The Trinity Church in Boston is one of Richardson's most famous works.

Henry Hobson Richardson (September 29, 1838–1886) was the outstanding American architect of his day, one of a half-dozen most influential American architects. He was born at Priestly Plantation in St. James Parish, Louisiana. Download high resolution version (430x648, 103 KB)photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran Henry Hobson Richardson File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Download high resolution version (430x648, 103 KB)photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran Henry Hobson Richardson File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Trinity Church in Boston. ... Alternative meanings: Boston (disambiguation) The 18th-century Old State House in Boston is surrounded by tall buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries. ... September 29 is the 272nd day of the year (273rd in leap years). ... 1838 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1886 is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) // Events January 18 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England. ... St. ...

Richardson worked both around Boston and in Chicago and left an imprint in both cities.

A southerner from Louisiana who went to Harvard College, he was packed off to the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris in 1860, but didn't finish, as family backing failed during the U.S. Civil War. He returned to the U.S. in 1865, already steeped in the lore of John Ruskin and William Morris. Today Harvard College is the undergraduate portion of Harvard University. ... École des Beaux Arts refers to several art schools in France. ... Upper: Steel-plate engraving of Ruskin as a young man, made circa 1845?, scanned from print made circa 1895. ... William Morris, socialist and innovator in the arts & crafts movement William Morris, publisher Davids Charge to Solomon (1882), a stained-glass window by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris in Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts. ...

Richardson developed a powerful personal style, improvising upon the Romanesque of southern France. The term "Richardsonian Romanesque" has sometimes misled people to assess it somehow as one of the Victorian revival styles, but Richardson worked on the whole without detailed historical references. Richardson's work is outstanding for his boldly articulated, clear and simple but picturesque massing and roofline profiles, his mastery of rustication, his somber polychromy. When you see an 1880s building with massive rusticated, round arches over tight clusters of windows in massive walls, semi-circular arches supported on clusters of squat columns, you are seeing Richardsonian Romanesque. Romanesque St. ... Richardsonian Romanesque has both French and Spanish Romanesque characteristics, like the First Presbyterian Church in Detroit, Michigan by architechs George D. Mason and Zachariah Rice in 1891 Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of American architecture named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson, whose masterpiece is Trinity Church, Boston in Massachusetts. ...

If a single work of Richardson's had to be selected over others it would have to be Trinity Church in Copley Square, Boston (1872-1877), part of one of the outstanding American urban complexes, across from the Boston Public Library by Charles Follen McKim, Richardson's former draftsman, confronted by the Hancock Place office tower by I. M. Pei. Trinity Church in Boston. ... Categories: Stub | Boston ... Charles Follen McKim (August 24, 1847—September 14, 1909) was one of the most prominent American Beaux-Arts architects of the late nineteenth century, as a member of the partnership McKim, Mead, and White ( for list of works). ... Aerial view of Back Bay, Boston including the Charles River, 111 Huntington Avenue, Prudential Tower, and John Hancock Tower Three different buildings in Boston, Massachusetts have been known as the John Hancock Building, and perhaps a fourth will be. ... Ieoh Ming Pei (Chinese: 貝聿銘; pinyin: ) is a Chinese American architect born in Canton, (now Guangzhou), China on April 26, 1917. ...

Richardson's work can be seen in many areas around Boston, such as this library in North Easton.

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 Woburn, North Easton (illustration, left), Quincy, and Malden, Massachusetts seem resolutely anti-modern, with the aura 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. photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran Henry Hobson Richardson File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran Henry Hobson Richardson File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Easton is a town located in Bristol County, Massachusetts. ... Woburn is a city located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. ... Easton is a town located in Bristol County, Massachusetts. ... Quincy is a city located in Norfolk County, Massachusetts and bears the nickname The City of Presidents. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 88,025. ... Malden is a city located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. ... Richardsonian Romanesque has both French and Spanish Romanesque characteristics, like the First Presbyterian Church in Detroit, Michigan by architechs George D. Mason and Zachariah Rice in 1891 Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of American architecture named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson, whose masterpiece is Trinity Church, Boston in Massachusetts. ...

Richardson had a frequent collaborator in Frederick Law Olmsted who devised the landscaping schemes for half a dozen of his projects. Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822–August 28, 1903) was a United States landscape architect, famous for designing many well known urban parks, including Central Park in New York, New York, the countrys oldest coordinated system of public parks and parkways in Buffalo, New York, the countrys oldest...

New York State Asylum, Buffalo NY

Other works that may be familiar: Download high resolution version (430x646, 86 KB)photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran Henry Hobson Richardson File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Download high resolution version (430x646, 86 KB)photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran Henry Hobson Richardson File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

• Sever Hall, Harvard University (1880), brickwork, with molded brick string courseswith turrets embedded in the walls, strips of windows, under a huge hipped roof
• the Allegheny County Courthouse, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, (1883 - 1888) connected by a bridge to its jail across the narrow street: cyclopean masonry and a tall tower
• Marshall Field warehouse, Chicago, Illinois (1887) -[demolished 1930], graded variations in rusticated stonework, vast windowed arcading spanning three floors, with not a historical detail in sight

Richardson's work was contemporary with the residential Queen Anne style, with which his work had little affinity, except for the species known as the "Shingle Style," which evidenced his sense of massing and picturesque composition. The Buttermans, the historic home of John Newman, the butter king, is one of several Queen Anne mansions in Elgin, Illinois The Queen Anne style of British and American architecture reached its greatest popularity in the last quarter of the 19th century, manifesting itself in a number of different ways... The Queen Anne style of British and American architecture reached its greatest popularity in the last quarter of the 19th century, manifesting itself in a number of different ways, not identically in Great Britain and the United States of America. ...

