Thomas Waldron Sumner Explained

Thomas Waldron Sumner (1768–1849) was an architect and government representative in Boston, Massachusetts, in the early 19th century.^[1] He designed East India Marine Hall and the Independent Congregational Church in Salem;^{[2] [3]} and the South Congregational Society church in Boston. He was also involved with the Exchange Coffee House, Boston.^[4]

In Boston he lived on Cambridge Street^[5] and Chamber Street,^[6] and later moved to Brookline.^[7] He belonged to the Boston Associated Housewrights Society^[8] and the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanick Association.^[9] Sumner married Elizabeth Hubbard (1770–1839); children included Caroline Sumner (born 1796) and Thomas Hubbard Sumner. His parents were engineer James Sumner (1740–1814) and Alice Waldron (died 1773).^{[10] [11]} The artist John Christian Rauschner created portraits of Sumner and his wife.

Notes and References

1. "Lived in Boston; was an architect; Representative 1805–11, '16, '17...", pp.21, 49-50
2. Bryant Franklin Tolles, Jr. Architecture in Salem: an illustrated guide. NH: University Press of New England, 2004
3. Web site: Boston Athenaeum catalog . Independent Congregational Church, Barton Square, Salem, Mass. . 1828.
4. Jane Kamensky. Exchange Artist: a tale of high-flying speculation and America's first banking collapse. Viking, 2008.
5. [Boston Directory]
6. Boston Directory, 1805
7. R.G.F. Candage. "The Gridley House, Brookline, and Jeremy Gridley." Publications of the Brookline Historical Society, 1903
8. "Boston Associated Housewrights Society, instituted 1804. Thos. W. Sumner, president." cf. The Massachusetts manual, or, Political and historical register. Boston: Callender, 1814
9. Alpheus Cary. Addresses delivered before the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association ... 6th triennial celebration. Boston: Munroe & Francis, 1824
10. Appleton. 1879
11. Descendants may have included the architects Greene & Greene. cf. Kenneth Hafertepe, James F. O'Gorman. American architects and their books, 1840–1915, Books 1840–1915. Univ of Massachusetts Press, 2007