Henry Hobson Richardson
Encyclopedia
Henry Hobson Richardson (September 29, 1838 – April 27, 1886) was a prominent American
architect
who designed buildings in Albany
, Boston
, Buffalo
, Chicago
, Pittsburgh, and other cities. The style he popularized is named for him: Richardsonian Romanesque
. Along with Louis Sullivan
and Frank Lloyd Wright
, Richardson is one of "the recognized trinity of American architecture".
, who is usually credited with the discovery of oxygen
.
Richardson went on to study at Harvard College
and Tulane University
. Initially, he was interested in civil engineering, but shifted to architecture, which led him to go to Paris in 1860 to attend the famed École des Beaux Arts in the atelier of Louis-Jules André
. He was only the second U.S. citizen to attend the École's architectural division, — Richard Morris Hunt
was the first — and the school was to play an increasingly important role in training Americans in the following decades.
He didn't finish his training there, as family backing failed due to the U.S. Civil War
.
Richardson returned to the U.S. in 1865. The style that Richardson developed over time, however, was not the more classical style of the École, but a more medieval-inspired style, influenced by William Morris
, John Ruskin
and others. Richardson developed a unique and highly personal idiom, adapting in particular the Romanesque
of southern France. His early works, however, were not very remarkable. "There are few hints in the mediocre work of Richardson's early years of what was to come in his maturity, when, beginning with his competition-winning design... for the Brattle Square Church in Boston, he adopted the Romanesque."
In 1869, he designed the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane (now known as the H. H. Richardson Complex) in Buffalo, the largest commission of his career and the first appearance of his eponymous Richardsonian Romanesque style. A massive Medina sandstone complex, it is a National Historic Landmark
and, as of 2009, was being restored.
The 1872 Trinity Church
in Boston solidified Richardson's national reputation and led to major commissions for the rest of his life. Although incorporating historical elements from a variety of sources, including early Syrian Christian, Byzantine
, and both French and Spanish Romanesque, it was more "Richardsonian" than Romanesque. Trinity was also a collaboration with the construction and engineering firm of the Norcross Brothers
, with whom the architect would work on some 30 projects.
He was well-recognized by his peers; of ten buildings named by American architects as the best in 1885, fully half were his: besides Trinity Church, there were Albany City Hall
, Sever Hall
at Harvard University, the New York State Capitol
in Albany (as a collaboration), and Town Hall
in North Easton, Massachusetts.
Despite the success of Trinity, Richardson built only two more churches, focusing instead on the monumental buildings he preferred, plus libraries, railroad stations, commercial buildings, and houses. Of his buildings, the two he liked best, the Allegheny County Courthouse
(Pittsburgh, 1884-1888) and the Marshall Field Wholesale Store
(Chicago, 1885-1887, demolished 1930), were completed posthumously by his assistants.
Richardson died in 1886 at age 47 of Bright's disease
, a historical term for the kidney disorder chronic nephritis. On his last day, he signed an informal will directing the three assistants still remaining to carry on the business, which was soon formalized as Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge
.
Despite an enormous income for an architect of his day, his "reckless disregard for financial order" meant that he died deeply in debt, leaving little to his widow and six children. He was buried in Walnut Hills Cemetery
, Brookline, Massachusetts
.
Richardson spent much of his later years in his house in Brookline, Massachusetts
, which had a studio attached to ease the strain on his health. The house fell into disrepair and was listed in 2007 as an endangered historic site. However, the house was purchased in January 2008 for roughly $2 million with an amended deed requiring that the building be historically restored. The house is on a hill, where Richardson could supposedly watch construction of the Trinity Church in Copley Square
, from his second story window.
aesthetic in the United States. It was at Trinity that Richardson first worked with Augustus Saint Gaudens, with whom he would work many times in the ensuing years. Across the square is the Boston Public Library
, built later (1895) by Richardson's former draftsman, Charles Follen McKim
. Together these and the surrounding buildings comprise one of the outstanding American urban complexes, built as the centerpiece of the newly developed Back Bay.
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Richardson pointedly claimed ability to create any type of structure a client wanted, insisting he could design anything "from a cathedral to a chicken coop." "The things I want most to design are a grain elevator and the interior of a great river-steamboat." However, architectural historian James F. O'Gorman
sees Richardson's achievement particularly in four building types: public libraries, commuter train station buildings, commercial buildings, and single-family houses.
, North Easton
, Malden
, Massachusetts, the Thomas Crane Public Library (Quincy, Massachusetts)
, and Billings Memorial Library
on the campus of the University of Vermont
. These buildings seem resolutely anti-modern, with the atmosphere of an Episcopalian vicarage, dimly lit for solemnity rather than reading on site. They are preserves of culture that did not especially embrace the contemporary flood of newcomers to New England. Yet they offer clearly defined spaces, easy and natural circulation, and they are visually memorable. Richardson's libraries found many imitators in the "Richardsonian Romanesque
" movement.
The Thomas Crane Public Library is regarded as the best of Richardson's libraries. In his earlier libraries, Richardson's approach was to conceive the parts and then assemble them, while in the later ones such as Crane he thought in terms of the whole. Richardson also engaged in a process of simplification and elimination with each successive library, until in Crane "Richardson's concentration on the relation of solid to void, of wall to window, becomes the basis for a harmonious abstraction with scarcely a reference to any past style."
for the Boston & Albany Railroad
as well as three stations for other lines. More subtle than his churches, municipal buildings and libraries, they were an original response to this relatively new building type. Beginning with his first at Auburndale (1881, demolished 1960s), Richardson drew inspiration for these station buildings from Japanese architecture
that he learned about from Edward S. Morse
, a Harvard
zoologist who began traveling to Japan in 1877, originally for biological specimens. Falling in love with Japan, upon his return that same year Morse began giving illustrated "magic lantern
" public lectures on Japanese ceramics, temples, vernacular architecture, and culture. Richardson incorporated Japanese concepts "in both sihouette and spatial concept", including the karahafu ("excellent gable", but generally poorly translated as "Chinese gable" despite its Japanese origin), the eyelid dormer, and the wide hip roof with extended eaves, all shown by Morse.
