Gridley James Fox Bryant (1816-1899) began his practice in 1837 and became the most prolific architect in Boston during the mid-nineteenth century.  His father was the inventor of the granite railway and a master of granite construction.  Bryant trained under Alexander Parris, the architect of many major granite buildings in Boston.  Continuing in the tradition that came to be known as “the Granite style”, Bryant shaped the architecture of Victorian Boston more than any single individual.  Less well known is the man with whom he associated for six incredibly productive years during which the stylistic influence of the French Second Empire dominated the architectural character of the city -- Arthur D. Gilman (1821-1882), an architect known in his own time as a man of uncompromising opinions and for a vision grounded in the belief that the Paris of Napoleon III was the premier city for Boston to emulate.  Gilman’s artistic vision supplemented Bryant’s extraordinary skills as a construction supervisor.

Like the more famous (but equally brief) partnerships of Adler and Sullivan or Burnham and Root, Bryant and Gilman were two men of very different skills and temperaments.  Their association combined the talents of a supervising architect and a theoretical designer in a way that enabled the two men to secure all of the major commissions in Boston for a brief but important period in the architectural history of the city.  Beginning in the late 1850s and continuing through the Civil War years until 1866, Boston continued to grow with major building projects and the expansion of residential neighborhoods like the Back Bay.  The popularity of the Second Empire style, so characteristic of Boston’s Victorian architecture, coincided with the association of these two men.

Roger Reed is a historian for the National Register of Historic Places in the National Park Service.  Prior to moving to Washington, he worked as an architectural historian for the Maine Historic Preservation Commission and the Brookline (Massachusetts) Preservation Commission.  He is the author of several books and articles on nineteenth century architecture, including Building Victorian Boston The Architecture of Gridley J.F. Bryant published by the University of Massachusetts Press.