J. Pickering Putnam also known as J.P. Putnam or John Pickering Putnam, was an American architect and designer who "pioneered the concept of the modern apartment building." He designed several buildings in the Back Bay area of Boston, Massachusetts. He earned a number of design patents related to plumbing, ventilation, and the like, such as US Patent No.563,064, a design for a washbasin.
Brief biography
Putnam was born as "John Amory Putnam" in Boston in 1847, to John Pickering Putnam and Harriet Upham. He was one of 4 children; his siblings were Mary Upham Putnam ; Harriet Putnam ; and Sarah Gooll Putnam, a painter. Putnam graduated from the Boston Latin School, and from Harvard College in 1868. He then trained at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, in 1869, and the Royal Academy of Architecture, Berlin, 1870-1872. "The war interrupted his studies. Leaving Paris for Berlin, he was twice arrested as a Prussian spy, while sketching in the streets." On returning to the US in 1872 he began practicing architecture and was associated professionally with George Thomas Tilden. In 1885 Putnam married Grace Cornelia Stevens; they had 2 children: Grace Elizabeth Putnam and John Pickering Putnam, Jr.. He was a member of the Boston Society of Architects; St. Botolph Club; Portfolio Club of Boston; and The Cold Cut Club of Boston.
Selected designs
1872—George S. Draper house, Hopedale MA;.
1872 --, Nahant MA; remodel, with George T. Tilden.
The outlook for the artisan and his art. 1899. “The author shows how the change, from the profit system to Nationalism, will relieve the artisan from anxiety and enable him to put art into his daily work to an extent that the world has never yet seen.”
Plumbing and household sanitation. 1911.
About Putnam
Our plumbing laws; Views of an Expert Upon the Sanitary Requirements of Dwelling Houses. Boston Daily Globe Jan 3, 1885. p. 6.
Work for the unemployed; Cooperative Association to Hold Mass Meeting. Several Prominent Men to Speak in Faneuil Hall Tomorrow Night. Rev Henry Vrooman, the President, Explains the Object of the Organization. Boston Daily Globe. Dec 3, 1900. p. 10.
Deborah Fulton Rau. John Pickering Putnam, Visionary in Boston: A Systematic Approach to Apartment House Design. Architectura 22.
