Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Irish-born architect, of Portland, Maine. Henry Rowe was born in Kinsale in 1812 and appears to have become a pupil of GEORGE RICHARD PAIN  GEORGE RICHARD PAIN in Cork. In about 1840 he emigrated to the United States, working in Boston and New York before arriving in Portland Maine, in 1845. Announcing his arrival in an advertisement in a Portland newspaper, he described himself as 'having had ten years practical experience in the employ of the best English Architects in the 'Old Countries' and five years in Boston and New York'; in a later advertisement he stated that he had studied architecture under the celebrated Gothic Architect, G.R. Pain of London'. Both advertisements are phrased to give the impression that he had been in England, which was probably not the case. According to Severens, Rowe had ambitions to become a Shakespearean actor as well as a Gothic Revival architect and wrote long articles on both subjects to the Portland newspapers. He died in 1870.



References

All information in this entry is from Kenneth Severens (personal communication).