Among the few stations still extant, these influences are perhaps best illustrated in his Old Colony station
(Easton, Massachusetts, 1881-1884). Here he uses the Syrian arch that became a hallmark of Richardson designs for both the porte-cochère
and the windows of the main structure. Reminiscent of a courtyard and temple that Morse illustrated from Nikkō in Tochigi prefecture
, Japan, the hip roof on wide, bracketed eaves nearly hides the rough stonework below in shadow. Richardson even included a carved dragon at each end of the beam spanning the arches of windows. The walls "become horizontal planes hovering above one another with bands of windows in between."
Richardson was early although not the first U.S. architect to look to Japan, but his train stations "form the earliest sustained application of Japanese inspiration in American architecture, an undeniable precursor to Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie house designs". As with his libraries, Richardson evolved and simplified as the series continued, and his famous Chestnut Hill station (Newton, Massachusetts, 1883-1884, demolished circa 1960) featured clean lines with less Japanese influence.
After his death, more than 20 other stations were designed in Richardson's style for the Boston and Albany line by the firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge
, all draftsmen of Richardson at the time of his death. Many Boston and Albany stations were landscaped by Richardson's frequent collaborator, Frederick Law Olmsted
. Additionally, a railroad station in Orchard Park, New York (near Buffalo) was built in 1911 as a replica of Richardson's Auburndale station in Auburndale, Massachusetts. The original Auburndale station was torn down in the 1960s during construction of the Massachusetts Turnpike. The original Richardson stations on the Boston and Albany line have either been demolished or converted to new uses (such as restaurants). Two of the stations designed by Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge (both in Newton, Massachusetts) are still used by Boston's MBTA (green line) public transit service.
(Chicago, 1885-1887, demolished 1930) is Richardson's "culminating statement of urban commmercial form", and its remarkable design influenced Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and many other architects. According to Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, who has compiled all of Richardson's architectural works, despite its demolition in 1930, the Marshall Field Wholesale Store "is probably the most famous of Richardson's buildings, one that Richardson himself saw as among his most significant." Architectural critic Henry-Russell Hitchcock
states that in the Field Store, Richardson "was, perhaps, never more creative architecturally." Drawing from his own earlier work and both Romanesque and Renaissance precedents, Richardson designed this "massive but integrated" seven-story stone warehouse. Minimizing ornamentation in an era that employed lots of it, he stressed what he termed "the beauty of material and symmetry rather than mere superficial ornamentation" with "the effects depending on the relations of 'voids and solids'... on the proportion of the parts." Not requiring the new steel frame technology because of its comparatively low height, Richardson used multi-storied windows topped by arches to tie the stories together, and the regular patterns of the windows to tie the entire building into "a simple and unified solid occupying an entire block."
(Chicago, 1885-1887) is his best and most influential urban house, and the Mary Fisk Stoughton House
(Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1882-1883) and Henry Potter House (St. Louis, 1886-1887, demolished 1958) play that role for suburban and country settings. The Glessner House in particular influenced Frank Lloyd Wright as he began developing what would become his Prairie School
houses.
", unlike Victorian revival styles like Neo-Gothic, was a highly personal synthesis of the Beaux-Arts predilection for clear and legible plans, with the heavy massing that was favored by the pro-medievalists.
Significant to Richardson's style was his picturesque massing and roofline profiles, along with his mastery of rustication and polychromy, semi-circular arches supported on clusters of squat columns, and round arches over clusters of windows on massive walls.
Following his death, the Richardsonian style was perpetuated by a variety of proteges and other architects, many for civic buildings like city halls, county buildings, court houses, train stations and libraries, as well as churches and residences. These include:
This is a list of works by Richardson:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
who designed buildings in Albany
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Pittsburgh, and other cities. The style he popularized is named for him: Richardsonian Romanesque
Richardsonian Romanesque
Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson, whose masterpiece is Trinity Church, Boston , designated a National Historic Landmark...
. Along with Louis Sullivan
Louis Sullivan
Louis Henri Sullivan was an American architect, and has been called the "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism" He is considered by many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago School, was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an...
and Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
, Richardson is one of "the recognized trinity of American architecture".
Biography
Richardson was born at Priestly Plantation in St. James Parish, Louisiana, and spent part of his childhood in New Orleans, where his family lived on Julia Row in a red brick house designed by the architect Alexander T. Wood. He was the great-grandson of inventor and philosopher Joseph PriestleyJoseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
, who is usually credited with the discovery of oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
.
Richardson went on to study at Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
and Tulane University
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
. Initially, he was interested in civil engineering, but shifted to architecture, which led him to go to Paris in 1860 to attend the famed École des Beaux Arts in the atelier of Louis-Jules André
Louis-Jules André
Louis-Jules André was a French academic architect and the head of an important atelier at the École des Beaux-Arts.- Biography :...
. He was only the second U.S. citizen to attend the École's architectural division, — Richard Morris Hunt
Richard Morris Hunt
Richard Morris Hunt was an American architect of the nineteenth century and a preeminent figure in the history of American architecture...
was the first — and the school was to play an increasingly important role in training Americans in the following decades.
He didn't finish his training there, as family backing failed due to the U.S. Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
, John Ruskin
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
and others. Richardson developed a unique and highly personal idiom, adapting in particular the Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
of southern France. His early works, however, were not very remarkable. "There are few hints in the mediocre work of Richardson's early years of what was to come in his maturity, when, beginning with his competition-winning design... for the Brattle Square Church in Boston, he adopted the Romanesque."
In 1869, he designed the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane (now known as the H. H. Richardson Complex) in Buffalo, the largest commission of his career and the first appearance of his eponymous Richardsonian Romanesque style. A massive Medina sandstone complex, it is a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
and, as of 2009, was being restored.
The 1872 Trinity Church
Trinity Church, Boston
Trinity Church in the City of Boston, located in the Back Bay of Boston, Massachusetts, is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. The congregation, currently standing at approximately 3,000 households, was founded in 1733. The current rector is The Reverend Anne Bonnyman...
in Boston solidified Richardson's national reputation and led to major commissions for the rest of his life. Although incorporating historical elements from a variety of sources, including early Syrian Christian, Byzantine
Byzantine architecture
Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. The empire gradually emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity from what is today referred to as the Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to...
