Parker, Thomas, and Rice was formed in 1907, when Arthur Wallace Rice joined in partnership with J. Harleston Parker and Douglas H. Thomas, Jr.  Parker and Thomas had been partners since 1900, and Rice had been a partner of William York Peters (Peters retired in 1904 and Rice had continued to practice in the firm name of Peters and Rice).

Parker, Thomas, and Rice designed a number of public, commercial, and residential buildings.  Their Boston work included the R. H. Stearns Building (1908); the Harvard Club (1912) at 374 Commonwealth; the John Hancock building (1922) on the block located bounded by Clarendon, Stuart, Berkeley, and St. James Streets (the eastern half of which was replaced in 1947 by a larger structure designed by Cram and Ferguson); the Chamber of Commerce Building (1923) at  Federal, Franklin and Congress Streets; and the 24-story Art Deco-style United Shoe Machinery Building (1929) at 138-164 Federal Street.

Their work in Baltimore included the campus plan and Academic Building for Johns Hopkins University; the Hotel Belvedere; the Baltimore & Ohio office building; the Maryland Casualty Company; the Savings Bank of Baltimore; the Metropolitan Savings Bank; and the offices of the German Lloyd Steamship line.

Thomas died in 1915 and Parker died in 1930. The firm remained Parker, Thomas, and Rice until Rice’s retirement in the mid-1930s.

Back Bay Work