For the first three years after his 1858 marriage, Sturgis was in
Surrey, where he tried an architectural practice, but their time there ended with the death of their first child, Julia, in January 1861.
Colling & Sturgis By 1856/57, he had joined with Colling to form an architectural partnership. It seems Colling provided the designs and detailing for the architectural work and that Sturgis supervised the work in progress. Their first commission was the
Albany erected in 1856 for the Liverpool banker Richard Naylor. The Albany was built as a meeting place for cotton brokers. It contained offices and meeting rooms, together with warehousing facilities in the basement. It seems probable that this commission came to Colling and Sturgis as a result of Sturgis' fathers banking connection. The Albany was followed by the building of Ashwicke Hall in
Marshfield, Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire for the Liverpool Attorney John Orred. This was a massive
castellated Tudor Gothic House with a lofty octagonal tower at the S E. Then in 1859, John Naylor, brother of Richard Naylor, who was also a banker and
Montgomeryshire landowner requested Colling to re-build
Garthmyl Hall, Berriew for his brother-in-law Major-General William George Gold. Colling was given a free hand by the wealthy John Naylor when building Garthmyl Hall, as seen by the use of lavish gilding and plasterwork for ceiling decoration, and for the ornamental stonework on the exterior. This was an opportunity for him to put into practice some of the designs illustrated in his books. It is assumed that Sturgis was also involved in this project, as there appears to be widespread use of
Terracotta, which would have been supplied by
Blashfield of
Stamford in this project; and that stylistically this house appears to be a precursor to Sturgis' use of terracotta in America.
Bryant & Gilman and Boston practice In autumn 1861, Sturgis and his wife returned to Boston, where Sturgis found work at
Bryant & Gilman, then the largest architectural firm in Boston. During this time he worked his own practice as well, providing designs for seaside cottages for members of the family and others. These included • Sunnywaters in (1863),
Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, for his older brother Russell. •
The Grange, or
Codman House, in
Lincoln, Massachusetts, which he thoroughly redesigned from in 1862-8 for his wife's brother Ogden Codman. • Lowlands,
Nahant, Massachusetts, for George Abbott James. Sturgis also imported terracotta from J. M. Blashfield's works at Stamford, Lincolnshire for this project, which served as the prototype for the terracotta used for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Following the recommendations of
Henry Cole, Director of the
Victoria and Albert Museum, Sturgis & Brigham were appointed architects to build the new
Boston Museum of Fine Arts (1870–1876) in a
Gothic style. Colling prepared all the drawings for the terracotta decoration and commissioned them from Blashfield's works. For future supplies of terracotta for the Codman and YMCA buildings in Boston, which were the work of Sturgis & Brigham, they were likely to have been reliant in terracotta from the Chicago Terracotta Company, run by James Taylor, Blashfield's former foreman. Other buildings by Sturgis include: • Church of the Advent on
Beacon Hill, executed in the Early English Gothic Style between 1875 and 1888. • Isabella Stewart Gardner House for
Isabella Stewart Gardner on Beacon Street in Boston. • Frederick Ames House at 306 Dartmouth Street in Boston's
Back Bay (now known as the Ames-Webster Mansion). • "The Cottage" (1870) for
H. H. Hunnewell on the Hunnewell estate in Wellesley, Massachusetts. This last commission is considered to be the first
bona fide example of the Queen Anne style of residential architecture in the United States.
Later life In later years, Sturgis re-designed the 1737 Boylston House in Brookline, Boston, which he rented between 1870 and 1888 from Colonel Henry Lee. Sturgis died on a visit to England in 1888. After his death, his nephew
Richard Clipston Sturgis continued the architectural practice. ==Literature==