Résumé

Draftsman, McKim, Mead and White, Architects, New York, NY, 1891-1892. Howells wrote in 1916: "The winter after graduating I spent in the office of McKim, Mead & White and in the spring went directly to Paris, and there entered the National School of Beaux Arts, where I graduated after five years of study and travel, and then received the diploma of Architecture given by the French government." (See "John Mead Howells," Harvard College Class of 1891 Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report, 1891-1916, [Number VI], [Norwood, MA: Plimpton Press, 1916], p. 155.)

Partner, Howells and Stokes, Architects, New York, NY, 1897-1917. He said of his firm's work in 1916: 'Much of our most interesting work has been for colleges, having made plans for the University of California, and built for Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Berea, Teachers' College, Pratt Institute, and the Protestant College of Beyreut, Syria. At the same time we have been in Federal Government competitive work, and have built banks, 'skyscrapers,' etc., mostly for New York corporations." (See "John Mead Howells," Harvard College Class of 1891 Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report, 1891-1916, [Number VI], [Norwood, MA: Plimpton Press, 1916], p. 156.)

The firm of Howells and Stokes operated at 100 William Street, New York, NY, in 1916. (See "John Mead Howells," Harvard College Class of 1891 Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report, 1891-1916, [Number VI], [Norwood, MA: Plimpton Press, 1916], p. 156.)

Partner, Howells and [Abraham] Albertson, Architects, Seattle, WA, 1920-1928; In 1910, Howells and Stokes maintained the main office in the 13-story Woodbridge Building, 100 Williams Street, in New York City.and also opened a branch office in Seattle, WA. In 1911, Howells wrote in the Harvard College Class of 1891 Secretary's Report, No. V: "I am still practicing architecture in New York, in partnership with I.N. Phelps Stokes; the principal change from the former report being that, for the last few years, the volume of our work on the Pacific Coast has called for a supplementary office in Seattle. Meanwhile, we continue to distort the skyline of New York with skyscrapers and lesser buildings." (See "John Mead Howells," Harvard College Class of 1891 Secretary's Report, No. V, p. 117.) The Seattle branch oversaw the master plan, design and construction of the Metropolitan Tract, an office, commercial and entertainment complex on the site of the first campus of the University of Washington. Around 1910, this real estate endeavor for the University's proxy developer, the Metropolitan Building Company, was one of the largest planned ensembles of office buildings in the US.

Principal, John Mead Howells, Architect, New York, NY, 1913-c. 1940. During the 1920s, Howells associated with the younger architect, Raymond Hood (1881-1934), whom he had met at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts c. 1911, on two major projects. Howells and Hood collaborated on the winning design in the celebrated Chicago Tribune Tower Competition of 1922, probably the most important corporate skyscraper design competition of the decade. The Tribune Tower was completed in 1924. Ironically, Howells and Hood's Flamboyant Gothic tower exerted only a fraction of the influence exerted by the second-place entry, Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen's entry. Several buildings on the West Coast reflected the overall massing and form of the Saarinen design, including Timothy Pflueger's Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company Building (San Francisco, 1925), George Kelham's Russ Building (San Francisco, 1928) and Shell Oil Company Building (San Francisco, 1929), and Abraham Albertson and Associates' Northern Life Tower (Seattle, 1929). Interestingly, Howell's one-time partner in Seattle (1920-1928), Albertson, preferred the Saarinen model over his own. Howells also associated with Hood on the design of the iconic Modernist office tower, the New York Daily News Building (1929).

Professional Activities

Member, American Institute of Architects (AIA), New York Chapter.

Member, Société des Architectes Diplômés par le Gouvernement.Paris, France.

Member, Society of A.D.P.L.G., Groupe Américain, New York, NY, c. 1916.

Member, Architectural League of New York, New York, NY, c. 1916.

Member, Society of Beaux-Arts Architects, New York, NY, c. 1916.

Just after World War I, Howells, at the behest of Herbert Hoover (1874-1964), then head of the Belgian relief organization C.R.B Educational Foundation, supervised the construction of buildings at the University of Brussels. President, Society of Beaux-Arts Architects, New York, NY; Member, U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, (aka the National Fine Arts Commission), 1933-1937, Washington, DC. This body, formed in 1910, reviewed design, artistic and planning changes made to the City of Washington, DC.

He said of his creative activities in 1916: "I have done little outside my work, other than writing some articles on student life in Paris for the Century, Harper's and technical magazines, and the exposition of some watercolors at the salons in Paris. I have been abroad more or less, and spent a good deal of my time in France, where I have a number of friends and classmates, most, if not all, of whom are now fighting with the French armies. My partner and I are carrying on our profession with the greatest delight, although war times are not stimulating to it." (See "John Mead Howells," Harvard College Class of 1891 Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report, 1891-1916, [Number VI], [Norwood, MA: Plimpton Press, 1916], p. 156.) These articles included: "At the Café D'Orsay," "At the Gates of the Beaux Arts," and "From Nouveau to Ancien."