, and both French and Spanish Romanesque, it was more "Richardsonian" than Romanesque. Trinity was also a collaboration with the construction and engineering firm of the Norcross Brothers
Norcross Brothers
Norcross Brothers Contractors and Builders was a prominent nineteenth-century American construction company, especially noted for their work, mostly in stone, for the architectural firms of H.H. Richardson and McKim, Mead & White....
, with whom the architect would work on some 30 projects.
He was well-recognized by his peers; of ten buildings named by American architects as the best in 1885, fully half were his: besides Trinity Church, there were Albany City Hall
Albany City Hall
Albany City Hall is the seat of government of the city of Albany, New York. It houses the office of the mayor, the Common Council chamber, the city and traffic courts, as well as other city services. The current building was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson in his particular Romanesque style and...
, Sever Hall
Sever Hall
Sever Hall is a notable building designed by famed American architect H. H. Richardson. It is located on the grounds of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, within Harvard Yard, and is now a National Historic Landmark.-History:...
at Harvard University, the New York State Capitol
New York State Capitol
The New York State Capitol is the capitol building of the U.S. state of New York. Housing the New York State Legislature, it is located in the state capital city Albany, on State Street in Capitol Park. The building, completed in 1899 at a cost of $25 million , was the most expensive government...
in Albany (as a collaboration), and Town Hall
Oakes Ames Memorial Hall
Oakes Ames Memorial Hall is a historic hall designed by noted American architect H. H. Richardson, with landscaping by Frederick Law Olmsted. It is located at Main Street, Easton, Massachusetts, immediately adjacent to another Richardson building, Ames Free Library.The hall was built 1879-1881 as a...
in North Easton, Massachusetts.
Despite the success of Trinity, Richardson built only two more churches, focusing instead on the monumental buildings he preferred, plus libraries, railroad stations, commercial buildings, and houses. Of his buildings, the two he liked best, the Allegheny County Courthouse
Allegheny County Courthouse
Allegheny County Courthouse is a government building of Allegheny County located in the county seat, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.- Early structures:...
(Pittsburgh, 1884-1888) and the Marshall Field Wholesale Store
Marshall Field's Wholesale Store
Marshall Field's Wholesale Store, Chicago, Illinois, sometimes referred to as the Marshall Field's Warehouse Store, was a landmark seven-story designed by Henry Hobson Richardson...
(Chicago, 1885-1887, demolished 1930), were completed posthumously by his assistants.
Richardson died in 1886 at age 47 of Bright's disease
Bright's disease
Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that would be described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. The term is no longer used, as diseases are now classified according to their more fully understood causes....
, a historical term for the kidney disorder chronic nephritis. On his last day, he signed an informal will directing the three assistants still remaining to carry on the business, which was soon formalized as Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge
Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge
Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge was a successful architecture firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, operating between 1886 and 1915, with extensive commissions in monumental civic and collegiate architecture in the spirit and style of Henry Hobson Richardson....
.
Despite an enormous income for an architect of his day, his "reckless disregard for financial order" meant that he died deeply in debt, leaving little to his widow and six children. He was buried in Walnut Hills Cemetery
Walnut Hills Cemetery (Brookline, Massachusetts)
Walnut Hills Cemetery is a historic cemetery on Grove Street and Allandale Road in Brookline, Massachusetts.It was founded in 1875 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985....
, Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, which borders on the cities of Boston and Newton. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 58,732.-Etymology:...
.
Richardson spent much of his later years in his house in Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, which borders on the cities of Boston and Newton. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 58,732.-Etymology:...
, which had a studio attached to ease the strain on his health. The house fell into disrepair and was listed in 2007 as an endangered historic site. However, the house was purchased in January 2008 for roughly $2 million with an amended deed requiring that the building be historically restored. The house is on a hill, where Richardson could supposedly watch construction of the Trinity Church in Copley Square
Copley Square
Copley Square is a public square located in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, named for the donor of the land on which it was developed. The square is named for John Singleton Copley, a famous portrait painter of the late 18th century and native of Boston. A bronze statue of...
, from his second story window.
Trinity Church
Richardson's most acclaimed early work is Trinity Church. The interior of the church is one of the leading examples of the arts and craftsArts and crafts
Arts and crafts comprise a whole host of activities and hobbies that are related to making things with one's hands and skill. These can be sub-divided into handicrafts or "traditional crafts" and "the rest"...
aesthetic in the United States. It was at Trinity that Richardson first worked with Augustus Saint Gaudens, with whom he would work many times in the ensuing years. Across the square is the Boston Public Library
Boston Public Library, McKim Building
The Boston Public Library McKim Building in Copley Square contains the library's research collection, exhibition rooms and administrative offices...
, built later (1895) by Richardson's former draftsman, Charles Follen McKim
Charles Follen McKim
Charles Follen McKim FAIA was an American Beaux-Arts architect of the late 19th century. Along with Stanford White, he provided the architectural expertise as a member of the partnership McKim, Mead, and White....
. Together these and the surrounding buildings comprise one of the outstanding American urban complexes, built as the centerpiece of the newly developed Back Bay.
Building types
James F. O'Gorman
Dr. James F. O'Gorman is a leading American architectural historian, author, lecturer, editor, and consultant who taught for many years at Wellesley College. O'Gorman received a B.Arch. degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1956 and an M.Arch. from the University of Illinois,...
sees Richardson's achievement particularly in four building types: public libraries, commuter train station buildings, commercial buildings, and single-family houses.
Public libraries
A series of small public libraries donated by patrons for the improvement of New England towns makes a small coherent corpus that defines Richardson's style: libraries in WoburnWoburn, Massachusetts
Woburn is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. The population was 38,120 at the 2010 census. Woburn is located north of Boston, Massachusetts, and just south of the intersection of I-93 and I-95.- History :...
, North Easton
Easton, Massachusetts
Easton is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 23,112 at the 2010 census.Easton is governed by an elected committee of selectmen and a town administrator.- History :...
, Malden
Malden, Massachusetts
Malden is a suburban city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 59,450 at the 2010 census. In 2009 Malden was ranked as the "Best Place to Raise Your Kids" in Massachusetts by Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine.-History:...
, Massachusetts, the Thomas Crane Public Library (Quincy, Massachusetts)
Thomas Crane Public Library (Quincy, Massachusetts)
The Thomas Crane Public Library is a city library in Quincy, Massachusetts. It is noted for its architecture. It was funded by the Crane family as a memorial to Thomas Crane, a wealthy stone contractor who got his start in the Quincy quarries. The Thomas Crane Library has the second largest...