Glessner House, Chicago, IL

Richardson's legacy is less in the styles of Stanford White and Charles Follen McKim, who each worked in his office as young men, but moved into a different, historicist Beaux-Arts mode, as it is in Louis Sullivan, who developed highly personal non-historic surface decoration and passed on to his student, Frank Lloyd Wright, Richardsonian lessons of texture, massing, and the expressive language of stone walling. Unexpectedly, H. H. Richardson found sympathetic reception among young Scandinavian architects of the following generation, the one known best in the English-speaking world being Eliel Saarinen. Download high resolution version (412x638, 186 KB)photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran Henry Hobson Richardson File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Download high resolution version (412x638, 186 KB)photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran Henry Hobson Richardson File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... ... Louis Sullivan Louis Henry (Henri) Sullivan (September 3, 1856 - April 14, 1924) was an American architect, called the father of modernism, considered by many as the creator of the Prairie School of architecture, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago School, and a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright. ... Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was one of the most prominent architects of the first half of the 20th century. ... Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen (August 20, 1873–July 1, 1950) was a Finnish architect, who became famous for his art nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century. ...

Following Richardson's early death in 1886 at age 48, the style that he had pioneered was picked up by a variety of other architects whose works are grouped under the name of Richardsonian Romanesque. The stlye was applied to various types of buildings, churches, public buildings such as city halls, county buildings, court houses, train stations and libraries, as well as residences. The style died out in the first decade of the Twentieth Century. Richardsonian Romanesque has both French and Spanish Romanesque characteristics, like the First Presbyterian Church in Detroit, Michigan by architechs George D. Mason and Zachariah Rice in 1891 Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of American architecture named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson, whose masterpiece is Trinity Church, Boston in Massachusetts. ...

H. H. Richardson was not the father of modernism. But he was the grandfather of modernism.

In a remarkable instance of continuity, the successors of Richardson carry on today as outstanding innovative exponents of International Modernism and Brutalism, with recent emphasis in corporate structures, campus master planning, healthcare facility planning and work for secondary schools [1]. The Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart, Germany (1927) The Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart, Germany (1930) International style, also known as the Modern movement, is a primarily American offshoot of Bauhaus architecture that was exported to various parts of the world. ... Brutalism is an architectural style that spawned from the Modernist architectural movement and which flourished from the 1950s to the 1970s. ...

Images

Brattle Square Church, Boston, MA, sculpture by Bertholdi – who did the Statue of Liberty photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran Henry Hobson Richardson File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

Albany, NY, City Hall Download high resolution version (433x650, 93 KB)photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran Henry Hobson Richardson File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

Albany, NY, City Hall, detail photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran Henry Hobson Richardson File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

Albany, NY, City Hall, detail photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran Henry Hobson Richardson File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

Alleghany County Court House, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Download high resolution version (428x645, 105 KB)photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran Henry Hobson Richardson File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

Chaney Building, Hartford, CT Download high resolution version (431x646, 114 KB)photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran Henry Hobson Richardson File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

Gate House, North Easton, MA photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran Henry Hobson Richardson File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

Town Hall, North Easton, MA photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran Henry Hobson Richardson File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

Alleghany County Court House, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, interior courtyard photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran Henry Hobson Richardson File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

Glessner House, Chicago, IL Download high resolution version (576x643, 137 KB)photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran Henry Hobson Richardson File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

Alleghany County Court House, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, bridge to prison Download high resolution version (427x645, 80 KB)photo by Einar Einarsson Kvaran Henry Hobson Richardson File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

References

• Breisch, Kenneth A,. Henry Hobson Richardson and the Small Public Library in America: A Study in Typology. MIT Press, 1997 ISBN 96043752
• Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, Pilgrimage: The Search for H.H. Richardson, unpublished manuscript
• Larson, Paul C., Editor, with Susan Brown, The Spirit of H.H. Richardson on the Midland Prairies: Regional Transformations of an Architectural Style, University At Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneopolis and Iowa State University Press, Ames 1988 ISBN 87031091
• Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl, H.H. Richardson: Complete Architectural Works, MIT Press, Cambridge MA 1984 ISBN 82006603
• Roth, Leland M.,A Concise History of American Architecture, Harper & Row publishers, NY, NY 1979 ISBN 78002169
• Shand-Tucci, Douglas, Built in Boston: City and Suburb, 1800 - 1950, University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, MA 1988 ISBN 78007072
• Van Rensselaer, Mariana Griswold, Henry Hobson Richardson and His Works, Dover Publications, Inc. NY 1959 (Reprint of 1888 edition) ISBN 68012915
• Richardson's successor firms, to Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott