Shaw & Hunnewell

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by Adam Gaugh.

The partnership of George Russell Shaw (1848-1937) and Henry S. Hunnewell (1851-1931) spanned thirty years, beginning in 1873 in Boston, Massachusetts. During the mining boom in the Copper Country, Shaw & Hunnewell designed two buildings for the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company, the General Office Building and the Library.

Biography

George Russell Shaw was born in Parkman (Piscataquis County), Maine, on October 28, 1848. He was educated in architecture at Harvard, receiving his A.B. in 1869 and A. M. in 1872. He continued his studies in London and at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Shaw retired in 1904 to devote his time to literary work and published a number of books, including The Pines of Mexico (1909) and Genus Pinos (1914). He died on January 15, 1937, in Concord, Massachusetts.1

Henry S. Hunnewell was born on March 11, 1851, in Boston. After graduation from Harvard in 1875, Hunnewell spent six months abroad traveling and studying architecture. Shortly after returning, he joined Shaw. Hunnewell died on June 22, 1931.2

In 1873, Shaw began a practice in Boston in partnership with Henry Hunnewell. Shaw & Hunnewell designed the Free Hospital for Women in Brookline, Pierce Hall at Harvard, the Library at Wellesley College, Ear and Eye Hospital in Boston, and the Jefferson Physics Building at Harvard.3 In the Copper Country, they designed the Calumet & Hecla General Office building in 1887 and the Calumet & Hecla Library in 1898. Both architects apparently had family connections to Calumet & Hecla Mining Company, including Quincy Shaw, the vice president, and three Hunnewells on the board of directors.4

Buildings

Notes

  1. Henry F.Withey and Elsie Rathburn Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased) (1956; Los Angeles: Hennessey and Ingalls, 1970), 547. George Russell Shaw Papers, Library of the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University Archives.
  2. Withey,  Biographical Dictionary, 308.
  3. Withey,  Biographical Dictionary, 308.
  4. Lynn Bjorkman, “Draft Historic Structure Report: Calumet & Hecla General Office” Keweenaw National Historical Park.