, and Billings Memorial Library
Billings Memorial Library
Built in 1883 on the campus of the University of Vermont by American architect Henry Hobson Richardson, the Billings Memorial Library was designed to resemble the Winn Library in Woburn, MA. A new library, the Guy W. Bailey Library, was built for the University of Vermont in 1961 due to lack of...
on the campus of the University of Vermont
University of Vermont
The University of Vermont comprises seven undergraduate schools, an honors college, a graduate college, and a college of medicine. The Honors College does not offer its own degrees; students in the Honors College concurrently enroll in one of the university's seven undergraduate colleges or...
. These buildings seem resolutely anti-modern, with the atmosphere of an Episcopalian vicarage, dimly lit for solemnity rather than reading on site. They are preserves of culture that did not especially embrace the contemporary flood of newcomers to New England. Yet they offer clearly defined spaces, easy and natural circulation, and they are visually memorable. Richardson's libraries found many imitators in the "Richardsonian Romanesque
Richardsonian Romanesque
Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson, whose masterpiece is Trinity Church, Boston , designated a National Historic Landmark...
" movement.
The Thomas Crane Public Library is regarded as the best of Richardson's libraries. In his earlier libraries, Richardson's approach was to conceive the parts and then assemble them, while in the later ones such as Crane he thought in terms of the whole. Richardson also engaged in a process of simplification and elimination with each successive library, until in Crane "Richardson's concentration on the relation of solid to void, of wall to window, becomes the basis for a harmonious abstraction with scarcely a reference to any past style."
Commuter train station buildings
Richardson also designed nine railroad station buildingsStation building
A station building, also known as a head house, is the main building of a passenger train station. It is typically used principally to provide services to passengers.A station building is not to be confused with the station itself...
for the Boston & Albany Railroad
Boston and Albany Railroad
The Boston and Albany Railroad was a railroad connecting Boston, Massachusetts to Albany, New York, later becoming part of the New York Central Railroad system, Conrail and CSX. The line is used by CSX for freight...
as well as three stations for other lines. More subtle than his churches, municipal buildings and libraries, they were an original response to this relatively new building type. Beginning with his first at Auburndale (1881, demolished 1960s), Richardson drew inspiration for these station buildings from Japanese architecture
Japanese architecture
' originated in prehistoric times with simple pit-houses and stores that were adapted to a hunter-gatherer population. Influence from Han Dynasty China via Korea saw the introduction of more complex grain stores and ceremonial burial chambers....
that he learned about from Edward S. Morse
Edward S. Morse
Edward Sylvester Morse was an American zoologist and orientalist.-Early life:Morse was born in Portland, Maine as the son of a Congregationalist preacher. His mother, who did not share her husband's religious beliefs, encouraged her son's interest in the sciences...
, a Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
zoologist who began traveling to Japan in 1877, originally for biological specimens. Falling in love with Japan, upon his return that same year Morse began giving illustrated "magic lantern
Magic lantern
The magic lantern or Laterna Magica is an early type of image projector developed in the 17th century.-Operation:The magic lantern has a concave mirror in front of a light source that gathers light and projects it through a slide with an image scanned onto it. The light rays cross an aperture , and...
" public lectures on Japanese ceramics, temples, vernacular architecture, and culture. Richardson incorporated Japanese concepts "in both sihouette and spatial concept", including the karahafu ("excellent gable", but generally poorly translated as "Chinese gable" despite its Japanese origin), the eyelid dormer, and the wide hip roof with extended eaves, all shown by Morse.
Among the few stations still extant, these influences are perhaps best illustrated in his Old Colony station
Old Colony Railroad Station (North Easton, Massachusetts)
The Old Colony Railroad Station, also known as the North Easton Railroad Station, is a historic railroad station designed by noted American architect H. H. Richardson. It is located just off Oliver Street in North Easton, Massachusetts, and currently houses the Easton Historical Society, and was...
(Easton, Massachusetts, 1881-1884). Here he uses the Syrian arch that became a hallmark of Richardson designs for both the porte-cochère
Porte-cochere
A porte-cochère is the architectural term for a porch- or portico-like structure at a main or secondary entrance to a building through which a horse and carriage can pass in order for the occupants to alight under cover, protected from the weather.The porte-cochère was a feature of many late 18th...
and the windows of the main structure. Reminiscent of a courtyard and temple that Morse illustrated from Nikkō in Tochigi prefecture
Nikko, Tochigi
is a city in the mountains of Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. Approximately 140 km north of Tokyo and 35 km west of Utsunomiya, the capital of Tochigi Prefecture, it is a popular destination for Japanese and international tourists...
, Japan, the hip roof on wide, bracketed eaves nearly hides the rough stonework below in shadow. Richardson even included a carved dragon at each end of the beam spanning the arches of windows. The walls "become horizontal planes hovering above one another with bands of windows in between."
Richardson was early although not the first U.S. architect to look to Japan, but his train stations "form the earliest sustained application of Japanese inspiration in American architecture, an undeniable precursor to Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie house designs". As with his libraries, Richardson evolved and simplified as the series continued, and his famous Chestnut Hill station (Newton, Massachusetts, 1883-1884, demolished circa 1960) featured clean lines with less Japanese influence.
After his death, more than 20 other stations were designed in Richardson's style for the Boston and Albany line by the firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge
Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge
Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge was a successful architecture firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, operating between 1886 and 1915, with extensive commissions in monumental civic and collegiate architecture in the spirit and style of Henry Hobson Richardson....
, all draftsmen of Richardson at the time of his death. Many Boston and Albany stations were landscaped by Richardson's frequent collaborator, Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...
. Additionally, a railroad station in Orchard Park, New York (near Buffalo) was built in 1911 as a replica of Richardson's Auburndale station in Auburndale, Massachusetts. The original Auburndale station was torn down in the 1960s during construction of the Massachusetts Turnpike. The original Richardson stations on the Boston and Albany line have either been demolished or converted to new uses (such as restaurants). Two of the stations designed by Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge (both in Newton, Massachusetts) are still used by Boston's MBTA (green line) public transit service.
