John Andrews Fox was born on December 23, 1835, in Newburyport, Massachusetts, to Thomas Bayley Fox and Feroline Walley Pierce. His father was a clergyman who owned $4,500 of real estate and $500 of personal property by 1860. The family moved to Dorchester, Massachusetts, until 1845, and Fox attended school there. He trained as a civil engineer and surveyor before beginning work as an architect in 1858.

 

He received a commission as a 2^nd lieutenant in Company I of the 2^nd Massachusetts Infantry on January 6, 1862. He was promoted to 1^st lieutenant on August 10, 1862. He took part in the Chattanooga campaign, the Atlanta campaign, and the March to the Sea, and he mustered out on July 14, 1865.

 

He settled in Boston, Massachusetts, after the war and became a prominent architect. He primarily designed suburban homes, and one historian later declared him the “Father of Stick Style architecture.” He married Josephine Clapp around 1878, and the couple had no children. He applied for a federal pension in July 1913 and eventually secured one. He died in Dorchester on May 4, 1920.

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