User:JPRiley/Leland

Joseph Daniels Leland 3rd, sometimes Jr., was born June 16, 1885, in Brookline, Massachusetts, to Joseph D. Leland Jr. and Grace Leland, née Rogers.^[1] He was educated at Harvard University, graduating in 1909. Planning to enter the École des beaux-arts in Paris, he studied privately with Constant-Désiré Despradelle, then a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Early in 1910 he traveled to Paris and joined the preparatory atelier of Eugène Chifflot [fr] to prepare for the entrance exams. In 1911 Boston architect Robert Swain Peabody, on the recommendation of his son, Leland's Harvard classmate, offered him a job at his firm, Peabody & Stearns, on the condition he return immediately. He worked for Peabody & Stearns until 1913, when he formed the partnership of Loring & Leland, architects, with Charles Greely Loring.^[1][2]

Their first major work was the Francis Buttrick Library (1915, NRHP-listed) in Waltham, which was well-received by the professional press. They also were employed to design industrial housing, including a group (1915) in Southbridge for the American Optical Company, now included in the Maple Street Historic District.^[1][2] In 1917, at the beginning of American involvement in World War I, they were employed to design Hilton Village (1918) in Newport News, Virginia, a much larger development for the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company. In 1918 Leland was appointed assistant director of the Department of Labor's Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation under Otto M. Eidlitz.^[3] With Leland thus busy and Loring serving in the American Expeditionary Forces, the project was completed by another architect, Francis Y. Joannes.^[4][5]

In 1919 both men returned to Boston and dissolved their partnership.^[6] Initially an individual principal, c. 1921 he formed the partnership of J. D. Leland & Company, architects and engineers. His junior partners were architects Michael A. Dyer (1886–1954), Maurice Feather (1886–1963), Niels H. Larsen (1885–1974) and James Hicks Stone (1886–1928)–elder brother of Edward Durell Stone–and engineer George F. Temple (1872–1956).^[7] Dyer withdrew in 1924 and Stone died in 1928.^[8][9] In 1935 the firm was reorganized as Leland & Larsen with Feather as an unnamed partner.^[1]

In 1954 Leland & Larsen merged with Bradley & Hibbard, the firm of John F. Bradley and Charles L. Hibbard Jr., to form Leland, Larsen, Bradley & Hibbard.^[10] Hibbard had been an associate of Leland & Larsen before World War II and was a member of a prominent Pittsfield family; his father had been chairman of the commission responsible for building the firm's Pittsfield High School (1931).^[11] Leland, who had withdrawn from the partnership at the time of the merger, retired completely in 1959 and the firm became Larsen, Bradley & Hibbard with Larsen as senior partner.^[10]

From 1919 until his retirement, Leland was the aknowledged head of his firm. However, he did not see himself as the principal architect of the buildings that firm completed. During the dedication proceedings of the former Horticultural Building (1928) in Worcester, Leland described a collaborative atmosphere: "not one of us can say that we designed this building...because we all work together and criticize each other...we argue the matter back and forth, and in that way the plans develop."^[12]

With further changes in the partnership Leland's firm was renamed Larsen, Steffian, Bradley & Hibbard in 1961,^[13] back to Larsen, Bradley & Hibbard in 1962 and Larsen, Bradley, Gillespie & Associates in 1965.^[10] In 1966 construction began on the firm's last large project, the Schacht Fine Arts Center (1968) of Russell Sage College.^[14] Larsen had been a trustee of the college since 1947 and the firm had completed many projects there, most significantly the James Wheelock Clark Library (1953).^[15] In 1967 Larsen retired to Bronxville, New York, at which point the firm was renamed a final time to Larsen, Bradley & Associates. He was retained in a consulting role until his full retirement in 1970; the firm was active until c. 1973, the last year it appears in the Boston directories.^[10][7]

In 1916 Leland was married to Elsa Dedons de Pierrefeu, née Tudor. She was a Boston native, a granddaughter of Frederic Tudor and the widow of Alain Dedons de Pierrefeu, a descendant of a noble French family. He and his wife had used the titles "comte" and "comtesse." She brought a son and three daughters into her new marriage and had a fifth child, another son, with Leland. They divorced in 1936.^[1][16]

Leland was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and a member of the Boston Society of Architects, the Myopia Hunt Club, the Somerset Club and the Tennis and Racquet Club. He served as chairman of the Milton planning board from 1938 to 1954 and in similar town roles.^[1][17]

Leland died April 13, 1968, at home in Milton at the age of 82.^[17]

