them, and The Bungalow Book.