Eighteen years before Frampton Hall was built, the school had a different vision for the site on Astor Avenue. Extensive planning was expended on the development of a "Arts and Trades Building". The envisioned building was to "provide the added space, equipment and vocational facilities so urgently needed to prepare our students to take their places in our industrial economy".
The architects McKim, Mead and White prepared the proposal and drawing presented to the school's board in 1953. These architects 30 years earlier designed the all the other building on campus.
