Cummings and Sears (est. 1864) was an

architecture firm In the United States, an architectural firm or architecture firm is a business that employs one or more licensed architects and practices the profession of architecture; while in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark and other countri ...

in 19th-century

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, established by

Charles Amos Cummings Charles Amos Cummings (June 26, 1833 – August 11, 1905) was a nineteenth-century American architect and architectural historian who worked primarily in the Venetian Gothic style. Cummings followed the precepts of British cultural theorist ...

and

Willard T. Sears Willard Thomas Sears (November 5, 1837 – May 21, 1920) was a prominent New England architect of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who worked primarily in the Gothic Revival and Renaissance Revival styles. In 1861, Sears opened ...

History and legacy

In the 1860s they kept an office in the Studio Building on Tremont Street, moving in the 1870s to

Pemberton Square Pemberton Square (est. 1835) in the Government Center area of Boston, Massachusetts, was developed by P.T. Jackson in the 1830s as an architecturally uniform mixed-use enclave surrounding a small park. In the mid-19th century both private residen ...

. Although most of their works are concentrated in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

, they also were commissioned to design buildings as far west as

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

as well as on

Campobello Island Campobello Island (, also ) is the largest and only inhabited island in Campobello, a civil parish in southwestern New Brunswick, Canada, near the border with Maine, United States. The island's permanent population in 2021 was 949. It is the s ...

New Brunswick, Canada New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

. Their best known work is

Old South Church Old South Church in Boston, Massachusetts, (also known as New Old South Church or Third Church) is a historic United Church of Christ congregation first organized in 1669. Its present building was designed in the Gothic Revival style by Charles ...

in Boston, completed in 1875. Architects who worked in the office of Cummings & Sears include Charles L. Bevins of Rhode Island and Warren R. Briggs and Edward A. Cudworth of Connecticut. Several of their buildings have been listed on the United States

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

, and others contribute to listed historic districts.

Architectural works

* Academy Hall,

Phillips Academy ("Not for Self") la, Finis Origine Pendet ("The End Depends Upon the Beginning") Youth From Every Quarter Knowledge and Goodness , address = 180 Main Street , city = Andover , state = Ma ...

Andover, Massachusetts Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was settled in 1642 and incorporated in 1646."Andover" in ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th ed., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 387. As of th ...

(1865, demolished)Roger G. Reed, "The Lost Victorian Campus" in
Academy Hill: The Andover Campus, 1778 to the Present
' (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2000) * Brechin Hall,

Andover Theological Seminary Andover Theological Seminary (1807–1965) was a Congregationalist seminary founded in 1807 and originally located in Andover, Massachusetts on the campus of Phillips Academy. From 1908 to 1931, it was located at Harvard University in Cambridge. ...

(1866, demolished) * Sears Building, Boston, Massachusetts (1868-69, demolished 1967) * Capen School (former),

South Boston, Boston, Massachusetts South Boston is a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located south and east of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay. South Boston, colloquially known as Southie, has undergone several demographic transformati ...

(1870-71) *

Mason & Hamlin Mason & Hamlin is a piano manufacturer based in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1854, they also manufactured a large number of pump organs during the 19th century. History 19th century Mason & Hamlin was founded in Boston, Massachusett ...

Store, Boston, Massachusetts (1870, demolished) *

Hotel Boylston Hotel Boylston (1871-1894) of Boston, Massachusetts, stood at the corner of Tremont Street and Boylston Street in today's Boston Theater District. The architecture firm of Cummings and Sears Cummings and Sears (est. 1864) was an architecture fir ...

, Boston, Massachusetts (1871, demolished 1897) * Carriage house at "

Peacefield Peacefield, also called Peace field or Old House, is a historic home formerly owned by the Adams family of Quincy, Massachusetts. It was the home of United States Founding Father and U.S. president John Adams and First Lady Abigail Adams, and of ...

