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Key local figure

Frederick H. Koch

Frederick H. Koch came to Chapel Hill in 1918 at President Edward Kidder Graham's invitation, taught dramatic literature and playwriting at UNC for twenty-six years and organized the Carolina Playmakers to stage his students' plays. Thomas Wolfe and Paul Green were among the writers he guided. He died in 1944 and was buried in the old Chapel Hill Cemetery.

Source: NCpedia: Koch, Frederick Henry

Also found in catalogs as Frederick H. (Frederick Henry) Koch, Frederick Henry Koch.

1877–1944 · Dates from the Library of Congress · On the Friends’ Local Authors roster as Frederick H. "Proff" Koch → · Library of Congress authority record ↗

14 works about Frederick H. Koch are indexed here, as is one work by Koch.

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Frederick H. Koch, portrait plate, 1919
Frederick H. Koch, portrait plate, 1919

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each opens its own page, with its events date by date.

StorylineSmith Hall becomes the Playmakers Theatre, 1850–19821850–1982 · 9 events · Alexander Jackson Davis designed Smith Hall, built from 1850 to 1852 as the university's library and ballroom and named for Benjamin Smith. The Carolina Playmakers made it their theatre in 1925, and it reopened after a 1938 fire. It became a National Historic Landmark in 1974, and a federally funded restoration reopened it in January 1982. StorylineAmateur theatre outside the Playmakers, 1929–19331929–1933 · 4 events · Alongside the Carolina Playmakers, faculty families, Hillsboro residents and Chapel Hill children formed their own theatre groups between 1929 and 1933. About 1929 drama professor Preston Farrar built a house on Laurel Hill Road with indoor and outdoor stages, and in November 1931 a community dramatic club, mostly faculty members and their wives, formed there, planning to read a modern play each month. In January 1932 a play-producing group for Hillsboro was launched in Clem Strudwick's studio, with Frederick H. Koch and Irene Fussler advising. That April Harry E. Davis, the Playmakers' technical director, staged his own Cinderella with about 35 children, and the cast organized as the Junior Playmakers, who gave plays for child audiences into 1933.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 42 dated events in the chronology →

