Frederick S. Holmes

Frederick S. Holmes
Born	Frederick Stacy Holmes August 27th, 1865 in Boston, MA
Died	November 10th, 1948 (age 84) at the Danvers State Hospital in Hathorne, MA
Education	Boston High School in Boston, MA Private Engineering Instruction in Exeter, NH
Occupation	Vault Engineer
Era	Early 1900s
Known for	Designer of the world's largest vaults Pioneer in the vault engineering field Designer of jamb-controlled vaults
Political party	Republican / Independent
Spouse(s)	Katherine E. Vincent, married on March 27th, 1886 in Everett, MA
Parents	George W. Holmes (father) Frances A. Stacy (mother)
Engineering career
Discipline	Mechanical Engineering
Practice name	Frederick S. Holmes 2 Rector St. New York, NY
Significant design	Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland vault Federal Reserve Bank of New York vault One King West Hotel & Residence vault Sun Life Insurance vault
Signature

Frederick S. Holmes was an American safe and vault engineer,^[1] and inventor who designed the largest vaults in the world. During his career, Holmes designed hundreds of vaults throughout the United States, Canada and Japan from 1895^[2] to 1941. The majority of Holmes designed vaults are located in New York's Financial District; many are publicly accessible and in buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. His name is engraved on the builder's plaques, typically located on the encased jamb controls of these vaults.

Holmes' vault designs evolved over time to keep up with attacks from safe-crackers or 'Yeggmen'^[3] adept at vault penetration. A Holmes advertisement from 1921 reads, "Newly discovered methods of attack necessitate radical departures from hitherto accepted standards of design".^[4] Holmes specialized in jamb-controlled vaults where the combination locks and bolt-throwing mechanism are located inside the vault creating a solid vault door with no spindle holes. Entry requires two points of attack (door and jamb), which doubles the time required for burglars to breach the vault.^[5]

Holmes is described as 'one of the leading, if not the leading vault engineer of America, and a man whose word is unquestioned by those who have had transactions with him'.^[6] In recognition of their significant contributions to the field of bank vault engineering, a tribute was written in The Journal of the Franklin Institute,^[7] “Coincident with the modern development of the safe and bank vault industry was that of the profession of the Bank Vault Engineer. The industry owes much of its progress to the work done by the pioneers of this profession: William H. Hollar,^[8] John M. Mossman, George L. Damon,^[9] Emil A. Strauss,^[10] Frederick S. Holmes, Benjamin F. Tripp,^[11] and George L. Remington.”^[12]

Holmes collaborated with prominent architects such as Cass Gilbert and Alfred Bossom and leading vault builders including Bethlehem Steel, Carnegie Steel, Damon Safe & Iron Works,^[9] Diebold, Herring-Hall-Marvin, J&J Taylor, LH Miller Safe & Iron Works,^[13] Mosler Safe, Remington & Sherman,^[14] and York Safe & Lock.^[15]