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Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge
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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.
firm grew out of Richardson's architectural practice. After Richardson's untimely death at age 47 in 1886, a trio consisting of George Foster Shepley (1860-1903), Charles Hercules Rutan (1851-1914), and Charles Allerton Coolidge (1858-1932) gained control of the firm and completed all of its nearly two dozen pending projects, including the John J. Glessner House in Chicago.
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Encyclopedia
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.
History
The firm grew out of Richardson's architectural practice. After Richardson's untimely death at age 47 in 1886, a trio consisting of George Foster Shepley (1860-1903), Charles Hercules Rutan (1851-1914), and Charles Allerton Coolidge (1858-1932) gained control of the firm and completed all of its nearly two dozen pending projects, including the John J. Glessner House in Chicago. Many of Richardson's projects were completed and modified in stages over years, making exact attribution difficult for such buildings as the Ames Gate Lodge in North Easton, Massachusetts, and even Richardson's masterwork Trinity Church, Boston.
Two of the principals had been educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Shepley (class of 1882) and Coolidge (class of 1883). Shepley married Richardson's daughter; and Coolidge later married Shepley's sister.
In 1888, the firm was commissioned by Senator and Mrs. Leland Stanford to join landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted in planning the campus for Stanford University. For major commissions in Chicago and the World's Columbian Exposition, Coolidge moved to Chicago and the firm opened its branch office there in 1893, in which many Prairie School architects received their early professional training, notably Hermann V. von Holst who was head draughtsman. A St. Louis branch office began the career of John Mauran; a Pittsburgh branch office developed into Rutan & Russell; Pasadena architect Myron Hunt spent three years with them in Boston as draftsman.
Stylistically, the firm continued to work mainly in the architectural vocabulary of Richardsonian Romanesque, although with less imagination -- for instance, Richardson's asymmetry disappears. The firm continued as Shepley Rutan and Coolidge through 1915, then became Coolidge and Shattuck (Boston) and Coolidge and Hodgdon (Chicago) concurrently from 1915 through 1924, then Coolidge Shepley Bulfinch and Abbott from 1924 through 1952, Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott from 1952, and is still in operation as Shepley Bulfinch.
Work
- completion of the Franklin MacVeagh Residence, Chicago (1885-1887), razed 1922
- 23 stations for the Boston & Albany Railroad (1886 through 1894)
- multiple buildings in the Harvard Avenue Historic District including the Allston Depot, Boston (1887)
- master plan and several Mission Revival buildings for Stanford University, beginning 1888, largely destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
- Shadyside Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1890)
- Bell Telephone Building, St. Louis (1890), recently renovated into lofts
- Old Toronto Board of Trade Building, Toronto, Ontario (1892), razed 1958
- Montreal Board of Trade Building, Montreal, Quebec (1892), design won by competition; destroyed by fire circa 1902
- Chicago Public Library (1892), design won by competition, now the Chicago Cultural Center
- South Station (Boston) (1892)
- Medfield State Hospital, Medfield, Massachusetts (1892)
- Flour and Grain Exchange Building, aka Boston Chamber of Commerce, Boston (1892)
- North Station, Boston (1893), razed 1927
- the 14-story Ames Building in Boston (1893)
- Art Institute of Chicago (1893), built as the "World's Congress Auxiliary Building" for the World's Columbian Exposition
- completion of Richardson's Trinity Church, Boston (1894-1897), refining the two west towers and adding the tripartite porch
- Conant Hall, Harvard University (1894)
- Guardian Building, Cleveland, Ohio (1896)
- Medill / McCormick Residence, Cantigny Park, suburban Chicago (1896)
- chapel at the Second Presbyterian Church, St. Louis, Missouri (1896)
- Congregational Library, Boston, 1898
- Metropolitan Water Board, Chestnut Hill Pump Station, Boston (1900)
- master plan and more than fifteen buildings for the University of Chicago (1901-1915), including the Harper Library
- Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building and Agriculture Building for the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York (1901)
- John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island (1904)
- a new campus for the Harvard Medical School (1906)
- Langdell Hall, Harvard Law School (1907)
- Corn Exchange Bank Building, aka National Republican Bank, Chicago, Illinois (1908), razed circa 1985
- additions to Richardson's Hampden County Courthouse, Springfield, Massachusetts (1908-1912)
- Boston Safe Deposit Building, Boston (1908-1911)
- multiple buildings at the University of Nebraska (1914-1925)
- Dallas Hall, Southern Methodist University, University Park, Texas (Dallas) (1915)
Images
Sources
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- Lyndon, Donlyn (1982) The City Observed: Boston, A Guide to the Architecture of the Hub. Vintage Books
- Pridmore, Jay, and Kiar, Peter, The University of Chicago: an architectural tour
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- Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, H.H. Richardson, Complete Architectural Works
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