page_title: Clarke & Howe
section_title: Clarke & Howe, 1913-1928
hierarchical_section_title: Clarke & Howe / Architectural Works / Clarke & Howe, 1913-1928
caption_attribution_description: English: Wanskuck Branch Library, Providence, Rhode Island
context_page_description: Clarke & Howe was an American architectural firm from Providence, Rhode Island that was active from 1893 to 1928.
  The firm was established in 1893 as Clarke & Spaulding, with Prescott O. Clarke and Arthur R. Spaulding. Wallis E. Howe was added as a partner in 1901, with the firm becoming Clarke, Spaulding & Howe. This association was short-lived, as Spaulding retired from architecture later that year. From 1907 to 1913 the firm was known as Clarke, Howe & Homer, with Eleazer B. Homer, a former MIT professor of architecture. Clarke & Howe was dissolved upon Clarke's retirement in 1928, with Howe continuing the practice as Howe & Church.
context_section_description: Before the breakup of Clarke, Howe & Homer, the Newport Public Library hired the firm to design their new quarters.  As Clarke & Howe, the firm remodeled the noted Edward King House, a large Italianate mansion designed by Richard Upjohn.  The library later moved into a purpose-built building, and the King house is now a senior center.  Two years later, in 1915, they designed St. Elizabeth's Home on Melrose Street in Providence, another Jacobethan production.  Also in 1915 they were hired to design a house for Howe's old fraternity at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.  The resulting building, Briarfield House, is a Tudor Revival design, complemented by a wooded site.  It was completed in 1922.  In 1925, they designed the Guiteras Memorial School in Bristol.  The conservative Classical design was based on a Greek Revival house that had recently burned.  During the 1920s, Clarke & Howe was commissioned by the Providence Public Library to design a standard design for the city's branch libraries.  Only the Wanskuck Branch Library (1926–28) on Veazie Street was built to that original plan. Howe later designed several other branches, but to different designs each time.  Also in 1926, they designed for St. Andrew's School a new building called Gardner Hall.  The architects also designed the now-demolished Marvel Gymnasium for Brown University in 1927.
  During this latter period, they designed several churches.  In 1916 they built St. Martin's Episcopal Church, all told one of their most important commissions.  The prototype for the church was a typical English village church, a common source for a great deal of American churches.  In 1925, they would add a parish house to the rear of the church.  They designed another Providence church, the Church of the Redeemer, on Hope Street in 1917.  In 1920, they completed the spire of St. Luke's in East Greenwich.  The church itself was designed in 1878 by A. R. Esty.  In 1922-23, they built St. George's on Clinton Street in Central Falls.  Their final church commission was in 1928, when they designed a new sanctuary for the Fourth Baptist Church of Providence.  The new building was built on Hope Street, placed alongside the old church, which became a parish house.  The church is now occupied by the Mt. Hope Community Baptist Church.
  The firm continued to receive several commissions for commercial buildings, including one of Providence's first skyscrapers: the Telephone Building. Built in 1917 as the headquarters of the Providence Telephone Company.  it is eight stories tall, and  was the tallest commercial building outside of the financial district.  In 1920, they designed the central branch of Citizens Savings Bank at Hoyle Square.  An impressive temple-front bank, it remains a Citizens branch to this day.  A third large building was the Providence Gas Company Building, at 100 Weybosset Street, built in 1924.  This office building is especially noted for its distinctive ogee gable, first used in Rhode Island on the Joseph Brown House.
  Clarke & Howe also designed many large residences during this period.  The first of these was that for Edward I. Watson (1915), at 140 Nayatt Road in Barrington.  This was a large, Colonial Revival summer residence for a Providence businessman.  In the 1920s, they designed a great deal of large houses in Providence.  These included those for Thomas A. Francis (1922, 156 Hope Street), Frank B. Lisle (1923, 59 Manning Street), Archie W. Merchant (1924, 48 Barberry Hill), and Paul C. DeWolf (1925, 25 Freeman Parkway).  These all showed different variants of Colonial Revival design as it developed through the 1920s.  Also, in 1926, they designed a stern, brick Jacobethan house for Alfred M. Coats at 175 Upton Avenue.
  Other designs include:
  James Davenport House, 25 George St., Providence, RI (1914)
  Arnold Laboratory, Brown University, Providence, RI (1915)
  Irene M. Butler House, 59 George St., Providence, RI (1915)
  Laurel Hill Avenue Grammar School, Laurel Hill Ave. & Cleveland St., Providence, RI (1916)
  John Post Reynolds School, High & Court Sts.,
caption: Wanskuck Branch Library, Providence, RI. 1926-28.
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