• 1915 – Francis Buttrick Library, Waltham, Massachusetts^[18]
  • NRHP-listed.
• 1916 – Beverly Public Library Farms Branch, Beverly, Massachusetts^[19]
  • This building was built on property donated by Loring's first cousins, Katharine Peabody Loring and Louisa Putnam Loring.
• 1922 – Kennebunk Town Hall, Kennebunk, Maine^[20]
• 1922 – Prides Hill, Beverly, Massachusetts
  • At the core of Prides Hill is the Samuel Corning House, a First Period farmhouse built at the beginning of the eighteenth century. In 1920 the Corning house was purchased by socialite Q. A. Shaw McKean, a grandson of Quincy Adams Shaw, and his first wife, sculptor and painter Margarett Sargent. Leland, who considered the house among his best works, worked closely with Sargent to convert it into a country house, with sprawling additions, including her studio, in a complementary vernacular style. The house was expanded nearly annually for the next several years, lastly in 1929. NRHP-listed.^[21][22]
• 1923 – Whitin Community Center, Whitinsville, Massachusetts^[23]
• 1924 – B. F. Brown School (former), Fitchburg, Massachusetts^[24]
  • As of 2025, an artist housing development known as Fitchburg Arts Community.
• 1924 – Worcester East Middle School, Worcester, Massachusetts^[25]
• 1925 – Memorial Hall, Plymouth, Massachusetts^[26]
  • Designed by J. D. Leland & Company and Little & Russell, associated architects.
• 1927 – Central Maine Power Company office building, Augusta, Maine^[27]
• 1927 – Concord High School, Concord, New Hampshire^[28]
  • Designed by J. D. Leland & Company, architects, with George W. Griffin of Concord, associate architect.
• 1927 – New Hampshire Savings Bank Building, Concord, New Hampshire^[29]
  • Designed by J. D. Leland & Company, architects, with George W. Griffin of Concord, associate architect. NRHP-listed.
• 1927 – Seven Pines, Wenham, Massachusetts^[30]
  • The country house of Keith Mcleod. Later the home of Henry Audesse and his wife, one-time state senator Nancy Achin Sullivan.
• 1928 – Horticultural Building (former), Worcester, Massachusetts^[12]
  • Built for the Worcester County Horticultural Society; since 1988, home to the Museum of Worcester. Designed by J. D. Leland & Company, architects, with Frederick Coulson of Worcester, associate architect.
• 1931 – Higgins Armory Museum (former), Worcester, Massachusetts^[31]
  • NRHP-listed.
• 1931 – Pittsfield High School, Pittsfield, Massachusetts^[32]
  • Designed by J. D. Leland & Company, architects, with Harding & Seaver of Pittsfield, associate architects.
• 1935 – Clifton Merriman Post Office Building, Cambridge, Massachusetts^[33]
  • Designed by J. D. Leland & Company and Charles R. Greco, associated architects. NRHP-listed.
• 1937 – Arlmont Village, Lexington, Massachusetts^[34]
• 1939 – United Shoe Machinery Building, St. Louis^[35]
  • NRHP-listed.
• 1943 – Southview, Springfield, Vermont^[36]
  • NRHP-listed.
• 1949 – Boardman Hall and Deering Hall, University of Maine, Orono, Maine^[37]
  • Designed by Leland & Larsen, architects, with Crowell & Lancaster of Bangor, associate architects.
• 1950 – Milton Hospital, Milton, Massachusetts^[38]
• 1953 – James Wheelock Clark Library, Russell Sage College, Troy, New York^[39]
• 1955 – North Adams Regional Hospital, North Adams, Massachusetts^[40]

• 1920 – Lorraine Manufacturing Co houses, Pawtucket
  • "Lorraine housing development" in Textile World, July 24, 1920.
• 1920 – The Pink House, Jamestown
  • For Lawrence M. Keeler of Whitinsville. "Providence contractor opens bids for materials" etc., PJ, September 17, 1919; Jamestown survey, p 100
• 1920 – Sayles Finishing Corp houses, Saylesville
  • Lincoln survey p 35
• 1921 – Sayles Finishing Corp dormitory, Saylesville
  • 3-sty, brick & steel. ENR, September 30, 1920.
• 1933 alterations to Marble House for Frederick H. Prince, Newport
  • All interior alts: plumbing, wiring, plastering, painting, decorating & elevator installation. "Newport society," PJ, March 14, 1933.
• 1949 W. T. Grant store, Providence
  • "New Grant's store to be last word in design; artist's sketch shows how structure will look when built," PJ, October 24, 1948.; Providence downtown survey, p 64.
• 1956 – Scituate High School, Scituate
  • EnR, June 30, 1955.