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
John Calvin Stevens house, Portland, ME (1883–84)
Floor plans and interior details
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.
^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.
ISBN0-9626389-1-9.
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.