Dropped ceilings and ceiling tiles were being used in Japan for aesthetic reasons

as early as the Muromachi Period (1337 to 1573). Blackfriars Theatre in London,

England, built in 1596, had dropped ceilings to aid acoustics.

U. S. Patent No. 1,470,728 for modern dropped ceilings was applied for by E. E.
Hall on May 28, 1919 and granted on October 16, 1923. Initially modern dropped
ceilings were built using interlocking tiles and the only way to provide access for
repair or inspection of the area above the tiles was by starting at the edge of the
ceiling, or at a designated "key tile", and then removing contiguous tiles one at a
time until the desired place of access was reached. Once the repair or inspection
was completed, the tiles had to be reinstalled. This process could be very timeconsuming and expensive. On September 8, 1958 Donald A. Brown of Westlake,
Ohio filed for a patent for Accessible Suspended Ceiling Construction. This
invention provided suspended ceiling construction in which access may readily
be obtained at any desired location. Patent Number US 2,984,946 A was granted
on May 23, 1961. Brown has sometimes been credited as being the inventor of
the dropped ceiling even though other patents preceded his as shown in the
table below.

U. S. Dropped Ceiling Patents to September 8, 1958

Date Filed

Patent No.

Applicant

06/28/1919 1,470,728

Hall

09/03/1931 1,931,574

Danielson

Title

Comments

Suspended Ceiling
Suspended Ceiling Hanger

10/24/1950 2,710,679 Bibb, Remmen, Bibb

Suspended Ceiling
Construction First fully developed grid system concept
12/13/1955 2,816,623 Wong Modular Ceiling
grid. Wong founded Cepco Manufacturing

First integration of tiles and

05/11/1956 2,896,752

Wilde Suspended Ceiling Grid Construction

07/31/1956 2,894,291

Sorenson

Suspended Ceiling System

10/25/1956 2,895,180

Byssing

Suspended Ceiling

02/07/1958 2,963,251 Fuss

Suspended Ceiling Framework
09/08/1958 2,984,946

Supporting Electric Lighting Fixture from

Brown Accessible Suspended Ceiling