Background
Alfred B. Harlow was born in 1857 at Middleborough, Massachusetts, United States.
Alfred B. Harlow was born in 1857 at Middleborough, Massachusetts, United States.
He attended local schools of Middleborough until he was seventeen years of age, when he entered “Boston Tech" for a three- year course in architecture.
After supplementary training in the office of Cabot & Chandler, the young man worked in New York for McKim, Mead & White, and upon his return to Boston in 1885 formed a partnership with the late A. W. Longfellow and Frank E. Alden. Having won the competition for the Pittsburgh Carnegie Library about 1892 it was decided to establish an office in the latter city. At that time Mr. Longfellow, not wishing to leave Boston, withdrew from the partnership, while Mr. Alden continued in association with Mr. Harlow.
From its inception the firm maintained a most successful practice. Among the important commissions awarded the partners was a large extension of the original Carnegie Library and all of the branch libraries in Pittsburgh; the Carnegie Office Building; Farmers’ Bank Building; Vandegrift Building; Duquesne Club; Second National Bank Building; Commercial National Bank Building, and the Museum and Fine Arts Building. Alden & Harlow also designed the Carnegie Library at Duquesne and a number of fine residences and various other buildings in the western part of the state.