During their lifetime

  1. Frederick Koch's first playwriting class meets with twelve women and Thomas Wolfe Koch's new playwriting course, English 31, opened in the fall of 1918 with thirteen students. Twelve were women students; Thomas Wolfe was the only man, since most male students were then in army uniform. People: Frederick H. Koch, Thomas Wolfe Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel HillArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 20 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, April 15, 1980, p. 1
  2. The Carolina Playmakers are organized Frederick H. Koch organized the Carolina Playmakers at UNC. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Carolina PlaymakersUNC A to Z: Carolina Playmakers
  3. The university's extension bureau starts a Bureau of Community Drama under Koch The university's Bureau of Extension added Koch in 1918 to run a community drama division, which lent plays and gave free advice to schools and towns across the state. Requests grew from 40 playbooks in 1919-20 to 2,150 in 1924-25. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: Bureau of Extension, University of North Carolina, Chapel HillArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 66
  4. Frederick H. Koch is hired as professor of dramatic literature Recruited by Edwin Greenlaw from the University of North Dakota, where he had founded the Dakota Playmakers, Frederick Henry Koch signed in late May 1918 at $2,500 a year to teach dramatic literature, a title he chose. He arrived that summer meaning to build a folk drama program in North Carolina. People: Frederick H. Koch, Edwin Greenlaw, Edward Kidder Graham Place: UNC, Chapel HillHoward E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), p. 164
  5. Frederick Koch reads A Christmas Carol in Gerrard Hall Koch brought his annual reading of Dickens's A Christmas Carol to UNC when he arrived in 1918. The Raleigh News and Observer described a 1919 reading in Gerrard Hall, with carols by university singing groups in the two intermissions. His reading in Memorial Hall on December 10, 1943 was his 39th annual reading of the Carol, a series he had begun at the University of North Dakota. Place: Gerrard Hall, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Memorial HallSearch the index · UNC Libraries For the Record: A Holiday Tradition: Frederick Koch's Reading of a Christmas Carol
  6. The Playmakers turn the new public school auditorium into their first stage With no stage on campus, Koch got the village officials' leave to use the auditorium of a newly finished public school a few blocks away. Volunteers built out the stage and a proscenium, and the room, called the Play-House, served the Playmakers for seven years until Smith Hall opened. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: Public school auditorium (the Play-House), Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Smith HallArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 40
  7. The Carolina Playmakers make their first tour The Playmakers set out on May 7, 1921 on their first state tour, taking student folk plays to Greensboro, Charlotte, Durham, Raleigh, Kinston, New Bern and Washington; a one-town trip to Greensboro had come the year before. Koch credits the tours with winning the public support that led the trustees to give the group Smith Hall in 1925. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: Carolina Playmakers, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Smith HallArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 18 · Also: The Tar Heel, June 7, 1921, p. 3
  8. Koch publishes the first volume of Carolina Folk Plays Henry Holt published Carolina Folk Plays, First Series, five one-act plays written and staged by Koch's Chapel Hill students, with his introduction on folk playmaking. Further series followed in 1924, 1928 and 1931. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: Carolina Playmakers, Chapel HillArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 115 · Also: Internet Archive catalog: Carolina folk-plays
  9. Trustees set aside Smith Hall and $25,000 for a Playmakers theatre, and the Carnegie Corporation pays to equip it By June 1923, the Tar Heel reported, the trustees' executive committee had set aside $25,000 to turn Smith Hall, then the law building, into a theatre for the Playmakers. The Weekly said the building was turned over to them in 1923 before any money was at hand, and that the trustees voted $25,000 from the Smith bequest for the remodeling at their June 1924 meeting; Koch remembered the trustees' unanimous vote as coming in 1925. When the remodeling money left the theatre $13,000 short of what it needed for seats, lights and stage equipment, Augustus Thomas took the Playmakers' request to Carnegie, still unanswered in December 1924, and the Carnegie Corporation later sent a check for the balance. People: Frederick H. Koch, Augustus Thomas, Harry Woodburn Chase Place: Smith Hall (Playmakers Theatre), Cameron Avenue, UNC campus, Chapel HillArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 42 · Also: The Tar Heel, June 14, 1923, p. 5; Chapel Hill Weekly, June 13, 1924, p. 5; Chapel Hill Weekly, August 14, 1924, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, December 23, 1924, p. 2
  10. Community drama groups form the statewide Carolina Dramatic Association The Carolina Dramatic Association was set up through the university's community drama bureau to link the school and town drama groups springing up across North Carolina. It grew from 32 member groups in 1923-24 to 116 by 1927-28. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: Bureau of Community Drama, University of North Carolina, Chapel HillArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 69 · Also: The Tar Heel, April 8, 1924, p. 3
  11. The Carolina Dramatic Association holds its first Dramatic Institute in Chapel Hill Seventy-one people came to the Carolina Dramatic Association's first Dramatic Institute, where the gathering planned yearly statewide play contests, schools and community clubs apart, with the finals in Chapel Hill. President Chase welcomed the visitors, and rain moved the evening plays from the Forest Theatre into Memorial Hall. People: Frederick H. Koch, Harry Woodburn Chase Place: Memorial Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Forest TheatreThe Chapel Hill Weekly, April 10, 1924, p. 3
