Cummings and Sears (est. 1864) was an

architecture firm In the United States, an architectural firm or architecture firm is a business that employs one or more licensure, licensed architects and practices the profession of architecture; while in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark and ot ...

in 19th-century

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, established by

Charles Amos Cummings Charles Amos Cummings (June 26, 1833 – August 11, 1905) was a nineteenth-century American architect and architectural historian who worked primarily in the Venetian Gothic style. Cummings followed the precepts of British cultural theoris ...

and

Willard T. Sears Willard Thomas Sears (November 5, 1837 – May 21, 1920) was a prominent New England architect of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who worked primarily in the Gothic Revival and Renaissance Revival styles. In 1861, Sears opened ...

History and legacy

In the 1860s they kept an office in the Studio Building on Tremont Street, moving in the 1870s to

Pemberton Square Pemberton Square (est. 1835) in the Government Center area of Boston, Massachusetts, was developed by P.T. Jackson in the 1830s as an architecturally uniform mixed-use enclave surrounding a small park. In the mid-19th century both private resi ...

. Although most of their works are concentrated in

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

, they also were commissioned to design buildings as far west as

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

as well as on

Campobello Island Campobello Island (, also ) is the largest and only inhabited island in Campobello Parish in southwestern New Brunswick, Canada, near the border with Maine, United States. It is the site of the Roosevelt Campobello International Park, Head Ha ...

New Brunswick, Canada New Brunswick is a province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to the west. It is part of Eastern Cana ...

. Their best known work is

Old South Church Old South Church (also known as New Old South Church or Third Church), is a historic United Church of Christ congregation in Boston, Massachusetts, first organized in 1669. Its present building at 645 Boylston Street was designed in the Gothic R ...

in Boston, completed in 1875. Architects who worked in the office of Cummings & Sears include Charles L. Bevins of Rhode Island and

Warren R. Briggs Warren R. Briggs (1850–1933) was an American architect who worked in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Biography Briggs was born 6 June 1850, in Malden, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard University and worked for Boston architects Cummings and ...

and Edward A. Cudworth of Connecticut. Several of their buildings have been listed on the United States

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, and others contribute to listed historic districts.

Architectural works

* Academy Hall,

Phillips Academy Phillips Academy (also known as PA, Phillips Academy Andover, or simply Andover) is a Private school, private, Mixed-sex education, co-educational college-preparatory school for Boarding school, boarding and Day school, day students located in ...

Andover, Massachusetts Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was Settler, settled in 1642 and incorporated in 1646."Andover" in ''Encyclopedia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th ed. ...

(1865, demolished)Roger G. Reed, "The Lost Victorian Campus" in
Academy Hill: The Andover Campus, 1778 to the Present
' (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2000) * Brechin Hall,

Andover Theological Seminary Andover Theological Seminary (1807–1965) was a Congregationalist seminary founded in 1807 and originally located in Andover, Massachusetts on the campus of Phillips Academy. From 1908 to 1931, it was located at Harvard University in Cambrid ...

(1866, demolished) * Sears Building,

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

(1868-69, demolished 1967) * Capen School (former),

South Boston, Boston, Massachusetts South Boston (colloquially known as Southie) is a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, located south and east of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay. It has undergone several demographic transf ...

(1870-71) *

Mason & Hamlin Mason & Hamlin is an American manufacturer of handcrafted grand and upright Piano, pianos, based in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1854, it is one of two surviving American piano manufacturers from the Golden Age of the Piano, "Golden Age" o ...

Store,

(1870, demolished) *

Hotel Boylston Hotel Boylston (1871-1894) of Boston, Massachusetts, stood at the corner of Tremont Street and Boylston Street in today's Boston Theater District. The architecture firm of Cummings and Sears designed it "in the Italian-Gothic style" as a resident ...

(1871, demolished 1897) * Carriage house at "

Peacefield Peacefield, also called Peace field or Old House, is a historic home formerly owned by the Adams family of Quincy, Massachusetts. It was the home of United States Founding Father and U.S. president John Adams and First Lady Abigail Adams, an ...

Quincy, Massachusetts Quincy ( ) is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county. Quincy is part of the Greater Boston area as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in ...

(1872)Keith N. Morgan, ''Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston'' (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009) * House for

(1872) * House for

(1872) *

New England Hospital for Women and Children The New England Hospital for Women and Children was founded by Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska, Marie Zakrzewska on July 1, 1862. The hospital's goal was to provide patients with competent female physicians, educate women in the study of medicine, an ...

Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts Roxbury () is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Roxbury is a dissolved municipality and one of 23 official neighborhoods of Boston used by the city for neighborhood services coordination. The city states that Roxbury serv ...

(1872, NRHP 1985) * Congregational House,

(1873, demolished) * First Universalist Church,

Lynn, Massachusetts Lynn is the eighth-largest List of municipalities in Massachusetts, municipality in Massachusetts, United States, and the largest city in Essex County, Massachusetts, Essex County. Situated on the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Boston city line ...

(1873, demolished) *

(1873-75, NRHP 1970) *

Bedford Block The Bedford Block or Bedford Building is an historic commercial building at 99 Bedford Street Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United ...

(1874-75, NRHP 1979) * Macullar, Parker & Company Store,

(1874, demolished) * Montgomery Building,

(1874, demolished) *

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

Boathouse,

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

(1874-75, demolished 1910) * Stone Chapel,

(1875-76, demolished) * Grand Opera House,

New Bedford, Massachusetts New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast region. At the 2020 census, New Bedford had a population of 101,079, making it the state's ninth-l ...

(1881-82, demolished) * House for

Charles James Sprague Charles James Sprague (January 16, 1823, Boston – August 5, 1903, Hingham, Massachusetts) was a bank official, author, poet, musician, and botanist, specializing in lichenology. Charles James Sprague, whose father was the poet Charles Sprague ( ...

(1881) * Tyn-Y-Coed and Tyn-Y-Maes Hotels,

(1882-83, demolished)Kate Gannett Wells,
Campobello: An Historical Sketch
' (1893) * Cyclorama Building,

(1884, altered 1923, NRHP 1973) * Union Chapel (former), Magnolia, Massachusetts (1884) * House for James H. Frothingham,

Dublin, New Hampshire Dublin is a New England town, town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,532 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is home to Dublin School and Yankee (magazine), ''Yanke ...

(1885) * "Ullikana" for Alpheus Hardy,

Bar Harbor, Maine Bar Harbor () is a resort town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population is 5,089. The town is home to the College of the Atlantic, Jackson Laboratory, and MDI Biological Laborat ...

(1885) * Magnolia Library, Magnolia, Massachusetts (1887) * Peoples Trust Company Building,

Farmington, Maine Farmington is a town in and the county seat of Franklin County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 7,592. Farmington is home to the University of Maine at Farmington, Nordica Memorial Auditorium, the Nordica Homeste ...

(1887) * Proctor Academy,

Provo, Utah Provo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Utah County, Utah, United States. It is south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front, and lies between the cities of Orem, Utah, Orem to the north and Springville, Utah, Springville to the south ...

(1887, demolished)
Seventh Annual Report of the New West Education Commission
' (Chicago: New West Education Commission, 1887)

Gallery of architectural works

Notes

References

External links