Frank A. Warren (1865-1935)

Frank Algernon Warren, who was listed in Who's Who in American Art throughout the 1920s, was a graduate of the Philadelphia School of Design and the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. His paintings have been exhibited in galleries in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., New York, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh, and his murals are in public and private buildings in Philadelphia, Albany, San Diego, and Montreal. During his lifetime he traveled extensively throughout the United States and Central America.

Known for his flamboyant personality, Warren is reputed to have said that he wanted "the biggest hat, the biggest car, and the biggest house in Maryland." Consequently, he wore a Stetson hat, drove a California Cadillac, and built himself a one-of-a-kind mansion. Warren's adventurous spirit and restless energy are apparent in all of his artistic endeavors, from his paintings, to his murals, to his house. This spirit of adventure permeated his personal life as well.

Born in Dutchess County, New York, Warren married Mary Leach in 1889 and settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The couple had nine children. In 1898, Warren and his wife Mary, with their four young children, including a baby, made the trip from Pittsburgh to New York City on a tandem bicycle to which he had attached a "sidecar," thereby inventing (but unfortunately not patenting) the sidecar later used on motorcycles. In 1905, Warren moved his fast-growing family to the eastern shore of Maryland, where he sought to fulfill his artistic and utopian ambitions, most notably in the construction of the Forest.