RICHARDSON, HENRY HOBSON (1838-1886), Ameri can architect, was born in the parish of St. James, La., on Sept. 29, 1838, of a rich family, his mother being a grand-daughter of the famous Dr. Priestley, the English dissenting refugee and man of science. He was graduated from Harvard university in 1859, and went immediately to Paris to study architecture, entering the Ecole des ' Beaux-Arts. The Civil War, which broke out in the United States while he was in the school, prevented his return to Louisiana, and stripped his family of their possessions. Rich ardson provided for his own support by working in the offices of practising architects in Paris, till the fall of 1865. He then estab lished himself in New York, where he soon made his way into practice as an architect. In 1878 he moved to Boston, designing there most of the work that made his reputation. He married in 1867 Miss Julia Gorham Hayden of Boston; he died there on April 27, 1886.
Richardson's career was short, and the number of his works was small indeed compared with the attention they attracted and the influence he left behind him. The most important and characteristic are : Trinity church and the so-called Brattle Square church, in Boston; the alterations in the State Capitol at Albany; the county buildings at Pittsburgh ; town halls at Albany, Spring field and North Easton; town libraries at Woburn, North Easton, Quincy, Burlington and Malden; Sever hall and Austin hall at Harvard university; the Chamber of Commerce at Cincinnati. Trinity church, the Pittsburgh buildings and the Capitol at Albany were works of great importance, which have had a strong influence on men who followed him.
The best known book about Richardson is Mrs. Schuyler van Rensselaer's H. H. Richardson and his Works (Boston, 1888).