ABSTRACT
Boston in 1865 was a thriving city. The Civil War had ended and Boston had reaped the benefits of that war thanks to the inventions that caused it to flourish and prosper. The city had come to be known for its tradition of innovation that produced a number of practical breakthroughs. Into this world of innovation there appeared Henry Hobson Richardson, one of the very first architects to create a uniquely American genre of architecture. In Richardson's work we begin to see not only empirical experimentation but a mannerist quality. Trinity Church in Boston, probably his most restrained work, has a rich brick pattern and an unusual composition of arches. At the Allegheny Courthouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Richardson giddily plays with the arch motif and again seems to be using it in ways that pervert a structural order. Finally, we cannot ignore one of Richardson's most influential works, the Glessner House in Chicago, Illinois.