  12. An anonymous donor gives $13,000 to seat and equip the Playmakers Theatre A donor who asked not to be named gave $13,000 to fit out the Playmakers Theatre in the old law building with leather-upholstered chairs like those of the Reynolds Memorial Theatre in Winston-Salem, a curtain, lighting, carpets and furniture for the dressing rooms under the stage. Director Frederick H. Koch could not yet say when the theatre would be finished. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: Playmakers Theatre (old law building, Smith Hall), UNC, Chapel HillThe Chapel Hill Weekly, March 12, 1925, p. 1
Show all 41 dated events
  1. Playmakers Theatre opens The Carolina Playmakers dedicated their theatre in the remodeled Smith Hall, the 1850s building later used as a library and law school, on Monday, November 23, 1925, with talks by Frederick Koch and President Harry W. Chase and three new folk plays. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Frederick Koch, Harry W. Chase · Also mentions: Carolina Playmakers, Smith HallThe Tar Heel, November 24, 1925: dedication of the Carolina Playmakers Theatre · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, March 5, 1925, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, April 30, 1925, p. 7; Chapel Hill Weekly, October 2, 1925, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, November 27, 1925, p. 3
  2. Hopi dancers perform in Memorial Hall and adopt Frederick H. Koch into their tribe A troupe of Hopi dancers from Arizona gave their ceremonial dances, including the snake dance, in Memorial Hall under the Playmakers' auspices, and afterward adopted Playmakers director Frederick H. Koch on the Playmakers Theatre stage, naming him Magnificent Fox. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: Memorial Hall and Playmakers Theatre, UNC campus, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Memorial HallThe Chapel Hill Weekly, January 20, 1928, p. 1
  3. Carolina Playmakers corporation limits its theatre to University teaching use Meeting in President Graham's office, the members of the Carolina Playmakers corporation resolved that the Playmakers Theatre be used only for the University's educational program, and voted that radio stations pay stage royalties for broadcast plays. Frederick H. Koch reported 72 performances before about 25,000 people in the past year. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: Playmakers Theatre, Chapel Hill · Also named: Frank Graham · Also mentions: Carolina PlaymakersThe Chapel Hill Weekly, October 31, 1930, p. 1
  4. Sir Philip Ben Greet's players give Hamlet in Memorial Hall The Ben Greet Players, brought by the Carolina Playmakers, gave the First Quarto version of Hamlet in Memorial Hall to about 1,000 people, among them busloads of college women from Raleigh, at a dollar a seat against the $2.50 charged elsewhere, though a new Will Rogers film was showing in town the same day. Sir Philip Ben Greet played Polonius and a gravedigger and Russell Thorndike played Hamlet. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: Memorial Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Philip Ben Greet, Russell Thorndike · Also mentions: Carolina PlaymakersSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 17, 1931, p. 1
  5. Hillsboro residents launch a play-producing group in Clem Strudwick's studio A play-producing organization for Hillsboro was launched at a meeting in Clem Strudwick's studio, with Frederick H. Koch and Irene Fussler of Chapel Hill advising; a larger meeting followed the next week. Its name, perhaps the Hillsboro Little Theatre, was not yet chosen. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: Clem Strudwick's studio, Hillsborough · Also named: Clem Strudwick, Shepherd StrudwickSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 5, 1932, p. 4
  6. Trustees name Frederick H. Koch Kenan professor of dramatic literature At their meeting in Raleigh, the University trustees appointed Frederick H. Koch Kenan professor of dramatic literature, in recognition of his fourteen years of teaching playwriting and building the Carolina Playmakers and play production across the state. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: University of North Carolina (trustees' meeting in Raleigh) · Also mentions: Carolina PlaymakersThe Chapel Hill Weekly, February 5, 1932, p. 1
  7. The Rockefeller Foundation grants the Carolina Playmakers $7,500 After a study by its representative John Marshall, the Rockefeller Foundation gave the Carolina Playmakers $7,500, recognizing the University as the Southern center for community drama. The money restored assistants cut in the Depression, repaired worn equipment and was to pay for lighting at the Forest Theatre. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: Playmakers Theatre, Chapel Hill · Also named: John Marshall · Also mentions: Carolina Playmakers, Forest TheatreSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 16, 1934, p. 3
  8. Playwright Loretto Carroll Bailey wins a General Education Board fellowship At the close of the state Dramatic Festival on April 7, Loretto Carroll Bailey, author of Job's Kinfolks and Strike Song, was announced as the winner of a General Education Board playwriting fellowship of $120 a month for nine months. She was to study under Frederick H. Koch and direct the plays of the Black students at Shaw University in Raleigh. People: Loretto Carroll Bailey, Frederick H. Koch Place: Playmakers Theatre, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 13, 1934, p. 4
