SHEPLEY, RUTAN & COOLIDGE, a leading firm of architects in Boston, Mass. comprised of George Foster Shepley (1806-1903), Charles Hercules Rutan (1851-1914), and Charles Allerton Coolidge (1858-1936). All three partners trained in the office of Henry Hobson Richardson, a leading figure in 19th C. American architecture, and after the death of latter in 1886, they continued the legacy of his office by forming their own partnership in Boston. Their office was the incubator for many young Canadian architects who trained there, including Victor J. Blackwell (of London, Ont.), E.M.A. Machado (of Ottawa), Arthur LeB. Weeks (of Ottawa), Edward Maxwell (of Montreal) George C. Shattuck (of Montreal), E.G. Garden (of British Columbia) and others.
In late 1890 Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge were one six American architectural firms who were invited to submit an entry in the competition for the new Board of Trade Building in Montreal, Que. Several Canadian architects had also been invited to prepare plans, but the Canadian designs were rejected by the Montreal jury who chose only to consider the American submissions. Details of this controversy appeared in The Gazette [Montreal], 26 March 1891, p. 2. Many architects in Montreal were upset that this important project had been handed to Americans, given that many talented Canadian designers residing in Montreal and Toronto were capable of completing this commission. The sedate, 6 storey block in the Richardsonian Romanesque style was completed by Shepley's firm in early 1893, with Edward Maxwell employed as local supervising architect.
George F. Shepley was born in St, Louis, Missouri in 1860 and was educated at the School of Architecture at Washington University in that city, then moved to Boston to attend Massachusetts Inst. of Technology in 1880-82. He trained in the Brookline office of Richardson until 1886, then formed a new office with colleagues Charles Rutan and Charles Coolidge. Their first important success was winning the competition for new buildings on the campus of Stanford University at Palo Alto in California in 1890, followed by design commissions for the Art Institute in Chicago (1893-97), and for buildings on the campus of Harvard University. This enviable record was cut short on 17 July 1903 when Shepley died unexpectedly at age 43 at St. Moritz, Switzerland, leaving his office in hands of Rutan & Coolidge, and they remained active until the 1930's when the firm was renamed Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch & Abbott, with son Henry R. Shepley as a partner. The firm is still active today in 2022 as Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson & Abbott, Architects in Boston (obituary for George F. Shepley in Boston Evening Transcript, 18 July 1903, 12; obit. New York Times, 19 July 1903, 7; obit. American Architect & Building News [New York], lxxxi, 1903, 25; obit. Western Architect [Chicago], ii, Aug. 1903, 17; biog. and list of works for Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge in H. Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, 1956, 550-51; biog. for Charles H. Rutan in H. Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, 1956, 534; see separate entry on this website for essay on Charles A. Coolidge. Biog. & list of works by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge in the MacMillan Encyclopedia of Architects, 1982, vol. 4, 51-52. A detailed illustrated essay on the work of this firm up to 1896 was published in Architectural Record [New York], vi, July 1896, illus.
MONTREAL, QUE., Board of Trade Building, St. Sacrament Street at St. Nicholas Street, 1891-92; damaged by fire 1901; rebuilt by David R. Brown in 1903 (Montreal Daily Star, 25 Feb. 1891, 6; and 26 Feb. 1891, 5, detailed architectural descrip.; and 10 March 1893, 4, descrip.; Gazette [Montreal], 26 Feb. 1891, 2, detailed architectural descrip.; and 7 Nov. 1891, 5, detailed architectural descrip.; and 27 Feb. 1891, 6, illus.; and 23 Dec. 1892, 5; C.A.B., iv, June 1891, 64 (ff), illus. & descrip. with critique, July 1891, 71, descrip.; dwgs. in the Canadian Architectural Coll., McGill Univ., Maxwell Archive, Item 167; I. Gournay & F. Vanlaethem, Montreal Metropolis 1880-1930, pub. 1998, 114-15, illus., biographies p. 209)