Earle, Stephen Carpenter

EARLE, Stephen Carpenter (1839-1913), of Worcester, Mass., holds a unique position in Canadian architecture as the author of identical plans for churches erected in three separate locations in two provinces. Earle was an acknowledged master of the Carpenter Gothic style, and in 1878 he was first approached by the building committee of the Anglican Church in Digby, Nova Scotia in who were anxious to replace their church destroyed by fire in 1877. Completed in late 1879, this remarkable work by Earle soon caught the attention of the building committee for the Anglican Church in nearby Windsor, Nova Scotia, who asked Earle to prepare a similar design for their own church. He offered to provide plans free-of-charge, with the proviso that his design was not to be altered or modified. The committee from Windsor agreed, and a virtual replica of the church was built there in 1882-84. Nearly 10 years later, another copy of this design was erected at Trinity Bay (now called Trinity) in Newfoundland. All three churches still stand as of 2020.

Earle was a talented and versatile designer, and his career in Worcester and Boston was not limited to ecclesiastical work. He can also be credited with over 150 commissions for institutional, commercial and residential projects throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and as far away as Iowa. A dated list of several of these works, kindly provided by Prof. Curtis Dahl of Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., is included below in this entry. Earle was born in Leicester, Mass. on 4 January 1839 and attended schools in Providence, R.I. and in Worcester. He took courses in architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and after serving in the American Civil War, he moved to New York City and trained with Calvert Vaux, a leading American architect. He opened his own office in February 1866, and was in partnership with James E. Fuller (as Earle & Fuller) for ten years. From 1876 he worked under his own name until 1891 when he formed a new partnership with Clellan W. Fisher, as Earle & Fisher, Architects.

Earle died at Worcester, Mass. on 12 December 1913 (obituary Worcester Telegram, 12 Dec. 1913; obituary and port. in The Boston Globe, 12 Dec. 1913, 13; obituary Journal of the American Inst. of Architects [Washington], ii, Jan. 1914, 51; biog. in National Cyclopedia of American Biography, xi, 147; biog. in H. Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, 1956, 186-87; inf. Curtis Dahl, Wheaton College, Norton, Mass.). An illustrated biography and essay on the work of Stephen C. Earle was published in 1987 for an exhibition held at the Worcester Art Museum. Entitled “Renderings from Worcester’s Past: Nineteenth-Century Architectural Drawings from the American Antiquarian Society”, the catalogue contains an essay on Earle on pp. 31-39. A more recent essay on the Canadian work of this architect was prepared by Peter Coffman of Ottawa entitled “The Canadian Churches of Stephen C. Earle”, and published in the Journal of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, xxxviii, 2013, No. 1, pp. 67-74, illus.

(works in Canada)

DIGBY, N.S., Trinity Anglican Church, 1878-79 (The Church Guardian [Halifax], 29 Jan. 1880, 2, descrip.; Dominion Churchman [Toronto], vi, 5 Feb. 1880, 65, detailed descrip.)

WINDSOR, N.S., Christ Church [Anglican], King Street at Wentworth Road, 1882-84 (E. Eaton, History of the United Church in Windsor, 1981, 7)

TRINITY, NFLD., St. Paul’s Anglican Church, 1892 (Canadian Heritage [Ottawa], Feb.-March 1984, 34-35, illus. & descrip.; Peter Richardson & Douglas Richardson, Canadian Churches – An Architectural History, 2007, 28-30, illus.)

(works elsewhere)

WORCESTER, MASS., Boynton Hall, at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 1866

NORTH ADAMS, MASS., St. John’s Episcopal Church, 1868

NORWICH, CONN., Park Congregational Church, 1873

WORCESTER, MASS., All Saints Episcopal Church, 1874

MEDWAY, MASS., Christ Church, 1874

NORWICH, CONN., mansion for Mrs. Slater, 1874

WORCESTER, MASS., The Salisbury Building, 1877

WORCESTER, MASS., mansion for G.H. Whitcomb, 1879

MONSON, MASS., Horatio Lyon Library, 1881

BRISTOL, RHODE ISLAND, Burnside Memorial Hall, 1882-83

WORCESTER, MASS., Central Congregational Church, 1883

GRINNELL, IOWA, Goodnow Hall, Iowa College (now Grinnell College), 1884

AMHERST, MASS., Old Chapel Library, University of Massachusetts, 1884-87

NORWICH, CONN., Slater Memorial Art Gallery, 1885

WORCESTER, MASS., Pilgrim Congregational Church, 1887

WORCESTER, MASS., Jonas C. Clark Hall, Clark University, 1887

WORCESTER, MASS., Worcester Public Library, 1888

HOLDEN, MASS., Damon Memorial Library & High School, 1888

WORCESTER, MASS., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 1888

WORCESTER, MASS., Davis Tower, at Lake Park, 1889

GROTON, CONN., The Bill Memorial Library, 1890

WORCESTER, MASS., Curtis Chapel, at Hope Cemetery, 1890

WORCESTER, MASS., Young Women’s Christian Assoc., 1890

WORCESTER, MASS., Five Cents Savings Bank, 1891

WORCESTER, MASS., South Unitarian Church, 1893

LEICESTER, MASS., Leicester Public Library, 1895

WORCESTER, MASS., Chestnut Street Congregational Church, 1895

WORCESTER, MASS., Prentice Apartment Block, 1896

WORCESTER, MASS., Worcester Art Museum, 1897

WORCESTER, MASS., Providence Street Fire Station, 1899

WORCESTER, MASS., Bancroft Memorial Tower, 1900

WORCESTER, MASS., Friends Meeting House, 1907

WORCESTER, MASS., Grand Army of the Republic Hall, 1913