John Calvin Stevens

John Calvin Stevens
Born (1855-10-08)October 8, 1855
Boston, Massachusetts
Died January 25, 1940(1940-01-25) (aged 84)
Portland, Maine
Nationality American
Occupation Architect
Awards Congressional Record of Recognition (2009)
Buildings
  • State Street Church, Portland, ME
  • Richard Webb House, Portland, ME
  • Municipal Building, Skowhegan, ME
  • L. D. M. Sweat Memorial Galleries, Portland, ME
  • Saco Museum, Saco, ME
  • Forest Avenue Post Office, Portland, ME

John Calvin Stevens (October 8, 1855 – January 25, 1940) was an American architect who worked in the Shingle Style, in which he was a major innovator, and the Colonial Revival style. He designed more than 1,000 buildings in the state of Maine.

Early life

Stevens was the son of Maria Wingate and Leander Stevens, a cabinet maker and builder of fancy carriages.[1] He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, but when he was two, his family moved to Portland, Maine.[2]

Stevens wanted to study architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but lacked the money to attend. Instead, he apprenticed in the Portland office of architect Francis H. Fassett, who in 1880 made him a junior partner to open the firm's new Boston office. Another architect working in the same building was William Ralph Emerson, whose historicist aesthetic in the Queen Anne Style had a profound effect on Stevens. He married Martha Louise Waldron in 1877, and they had four children. Stevens opened his own office in Portland in 1884.

Career

John Calvin Stevens house, Portland, ME (1883–84)
Floor plans and interior details

In 1888 Stevens formed a partnership with Albert Winslow Cobb. Together they wrote the book Examples of American Domestic Architecture (1889), an early study of the Shingle Style. Cobb wrote the prose and Stevens provided the illustrations. The partnership was dissolved in 1891. Stevens' son, John Howard Stevens, became an architect and joined his father's firm in 1898. John became a full partner in 1904, and the firm was renamed Stevens Architects.[3]

His most-acclaimed early house — the James Hopkins Smith house in Falmouth Foreside, Maine (1886) — was featured in George William Sheldon's Artistic Country Seats (1886–87).[4] In The Shingle Style (1955), Vincent Scully described the Smith house as a "pièce de résistance" and a "masterpiece", "a more sweeping and coherent version of Stevens' own house". Sheldon also praised his "powerful alterations" to a summer hotel called the Poland Springs House.[5]

Houses designed by Stevens can be found along the Maine coast, as well as in Portland (particularly the West End) and its suburbs. He also designed public libraries, municipal buildings, hotels, and churches, as well as nine buildings for the campus of Hebron Academy, including the Psi Upsilon Fraternity House on the Bowdoin College campus.

In one of his rare commissions outside of Maine, he created a master plan for and designed a chapel and at least six barracks buildings at the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (Southern Branch) in Hampton, Virginia.

Other interests

Stevens was a landscape painter. He belonged to the Brushians, a Portland art group which went on weekend outings. He exhibited his work with the Boston Art Club, the Portland Society of Art, and elsewhere. His oil painting Delano Park, Cape Elizabeth (1904) is in the collection of Blaine House, the Maine governor's official residence.[6]

He was an avid art collector. He donated Afternoon Fog by Winslow Homer to the L. D. M. Sweat Memorial Galleries, now part of the Portland Museum of Art.[7]

In 1889, Stevens was named a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.[8] He died in 1940 and is buried in Portland's Evergreen Cemetery.

In recognition of his architectural contributions on the Portland peninsula, the city declared October 8, 2009 to be John Calvin Stevens Day. The ceremony included a Congressional Record of Recognition presented by the office of Senator Olympia Snowe.[9]

Selected buildings

State Street Congregational Church, Portland, ME (1892–93). Stevens wrapped the existing wooden church in sandstone and added the Gothic tower and facade.
Brown Memorial Library, Clinton, ME (1903)
Brooks Leavitt house, Wilton, ME (c.1925)
Bay of Naples Inn, Naples, ME (1899, demolished 1964)
Building 70, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers ("Southern Branch"), Hampton, VA (1908)

