John Calvin Stevens (October 8, 1855 – January 25, 1940) was an American architect who worked in the Shingle Style, in which he was a major innovator, and the Colonial Revival style. He designed more than 1,000 buildings in the state of Maine.
Stevens wanted to study architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but lacked the money to attend. Instead, he apprenticed in the Portland office of architect Francis H. Fassett, who in 1880 made him a junior partner to open the firm's new Boston office. Another architect working in the same building was William Ralph Emerson, whose historicist aesthetic in the Queen Anne Style had a profound effect on Stevens. He married Martha Louise Waldron in 1877, and they had four children. Stevens opened his own office in Portland in 1884.
Career
In 1888, Stevens formed a partnership with Albert Winslow Cobb. Together they wrote the book Examples of American Domestic Architecture (1889), an early study of the Shingle Style. Cobb wrote the prose and Stevens provided the illustrations. The partnership was dissolved in 1891. Stevens' son, John Howard Stevens, became an architect and joined his father's firm in 1898. John became a full partner in 1904, and the firm was renamed Stevens Architects.[3]
His most-acclaimed early house, the 1886 James Hopkins Smith House in Falmouth Foreside, Maine, was featured in George William Sheldon's Artistic Country Seats (1886–87).[4] In The Shingle Style (1955), Vincent Scully described the Smith house as a "pièce de résistance" and a "masterpiece", "a more sweeping and coherent version of Stevens' own house". Sheldon also praised his "powerful alterations" to a summer hotel called the Poland Springs House.[5]
Houses designed by Stevens can be found along the Maine coast, as well as in Portland (particularly the West End) and its suburbs. He also designed public libraries, municipal buildings, hotels, and churches, as well as nine buildings for the campus of Hebron Academy, including the Psi Upsilon Fraternity House on the Bowdoin College campus.
In one of his rare commissions outside of Maine, he created a master plan for and designed a chapel and at least six barracks buildings at the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (Southern Branch) in Hampton, Virginia.
Other interests
Stevens was a landscape painter. He belonged to the Brushians, a Portland art group which went on weekend outings. He exhibited his work with the Boston Art Club, the Portland Society of Art, and elsewhere. His oil painting Delano Park, Cape Elizabeth (1904) is in the collection of Blaine House, the Maine governor's official residence.[6]
Stevens died on January 25, 1940, aged 84. He is buried in Portland's Evergreen Cemetery.
In recognition of his architectural contributions on the Portland peninsula, the city declared October 8, 2009, to be John Calvin Stevens Day. The ceremony included a Congressional Record of Recognition presented by the office of Senator Olympia Snowe.[9]
William H. Roberts, Jr. house, Parkside, Portland, Maine (c.1898)
Remodel of Brewster house, Dexter Maine c.1932. Home of former Maine Gov and US Congressman/Senator Ralph Owen Brewster and his wife Dorothy (Foss). Currently a B&B, The Brewster Inn.
Other buildings
The Breakwater Court hotel (now The Colony Hotel), Kennebunkport, Maine (1914)[48]
^"Stevens Genealogy". Archived from the original on 2012-10-24. Retrieved 2009-09-11.
^Stephen Abbott, John Calvin Stevens, the Early Years, Maine Home & Design 2007
^Murphy, Kevin; Lovejoy, Kim Brian (2004). Colonial Revival Maine. Princeton Architectural Press. p. 98. ISBN 9781568984490.
^George William Sheldon, Artistic Country Seats I (New York, 1886–87), pp. 177–80, plate 41.
^Vincent J. Scully Jr., The Shingle Style (Yale University Press, 1955), p. 118.
^Friends of the Blaine House, Blainehouse.org
^Currently owned by Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester. id=v07EmzFCkt8C&pg=PA125&lpg=PA125&dq=%22john+calvin+stevens%22+painting&source=bl&ots=yLRkZTbI02&sig=2JGic9b0CsC6vIDSBb1jWK6rXpA&hl=en&ei=B3qYS4K7K5CsswOF74nCAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CCkQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=%22john%20calvin%20stevens%22%20painting&f=false Portland Society of Art, Maine, American Art Directory, Vol. 11, R. R. Bowker, 1914
^"John Calvin Stevens," in Harrie B. Coe, Maine: A History, Volume 1 (Clearfield, 1928), p. 35.
^The Forecaster, 'An indelible mark': Portland to honor the legacy of John Calvin Stevens
^Congregational Church Archived 2007-05-13 at the Wayback Machine
^Sanford Baptist Church from Maine Memory Network.
^Henry Sweetser Burrage & Albert Roscoe Stubbs, Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, Volume 3, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York 1909
^Images of America: Yarmouth, Alan M. Hall (Arcadia, 2002), p.28
^First Baptist
^State St. Church from Maine Memory Network.
^Freeport Baptist Church from Maine Memory Network.
^Hancock Point Chapel from Flickr.
^"Williston-West Church". Archived from the original on 2011-02-21. Retrieved 2010-10-12.
^"Zadoc Long Free Library". Archived from the original on 2012-02-11. Retrieved 2010-10-11.
^Rumford Fall Library from Maine Memory Network.
^Knight Library from Maine Memory Network.
^Davis Memorial Library Archived 2011-04-13 at the Wayback Machine
^History of Winthrop, Maine 1771–1925, p. 111.
^Plan for Paris Public Library from Maine Memory Network.
^Elevation for Paris Public Library from Maine Memory Network.
^Nathan Clifford Elementary Archived 2010-08-25 at the Wayback Machine
^"Skowhegan Municipal Building". Archived from the original on 2011-01-06. Retrieved 2010-10-11.
^Camden Yacht Club Archived 2009-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
^Pike Hall
^Saco Museum
^"Portland Water District - Portland Water District Douglass Street Facility, Portland, ca. 1928". portlandwater.mainememory.net. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
^Forest Avenue Post Office from Maine Memory Network.
^Uptown Theatre from Maine Memory Network.
^Woven Together in York County, Maine: A History 1865-1990 by Madge Baker, 1999
Further reading
John Calvin Stevens, Domestic Architecture, 1890–1930, by John Calvin Stevens II, and Earle G. Shettleworth Jr. Scarborough, Me. : Harp Publications, 1990. ISBN 0-9626389-1-9.
John Calvin Stevens on the Portland Peninsula 1880–1940, A Listing of his Work by Address, Client, and Chronology, by Earle G. Shettleworth Jr., Director, Maine Historic Preservation Commission.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Calvin Stevens.
Photographs in the Maine Memory Network
"Lindbergh Slept Here", Portland Magazine, Winter guide 2013. Vol. 27. Article about Castillo Del Mar, a tiled Spanish beachfront villa designed by Stevens
"In Maine, Acquiring a Homer Landscape". The Washington Post, 1 October 2004
John Calvin Stevens architectural drawings, circa 1882-1925, held by the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University