Quincy, Massachusetts Quincy ( ) is a coastal U.S. city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county and a part of Greater Boston, Metropolitan Boston as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in 2020 was 1 ...

(1872)Keith N. Morgan, ''Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston'' (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009) * House for

, Boston, Massachusetts (1872) * House for

, Boston, Massachusetts (1872) *

New England Hospital for Women and Children The New England Hospital for Women and Children was founded by Marie Zakrzewska on July 1, 1862. The Hospitals goal was to provide patients with competent female physicians, educate women in the study of medicine and train nurses to care for the ...

Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts Roxbury () is a neighborhood within the City of Boston, Massachusetts. Roxbury is a dissolved municipality and one of 23 official neighborhoods of Boston used by the city for neighborhood services coordination. The city states that Roxbury se ...

(1872, NRHP 1985) * Congregational House, Boston, Massachusetts (1873, demolished) * First Universalist Church,

Lynn, Massachusetts Lynn is the eighth-largest municipality in Massachusetts and the largest city in Essex County. Situated on the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Boston city line at Suffolk Downs, Lynn is part of Greater Boston's urban inner core. Settled by E ...

(1873, demolished) *

, Boston, Massachusetts (1873-75, NRHP 1970) * Bedford Block, Boston, Massachusetts (1874-75, NRHP 1979) * Macullar, Parker & Company Store, Boston, Massachusetts (1874, demolished) * Montgomery Building, Boston, Massachusetts (1874, demolished) *

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

Boathouse,

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

(1874-75, demolished 1910) * Stone Chapel,

(1875-76, demolished) * Grand Opera House,

New Bedford, Massachusetts New Bedford (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast (Massachusetts), South Coast region. Up throug ...

(1881-82, demolished) * House for

Charles James Sprague Charles James Sprague (January 16, 1823, Boston – August 5, 1903, Hingham, Massachusetts) was a bank official, author, poet, musician, and botanist, specializing in lichenology. Charles James Sprague, whose father was the poet Charles Sprague ( ...

, Boston, Massachusetts (1881) * Tyn-Y-Coed and Tyn-Y-Maes Hotels,

(1882-83, demolished)Kate Gannett Wells,
Campobello: An Historical Sketch
' (1893) *

Cyclorama Building Cyclorama Building may refer to: * Cyclorama Building (Boston), built in 1884 in Boston, Massachusetts * Atlanta Cyclorama & Civil War Museum, built in 1885 in Atlanta, Georgia *Cyclorama Building at Gettysburg The Cyclorama Building at Gettysb ...

, Boston, Massachusetts (1884, altered 1923, NRHP 1973) * Union Chapel (former),

Magnolia, Massachusetts Magnolia is a small village in Gloucester, Massachusetts, located on the Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts town line in the southwestern part of the city. Straddling the town line between the two communities is Surf Park, a two-acre swath of ...

(1884) * House for James H. Frothingham,

Dublin, New Hampshire Dublin is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,532 at the 2020 census. It is home to Dublin School and ''Yankee'' magazine. History In 1749, the Masonian proprietors granted the town as "Monadnock No. ...

(1885) * "Ullikana" for Alpheus Hardy,

Bar Harbor, Maine Bar Harbor is a resort town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population is 5,089. During the summer and fall seasons, it is a popular tourist destination and, until a catastrophic fire i ...

(1885) * Magnolia Library,

(1887) * Peoples Trust Company Building,

Farmington, Maine Farmington is a town in and the county seat of Franklin County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 7,592. Farmington is home to the University of Maine at Farmington, Nordica Memorial Auditorium, the Nordica Homestea ...

(1887) * Proctor Academy,

Provo, Utah Provo ( ) is the fourth-largest city in Utah, United States. It is south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. Provo is the largest city and county seat of Utah County and is home to Brigham Young University (BYU). Provo lies between the ...

(1887, demolished)
Seventh Annual Report of the New West Education Commission
' (Chicago: New West Education Commission, 1887)

Gallery of architectural works

Notes

References

External links