He was born on December 12, 1845 in Cumberland, Maryland, United States, the son of William and Marion (Bruce) Price.
On his father's side he was descended from Peter Reese Price (the name sometimes appears as Ap Rhys and Ap Rice), an early Welsh settler of Western Maryland, and from William Williams, a religious fanatic, said to have been a descendant of Owen Glendower, who settled in what was later Washington County, Maryland. On his mother's side, he was descended from Norman Bruce, who settled in Western Maryland in 1762. He studied abroad in 1868-69.
Education
Bruce Price was educated in the public schools of Cumberland and had just entered the College of New Jersey (Princeton) when the death of his father, a lawyer and judge, compelled him to undertake the partial support of the family.
Career
He went to Baltimore and worked for some time as a shipping clerk, meanwhile giving his evenings to the study of architecture under the well-known Baltimore firm of Niernsee & Neilson. In 1864 he entered the office of this firm as a draftsman, remaining four years.
He opened his own office in Baltimore. His first work of significance was Saint Paul's Church. In 1873, he opened an office in Wilkes-Barre. While here, his most important designs were those for the Methodist Church, Wilkes-Barre, and the Lee Memorial Church, Lexington.
In 1877 he moved his family to New York, which was his home for the rest of his life. His first important New York work was the Long Beach Hotel (since burned), nearly a quarter of a mile long. In the early eighties, he designed the West End Hotel at Bar Harbor, and a series of cottages there, culminating in the enormous cottage called "The Turrets. " By this time his reputation was wide and his practice grew rapidly.
His earlier work included the layout of Tuxedo Park (1885 - 86) for Pierre Lorillard and many of the individual houses there, the Scott and Lorillard houses at Newport, and a large amount of work in Canada, extending over many years, including the Château Frontenac at Quebec. The largest and most lavish of his domestic work was the great group called "Georgian Court" (1898 - 1900), for George Jay Gould, at Lakewood, N. J.
During the nineties, his practice grew to include more and more commercial work. In 1891 he had prepared a project - widely published and commented on - for a tower building for the New York Sun, which in general composition was a forerunner of the type developed later in Le Brun's Metropolitan Tower.
Price was the choice of a committee of Japanese architects who had made an extended world tour for the purpose of selecting the architect for a palace in Tokio for the Crown Prince of Japan; the drawings for the palace were completed when he fell fatally ill. He had also at that time just completed a rough preliminary sketch for a tower building for the New York American on The Circle, New York City, but this was never built. He was at one time president of the Municipal Art Society.
In his last year, when he left on a trip to Europe for his health, he took into partnership Henri de Sibour. He died in Paris, after two months' illness.
Achievements
Membership
He was a member of the Architectural League of New York (president, 1897 - 99), a fellow (1890) of the American Institute of Architects.
Connections
In April 1871, he married Josephine Lee, the daughter of Washington Lee, of Wilkes-Barre. They spent most of the following year in Europe, especially in Paris. He had two children, a son who died in infancy, and a daughter, Emily (Price) Post. His grandson, Bruce Price Post (1895 - 1927), was an architect of extraordinary promise and brilliance.