  9. The Carolina Playmakers stage Hamlet in the Forest Theatre, with Frederick Koch as Hamlet The Playmakers gave Hamlet in the Forest Theatre on the edge of Battle Park, with Koch in the title role, music by the University Symphony Orchestra and glee clubs, dances by Phoebe Barr, costumes by Ora Mae Davis and an Elsinore Castle set by Samuel Selden. The Weekly had called it the troupe's most ambitious production since its founding, and Phillips Russell's review praised it. People: Samuel Selden Place: Forest Theatre, Battle Park, Chapel Hill · Also named: Ora Mae Davis, Phoebe Barr, Phillips Russell · Also mentions: Battle ParkSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 31, 1935, p. 1
  10. Frederick H. Koch is named Federal Theatre director for Virginia and the Carolinas Playmakers founder Frederick H. Koch was appointed director of the Federal Theatre Projects, the federal relief program for unemployed actors and theatre workers, in the district of Virginia and the two Carolinas, and was called to Washington to confer with the national director, Hallie Flanagan. Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Hallie FlanaganSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 4, 1935, p. 2
  11. Chapel Hill becomes headquarters for two Federal Theatre Project regions Frederick H. Koch announced that Chapel Hill would house the directors of two regions of the Federal Theatre Project, Koch for Virginia and the Carolinas and John McGee for six states of the Deep South. The WPA fitted up an office for them in Murphey Hall with two full-time secretaries. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: Murphey Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: John McGeeSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 15, 1935, p. 3
  12. The university creates a Department of Dramatic Art under Koch In the spring of 1936 drama courses were split off from the English department into a new Department of Dramatic Art headed by Koch, with a full graduate program. A master's student could submit an original play in place of a research thesis. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel HillArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 18 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, May 1, 1936, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, August 28, 1936, p. 6
  13. A Federal Theatre Project starts work in Carrboro Carrboro was one of nine North Carolina places where Federal Theatre Project work was under way under F. H. Koch's regional direction; because the state had few professional theatre people, Koch was allowed to include recreational projects. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: CarrboroSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 14, 1936, p. 6
  14. The Roland Holt Theatre Collection is given to the University On Saturday evening, April 4, 1936, at the close of the state drama festival, Frederick H. Koch formally presented the Roland Holt Theatre Collection in the Playmakers Theatre for its donor, Roland Holt's widow Constance D'Arcy Mackay Holt, and President Graham accepted it. The playbills, scrapbooks, letters, 250 photographs and books traced the American stage from 1881 to 1931; Mrs. Holt also gave a silver cup to be awarded each year for the best student playwriting. People: Frederick H. Koch, Frank Porter Graham Place: Playmakers Theatre, Chapel Hill · Also named: Constance D'Arcy Mackay HoltThe Chapel Hill Weekly, April 10, 1936, p. 1
  15. Betty Smith comes to Chapel Hill with the Federal Theatre Project The Federal Theater sent Smith to Chapel Hill in 1936 to work with Frederick H. Koch of the Carolina Playmakers. By early May she was one of four Federal Theatre Project playwrights there, with Grace Murphy, Herbert Meadow and Robert Finch, working with Finch on a supplement to the play catalogue of the university extension division. She stayed when the federal project expired, helped Koch compile American Folk Plays and took his classes for him in his absence. People: Betty Smith, Frederick H. Koch Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Robert Finch · Also mentions: Carolina PlaymakersSearch the index · Carolina Story: Betty Smith (Carolina's Literary History) · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, May 8, 1936, p. 3
  16. Betty Smith edits a collection of plays with Frederick Koch and Robert Finch Smith coedited Plays for Schools and Little Theatres with Koch and Finch in 1937 and wrote a catalog of one-act plays. People: Betty Smith, Frederick H. Koch Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Robert FinchSearch the index · NCpedia: Smith, Betty
  17. The Carolina Playmakers stage Paul Green's Johnny Johnson The Playmakers opened their twentieth season in Memorial Hall with Green's anti-war play with music by Kurt Weill, a Broadway production of the winter before; Green and Weill helped with the production, which Samuel Selden staged with more than 90 actors. About 2,500 people saw the three performances, and the opening-night audience called Green to the stage. People: Paul Green, Samuel Selden, Frederick H. Koch Place: Memorial Hall, University of North Carolina · Also named: Kurt WeillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 5, 1937, p. 2
  18. The Rockefeller Foundation gives the University $33,000 for its drama work and pledges $150,000 more The Rockefeller Foundation's review of 1938 reported a grant of $33,000 to the University for three years of its work in drama and a pledge of $150,000 toward an endowment of that work. The Weekly understood the pledge to depend on a new drama building, which the legislature had declined to fund in August 1938; Dean Robert B. House and Frederick H. Koch would not discuss it. People: Frederick H. Koch, R. B. House Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 7, 1939, p. 1
  19. Termites force the rebuilding of the Playmakers Theatre floor A spring-vacation inspection found termites had eaten through the main girder and joists under the Playmakers Theatre, and the floor from the stage halfway to the entrance was taken up. Building superintendent Burch's crew laid a new floor in time for the state drama festival. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: Playmakers Theatre, UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 18, 1938, p. 1
