Bryant (Gridley J.F.) is born in Boston.

The son of Gridley and Maria (Fox) Bryant, Gridley Bryant grows grew up in Boston and Quincy, and studies engineering at the Gardner Lyceum in Maine. After working for Alexander Parris, Bryant begins his own architectural practice in 1838, initially at 51 Court Street, then at 4 Court Street. Working on his own and with others, he becomes the leading architect of Victorian Boston. Bryant builds a home at 66 Marlborough Street in 1870.* He dies in poverty in the Home For Aged Men, a building he designed, on June 8, 1899. He is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery.