H . H. Richardson

Henry Hobson Richardson (September 29, 1838 - April 27, 1886) was an outstanding American architect, best known for his work in the style that became known as the Richardson Romanesque. Along with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, Richardson is one of the "recognized trinities of American architecture." Richardson was born on a Priestley plantation in St. James County, Louisiana, and spent part of his childhood in New Orleans, where his family lived on Julia Row Street in a red brick house designed by 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 continued to study at Harvard College and Tulane University. Initially, he was interested in civil engineering, but moved on to architecture, which led him to Paris in 1860 to attend the famous School of Fine Arts at the Louis Jules Andre studio. He was just the second US citizen to attend the School’s architectural division — Richard Morris Hunt was the first —and the school was to play an increasingly important role in teaching Americans in the following decades. There he did not finish his studies, as family support failed due to the American Civil War.