Personal Data

Henry Richards was born on July 17, 1848, in Gardiner, Maine, the son of Francis Richards and his wife, Anne H. Gardiner.

He married on June 17, 1871, in Boston, to Laura Elizabeth Howe (b. 27Feb1850 in Boston; d. 14Jan1943), daughter of Samuel Gridley Howe and his wife, Julia Ward (daughter of Samuel Ward).  Julia Ward Howe wrote the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”  Laura E. Richards became a prolific author and was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her work.

Henry Richards died on January 26, 1949.

Career

Henry Richards graduated from Harvard in 1869.  From 1869 to 1871 he studied architecture at MIT and was a draftsman with Ware and Van Brunt.  In 1871-1872, he travelled abroad.  He then was a draftsman with Peabody and Stearns from 1872 to 1876, and then practiced architecture briefly on his own.

In 1876, Henry and Laura Howe returned to his native Gardiner, Maine, where he joined his brother in managing their family’s paper mills.  In 1900, the Richards Paper Company was acquired by International Paper, at which point Richards resumed working as an architect in the winters and running a boys camp at Belgrade, Maine, in the summer.

Back Bay Work