Commercial buildings
The noted Marshall Field Wholesale StoreMarshall Field's Wholesale Store
Marshall Field's Wholesale Store, Chicago, Illinois, sometimes referred to as the Marshall Field's Warehouse Store, was a landmark seven-story designed by Henry Hobson Richardson...
(Chicago, 1885-1887, demolished 1930) is Richardson's "culminating statement of urban commmercial form", and its remarkable design influenced Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and many other architects. According to Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, who has compiled all of Richardson's architectural works, despite its demolition in 1930, the Marshall Field Wholesale Store "is probably the most famous of Richardson's buildings, one that Richardson himself saw as among his most significant." Architectural critic Henry-Russell Hitchcock
Henry-Russell Hitchcock
Henry-Russell Hitchcock was the leading American architectural historian of his generation. A long-time professor at Smith College and New York University, he is best known for writings that helped to define Modern architecture.-Biography:...
states that in the Field Store, Richardson "was, perhaps, never more creative architecturally." Drawing from his own earlier work and both Romanesque and Renaissance precedents, Richardson designed this "massive but integrated" seven-story stone warehouse. Minimizing ornamentation in an era that employed lots of it, he stressed what he termed "the beauty of material and symmetry rather than mere superficial ornamentation" with "the effects depending on the relations of 'voids and solids'... on the proportion of the parts." Not requiring the new steel frame technology because of its comparatively low height, Richardson used multi-storied windows topped by arches to tie the stories together, and the regular patterns of the windows to tie the entire building into "a simple and unified solid occupying an entire block."
Single-family houses
Richardson designed many important single-family residences, but his famous John J. Glessner HouseJohn J. Glessner House
The John J. Glessner House, operated as the Glessner House Museum, is an important 19th-century residence located at 1800 S. Prairie Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. It was designed in 1885-1886 by architect Henry Hobson Richardson and completed in late 1887. The property was designated a Chicago...
(Chicago, 1885-1887) is his best and most influential urban house, and the Mary Fisk Stoughton House
Mary Fisk Stoughton House
The Mary Fiske Stoughton House at 90 Brattle Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a National Historic Landmark and an icon of American architecture...
(Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1882-1883) and Henry Potter House (St. Louis, 1886-1887, demolished 1958) play that role for suburban and country settings. The Glessner House in particular influenced Frank Lloyd Wright as he began developing what would become his Prairie School
Prairie School
Prairie School was a late 19th and early 20th century architectural style, most common to the Midwestern United States.The works of the Prairie School architects are usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands,...
houses.
Other work
- Buffalo's New York State AsylumH.H. Richardson ComplexH.H. Richardson Complex is a recently-coined name for the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane, a large Medina red sandstone and brick hospital that stands on the grounds of the present day ' in Buffalo, New York...
(1870), shown on the right, was the largest building of the master's career and the first to display his characteristic style. The complex was also the first of many projects on which he worked with Frederick Law OlmstedFrederick Law OlmstedFrederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...
.
- Sever HallSever HallSever Hall is a notable building designed by famed American architect H. H. Richardson. It is located on the grounds of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, within Harvard Yard, and is now a National Historic Landmark.-History:...
, Harvard University (1880), brickwork, with molded brick string courses with turrets embedded in the walls, strips of windows, under a huge hipped roof as well as Austin Hall (Harvard University)Austin Hall (Harvard University)Austin Hall is a classroom building of the Harvard Law School designed by noted American architect H. H. Richardson. The first building purpose built for an American law school, it was also the first dedicated home of Harvard Law. It is located on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge,...
(1882–1884) which followed a more traditional Richardson motif.
- Emmanuel Episcopal Church (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)Emmanuel Episcopal Church (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)Emmanuel Episcopal Church is a church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, designed by Henry Hobson Richardson. It is nicknamed 'The Bake Oven Church' because of its squat, rounded shape and brick construction. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2000....
, noted for its fine brickwork, nicknamed "the Bake Oven Church".
- New York State CapitolNew York State CapitolThe New York State Capitol is the capitol building of the U.S. state of New York. Housing the New York State Legislature, it is located in the state capital city Albany, on State Street in Capitol Park. The building, completed in 1899 at a cost of $25 million , was the most expensive government...
(oversight and partial contribution)
- Warder MansionWarder MansionWarder Mansion is a Washington, D.C. apartment complex at 2633 16th Street Northwest. Located about 1.5 miles north of the White House, it is the only surviving building in the city by architect H. H...
, Washington, DC
- The Allegheny County CourthouseAllegheny County CourthouseAllegheny County Courthouse is a government building of Allegheny County located in the county seat, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.- Early structures:...
, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, (1883–1888) connected by a "Bridge of SighsBridge of SighsThe Bridge of Sighs is a bridge in Venice, northern Italy . The enclosed bridge is made of white limestone and has windows with stone bars. It passes over the Rio di Palazzo and connects the old prisons to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace...
" to its jail across a street: cyclopean masonry and a tall tower
Richardsonian Romanesque
Richardson is one of few architects to be immortalized by having a style named after him. "Richardsonian RomanesqueRichardsonian Romanesque
Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson, whose masterpiece is Trinity Church, Boston , designated a National Historic Landmark...
", unlike Victorian revival styles like Neo-Gothic, was a highly personal synthesis of the Beaux-Arts predilection for clear and legible plans, with the heavy massing that was favored by the pro-medievalists.
Significant to Richardson's style was his picturesque massing and roofline profiles, along with his mastery of rustication and polychromy, semi-circular arches supported on clusters of squat columns, and round arches over clusters of windows on massive walls.
Following his death, the Richardsonian style was perpetuated by a variety of proteges and other architects, many for civic buildings like city halls, county buildings, court houses, train stations and libraries, as well as churches and residences. These include:
- the successor firm of Shepley, Rutan and CoolidgeShepley, Rutan and CoolidgeShepley, Rutan and Coolidge was a successful architecture firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, operating between 1886 and 1915, with extensive commissions in monumental civic and collegiate architecture in the spirit and style of Henry Hobson Richardson....
