John Goddard Stearns (1843-9/16/1917) Boston Massachusetts (F.A.I.A.)

Stearns was a senior partner in the firm of Peabody & Stearns, which was one of the best known architectural organizations in New England, over a period of forty years. Mr. Stearns was born in New York City, but was educated and spent nearly all his life in Brookline, Massachusetts. In preparation for an architectural career, he entered the Lawrence Scientific School at Cambridge and graduated with the class of 1863, but did not continue his studies until after the end of the Civil War. Then he entered the Boston office of Ware & Van Brunt, and for several years continued his training under Mr. Ware's direction.

In 1870 he joined Robert S. Peabody in a partnership which was maintained until his death in 1917, and less then a month after Mr. Peabody passed away.

In the extensive practice of the firm during the late 19th and early 20th century, many notable buildings were designed in the office of Peabody & Stearns, including the Exchange Building, 53 State Street, one of the largest buildings in Boston and headquarters of the firm for many years. Unitarian Association Buildings; Wentworth Institute; Simmons College Building, and the tower of the Custom house, all in Boston; Mathews Hall and the Hemenway Gymnasium at Harvard University; The Boy's School at Groton Massachusetts; City Halls in Worcester and Chelsea, Massachusetts, and many fine residences in suburban locations in Lenox, Massachusetts, and Newport Rhode Island.

In addition, Peabody & Stearns designed the Church of the Messiah and the Museum of Fine Arts in Saint Louis, Missouri, and in 1892, the Massachusetts Building and Hall of Machinery, a monumental group about the grand court at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.