Established by Walter Cope and John Stewardson in 1885, and joined by Emlyn Stewardson in 1887, the firm of Cope & Stewardson survived John Stewardson's 1896 death and became one of the most influential and prolific Philadelphia firms to span from the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries. After John Stewardson's death, Walter Cope continued as partner in charge of design, with the younger Stewardson responsible for engineering and business matters. After Cope's death in 1902, Emlyn Stewardson maintained the firm name Cope & Stewardson, adding James P. Jamieson as chief designer; however, in 1912 Jamieson and Stewardson parted by mutual consent; and Stewardson closed the firm office in St. Louis, MO, which he had used to oversee the Washington University projects. In 1912 he revised the firm name to Stewardson & Page, with George B. Page installed as partner in charge of design.

While Cope & Stewardson are often chiefly regarded as the major exponents and purveyors of the Collegiate Gothic which swept campuses across the country in the latter part of the nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries, they were equally adept at other styles and other building types. Their earliest important commission was Radnor Hall at Bryn Mawr College (1886), when, ironically, they replaced Cope's mentor Addison Hutton as campus architects. Commissions shortly followed for buildings on the campuses of the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Washington University in St. Louis, MO. Although these academic buildings were their hallmark, other projects included residential, commercial, institution, and industrial buildings.

As important as their contribution to the architecture of Philadelphia and its environs is the role which Cope & Stewardson played in architectural education. Great numbers of young apprentices and would-be architects passed their days of training in the office, making it a general stopping place for many architects who would later become famous in their own right. In 1923 the annual T-Square club exhibition catalog published a photograph of the Cope& Stewardson office from about 1899. Included in the number of partners and younger architects are: Walter Cope; John A. MacMahon; James O. Betelle (later of Newark, NJ); Emlyn Stewardson; S. A. Cloud; Wetherill P. Trout; Herbert C. Wise; James P. Jamieson; Eugene S. Powers; E. Perot Bissell; Louise Stavely; Charles H. Bauer (later in Newark, NJ); William Woodburn Potter; John Molitor, Camillo Porecca; and C. Wharton Churchman.

Established in 1912 as successors to Cope & Stewardson, Stewardson & Page represented the partnership of Emlyn L. Stewardson and George B. Page. The relationship between the partners appears clear: Senior partner Emlyn L. Stewardson had received a degree in civil engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. Afer the death of his older brother John, he had become more important in Cope & Stewardson, but Walter Cope had remained partner-in-charge-of-design. After Cope's death in 1906, Stewardson had used the design expertise of James P. Jamieson; but when Jamieson and Stewardson parted company in 1912, former Cope & Stewardson draftsman George B. Page became the design partner. Page had attended the Atelier Laloux in Paris; he brought with him a knowledge of the traditional styles which had served the office so well in the past. In 1926 Stewardson & Page were awarded the annual medal given by the Philadelphia Chapter of the AIA for their Georgian Revival design for the highrise Insurance Company of North America (INA)Building. The success of their firm was based on a conservative treatment of style in the crucial 1920s, and many of their clients were the same as those whom Cope & Stewardson had served so successfully in years past.



Written by Sandra L. Tatman.