John A. Fox, Father of Stick Style Architecture

John Andrews Fox (1836-1920) is considered the “Father of Stick Style” architecture in the United States. Born and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts, he served in the Civil War with Co. I and F of the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, which lasted from 1862-1865 and included Sherman's "March to the Sea." He was initially associated with the civil engineering firm of Garbett & Wood and later had an independent architectural practice in Boston for fifty years. He was active in the Boston Society of Architects and the Boston chapter of the American Institute of Architects, which he helped found in 1870. He lived at 25 Trull Street in Dorchester, just west of Upham's Corner and where he designed many of the new residences being built following the annexation of Dorchester in 1870 to the city of Boston. Many of his private residences in the “Stick Style” were built in the metropolitan area as well as the Town Hall in Provincetown in 1886, and the Home for Aged Couples on Seaver Street in Roxbury.

The Fox Family monument is on Weigelia Path.