George Albert Clough

George Albert Clough (May 27, 1843 December 30, 1910) was an architect working in Boston in the late 19th-century. He designed the Suffolk County Courthouse in Pemberton Square, and numerous other buildings in the city and around New England. Clough served as the first City Architect of Boston from 1876 to 1883.

George A. Clough
George A. Clough, 1843-1910.
Born
George Albert Clough

(1843-05-27)May 27, 1843
DiedDecember 30, 1910(1910-12-30) (aged 67)
NationalityAmerican
OccupationArchitect
BuildingsSuffolk County Courthouse
Calf Pasture Pumping Station Complex
1st City Architect of Boston
In office
1876–1883
Succeeded byArthur H. Vinal

Life and career

George Albert Clough was born May 27, 1843, in Blue Hill, Maine. He attended the Blue Hill Academy and worked as a draftsman for his father, the shipbuilder Asa Clough. He moved to Boston in 1863, entering the firm of Snell & Gregerson as a student. He remained with Snell until 1869, when he established his own practice.[1] In 1876 he was elected City Architect of Boston, the first person to hold the office.[lower-alpha 1] He continued in that position until 1883, when he was replaced by Charles J. Bateman.[5] He was awarded his largest commission, the Suffolk County Courthouse, in competition two years later in 1885. This building was completed in 1893, largely to Clough's design but with modifications he disapproved of.[1] He was a private practitioner until 1901, when he formed a partnership with Herbert L. Wardner. Clough & Wardner operated until Clough's death in 1910.

Wardner continued to practice on his own in Boston until 1915, when he moved to Poughkeepsie, New York, moving again to Akron, Ohio, in 1919,[6] where he died in 1939.

Personal life

In 1876 Clough married Amelia M. Hinckley of Thetford, Vermont, the sister of Lyman G. Hinckley. They had three children.[1]

Clough died December 30, 1910, at home in Brookline, Massachusetts, at the age of 67.[7]

Legacy

Historian Walter Muir Whitehill described him as "a competent but not very inspired practitioner."[8]

A number of Clough's projects have been listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places.

Architectural works

Fogg Memorial Building, Berwick Academy, South Berwick, Maine (1894)

Notes

  1. The office of City Architect was established December 20, 1875.[2] Clough was nominated January 31, 1876,[3] and was unanimously elected to the office by a vote of the City Council on February 10, 1876.[4]

References

  1. "George A. Clough," in Massachusetts of To-day: A Memorial of the State, Historical and Biographical, Issued for the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, ed. Daniel P. Toomey and Thomas C. Quinn (Boston: Columbia Publishing Company, 1892): 230.
  2. "The City Council," Boston Daily Advertiser, December 21, 1875, 4.
  3. "The City Council," Boston Daily Advertiser, February 1, 1876, 1.
  4. "The City Council," Boston Daily Advertiser, February 11, 1876, 4.
  5. "Municipal Affairs," Boston Daily Advertiser, February 27, 1883, 2.
  6. "Wardner, Herbert Leavitt," in Report of the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Class of Eighteen Ninety-three (1923): 303.
  7. "City's First Architect," Boston Daily Globe, January 1, 1911, 18.
  8. Walter Muir Whitehill. The Making of an Architectural Masterpiece: The Boston Public Library. American Art Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Autumn, 1970), p.14
  9. Annual report of the School Committee of the City of Boston, 1873
  10. Jane Holtz Kay. Lost Boston, expanded ed. 2006
  11. Old Statehouse May be Moved Boston Antiquarians Have a Plan to Save the Historic Structure. Kansas City Star; Date: 06-28-1903
  12. State Library of Massachusetts. Report of the librarian of the state library, 1886. Boston: 1887.
  13. New England historical and genealogical register, Volume 65. 1911
  14. American architect and building news, Jan. 9, 1897
  15. Stimpson. Rockland, Rockport and Camden. New England Magazine, Sept. 1904

Further reading

  • Massachusetts of today: a memorial of the state, historical and biographical, issued for the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago. Columbia publishing company, 1892.
  • Samuel Atkins Eliot, ed. "George Albert Clough." Biographical history of Massachusetts: biographies and autobiographies of the leading men in the state, Volume 3. Boston: Massachusetts Biographical Society, 1911
  • WorldCat
  • Flickr. Photo of Prince School building, Boston, 2005
  • Flickr. Photo of Calf Pasture Pumping Station building, Boston, 2003
  • Flickr. Photo of Calf Pasture Pumping Station building, Boston, 2009
  • Flickr. Photo of Calf Pasture Pumping Station building, Boston, 2009
  • Flickr. Photo of Calf Pasture Pumping Station building, Boston, 2009
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