John Lyman Faxon was born July 19, 1851, in Quincy, Massachusetts, to Francis Gray Faxon and his first cousin, Elizabeth (Faxon) Faxon.[1] He attended the architectural school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating in 1874.[2] He then formed a partnership with his uncle, J. Warren Faxon, a grocer turned real estate developer. This partnership, known as J. W. & J. L. Faxon, was formed to design and develop buildings in downtown Boston. This was dissolved in 1876, with Faxon turning to private practice.[3] In 1877 Faxon briefly relocated to Saint John, New Brunswick, prompted by the fire of that year. In practice as Currier & Faxon with Springfield architect James M. Currier, Faxon was one of many architects who participated in the rebuilding of St. John. Faxon returned to Boston in January 1878.[4]
In 1909 Faxon formed a partnership with New York architects Danford N. B. Sturgis, a son of architect Russell Sturgis, and Norman McGlashan.[5] The new firm of Sturgis, Faxon & McGlashan, known as Sturgis & Faxon from 1910, had offices in New York and Boston, but was cut short by the death of Sturgis in 1911.[6]
Faxon married in 1882, to Mary Jane Carr of Quincy.[7] They separated circa 1888, and she died in 1894. They had one daughter.[8]
Faxon was the author of Byzantine Art and the New Old First (1891), written to explain his architectural philosophy as well as his design of the First Congregational Church of Detroit. He also wrote extensively on art and design in the architectural press. After his retirement, Faxon prepared a manuscript entitled The Ancient Theatres of Europe, which was completed but unpublished at the time of his death. It was gifted to the Boston Public Library in 1925.[9]
At least three buildings designed by Faxon have been listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places, and others contribute to listed historic districts.
George L. Faxon, The History of the Faxon Family, Containing a Genealogy of the Descendants of Thomas Faxon of Braintree, Mass. (Springfield: Springfield Printing Company, printers, 1880)
"Currier, James Monroe," dictionaryofarchitectsincanada.org, Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada, 1800-1950, n. d. Accessed April 29, 2021.
History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, ed. D. Hamilton Hurd (Philadelphia: J. W. Lewis & Company, 1884)
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