George F. Meacham was born in 1831 in
Watertown, Massachusetts to Giles A. and Jane A. Meacham. In 1849, after attending schools in
Newton,
Waltham and
Cambridge, he entered
Harvard College. He graduated in 1853. and by 1858 they had formed a partnership. Meacham established an independent firm in Boston in 1864. Meacham was appointed architect of Boston's new Masonic Temple in 1866, after the health of the original architect,
Merrill G. Wheelock, failed. Construction had begun in 1865, and Meacham completed the exterior of the building to Wheelock's design and was responsible for the design of the interior. The building was dedicated in 1867. It has been demolished. In 1867 a set of plans for an apartment house designed by Meacham was published in an overview of charity work in France, though it does not indicate whether it was intended to be built in France or Boston, where the book was printed. Meacham continued in Boston until 1891, when he retired from active practice. He was also responsible, in 1865, for an extension to the Center Cemetery of
Shirley, and for Farlow Park in Newton in 1882. ==Personal life==