Henry H. Koster

1894 - Unk

Henry H. Koster, born in Brooklyn, New York, November 15, 1894, graduated from Pratt Institute in 1915 in architecture and applied design. Koster was associated for 12 years with the designing department of W. & J. Sloane, New York until 1927, before coming to Grand Rapids. For the past nine years [since 1927] he has been staff designer with Johnson Bros. Furniture Co. and Johnson, Handley, Johnson Co. [In 1936] he announced the inauguration of a designing service under his own name.

His commercial designs attracted national recognition from such authorities as Charles Messer Stowe, furniture editor of the New York Sun and other home furnishing editors of metropolitan dailies and consumer magazines. His modern interpretations had been a feature of the Grand Rapids market for several seasons, while his traditional adaptations, particularly several developed exclusively for the Grand Rapids Furniture Makers Guild, were outstanding successes. Koster is a former president of the Grand Rapids Designer’s Association, 1936.