  20. The Playmakers Theatre is rebuilt after the August fire The Playmakers Theatre, gutted by fire in August 1938, was repaired with a new stage, seats, curtains and lighting, a steel fly gallery that freed floor space on the stage, chandeliers that could be switched on from the front of the house, outside lights and graded lawns in place of the steep steps at the side exits. H. D. Carter's year-end review counted the reconstruction among the University's 1938 work, and the theatre was set to reopen January 11, 1939, with four experimental plays. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: Playmakers Theatre, UNC campus · Also named: H. D. CarterSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 9, 1938, p. 4
  21. The Playmakers Theatre reopens after the 1938 fire The Playmakers Theatre, gutted by fire the previous August, reopened with a bill of four experimental plays from Frederick H. Koch's playwriting course; the house was packed and hundreds were turned away. The New York Times marked the reopening with an article on Koch and the Carolina Playmakers. People: Frederick H. Koch Place: Playmakers Theatre, UNC campus, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Carolina PlaymakersSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 20, 1939, p. 5
  22. The WPA approves stone seats and buildings for the Forest Theatre By December 21, 1939, the WPA had approved a project to give the Forest Theatre in Battle Park stone seats for about a thousand people laid along the hillside, stone light towers, dressing rooms and a stone gate, at a cost of about $20,000, mostly WPA labor and materials, with work to begin in spring 1940. People: Frederick H. Koch, L. B. Rogerson Place: Forest Theatre, Battle Park, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Battle ParkSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 21, 1939, p. 1
  23. The Carolina Playmakers hold a regional theatre festival for their twenty-first anniversary The Playmakers marked their 21st year with a week-long festival on drama in the South, opening with the Carolina Dramatic Association's state tournament and closing with plays by groups from across the South, talks by Elmer Rice, Brooks Atkinson, Barrett Clark and DuBose Heyward, and a revised version of Paul Green's The Field God. The program printed for April 5 also scheduled talks on Black drama in the South by Zora Neale Hurston and Randolph Edmonds of Dillard University and Edmonds's play Breeders. People: Frederick H. Koch, Paul Green, Archibald Henderson, Samuel Selden Place: Playmakers Theatre and Memorial Hall, Chapel HillThe Chapel Hill Weekly, April 5, 1940, p. 1
  24. Work begins on the stone seats of the new Forest Theatre Work on field-stone seats for the Forest Theatre in Battle Park, a WPA project, was under way by mid-April under Al Bell, who had supervised the building of the Lost Colony theatre on Roanoke Island. The theatre was estimated at about $13,000, mostly WPA labor, with the University putting about $1,500 into materials. People: Frederick H. Koch, Arthur R. Hollett Place: Forest Theatre, Battle Park, Chapel Hill · Also named: Al Bell · Also mentions: Battle ParkSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 19, 1940, p. 3
  25. Rebuilt Forest Theatre holds its first public event, the University May Day The University's May Day, with the crowning of Queen Marjorie Johnston and a maypole dance by elementary school girls, was held in the Forest Theatre, which the Weekly said would be the first public affair there since the theatre was rebuilt in stone with W.P.A. aid. The Playmakers opened their first play in the new theatre, Romeo and Juliet, on May 23. People: Frederick H. Koch, Arthur R. Hollett Place: Forest Theatre, Battle Park, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 9, 1941, p. 7
  26. The Carolina Playmakers send a salaried company on tour with Paul Green's The House of Connelly The Carolina Playmakers began what the Weekly called their first professional tour, a troupe of sixteen paid actors, many of them former students, taking Paul Green's The House of Connelly to Virginia, New England and the Middle West under the Redpath Bureau's management. After trial performances in Raleigh, Henderson, Greensboro and Memorial Hall from October 6 to 9, the company set out on October 11, and Frederick Koch called it the start of a permanent acting group. People: Paul Green, Frederick H. Koch, Samuel Selden Place: Playmakers Theatre and Memorial Hall, Chapel Hill · Also named: Frederick Koch · Also mentions: Carolina Playmakers, Memorial HallSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 10, 1941, p. 4
  27. Carolina Playmakers mark their 25th anniversary The Carolina Playmakers celebrated their 25th anniversary with a dinner at the Carolina Inn addressed by Barrett H. Clark of the Dramatists' Guild on the theater as a wartime job, opening the 20th Dramatic Festival and state tournament of the Carolina Dramatic Association. Twenty-one plays were given over three days. People: Frederick H. Koch, R. B. House Place: Carolina Inn and Playmakers Theatre, Chapel Hill · Also named: Barrett H. Clark · Also mentions: Carolina Inn, Carolina PlaymakersThe Chapel Hill Weekly, March 26, 1943, p. 3
  28. Samuel Selden becomes acting head of Dramatic Art and director of the Playmakers After Koch's death in August 1944, Samuel Selden took over as acting head of the Department of Dramatic Art and director of the Playmakers. People: Samuel Selden, Frederick H. Koch Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel HillArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 92
  29. Frederick Koch dies and is buried in the old Chapel Hill Cemetery Koch, who taught dramatic literature and playwriting at UNC for twenty-six years and organized the Carolina Playmakers, died on August 16, 1944 and was buried in the old Chapel Hill Cemetery. Samuel Selden succeeded him as chair of the Department of Dramatic Art and director of the Playmakers. People: Samuel Selden Place: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery · Also mentions: Carolina PlaymakersIn the index: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery (Chapel Hill, N.C.) · NCpedia: Koch, Frederick Henry