, who completed some two dozen unfinished projects and then continued to produce work in the same style, and continued to employ his collaborators the Norcross BrothersNorcross BrothersNorcross Brothers Contractors and Builders was a prominent nineteenth-century American construction company, especially noted for their work, mostly in stone, for the architectural firms of H.H. Richardson and McKim, Mead & White....
for construction and engineering expertise, Frederick Law OlmstedFrederick Law OlmstedFrederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...
for landscape architecture, and the English sculptor John Evans for stonecarving - Stanford WhiteStanford WhiteStanford White was an American architect and partner in the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White, the frontrunner among Beaux-Arts firms. He designed a long series of houses for the rich and the very rich, and various public, institutional, and religious buildings, some of which can be found...
and Charles Follen McKimCharles Follen McKimCharles Follen McKim FAIA was an American Beaux-Arts architect of the late 19th century. Along with Stanford White, he provided the architectural expertise as a member of the partnership McKim, Mead, and White....
, who worked in Richardson's office as young men, went on to form McKim, Mead and White and moved into the radically different Beaux-Arts architecture style - Richardson's great admirer Louis SullivanLouis SullivanLouis Henri Sullivan was an American architect, and has been called the "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism" He is considered by many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago School, was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an...
adapted Richardson's characteristic lessons of texture, massing, and the expressive language of stone walling, particularly at Chicago's Auditorium Building, and these influences are detectable in the work of Sullivan's own student Frank Lloyd WrightFrank Lloyd WrightFrank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
. - Richardson found sympathetic reception among young Scandinavian architects of the following generation, notably Eliel SaarinenEliel SaarinenGottlieb Eliel Saarinen was a Finnish architect who became famous for his art nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century....
- The Patrick F. Taylor Library, formerly known as the Howard Memorial Library, was built soon after Richardson's death. It is sometimes called "the only Richardson building located in the South". Residents of New Orleans had wanted an example of Richardson's work, a native son of New Orleans. The office of Shepley, Rutan and CoolidgeShepley, Rutan and CoolidgeShepley, Rutan and Coolidge was a successful architecture firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, operating between 1886 and 1915, with extensive commissions in monumental civic and collegiate architecture in the spirit and style of Henry Hobson Richardson....
used a Richardson design which had been submitted and rejected some years earlier for a library in Saginaw, Michigan. This leads some, particularly those in New Orleans, to argue that the building can be said to be by Richardson; the counter argument is that the design was not originally intended for this location and the building was constructed after Richardson's death with no input from the architect beyond the initial design. The library building is currently part of the Ogden Museum of Southern ArtOgden Museum of Southern ArtThe Ogden Museum of Southern Art is located in New Orleans, within the Central Business District adjacent to Lee Circle. It is associated with the University of New Orleans...
.
Replicas
Although many structures exist in the Romanesque style and some borrow so heavily that they are often mistaken for Richardson designs, several buildings have been built specifically to mimic a single Richardson structure.- Wellesley Farms Railroad StationWellesley Farms Railroad StationWellesley Farms Railroad Station is a rail station on the MBTA Commuter Rail system in Wellesley, Massachusetts. The station has been listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places since 1986.The station is located on 90 Croton Street...
- This structure was built by Shepley, Rutan and CoolidgeShepley, Rutan and CoolidgeShepley, Rutan and Coolidge was a successful architecture firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, operating between 1886 and 1915, with extensive commissions in monumental civic and collegiate architecture in the spirit and style of Henry Hobson Richardson....
(draftsmen of Richardson) soon after Richardson's death. Although this firm built many stations in Richardson's style, they were specifically penalized for this one because it was so similar to Richardson's Eliot station in Newton, MassachusettsNewton, MassachusettsNewton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...
. Eliot station was torn down in the 1950s.
- A railroad station in Orchard Park, New York (near Buffalo), was built in 1911 as a replica of Richardson's Auburndale station in Auburndale, MassachusettsAuburndale, MassachusettsAuburndale is one of the 13 villages of Newton, Massachusetts. It lies at the western end of Newton near the intersection of interstate highways 90 and 95, and is bisected by the Massachusetts Turnpike. Auburndale is surrounded by three other Newton villages as well as the city of Waltham and the...
. The original Auburndale station, Richardson's first for the Boston & Albany Railroad and which was described by Henry Russell Hitchcock as "the best he ever built", was torn down in the 1960s during construction of the Massachusetts Turnpike.
- The Old Orange County Courthouse in Santa Ana, CaliforniaSanta Ana, CaliforniaSanta Ana is the county seat and second most populous city in Orange County, California, and with a population of 324,528 at the 2010 census, Santa Ana is the 57th-most populous city in the United States....
, was completed in 1906 and is heavily influenced by Richardson's designs, bearing a strong resemblance to Richardson's Sever HallSever HallSever Hall is a notable building designed by famed American architect H. H. Richardson. It is located on the grounds of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, within Harvard Yard, and is now a National Historic Landmark.-History:...
at Harvard.
- Castle Hill LightCastle Hill LightCastle Hill Lighthouse is located on Narragansett Bay in Newport, Rhode Island at the end of the historic Ocean Drive and is an active navigation aid for the United States Coast Guard and boaters entering the East Passage between Jamestown, Rhode Island on Conanicut Island, and Newport, Rhode...
is a lighthouse in Newport, Rhode IslandNewport, Rhode IslandNewport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War...
, which is often attributed to Richardson. Richardson drew a sketch for the lighthouse at that location which may have been the basis for the design, though the actual structure does not include the residence featured in Richardson's sketch.
Chronological list of extant works
- 1867 Grace Episcopal ChurchGrace Episcopal Church (Medford, Massachusetts)The Grace Episcopal Church is an Episcopal church designed by noted American architect H. H. Richardson, with a major stained glass window by John LaFarge. It is located at 160 High Street, Medford, Massachusetts and now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.The church was constructed...
- Medford, MA - 1868 Benjamin W. Crowninshield HouseCrowninshield HouseThe Crowninshield House is an historic house designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, located at 164 Marlborough Street in Boston, Massachusetts.- Architecture :...
- Boston, MA - 1868 H. H. Richardson House - Clifton, Staten Island, NY
- 1868 Alexander Dallas Bache MonumentAlexander Dallas Bache MonumentThe Alexander Dallas Bache Monument is the tomb of Alexander Dallas Bache, a noted American scientist and surveyor. Bache died in Newport, Rhode Island in 1867 and was transported to Washington, DC's Congressional Cemetery for burial. American architect Henry Hobson Richardson was commissioned to...
