Parker, Thomas & Rice

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Parker, Thomas & Rice, known as Parker & Thomas before 1907, was an American architectural firm formed in 1900 by partners J. Harleston Parker and Douglas H. Thomas Jr. and later expanded to include Arthur W. Rice. It operated out of dual offices in Boston and Baltimore and was dissolved in 1933.

The Frederick Lothrop Ames Jr. estate (1905) in Easton, Massachusetts, designed in the Colonial Revival style
The Savings Bank of Baltimore Building (1907) in Baltimore, designed in the Neoclassical style
The Sidney L. Christie Federal Building (1910) in Huntington, West Virginia, designed in the Neoclassical style
The Ellen Dexter Sharpe house (1912) in Providence, Rhode Island, designed in the Tudor Revival style
The Harvard Club of Boston (1913), designed in the Colonial Revival style
Gilman Hall (1915) of Johns Hopkins University, designed in the Colonial Revival style
Stephens Hall (1915) of Towson University, designed in the Jacobethan style
The headquarters of The Hartford (1921), designed in the Neoclassical style
The George F. Schrafft house (1924) in Newton Centre, designed in the Colonial Revival style
The Monumental Life Insurance Company Building (1926) in Baltimore, designed in the Neoclassical style
The United Shoe Machinery Corporation Building (1930) in Boston, designed in the Art Deco style

History

The firm of Parker & Thomas was formed in Boston and Baltimore in 1900 by architects J. Harleston Parker and Douglas H. Thomas Jr., two young graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Beaux-Arts de Paris. Parker and Thomas came from established Boston and Baltimore families and each managed the office in his home city. Early successes came in 1903 and 1906, respectively, when the firm won competitions to design the Sidney L. Christie Federal Building (1910, NRHP-listed) in Huntington, West Virginia, and to plan the new campus of Johns Hopkins University, Thomas's undergraduate alma mater. Planning and construction lagged and the only building the firm designed for the university was the monumental Gilman Hall (1915), not completed until shortly after Thomas's death.[1]: 454–455, 594 

In Boston during this time the firm designed the Tennis and Racquet Club (1904) in the Back Bay and country houses for Frederick Lothrop Ames Jr. (1905) in Easton and for Frederick Ayer (1907, demolished) in Beverly. In 1907 the partnership was reorganized as Parker, Thomas & Rice to include Arthur W. Rice, an older architect who was the surviving partner of the Boston firm of Peters & Rice.[1]: 505  During the next few years the work of the Boston office included the Harvard Club of Boston (1913) in the Back Bay and the Essex County Club (1914) in Manchester-by-the-Sea, social clubs for the Boston Brahmin elite. In June 1915 Thomas died after accidentally driving his car into a ditch.[1]: 594  To make up for this loss, Parker and Rice invited Robert E. Lee Taylor, a Norfolk, Virginia, architect and fellow MIT graduate to lead the Baltimore office.[2]: 258  During the next twelve year period, the most important work completed in Boston was the John Hancock Building (1922);[3]: 157  in Baltimore, the Forest Park High School (1924, demolished).[4] In 1924 the Hancock Building was awarded the second Harleston Parker Medal, which Parker had endowed in 1921, by the Boston Society of Architects.[5]

In 1927 the partnership was reorganized, separating the Boston and Baltimore offices after 27 years. Parker and Rice continued the Boston office under the old name while Taylor and D. K. Este Fisher, a partner since 1924, continued the Baltimore office as the independent firm of Taylor & Fisher.[6][7] The major work of the firm's final years was the United Shoe Machinery Corporation Building (1930, NRHP-listed), a notable example of Art Deco architecture which was then the tallest privately-owned building in Boston.[3]: 68–69  Parker died in May 1930 as the United Shoe building was underway;[1]: 454–455  Rice retired in 1933 and died in January 1938.[1]: 505 

Legacy

In 1913, critic Herbert Croly described the partners of Parker, Thomas & Rice as being notable in their application of Beaux-Arts architectural principles to their work, principally in the Colonial Revival style. Their work was contrasted with contemporary architecture firms such as Carrère & Hastings which maintained the bombastic style of the Beaux-Arts in addition to its principles of planning and was summed up as being simply in "persistent good taste."[8]

Employees of Parker & Thomas and Parker, Thomas & Rice included Henry Bailey Alden[1]: 13  and Franklin H. Hutchins.[1]: 313–314 

A number of their works are listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places.[9]

Architectural works

References

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