After their death in 1944

Later events: estates and burials, and the buildings, honors and histories that remember them.

  1. UNC dedicates the Forest Theatre to Frederick Koch In 1953 the university dedicated the stone amphitheatre in Battle Park to Koch, who had developed the site of the 1916 Shakespeare tercentenary dramas into a permanent theatre after he joined the faculty. The stone stage and seating had been rebuilt with Works Progress Administration funds in 1940. Place: Forest Theatre, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Battle ParkSearch the index · Carolina Story: Forest Theatre (also known as the Koch Memorial Theatre) · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 21, 1953, p. 8

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Frederick H. Koch, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

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Indexed works

Works about or by Frederick H. Koch. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

By Frederick H. Koch

Carolina Folk Plays

Koch, Frederick H. · 1922

The second series of one-act plays from the Carolina Playmakers, the UNC theater company Frederick Koch founded in 1918, published in 1922. Includes Thomas Wolfe's 'The Return of Buck Gavin', 'Fixin's' by Paul and Erma Green, and plays by Elizabeth Lay, Lucy Cobb and Frances Gray, with appendices listing Playmakers productions.

Duke NC State NC Cardinal Durham NCCU UNC UNCSA CH Historical Society Library of Congress

About Frederick H. Koch

Frederick Henry Koch

Selden, Samuel ; Sphangos, Mary Tom · 1954 · University of North Carolina Library

Brief biography of Frederick Henry Koch (1877-1944), founder of the Carolina Playmakers at the University of North Carolina, by Samuel Selden and Mary Tom Sphangos, with notes by Jonathan Daniels and others. It reprints Koch's own essay 'Folk playmaking' on pages 59 to 68. Published by the University of North Carolina Library in 1954, viii and 92 pages with illustrations and a portrait.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Durham record: Koch, Frederick H. 1877-1944.

Reviewed in Educational Theatre Journal (1956).

Duke NC Cardinal Durham Library of Congress

A model for folk theatre : the Carolina Playmakers

Moore, Cecelia · 2014 · University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Cecelia Moore on the Carolina Playmakers, the folk drama company Frederick H. Koch built at the University of North Carolina. The text is the talk she gave on April 8, 2014 in Wilson Library for the Gladys Hall Coates university history lecture series, printed by the university. Topics include the Playmakers, Koch and theatrical companies in Chapel Hill.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Koch, Frederick H. (Frederick Henry), 1877-1944.

UNC

Twenty-five years at Chapel Hill

Koch, Frederick H. (Frederick Henry), 1877-1944 · 1944 · National Theatre Conference

Frederick H. Koch looks back on twenty-five years of the Carolina Playmakers, the folk drama company he founded at the University of North Carolina. Detached from the June 1944 Bulletin of the National Theatre Conference and printed in Cleveland, it concerns theater in Chapel Hill and Koch himself, who died in the same year the piece appeared.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Koch, Frederick H. (Frederick Henry), 1877-1944.

UNC

Thomas Wolfe letters given to library of University of North Carolina

Adams, Agatha Boyd · 1949

Agatha Boyd Adams prepared this 1949 mimeographed typescript about letters by Thomas Wolfe (1900 to 1938) that came to the university library at Chapel Hill. Frederick H. Koch lived from 1877 to 1944. The correspondence is associated with the library's North Carolina Collection.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Koch, Frederick H. (Frederick Henry), 1877-1944.

