Pioneer Information
Cope & Stewardson was founded in 1885 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Walter Cope and John Stewardson. The two were childhood friends and had reconnected while working together in the office of Theophilus Parsons Chandler in Philadelphia in 1882. Best known for their collegiate architecture, notable works include Pembroke East and West at Bryn Mawr College, Brookings Hall at Washington University in St. Louis, the Quadrangle Dormitories at the University of Pennsylvania, and Blair Hall at Princeton University, amongst several other buildings on these universities’ campuses. The pair was widely recognized as one of the leading firms in designing college campuses, developing the Collegiate Gothic style, characterized by masonry construction, ornate details, and rectangular plans. Non-collegiate works include the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind (now Overbrook School for the Blind), the Ivy Club of Princeton, the City Hall of Atlantic City (demolished in 1969), the Municipal Building for Washington, D.C. (now John A. Wilson District Building), the Harrison Building in Philadelphia, and several other public and private projects. Cope & Stewardson collaborated closely with Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., and John Charles Olmsted of the Olmsted firm on myriad campus master planning initiatives at Bryn Mawr College and at Washington University in St. Louis. When Stewardson died unexpectedly in 1898, his younger brother Emlyn assumed his role as partner. Shortly after Cope’s death in 1902, Emlyn dissolved the firm of Cope & Stewardson and established Stewardson & Page with associate George Page. The firm trained a number of architects who went on to have successful careers, including James Betelle, James Jamieson, Louise Staveley, William Woodburn Potter, and C. Wharton Churchman.
