Historic Shingle Style house with a broad porch and coastal character
Shingles, generous porches, and forms adapted to their setting became defining features of late nineteenth-century coastal architecture.

John Calvin Stevens (1855–1940) was born in Boston. His family moved to Portland in 1857, when he was two years old. The Great Fire of 1866 later destroyed the family home along with nearly 1,000 other buildings.

Training and an independent practice

After completing high school in 1873, Stevens entered the office of Francis Fassett, one of Portland’s best-known architects. He followed the customary progression from office boy through draftsman and became a partner in 1880.

Stevens then ran a Boston branch office for two years. During this period he became friends with architect William Ralph Emerson, an early practitioner of the approach that came to be known as the Shingle Style.

After returning to Portland, Stevens worked with Fassett for about a year before establishing an office in 1883. Five years later he formed a partnership with Albert Winslow Cobb. Their three-year association produced projects that included the Baptist church in Skowhegan and plans for an unbuilt library in Bath.

Stevens opened his own Portland office in 1891. The following four decades brought sustained activity. His son John Howard joined the practice in 1900, and the firm produced more than 500 works in a wide range of architectural styles.

A versatile regional practiceAlthough closely associated with the Shingle Style, Stevens selected forms suited to each commission. Coastal cottages could use informal shingled surfaces, while an urban residence might call for Colonial Revival design.

Shingle Style and coastal Maine

From the mid-1880s through the turn of the twentieth century, Stevens played an important part in the evolution of the Shingle Style. He designed many works along the Maine coast, including a substantial group in Delano Park, a development in Cape Elizabeth.

The Charles Homer cottage at Prouts Neck illustrates the style’s suitability for a coastal retreat. Stevens also worked for the Homer family, who owned a large tract at Prouts Neck in Scarborough, divided it into lots, and built cottages there. His clients included the landscape painter Winslow Homer, as well as Homer’s brother Charles.

Libraries and public landmarks

Stevens’s work extended beyond private residences. He designed libraries, churches, clubs, institutional buildings, civic structures, and large houses. Numerous projects associated with his practice are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

LibrariesJohn B. Curtis Library in Bradford, Cary Library in Houlton, and Zadoc Long Free Public Library in Buckfield.
Portland landmarksJ. B. Brown Memorial Block, Charles Q. Clapp Block and House, McLellan-Sweat Mansion, Portland Club, and Williston-West Church and Parish House.
Augusta landmarksThe Blaine House and Governor John F. Hill Mansion.
Other Maine projectsBangor Mental Health Institute in Bangor; Hyde Mansion and Winter Street Church in Bath; City Hall in Biddeford; and the Yacht Club in Camden.

Painting and the Brush’uns

Stevens was also an accomplished artist. From about 1900 to 1920, he created hundreds of paintings with the Brush’uns, a group of plein-air painters who regularly worked in Cape Elizabeth, Capisic, Stroudwater, and the Casco Bay islands. Their outdoor sessions recorded Maine’s landscapes and changing seasons.

A 2015 exhibition at the University of New England’s Portland art gallery brought attention to this less familiar side of his work. It presented paintings and other artwork alongside the architectural career for which he is more widely known.

Additional resources

Stevens, John Calvin II, and Earle G. Shettleworth. John Calvin Stevens: Domestic Architecture, 1890–1930. Scarborough, Maine: Harp Publications, 1990.

University of New England. “UNE Presents the Art Work of John Calvin Stevens.” 13 April 2015.