STARBUCK, Henry Fletcher (1850-1935) was born in Nantucket, Mass. on 1 March 1850 and commenced practice in Boston in 1875 and formed a partnership there with Arthur H. Vinal in early 1877. Within ten days of hearing about the calamity of the Great Fire in Saint John, New Brunswick. on 20 June 1877, both partners had arrived in this Canadian city and opened an office there (Daily Telegraph [Saint John], 30 June 1877, 1, advert.). They completed several commercial projects as part of the rebuilding of the city, and in late 1877 they submitted an ambitious High Victorian Gothic design in the competition for Trinity Anglican Church; a perspective drawing of their scheme survives and can be found in the Trinity Church vestry in Saint John (G. Hughes, Music of the Eye-Architectural Drawings of Canada's First City, 1991, 81-3). Their design was later set aside in favour of the winning scheme by William T. Thomas.
Vinal returned to Boston in early 1878 and continued to practice there while Starbuck remained in Saint John. In March 1878 Starbuck was among ten competitors for the Bank of New Brunswick Headquarters building, and his classically inspired design was awarded First Premium. He was also one of fourteen architects who sent in designs for the Legislative Building in Fredericton in 1879, but his scheme placed undue emphasis on a grand entrance hall and formal staircase with inadequate space for the Assembly and Committee rooms (critique in American Architect & Building News [Boston], v, 5 April 1879, 109). His plans were not premiated and J.C. Dumaresq was declared the winner. Starbuck moved to Chicago in 1880 and continued to practice there until 1890. By 1896 he had relocated to California and was recorded as having an office in Los Angeles, and later in Long Beach, and, by 1910, in Oakland, Calif. Starbuck was later elected as a Fellow of the American Inst. of Architects. He died at Alameda, Calif. on 21 August 1935 and was buried at Fresno, Calif. (inf. Boston City Directories, 1875-90; Chicago City Directories, 1882-90; inf. American Inst. of Architects, Washington)
STARBUCK & VINAL (works in Saint John, N.B.)
BAYARD BLOCK, Prince William Street, 1877 (Morning Freeman [Saint John], 26 Sept. 1877, 3, descrip.)
DOCK STREET, block for William Parks, 1877 (Daily News [Saint John], 22 Nov. 1877, 3)
DOCK STREET, block for J. & J. Lawrence, 1877 (Daily News [Saint John], 22 Nov. 1877, 3)
DOCK STREET, at North Wharf Street, block for Mullin Bros., 1877 (Daily News [Saint John], 22 Nov. 1877, 3)
WATER STREET, block for Charles Merritt, 1877 (Daily News [Saint John], 27 Nov. 1877, 3)
PRINCE WILLIAM STREET, block for Mrs. Major, 1877 (Daily News [Saint John], 29 Nov. 1877, 3)
GERMAIN STREET, at Queen Street, block for Robert Richey, 1877 (Daily News [Saint John], 1 Dec. 1877, 3)
PRINCESS STREET, block for Mr. Fitzpatrick, 1877 (Daily News [Saint John], 13 Dec. 1877, 3)
DUKE STREET, at Wentworth Street, residence for Mr. Campbell, 1877 (Daily News [Saint John], 14 Dec. 1877, 3)
H.F. STARBUCK (works in Saint John, N.B. and elsewhere)
BANK OF NEW BRUSWICK, Prince William Street, 1878-79 (American Architect & Building News [Boston], iii, 26 Jan. 1878, 33, descrip.; Morning Freeman [Saint John], 19 June 1878, 3; Daily Sun [Saint John], 10 Ja. 1879, 3, descrip.)
ADADEMY OF MUSIC, Charlotte Street, 1878 (Daily Sun [Saint John], 30 Sept. 1878, 2)
SEATTLE, WASH., U.S.A., Trinity Episcopal Church, Eighth Street at James Street, 1890-92; altered (J.K. Ochsner & D.A. Andersen, Distant Corner: Seattle Architects and the Legacy of H.H. Richardson, 2003, 239-40, illus.).