No. 9800 Harrison Henry Atwood
Scan of photo in Dorchester. Volume II. By Anthony Mitchell Sammarco. (Images of America Series). Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2000. p. 51. Harrison H. Atwood (1863-1954) was the city architect for Boston from 1899 to 1901 A profilic architect, he studied with Samuel J.F. Thayer and George Clough. Atwood designed numerous Boston schools, among them the Emily Fifield and the Henry L. Pierce Schools in Dorchester. He designed his own home at 61 Alban Street on Ashmont Hill and numerous other residences in town.
From: https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/6298022
Harrison Henry Atwood (August 26, 1863 – October 22, 1954) was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts.
Born at the home of his grandmother in North Londonderry, Vermont, Atwood attended the public schools of Boston, Massachusetts. He studied architecture and engaged in that profession in Boston, Massachusetts. He served as member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives 1887-1889. City architect of Boston in 1889 and 1890.He served as member of the Republican State committee 1887-1889.He served as member and secretary of the Boston Republican city committee 1888-1894.He served as delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1888 and 1892.
Atwood was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1895-March 3, 1897).He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1896 to the Fifty-fifth Congress. He resumed his former profession in Boston. He was again a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1915, 1917, 1918, 1923, 1924, 1927, and 1928.He was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1918 to the Sixty-sixth Congress. He resumed his profession as an architect in Boston, Massachusetts. He moved to Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts, in April 1938.He died in Boston, Massachusetts, October 22, 1954.He was interred in Forest Hills Cemetery.
http://www.jphs.org/victorian/bowditch-school.html
Re: Bowditch school in Jamaica Plain
Throughout its construction, the school was referred to as a “Hillside District Grammar School,” first appearing as the “Bowditch School” in the 1892 report of the Architects Department by Edmund M. Wheelwright. The architect for the Bowditch School was Harrison Henry Atwood (1863-1954). (See attached Appendix A for a partial list of building designed by Atwood.) Atwood had a long and distinguished career not only as an architect, but also as a politician.
Born in North Londonderry, Vermont, Harrison Atwood came to Boston as a young man and was educated in Boston schools. Before training as an architect, he began his career in the law office of Godfrey Morse and John R. Bullard. Deciding instead to pursue a career in architecture, Atwood apprenticed with the well-known New England architect, Samuel J. F. Thayer (1842-1893) for three and a half or four years. Richard Herndon, in his 1892 compilation, Boston of Today, states that Atwood was with Thayer for four years followed by “a year or more” with former city architect George Clough (1843-1916). Atwood left Clough to begin his own practice in 1886, when he was first listed under “Architects” in the Boston Directory, with an office at 22 School Street, where he remained through 1889. From 1891 through 1894 he rented space in the Stock Exchange Building at 53 State Street and was back on School Street at Number 13 in 1896. Atwood’s name did not appear again in the Directory’s classified section until the period from 1911 to 1920, when his home address at 61 Alban Street, Dorchester, was listed.
Harrison Atwood undoubtedly had a thorough, high quality training which, in combination with his own talent, enabled him to set up his own practice at a young age as well as to qualify for the prestigious position of City Architect in 1889 at age twenty-six. Before taking over as City Architect, Atwood completed the following solo projects: the First National Bank Building in Chelsea (1888), at a cost of $100,000; a Baptist Church on Woodlawn Avenue, Chelsea; a large warehouse on Friend Street, Boston; and a dozen houses in Ashmont between Dudley Street and the Milton line.
While establishing his architectural practice, Atwood was also involved in politics as a State Representative, serving his first full term from 1887 to 1889. He was the Republican Representative of Ward 8, West End. Atwood participated on the liquor, mercantile affairs and building department committees. He continued to be active in local and state Republican politics until late in his life.
Appointed City Architect in 1889 by Mayor Thomas Hart (28th Mayor, served 1889-90, 1900-01), Atwood held this position from May 16, 1889 to March 30, 1891 In 1891, however, he was removed from office by the succeeding Democratic administration of Nathan Matthews (29th Mayor, served 1891, 92, 93, 94). (The Mayor was elected annually until 1895, after which elections were held biennially. In 1909, John F. Fitzgerald became the first mayor to enjoy the extended term of four years.)
At this point it seems pertinent to discuss the peculiarities of the City Architect position (which caused Atwood to be dismissed by one administration and reinstated by the next) and the effect of a one-year mayoral term. The City Architect Department was established in 1874 as a means of cutting building costs. Although politically appointed, holders of the position turned out to be only the most qualified of architects, with the first being George A. Clough (1843-1914), whose tenure lasted through several mayoral administration, circa 1875-1883. (It will be remembered that Atwood trained briefly with Clough.) Clough began his career as a shipbuilder and later trained with Snell and Gregerson from 1863 to 1869. He was responsible for completing at least 25 Boston schools, including the renowned English High and Latin Schools (1877).
Charles Bateman (b. 1851) followed Clough, serving two terms, one in 1883 and a second in 1888. Some of his most noted designs include: the O Street School House, St. Cecilia’s Church in the Back Bay, the Andrew Carney Hospital in South Boston and St. Catherine’s Church in Charlestown.
