Personal Data

Richard Clipston Sturgis was born on December 24, 1860, in Boston, the son of Russell Sturgis and his wife Susan Codman Welles (daughter of Benjamin Welles).

He married on June 22, 1882, in Troy, New York, to Esther Mary Ogden (b. Nov1862 in Troy NY), daughter of George Parish Ogden and his wife, Henrietta Cannon.

R. Clipston Sturgis died on May 8, 1951, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Career

R. Clipston Sturgis graduated from Harvard in 1881, after which he entered the office of Sturgis and Brigham (his uncle was John Hubbard Sturgis). He remained there until July of 1884, when he went to London and entered the office of Robert W. Edis.

Sturgis returned to Boston in September of 1886 to become successor to his uncle’s practice. After his uncle’s retirement in 1887, he joined with William Robinson Cabot in the firm of Sturgis and Cabot. They remained partners until May of 1895, after which Sturgis continued as a sole practitioner until his retirement in 1932.

Among Sturgis’s works were the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology (1907), Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown (1912), Robbins Memorial Town Hall in Arlington (1913), Federal Reserve Bank in Boston (1922), and Cathedral in Manila, Philippines.

In 1913, R. Clipston Sturgis joined with architects William Chapman and Robert Day Andrews to design additions to the Massachusetts State House. The work was completed in 1917.

Back Bay Work