- Washington, DC - 1868 William Dorsheimer HouseWilliam Dorsheimer HouseWilliam Dorsheimer House is a historic home located at Buffalo in Erie County, New York. It was designed and built in 1868 by Henry Hobson Richardson for William Dorsheimer , prominent local lawyer and Lieutenant Governor of New York...
- Buffalo, NY - 1869 Brattle Square Church (now First Baptist Church)First Baptist Church (Boston, Massachusetts)First Baptist Church is a historic Baptist church established in 1665. It first met secretly on Noddle's Island and then in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts...
- Boston, MA - 1869 New York State AsylumH.H. Richardson ComplexH.H. Richardson Complex is a recently-coined name for the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane, a large Medina red sandstone and brick hospital that stands on the grounds of the present day ' in Buffalo, New York...
- Buffalo, NY - 1871 Hampden County CourthouseHampden County CourthouseHampden County Courthouse is a historic courthouse on Elm Street in Springfield, Massachusetts designed by Henry Hobson Richardson. This was the county's second courthouse. The first courthouse was built in 1822, but by the 1860s, popular pressure was developing for a new courthouse...
- Springfield, MA - 1871 North Congregational ChurchNorth Congregational ChurchNorth Congregational Church was built in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1872-3, and was one of the early works by noted American architect Henry Hobson Richardson. It is one of his first works in the Romanesque style. The structure is of light sandstone and does not show the more distinctive...
- Springfield, MA - 1872 Trinity ChurchTrinity Church, BostonTrinity Church in the City of Boston, located in the Back Bay of Boston, Massachusetts, is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. The congregation, currently standing at approximately 3,000 households, was founded in 1733. The current rector is The Reverend Anne Bonnyman...
- Boston, MA (National Historic Landmark) - 1874 William Watts Sherman HouseWilliam Watts Sherman HouseThe William Watts Sherman House is a notable house designed by American architect H. H. Richardson, with later interiors by Stanford White. The house is generally acknowledged as one of Richardson's masterpieces, and the prototype for what later became known as the Shingle Style in American...
- Newport, RI - 1875 Hayden BuildingHayden BuildingThe Hayden Building is a historic building at 681-683 Washington Street in Boston, Massachusetts.The building was built in 1875 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Designed to act as commercial retail space, this four story brownstone building shows little of the...
- Boston, MA - 1875 R. and F. Cheney Building - Hartford, CT
- 1875 New York State CapitolNew York State CapitolThe New York State Capitol is the capitol building of the U.S. state of New York. Housing the New York State Legislature, it is located in the state capital city Albany, on State Street in Capitol Park. The building, completed in 1899 at a cost of $25 million , was the most expensive government...
- Albany, NY - 1876 Rev. Henry Eglinton Montgomery Memorial - New York, NY
- 1876 Winn Memorial LibraryWinn Memorial LibraryThe Woburn Public Library or Winn Memorial Library is located at 45 Pleasant Street in Woburn, Massachusetts.-Architecture:...
- Woburn, MA - 1877 Oliver Ames Free LibraryAmes Free LibraryThe Ames Free Library is a public library designed by noted American architect H. H. Richardson. It is located at 53 Main Street, Easton, Massachusetts, immediately adjacent to another Richardson building, Oakes Ames Memorial Hall....
- North Easton, MA - 1878 Sever HallSever HallSever Hall is a notable building designed by famed American architect H. H. Richardson. It is located on the grounds of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, within Harvard Yard, and is now a National Historic Landmark.-History:...
- Cambridge, MA - 1879 Oakes Ames Memorial Town HallOakes Ames Memorial HallOakes Ames Memorial Hall is a historic hall designed by noted American architect H. H. Richardson, with landscaping by Frederick Law Olmsted. It is located at Main Street, Easton, Massachusetts, immediately adjacent to another Richardson building, Ames Free Library.The hall was built 1879-1881 as a...
- North Easton, MA - 1879 Rectory for Trinity Church - Boston, MA
- 1879 Ames MonumentAmes MonumentThe Ames Monument is a large pyramid in Albany County, Wyoming, designed by Henry Hobson Richardson and dedicated to brothers Oakes Ames and Oliver Ames, Jr., Union Pacific Railroad financiers. The brothers garnered credit for connecting the nation by rail upon completion of the United States'...
- Sherman, WY - 1880 F.L. Ames Gate LodgeAmes Gate LodgeThe Ames Gate Lodge is a celebrated work by American architect H. H. Richardson. It is privately owned on an estate landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted, but its north facade can be seen from the road at 135 Elm Street, North Easton, Massachusetts....
- North Easton, MA - 1880 Bridge in Fenway Park - Boston, MA
- 1880 Stony Brook GatehouseStony Brook GatehouseThe Stony Brook Gatehouse in The Fenway is part of Boston's Emerald Necklace, designed in the late 1870s to 1880s by noted American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead. The Fenway portion of the Emerald Necklace surrounds the Muddy River, with three bridges wspanning the river...
- Boston, MA - 1880 Thomas Crane Public LibraryThomas Crane Public Library (Quincy, Massachusetts)The Thomas Crane Public Library is a city library in Quincy, Massachusetts. It is noted for its architecture. It was funded by the Crane family as a memorial to Thomas Crane, a wealthy stone contractor who got his start in the Quincy quarries. The Thomas Crane Library has the second largest...
- Quincy, MA (National Historic Landmark) - 1880 Dr. John Bryant House - Cohasset, MA
- 1880 City HallAlbany City HallAlbany City Hall is the seat of government of the city of Albany, New York. It houses the office of the mayor, the Common Council chamber, the city and traffic courts, as well as other city services. The current building was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson in his particular Romanesque style and...
- Albany, NY - 1881 Austin HallAustin Hall (Harvard University)Austin Hall is a classroom building of the Harvard Law School designed by noted American architect H. H. Richardson. The first building purpose built for an American law school, it was also the first dedicated home of Harvard Law. It is located on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge,...
- Cambridge, MA - 1881 Boston & Albany Railroad Station - Palmer, MA
- 1881 Pruyn Monument - Albany, NY
- 1881 Rev. Percy Browne House - Marion, MA
- 1881 Old Colony Railroad StationOld Colony Railroad Station (North Easton, Massachusetts)The Old Colony Railroad Station, also known as the North Easton Railroad Station, is a historic railroad station designed by noted American architect H. H. Richardson. It is located just off Oliver Street in North Easton, Massachusetts, and currently houses the Easton Historical Society, and was...
