Joseph M. Mosher
| Joseph Marshall Mosher | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1888 |
| Died | 1967 |
| Nationality | United States |
| Occupation | Architect |
Joseph M. Mosher (1888–1967) was an American architect practicing in Rhode Island during the mid-20th century. He designed many churches and schools around southern New England, after being associated with the office of Walter F. Fontaine for many years.
Much of Joseph Marshall Mosher's life is unknown, with him first appearing circa 1921 as an architect in the office of Woonsocket architect Walter Fontaine, a major ecclesiastical architect. At that time he was noted as an alum and instructor in architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design. He remained with the Fontaine firm and its successors until about 1946, when he established his own office in Providence. During the early 1950s he took his son, Joseph Mosher, Jr., into the firm, which became Joseph M. Mosher & Son. There may have been a second son involved as well. Mosher retired from the firm circa 1960. He died in 1967
By 1961, Joseph Marshall, Jr., a 1948 graduate of Brown University, had reestablished the firm as Joseph M. Mosher Associates. He served as the firm's head until his death in January 1991.
The earliest known building that Mosher fully designed was in 1936, while a designer in the employ of Walter F. Fontaine & Sons. This was St. Luke's in Barrington, a chaste Gothic Revival church. Mosher's design eschewed commonplace materiality, substituting textured clapboarding for stone. In later years, the church was altered almost completely beyond recognition. Also for Fontaine's firm, Mosher had charge of the final phases of St. Cecilia's in Pawtucket, completed in 1946.
After breaking off from the Fontaine firm in 1946, Mosher embarked on a series of churches of his own. The earliest of these was St. Catherine of Siena, in Little Compton, a plain Colonial Revival building. It has been altered, but maintains its proportions. Also designed in 1946 but not completed for several more years was the Congregation Ahavath Sholom synagogue in Providence. Completed in 1949, it was Mosher's first International Style work, enhanced in 1962 by an addition by Ira Rakatansky.
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