Alexander Parris (November 24, 1780 - June 16, 1852) was a prominent American architect-engineer. His work transitions between Federal style architecture and later Greek Revival.
Parris was born in Halifax, MA. As a boy, he worked for a carpenter in Portland, ME. Talent led him to study architecture, and he would design a number of buildings in Portland. In the War of 1812, he served in Plattsburg, New York as a Captain of the Artificers (engineers), gaining knowledge of military requirements for engineering. Subsequently, after mild success designing houses in Richmond, VA, he found a position in the Boston, MA office of architect Charles Bulfinch. Like his famous employer, from whom he learned, Parris created refined residences. In 1818, he helped complete the "Bulfinch Building" at Massachusetts General Hospital, when Bulfinch himself was called to Washington, DC to work on the Capitol Building. Between 1815 and 1827, Parris would become Boston's leading architect.
From 1820 - 1840s, however, he began working increasingly for the Boston Navy Yard, and later at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. With the federal government as patron, Parris produced plans for numerous utilitarian structures, including ropewalks and drydocks. Today, he is fondly remembered for his stalwart stone lighthouses, generally of a tapered style termed "windswept."
Parris juxtaposed the delicacy of his "superb draftsmanship," as it was called, with the coarseness of his building material of choice: granite. His most famous building, Quincy Market, is made of it.
Buildings and Lighthouses:
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- 1804 - James Deering House, Portland, ME
- 1804 - Portland Bank, Portland, ME
- 1805 - Hunnewell-Shepley House, Portland, ME
- 1807 - Preble House, Portland, ME
- 1812 - Wickham House, Richmond, VA
- 1813 - Governor's Mansion, Richmond, VA
- 1816 - David Sears House, Boston, MA
- 1816 - Watertown Arsenal, Watertown, MA
- 1819 - St. Paul's Cathedral, Boston, MA
- 1822 - St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Windsor, VT
- 1824 - Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, MA
- 1826 - Quincy Market, Boston, MA
- 1828 - United First Parish Church, Quincy, MA
- 1834 - St. Joseph's Church, Boston, MA
- 1834 - Ropewalk, Boston Navy Yard, Charlestown, MA
- 1839 - Saddleback Ledge Lighthouse, between Vinalhaven and Isle au Haut, ME
- 1846 - Matinicus Rock Lighthouse, Matinicus Rock, ME
- 1847 - Mount Desert Rock Lighthouse, Mount Desert, ME
- 1850 - Monhegan Island Lighthouse, Monhegan Island, ME
- 1850 - Execution Rocks Lighthouse, Long Island Sound, NY
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