Professional Awards

Member, National Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, NY.

Chevalier, French Legion of Honor, Paris, France.

Officer of the Order of the Crown, Brussels, Belgium.

Associate Academician, National Academy of Design, New York, NY, 1944.

Howells wrote an article in the American Architect and Buildings News, entitled "Charles Bulfinch, Architect," vol. XCII, no. 1695, 06/17/1908, p. 195-200.

High School / College

Graduate, Noble's School, Boston, MA, 1887.

B.S., Architecture, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 1891.

Dipl., Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France, spring 1892-1897. In the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report, 1891-1916 of Harvard University, Howells used the abbreviation, "A.D.P.L.G." meaning "Architecte diplômé par le gouvernement." (See "John Mead Howells," Harvard College Class of 1891 Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report, 1891-1916, [Number VI], [Norwood, MA: Plimpton Press, 1916], p. 155.)

Relocation

Born in Cambridge, MA, John Mead Howells, remained in the Boston area until the spring of 1892, when he left for Paris, where he studied at the most important French art academy of the day, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Howells returned to the US c. 1897, settling in New York, NY. Howells also spent summers in ME.

In 1902, John Mead Howells's father, William Dean Howells, purchased a summer residence in Kittery Point, ME, across the bay from Portsmouth, NH. After the death of his wife, William gave the property to John, who visited and maintained it, passing it on to his son John Noyes Mead Howells. John Noyes bequeathed it to Harvard University in 1979. In 1911, Howells reported in a Harvard alumni periodical: "I have been married since out last report, and have a son. I have been a good deal in the West and abroad, and did some special study in Rome last summer." (See "John Mead Howells," Harvard College Class of 1891 Secretary's Report, No. V, [Boston: Rockwell & Churchill Press, 1911], p. 117.)

In 1916, Howells resided at 130 West 57th Street, New York, NY. (See "John Mead Howells," Harvard College Class of 1891 Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report, 1891-1916, [Number VI], [Norwood, MA: Plimpton Press, 1916], p. 156.)

John Mead Howells died at the summer house in Kittery Point on 09/22/1959, at the age of 91, and was buried, like his father, in Cambridge Cemetery, Cambridge, MA.

Parents

His father was the American Realist writer, William Dean Howells (1837-1920). Beginning in 1860, Howell became integrated into the Transcendentalist's intellectual circle in Boston, MA, and wrote for the important political/literary periodicals of the time, the Atlantic Monthly and Harper's Monthly magazine. By 1866, he became an Assistant Editor at the Atlantic, and elevated to editor by 1871, a post he held for a decade; it was through the Atlantic that Howells promoted his realist literary perspective. Before taking on the Atlantic position, he gained favor with Republican politicians during the campaign of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, writing a flattering biography of the candidate. In gratitude, the Lincoln Administration appointed him to a plum post, a consulship in Venice, Italy. It was during his European foreign service that he married his wife, Elinor Gertrude Mead, on 12/24/1862. Elinor grew up in a comfortable, culturally-rich environment in Boston, her father, Larkin Goldsmith Mead, Sr., (1795-1869) being a successful lawyer and tavern owner. Elinor's mother Mary Noyes Mead, was the sister of John Humphrey Noyes (1811-1886), the founder of the Oneida Movement. One brother, Larkin Goldsmith Mead, Jr., (1835-1910) became a noted sculptor, and another sibling, William Rutherford Mead (1846-1928), co-founded the pivotal New York Beaux-Arts architectural firm, McKim, Mead and White. John Mead Howells had two siblings, sisters Winifred and Mildred.

Spouse

Howells married Abbie McDougal White (1880-1975) on 12/21/1907.

Children

John Mead Howells and Abbie McDougal White had two sons: William White Howells (born 11/27/1908-d. 2005), who worked for the American Museum of Natural History from c. 1934-1937, and later became a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, (1937-1954) and Harvard University (1954-1974), and John Noyes Mead Howells (born 03/11/1912-d. 1982), who worked in the Education Department of the Boston Museum of Science from the late 1940s until the late 1960s.

Personal Notes

John Mead Howells was the author of three books: Lost Examples of Colonial Architecture, (New York: William Hellburn, Incorporated, 1931), the Architectural Heritage of Piscataqua, (New York, N.Y., Architectural Book Publishing Company, 1937) and The Architectural Heritage of the Merrimack, (New York, N.Y., Architectural Book Publishing Company, 1941). The first book was republished by Dover Press in 1963.

Member, University Club, New York, NY, c. 1916.

• Cambridge, MA (Architect's Birth)
  Cambridge, MA

  ---

  OpenStreetMap (new tab)

  Google Map (new tab)

  

  ---

• Kittery Point, ME (Architect's Death)
  Kittery Point, ME

  ---

  ---