Charles Brigham (June 21, 1841 – July 1925) was an American architect based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Life Brigham was born, raised, and educated in Watertown, Massachusetts schools and graduated at age 15 in 1856 in the first class of Watertown High School. He had no formal education in architecture.
He apprenticed to Calvin Ryder and later to Boston architect Gridley J.F. Bryant. Brigham served as a sergeant in the Union Army during the American Civil War, then returned to working with Bryant. In 1866, Brigham and John Hubbard Sturgis formed a partnership which lasted 20 year. In that times the firm was recognized for its innovative and groundbreaking designs, including the original building for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, located in Copley Square.
Brigham subsequently designed the 1898 annex to the Massachusetts State House in Boston, the 1906 The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, and many residential buildings especially in the Boston Back Bay and Newport, Rhode Island.
Brigham's work reflects the eclecticism and historicism prevalent in the last quarter of the 19th century, initiating fusion of the complex eclectic references of the English Queen Anne revival with American colonial design. The resulting coastal New England houses of the 1880s by Brigham and other Boston architects defined the shingle style in one of the most original and distinguished epochs of American architectural history, from which other notable architects, such as Henry Hobson Richardson, emerged. He also designed the Watertown town seal.
Work
With John Hubbard Sturgis
Codman Building, Boston, 1873 Church of the Advent, Boston, 1875–1888 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1876 86 Marlborough Street, Boston 187286 Marlborough Street , BOSarchitecture.com
In solo practice
Trinity Episcopal Church (Melrose, Massachusetts), 1886 Hollis Hunnewell Cottage, Wellesley, Massachusetts, 1869 Stoughton (MBTA station), Stoughton, Massachusetts, 1888 Unitarian Building, First Parish of Watertown, Massachusetts, 1889 Fairhaven Town Hall, Fairhaven, Massachusetts, 1892 Millicent Library, Fairhaven, Massachusetts, 1893 Annex to the Massachusetts State House in Boston, 1895 New Bedford Institution for Savings, New Bedford, Massachusetts, 1897 Scollay Square and Adams Square station entrances, 1898 Albert C. Burrage House, Back Bay, Boston, 1899; designated as a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission in 2003 Albert C. Burrage House, 1205 West Crescent Avenue, Redlands, California, 1899/1900"Albert C. Burrage Home 1205 W. Crescent Avenue 1901" , The Redlands Area Historical Society, Inc. Heritage Award – 2010 Madison Public Library, now the Museum of Early Trades and Crafts, Madison, New Jersey, 1900 Unitarian Memorial Church, Fairhaven, Massachusetts, 1901 Fairhaven High School, Fairhaven, Massachusetts, 1905 Messiah Home for Children, The Bronx, New York City, 1905–19hool Old Watertown High School, Watertown, Massachusetts, 1913 St. Mark the Evangelist Church, Dorchester, Massachusetts"Bio: Charles Brigham", David J. Russo website St. Francis of Assisi Church, Braintree, Massachusetts"St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church 856 Washington St. Braintree, Mass.", David J. Russo website
References
Watertown Tribune-Enterprise, Watertown, Mass., Friday, July 24, 1925 Burrage House Study Report
Further reading Adams, Oscar Fay, "A NEW ENGLAND ARCHITECT AND HIS WORK", The New England Magazine, June 1907