Succeeding Bateman was Arthur H. Vinal (1854-1923), a versatile and prolific architect who often designed in a Richardsonian style, as illustrated in his Engine and Hose House #33, 1885, and the present Institute of Contemporary Art, 1886. Atwood, who came next in this chronology, was succeeded by Edmund March Wheelwright (1854-1912). Wheelwright’s contributions to Boston architecture were extensive. He was the subject of a book by Francis Ward Chandler which dealt exclusively with Wheelwright’s municipal structures for the City of Boston. He was the last City Architect, serving from 1891 to 1895. It was in this talented group that Atwood belonged.
In his inaugural address of 1895, Mayor Edwin Upton Curtis recommended that the position of City Architect be abolished. This was the result of several factors, the primary one being that although the Architect Department had been initiated to cut building costs, it had in fact become more costly to operate the department with its staff than to put the projects out to private bid. Accusations of political favoritism and the giving of contracts to friends and political favorites were widespread and Atwood himself bore the burnt of many years of accumulated frustration with this department.
In a highly publicized scandal concerning the awarding of contracts for the work on public buildings, the activities of the Architect Department came under the harsh scrutiny of the public. Atwood, while guilty of bestowing favoritism, was in reality continuing the practices well established in the department. It is evident in the Bowditch School that he chose skilled workmen and contractors for the project. Atwood rose above the scandal, for he continued his successful careers in both architecture and politics after this event.
One of the major problems with the post was that it was an appointed one and therefore inextricably tied to politics. What one architect began under one administration might be carried out under three architects from three different administrations, causing considerable delays and radical and costly changes. The building was often subjected to several different approaches before eventually being completed and occupied.
Exactly what was required to “quality” for the position of City Architect is uncertain. One item that Atwood secured, however, was a petition signed by others in the architectural community, as well as those for whom he had completed work. The petition was presented to the Mayor for consideration. Atwood was recommended by S.J.F. Thayer (Atwood’s former employer, architect of the Clarendon Street Baptist Church, The Tudor), Carl Fehmer (Oliver Ames House, 357-59 Beacon Street, 505 Beacon Street), John Spofford (partner with Brigham, Maine State Capitol Building Extension, Massachusetts State House Addition), Charles Brigham (Burrage House, earlier a partner with Sturgis on the old Museum of Fine Arts), Gridley J.F. Bryant (Old City Hall, Boston City Hospital) and Charles F. McKim (Boston Public Library, Algonquin Club), to name a few of the more prominent individuals.
As the appointment to the post of City Architect was annual, it is often difficult to ascertain which buildings were designed by which City Architect. Such is the difficulty with Atwood’s work. In fact, the Bowditch School has often been attributed to Atwood’s predecessor, Arthur H. Vinal (1854-1923). Atwood’s Report of the Architects Department for 1889 (presented January 30, 1890), however, clearly states: “Plans are about ready for the approval of the School Board for the following named school building, viz:—A twelve room grammar school with exhibition hall at the corner of Green and Cheshire Streets, Jamaica Plain, Ward 23…” At this point in Atwood’s tenure (January of 1890) the plans for the Bowditch School had not yet been approved by the School Committee.
Herndon, writing in 1892, said of Atwood’s work: ”…and the new work laid out, completed or under contract during his term of office comprises four of the finest public schools in New England, namely, the Henry L. Pierce Grammar School Dorchester (Demolished), the Prince Primary School, Cumberland and St. Botolph Streets (he probably means the Perkins School which is at the address and which was designed by Atwood. The Prince School was at Newbury and Exeter Streets, designed by George Clough), the Bowditch Grammar School, Jamaica Plain and the Adams Primary School, East Boston.”
Completed circa 1891, slightly earlier than the Bowditch School, the Perkins School shares with the Bowditch School a restrained and intelligent use of the Classical Revival style, as well as a similarity in massing, siting and use of materials.
Atwood’s skill in school design is apparent in the structures he built while City Architect, but he obviously maintained a reputation for talented institutional design and remained aware of current style, technology and practice, as he was commissioned to produce plans long after leaving the City’s employ. Several of his later plans for school buildings include: the George Lewis School, 131 Walnut Avenue, Roxbury, 1912; the Curtis Guild School, 5 Ashley Street, East Boston, 1921; the Frank V. Thompson School, 110 Maxwell Street, Dorchester, 1922; and, as late as 1935, the Joyce Kilmer School, 35 Baker Street, West Roxbury.
In addition to the large number of public buildings Atwood was responsible for during his term as City Architect in private practice, he also designed many distinguished residences, primarily in the Ashmont Hill section of Dorchester. His own house at 61 Alban Street has been the subject of attention for its unique design. Atwood was equally adept at designing institutional and residential structures, in Neo-Classical, Queen Anne, Stick and Shingle styles.
While engaged in a successful practice, Atwood continued his involvement in politics. From 1893 to 1897, he was Representative in Congress for the 10th District. In 1914, Atwood was elected to represent Dorchester, Ward 24, in the State Legislature, where he served until 1929. Atwood was a delegate to numerous Republican conventions over the years. This successful mixture of politics and architecture appears to be uncommon.