Henry Hobson Richardson

Henry Hobson Richardson
Close-up of Henry Hobson Richardson, portrait by Sir Hubert von Herkomer from the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Born	(1838-09-29)September 29, 1838 Priestly Plantation, St. James Parish, Louisiana, U.S.
Died	April 27, 1886(1886-04-27) (aged 47) Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Harvard College, Tulane University, École des Beaux Arts
Occupation	Architect
Buildings	Trinity Church, Boston
Design	Richardsonian Romanesque

Henry Hobson Richardson (September 29, 1838 – April 27, 1886) was a prominent American architect who designed buildings in Albany, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and other cities. The style he popularized is named for him: Richardsonian Romanesque. Along with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, Richardson is one of "the recognized trinity of American architecture".

Richardson was born at the Priestley Plantation in St. James Parish, Louisiana, and spent part of his childhood in New Orleans, where his family lived on Julia Row in a red brick house designed by the architect Alexander T. Wood. He was the great-grandson of inventor and philosopher Joseph Priestley, who is usually credited with the discovery of oxygen.

Richardson went on to study at Harvard College and Tulane University. Initially, he was interested in civil engineering, but shifted to architecture, which led him to go to Paris in 1860 to attend the famed École des Beaux Arts in the atelier of Louis-Jules André. He was only the second U.S. citizen to attend the École's architectural division—Richard Morris Hunt was the first—and the school was to play an increasingly important role in training Americans in the following decades.

He didn't finish his training there, as family backing failed due to the U.S. Civil War.