Churches

Libraries

Houses

Other buildings

References

  1. ↑ Stevens Genealogy
  2. ↑ Stephen Abbott, John Calvin Stevens, the Early Years, Maine Home & Design 2007
  3. ↑ Murphy, Kevin; Lovejoy, Kim Brian (2004). Colonial Revival Maine. Princeton Architectural Press. p. 98.
  4. ↑ George William Sheldon, Artistic Country Seats I (New York, 1886–87), pp. 177–80, plate 41.
  5. ↑ Vincent J. Scully, Jr., The Shingle Style (Yale University Press, 1955), p. 118.
  6. ↑ Friends of the Blaine House, Blainehouse.org
  7. ↑ Portland Society of Art, Maine, American Art Directory, Vol. 11, R. R. Bowker, 1914
  8. ↑ "John Calvin Stevens," in Harrie B. Coe, Maine: A History, Volume 1 (Clearfield, 1928), p. 35.
  9. ↑ The Forecaster, 'An indelible mark': Portland to honor the legacy of John Calvin Stevens
  10. ↑ Congregational Church
  11. ↑ Sanford Baptist Church from Maine Memory Network.
  12. ↑ Henry Sweetser Burrage & Albert Roscoe Stubbs, Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, Volume 3, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York 1909
  13. ↑ First Baptist
  14. ↑ State St. Church from Maine Memory Network.
  15. ↑ Freeport Baptist Church from Maine Memory Network.
  16. ↑ Hancock Point Chapel from Flickr.
  17. ↑ Williston-West Church
  18. ↑ Zadoc Long Free Library
  19. ↑ Rumford Fall Library from Maine Memory Network.
  20. ↑ Knight Library from Maine Memory Network.
  21. ↑ Davis Memorial Library Archived 2011-04-13 at the Wayback Machine.
  22. ↑ History of Winthrop, Maine 1771–1925, p. 111.
  23. ↑ Plan for Paris Public Library from Maine Memory Network.
  24. ↑ Elevation for Paris Public Library from Maine Memory Network.
  25. ↑ Bethel Library Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine.
  26. ↑ Wright cottage from Maine Memory Network.
  27. ↑ Stevens house from Maine Memory Network.
  28. ↑ Winslow Homer studio
  29. ↑ Winslow Homer house
  30. ↑ J.H. Smith house from Maine Memory Network.
  31. ↑ Thornhurst from Maine Memory Network.
  32. ↑ Belfield from Maine Memory Network.
  33. ↑ Belfield from Maine Memory Network.
  34. ↑ Deering house from Maine Memory Network.
  35. ↑ Endcliffe from Maine Memory Network.
  36. ↑ Johnson house Archived 2011-08-17 at the Wayback Machine. from Hallowell Phototour.
  37. ↑ Oak Bank
  38. ↑ Psi Upsilon
  39. ↑ Hill house Archived 2011-01-15 at the Wayback Machine.
  40. ↑ Cox house
  41. ↑ Webb house from Maine Memory Network.
  42. ↑ Files house from Maine Memory Network.
  43. ↑ Oxford House Inn Archived 2010-10-27 at the Wayback Machine.
  44. ↑ Elmhurst from Fotki.
  45. ↑ Spring house from Maine Memory Network.
  46. ↑ Stone House Archived 2010-11-03 at the Wayback Machine. from USM.
  47. ↑ Gazebo
  48. ↑ Poland Spring House dining room from Maine Memory Network.
  49. ↑ Biddeford City Hall
  50. ↑ City Theater
  51. ↑ Tides Inn-by-the-Sea
  52. ↑ Southern Branch from NPS.
  53. ↑ Nathan Clifford Elementary Archived 2010-08-25 at the Wayback Machine.
  54. ↑ Skowhegan Municipal Building
  55. ↑ Camden Yacht Club Archived 2009-09-30 at the Wayback Machine.
  56. ↑ Pike Hall
  57. ↑ Saco Museum
  58. ↑ Forest Avenue Post Office from Maine Memory Network.
  59. ↑ Uptown Theatre from Maine Memory Network.

Further reading

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