Henry Hobson Richardson

On January 3, 1867, he married Julia Gorham Hayden. The couple had six children.

On April 27, 1886, he died after suffering from a prolonged ‘Bright’s disease’ when he was at the peak of his career with several incomplete assignments in hand.

He delegated these projects to his three assistants on the last day of his life. They in turn formalised the ‘Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge’ architectural firm and continued with his unfinished projects. Two such projects were ‘Marshall Field Wholesale Store’ in Chicago and ‘Allegheny County Courthouse’ in Pittsburg.

He was born on September 29, 1838 at the Priestley Plantation in St. James Parish, Louisiana, to Henry Dickenson Richardson and Catherine Caroline Priestley.

His father was a cotton merchant. His great grandfather Joseph Priestley was a philosopher and an inventor who is considered to be the discoverer of oxygen.

He was partly raised in Julia Row, New Orleans in a house made of red brick which was designed by Alexander T. Wood, an architect of the ‘United States Custom House’ in New Orleans.

He wished to join West Point but his speech impediment came in the way. He attended the ‘University of Louisiana’ and then in February 1856 he joined ‘Harvard College’. Though he was not an extraordinary student, his friendships and associations that developed there remained lifelong and played an important role in his professional success. He also attended the ‘Tulane University.

Earlier he wanted to pursue civil engineering, but he became more interested in architecture and as there were no schools of architecture in the US prior to the Civil War, he moved to Europe.

In 1865 he returned to the US and in October that year he settled in New York.

In 1867 he began working in a partnership with Charles D. Gambrill, an architect who he got acquainted with in Paris. The partnership lasted for eleven years.

His early works that were considered mediocre include ‘Grace Episcopal Church’ (1867) in Medford, Massachusetts; ‘H. H. Richardson House’ (1868) in Clifton, Staten Island, New York and ‘Alexander Dallas Bache Monument’ (1868) in Washington, DC.

Although he had worked on several projects yet he was not content and looked for more innovative and challenging projects. His yearning led him to develop his own style that reflected more of Gothic style inspired by the likes of John Ruskin and William Morris.

With the ‘Brattle Square Church’ (1869) in Boston (at present ‘First Baptist Church’), he came up with a more refined style, where he initiated recommendations of a Romanesque revival style. It won him a design competition in 1870.

The ‘Trinity Church’, presently a ‘National Historic Landmark’, cemented his position as a remarkable architect. Even though reflections of Byzantine, Spanish and French Romanesque styles were present, the ‘Richardsonian’ element was more pronounced than ‘Romanesque’. The work fetched him several other major assignments throughout his life. The unique design of the church won him the 1972 design competition.