Personal Data

John Andrews Fox was born on December 23, 1835, in Newburyport, the son of Rev. Thomas Bayley Fox and his wife, Feroline Walley Pierce.

He married on January 3, 1878, in Boston, to Josephine Clapp (b. May 15, 1855, in Dorchester; d. 23Sep1927 in Belmont), daughter of Asahel Clapp and his wife, Elizabeth Searle Whiting.

John Fox died on May 4, 1920, in Boston.

Career

John Fox apprenticed with the engineering firm of Garbett & Wood. He then served in the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment in the Civil War from 1862 to 1865, including participating ins “Sherman’s March to the Sea,” rising to the rank of Major.

After he returned to Boston, he was associated with Benjamin F. Dwight and assisted him in the design of the Globe Theatre in 1867 (destroyed by fire on May 30, 1872). By 1868, he had opened his own office, and he continued as a sole practitioner until his death in 1920. He designed public, commercial, and residential buildings, and was a noted exponent of “stick style” architecture.

Among his works were the Soldier’s Monument on Meetinghouse Hill in Dorchester (1868); the Providence Opera House theatre (1871); the Tileston Normal School in Wilmington NC (1871); the Chelsea Academy of Music (1871); remodeling of the Boston Museum Theatre (1872); the Bryant & Stratton School at 608 Washington (1874); the City Theatre at Brockton (1883; demolished 1954); the Town Hall in Provincetown (1886); and the Home for Aged Couples in Roxbury (1892).

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