Background
John G. Howard was born in 1864 at Chemlsford, Massachusetts, United States.
(The library is named after its benefactor, Charles Frankl...)
The library is named after its benefactor, Charles Franklin Doe, who in 1904 bequeathed funds for its construction. It is located adjacent to the Bancroft Library. In 1900, Emile Benard won an architectural competition for the design of the library, and the Neoclassical-style building was completed in 1911.
John G. Howard was born in 1864 at Chemlsford, Massachusetts, United States.
A graduate of the old Latin School in Boston, he studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris under Laloux.
His apprenticeship in the practice of arch- tecture began under the late Henry Hobson Richardson, in 1885 the young man continued as draftsman with the Boston firm of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, successors to the Richardson practice. Early in the nineties Mr. Howard moved to New York to join McKim, Mead & White s busy office and remained there until he decided, though very young, to launch his own professional career. He took into partnership S. M. Cauldwell and under the name of Howard & Cauldwell designed such notable structures as the Hotel Renaissance on Fifth Avenue at 48th Street, 1896, the Essex Hotel on Madison Avenue at 56th Street, the Public Library at Montclair, N. J., High School at Newark, and a number of residences. Later he was associated with James M. Wood of Boston in preparing plans for the Majestic Theatre in that city, and independently designed the much admired Electric Tower at the Pan-American Exposition held in Buffalo in 1901, while serving as a member of the Architectural Board.
During subsequent years in California Mr. Howard continued his suc¬cessful career. Invited in 1900 by Mrs. Phoebe Hearst to consult with her regarding plans for a Hearst Memorial Mining Building at the newly established University of California at Berkeley, he remained to design the structure, and over a period of more than twenty years developed the general Campus plan and designed many buildings. Among these were the Greek Theatre, 1903; Sather Gate and Sather Tower; California Hall; Boalt Hall; Benjamin Ide Wheeler Hall; the Doe Library; Agriculture Hall and other units, and as Chairman of the Architectural Commission, was connected with work on the Memorial Stadium.
Shortly after opening an office in San Francisco Mr. Howard joined J. D. Galloway in partnership and for a decade or longer engaged in planning various buildings large and small under the firm name of Howard & Galloway. Among the most important of these works were the Adam Grant Building, the Italian-American Bank, corner of Montgomery and Sacramento Streets in San Francisco, 1907, and the Public Library at Berkeley. Also Mr. Howard, on the Architectural Board for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition held in Seattle in 1909, designed several buildings for the Fair grounds.
Later, appointed Chairman of the Advisory Board on the San Francisco Civic Center project, he was largely responsible for the location and layout of the area. Following the close of the first World War Mr. Howard served in France as Captain of the Red Cross on his return he resumed architectural practice in San Francisco, and after 1923 operated under the firm name of John G. Howard & Associates. It was during that period that two of his most important commissions were executed the First Congregational Church of Oakland and the LeConte School in San Francisco.
A prominent architect and educator, Mr. Howard was elected to the A.I.A. in 1901 and in the same year raised to fellowship.