J. Edward Richardson (born 1873) was an American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

from

Dover, New Hampshire Dover is a city in Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 32,741 at the 2020 census, making it the largest city in the New Hampshire Seacoast region and the fifth largest municipality in the state. It is the county se ...

. Richardson was born in Dover on September 27, 1873, to J. Herbert and Jettie (Huntress) Richardson. After completing his education in the public schools, he began the study of architecture. He opened his own office at a young age in 1894. Richardson would grow to become a prominent local architect, especially after the retirement of Alvah T. Ramsdell a few years before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Architectural work

Richardson designed two important public buildings in Dover, bookending his known career. The first of these is the Central Fire Station, on Broadway. Built in 1899, this is a spare Queen Anne-style design. It does, however, hint of the coming Classical and Colonial Revivals. The other design is the large Dover Municipal Building, or City Hall. Dover's third, it is a much more academic interpretation of the Colonial Revival, inspired by

Independence Hall Independence Hall is a historic civic building in Philadelphia, where both the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted by America's Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Fa ...

. An important semi-public work was the New Hampshire Odd Fellows Home in

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, designed in 1931 in the Colonial Revival style. He also designed several schools, most notably the campus of the Austin-Cate Academy in Center Strafford. Built in 1902, this was a typical wooden Colonial Revival school. Richardson also designed a dormitory for the academy, built in 1910. In 1933, the school was destroyed in a fire. Richardson was brought back to rebuild it in brick, and it remains. The former campus is now owned by the

New Hampshire National Guard The New Hampshire National Guard is the militia of the U.S. state of New Hampshire. As a state militia, units in the New Hampshire National Guard are under the jurisdiction of the Governor of New Hampshire through the office of the state adjuta ...

. In 1927 Richardson designed the

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Berwick, Maine Berwick is a town in York County, Maine, United States, situated in the southern part of the state beside the Salmon Falls River. Today's South Berwick was set off from Berwick in 1814, North Berwick in 1831. The population was 7,950 at th ...

, to replace a building that had burned. It is sparsely ornamented in the Colonial Revival style. The school was vacated in 2001 and listed on the

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 ...

in 2012. In 1908 Richardson rebuilt the American House in Dover, which had been heavily damaged in a fire. He chose to keep the Greek Revival portico, but replace the upper floors with more modern Colonial Revival styling. The hotel was demolished circa 1960. In 1929 he designed a fraternity house in

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for the Zeta chapter of

Theta Chi Theta Chi () is an international college fraternity. It was founded on April 10, 1856 at Norwich University then-located in Norwich, Vermont, and has initiated more than 200,000 members and currently has over 8,700 collegiate members across Nort ...

. At 22 Madbury Road, this is a large, Georgian Revival house with a gambrel roof. The house was later converted into apartments. The architect's other identified private commission was the Grant Block of 1933, at Main and Fore streets in Somersworth.''Portsmouth (NH) Herald'' 19 July 1933: 2. In keeping with the Depression, he designed the building almost entirely without ornament, and it is enlivened only by its colored tapestry brick facade.

Gallery

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson, J. Edward 1873 births Architects from New Hampshire 20th-century American architects People from Dover, New Hampshire Year of death missing