- North Easton, MA - 1882 Grange Sard, Jr., House - Albany, NY
- 1882 Mary Fiske Stoughton House - Cambridge, MA
- 1883 Billings Memorial LibraryBillings Memorial LibraryBuilt in 1883 on the campus of the University of Vermont by American architect Henry Hobson Richardson, the Billings Memorial Library was designed to resemble the Winn Library in Woburn, MA. A new library, the Guy W. Bailey Library, was built for the University of Vermont in 1961 due to lack of...
- Burlington, VT - 1883 Emmanuel Episcopal ChurchEmmanuel Episcopal Church (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)Emmanuel Episcopal Church is a church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, designed by Henry Hobson Richardson. It is nicknamed 'The Bake Oven Church' because of its squat, rounded shape and brick construction. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2000....
- Pittsburgh, PA - 1883 Connecticut River Railroad StationConnecticut River Railroad StationConnecticut River Railroad Station is a former railway station located between Lyman, Bowers, and Mosher Streets in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The station was part of the Connecticut River Railroad line and was built in 1883....
- Holyoke, MA - 1883 Allegheny County BuildingsAllegheny County CourthouseAllegheny County Courthouse is a government building of Allegheny County located in the county seat, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.- Early structures:...
- Pittsburgh, PA - 1883 Robert Treat Paine HouseRobert Treat Paine EstateThe Robert Treat Paine Estate, known as Stonehurst, is a country house set on 109 acres , designed in collaboration between architect Henry Hobson Richardson and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. It is located at 100 Robert Treat Paine Drive, Waltham, Massachusetts...
- Waltham, MA - 1883 Boston & Albany Railroad StationFramingham Railroad StationFramingham Railroad Station built is 1885 is an historic Boston and Albany Railroad station located in Framingham, Massachusetts. Designed by noted American architect H. H. Richardson, it was one of the last in his series of Northeastern United States railroad stations. Today, it has been...
- Framingham, MA - 1884 Boston & Albany Railroad Station (Woodland, part of Newton)Boston & Albany Railroad Station (Newton)Woodland Station is one of two surviving railroad stations in the Boston area designed by American architect Henry Hobson Richardson. Although he designed numerous stations along the Worcester line , most of the others have been torn down either due to neglect, fire, or construction of the...
- Newton, MA - 1884 F.L. Ames Gardener's CottageF.L. Ames Gardener's CottageThe F.L. Ames Gardener's Cottage is a small residential house in North Easton, Massachusetts. This building was designed in 1884 by noted American architect Henry Hobson Richardson and built the following year. This building sits on the original Ames estate and was designed soon after the...
- North Easton, MA - 1884 Immanuel Baptist Church - Newton, MA
- 1884 Ephraim W. Gurney House - Beverly, MA
- 1885 Converse Memorial Building/LibraryConverse Memorial LibraryThe Converse Memorial Building, also known as Converse Memorial Library, is a public library building designed by noted American architect H. H. Richardson. From 1885 to 1996, when construction of a new library addition was completed, the building was also home to the Malden Public Library...
- Malden, MA (National Historic Landmark) - 1885 Benjamin H. Warder HouseWarder MansionWarder Mansion is a Washington, D.C. apartment complex at 2633 16th Street Northwest. Located about 1.5 miles north of the White House, it is the only surviving building in the city by architect H. H...
- Washington, DC - 1885 Bagley Memorial FountainBagley Memorial FountainThe Bagley Memorial Fountain is a historic fountain in Detroit. It has recently been moved from its long-time location in Campus Martius Park to a new location in just down the street in Cadillac Square Park. The fountain was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a...
- Detroit, MI - 1885 John J. Glessner HouseJohn J. Glessner HouseThe John J. Glessner House, operated as the Glessner House Museum, is an important 19th-century residence located at 1800 S. Prairie Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. It was designed in 1885-1886 by architect Henry Hobson Richardson and completed in late 1887. The property was designated a Chicago...
- Chicago, IL (National Historic Landmark) - 1885 Marshall Field's Wholesale StoreMarshall Field's Wholesale StoreMarshall Field's Wholesale Store, Chicago, Illinois, sometimes referred to as the Marshall Field's Warehouse Store, was a landmark seven-story designed by Henry Hobson Richardson...
- Chicago, IL - 1885 Boston & Albany Railroad Station - Wellesley Hills, MA
- 1885 Union Passenger StationNew London (Amtrak station)New London Union Station is an historic regional rail station located in New London, Connecticut, United States. It is served by both Amtrak and the Connecticut Department of Transportation's Shore Line East...
- New London, CT - 1885 Emmanuel Episcopal ChurchEmmanuel Episcopal Church (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)Emmanuel Episcopal Church is a church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, designed by Henry Hobson Richardson. It is nicknamed 'The Bake Oven Church' because of its squat, rounded shape and brick construction. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2000....
, Pittsburgh, PA - 1886 LululaundLululaundLululaund was the house of German-born British artist Hubert von Herkomer, in Bushey, Hertfordshire. It was designed in c.1886 and inhabited in 1894. Nevertheless von Herkomer wrote in the 1911 second volume of his autobiography :...
or the Sir Hubert von HerkomerHubert von HerkomerSir Hubert von Herkomer , British painter of German descent. He was also a pioneering film-director and a composer. Though a very successful portraitist, especially of men, he is mainly remembered for his earlier works that took a realistic approach to the conditions of life of the poor...
House - BusheyBusheyBushey is a town in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire in the East of England. Bushey Heath is situated to the south east of Bushey on the boundary with the London Borough of Harrow.-History:...
, Hertfordshire, England - 1886 Dr. H.J. Bigelow House - Newton, MA
- 1886 Isaac H. Lionberger HouseIsaac H. Lionberger HouseThe Isaac H. Lionberger House at 3630 Grandel Square in St. Louis, Missouri is the last private residence designed by noted American architect Henry Hobson Richardson. Designed in 1885-6, the building was built after Richardson's death. The Lionberger House became a St. Louis Landmark in 1975. ...
- St. Louis, MO