Richardson (Henry Hobson) is born in St. James Parish, Louisiana.

The son of a wealthy cotton merchant, H.H. Richardson graduates from Harvard College, studies at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, marries Bostonian Julia Gorham Hayden, and begins to practice architecture in New York City in 1866. He arrives in Boston in 1874, settles in Brookline, develops a signature style called Richardsonian Romanesque, and goes on to design some of the best known and most highly regarded churches, libraries, and other buildings in the Boston area. A large man, who suffers from Bright’s disease, Richardson dies in Brookline on April 27, 1886, and is buried in Walnut Hills Cemetery.