Edwin L. Howland (1838–1876) was an American architect from Rhode Island who, despite his short career, designed several of Providence's most significant buildings of the 1860s and 1870s.
Edwin Lee Howland was born in Pawtucket on June 5, 1838, to Edwin and Susan Howland.American Architect and Building News 4 Nov. 1876: 359. He attended the public schools, and entered Providence High School in 1852.A Brief Sketch of the Establishment of the High School, Providence. 1878. After high school he worked for Russell Warren, then near the end of his life. After Warren's death (1860) he was in Hartford, Connecticut,"Edwin Howland Family Papers". http://www.rihs.org/. n.d. where he worked for William T. Hallett. Then he moved on to New York, where he worked for Calvert Vaux. In 1864 he returned to Providence, associating himself with prominent ecclesiastical architect James Murphy. He had left Murphy and established his own office by 1868. Howland died in Providence on June 28, 1876. In his will he left his architectural library to the Rhode Island chapter of the American Institute of Architects,Proceedings of the 13st Annual Convention of the American Institute of Architects. 1880. of which he had been a founding member in January 1876.Proceedings of the 21st Annual Convention of the American Institute of Architects. 1888.
Howland was noted for his High Victorian Gothic designs, predominantly churches. His Wilcox Building of 1875 is considered the best example of this type of architecture in the state.Jordy, William H. Buildings of Rhode Island. 2004.
Upon Howland's death, chapter secretary Charles P. Hartshorn wrote of him and his work, "Mr. Howland was a man of sterling integrity, of untiring devotion to his profession, and honorable in the practice therof. Of much original genius, his later works show a remarkable increase in power of design and refinement of taste, and some of them deserve to rank with the best of the present generation ... let us so build that when we too pass on, each one of us may leave as clean a record behind".
Architectural work 1868 - Federal Street Grammar School, 153 Dean St, Providence, Rhode IslandWoodward, Wm. McKenzie. Providence: A Citywide Survey of Historic Resources. 1986. Demolished 1869 - Church of the Mediator, 101 Cranston St, Providence, Rhode IslandCady, John Hutchins. The Civic and Architectural Development of Providence, 1636-1950. 1957. Mostly demolished 1870 - St. Peter's Church, 72 Central St, Narragansett Pier, Rhode IslandNarragansett Pier, Narragansett, Rhode Island: Statewide Historical Preservation Report W-N-1. 1978. 1871 - First Universalist Church, 250 Washington St, Providence, Rhode IslandFirst Universalist Church NRHP Nomination. 1977. 1873 - Pilgrim Congregational Church, 18 Harrison St, Providence, Rhode Island Heavily altered 1874 - Durfee Building, 77 Dyer St, Providence, Rhode IslandReports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Rhode Island. Ed. Arnold Green. Vol. 14. 1909-10 Demolished, Howland's only known Second Empire design 1874 - Dutee Wilcox House, 643 Elmwood Ave, Providence, Rhode Island"Death of Dutee Wilcox". Jeweler's Circular 1918: 49. Demolished 1875 - Wilcox Building, 42 Weybosset St, Providence, Rhode Island
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