UNC

Koch Memorial Theatre

Graham, Frank Porter, 1886-1972 · 1946 · The Carolina Playmakers, University of North Carolina

Frank Porter Graham writing in 1946 for the Koch Memorial Theatre, published at Chapel Hill by the Carolina Playmakers at the University of North Carolina. The theatre was to honor Frederick H. Koch, the Playmakers' founder, who died in 1944. Topics include theaters and university buildings at Chapel Hill.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Koch, Frederick H. (Frederick Henry), 1877-1944.

UNC

Koch Memorial Theatre : how it is to be built and endowed

1946

How the Koch Memorial Theatre at Chapel Hill was to be built and endowed, set out in 1946 as the campaign in memory of Frederick H. Koch went forward. Topics include theaters and the buildings of the University of North Carolina.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Koch, Frederick H. (Frederick Henry), 1877-1944.

UNC
Show 6 more about Frederick H. Koch

Koch Memorial Theatre

1944 · The Carolina Playmakers, University of North Carolina

A 1944 fundraising leaflet from the Carolina Playmakers for a theatre at Chapel Hill in memory of Frederick H. Koch, its cover promising to honor a gallant life and to fulfill a gallant dream. Published at Chapel Hill by the Playmakers.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Koch, Frederick H. (Frederick Henry), 1877-1944.

UNC

Interior of the Playmakers Theatre, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Wootten, Bayard Morgan, 1875-1959 · 1938 · Student Supply Store, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C

Bayard Wootten's view of the inside of the Playmakers Theatre on the Chapel Hill campus, home of the Carolina Playmakers, on a hand-colored postcard sold by the university's Student Supply Store. A sender in August 1938 wrote that after the fire the room might never look this way again.

Included because: Catalog heading in the DPLA record: Koch, Frederick H. (Frederick Henry), 1877-1944.

DPLA

Southern personalities : Frederick H. Koch, maker of American dramatists

Camp, Winifred · 1936 · Texas Farm and Ranch Pub. Co.

A magazine profile of Frederick H. Koch, the drama teacher who founded the Carolina Playmakers at the University of North Carolina, written by Winifred Camp for a Southern personalities series. Detached from Holland's, volume 55, number 7, for July 1936.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Koch, Frederick H. (Frederick Henry), 1877-1944.

UNC

"Prof." Koch, The Folk-Play Man of Chapel Hill, N.C. Home of Carolina Playmakers, University of North Carolina

1930 · Dixie Novelty Co., Asheville, N.C

Wooden postcard from 1930 by the Dixie Novelty Co. of Asheville honoring Frederick Koch, founder of the Carolina Playmakers at the University of North Carolina. The drawing shows Koch with his pipe, the Playmakers Theatre and the Playmakers emblem.

Included because: Catalog heading in the DPLA record: Koch, Frederick H. (Frederick Henry), 1877-1944.

DPLA

Koch, Frederick: photographs (Chapel Hill Historical Society)

1928

Frederick Koch, founder of the Carolina Playmakers, in three photographs dated 1928: posed on a porch with his brothers, the Koch home, and a candid shot in 'Hamlet'. From the Artists binder, Chapel Hill Historical Society Prints and Photographs Collection.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

CH Historical Society

Professor Frederick H. Koch, Founder and Director of The Carolina Playmakers, as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet.

1915 · Student Supply Store, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C

Hand-colored postcard of Frederick H. Koch in costume as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. Koch founded the Carolina Playmakers at the University of North Carolina and directed the troupe. Published by the Student Supply Store in Chapel Hill and printed by the Albertype Company, from the 1910s or 1920s.

Included because: Catalog heading in the DPLA record: Koch, Frederick H. (Frederick Henry), 1877-1944.

DPLA

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Books by Frederick H. Koch

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Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

Catalog searches use the Library of Congress name heading: Koch, Frederick H. (Frederick Henry), 1877-1944. Historical-record searches use the person’s name and may include namesakes. Links open in a new tab.

Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.

Picture: Frederick H. Koch, portrait plate, 1919. Public domain. Zena Irma Trinka, North Dakota of Today (1919); via the Internet Archive

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Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026