Biographies
Charles and Henry Greene were born in Brighton, Ohio, now part of Cincinnati, in 1868 and 1870, respectively. They grew up primarily in St. Louis, Missouri, and on their mother's family farm in West Virginia while their father attended medical school.
As teenagers, the brothers studied at the Manual Training School of Washington University in St. Louis, where they studied metal- and wordworking and graduated in 1887-1888. Their father, a practicing homeopathic physician by this time, was very concerned with the need for sunlight and circulating fresh air; the importance of these elements was to become one of the signatures of the brothers' work.
Charles and Henry each received a "certificate for completion of partial course," a special two-year program at MIT's School of Architecture, in 1891. They studied classical building styles, intending at that time only to gain certification for apprenticeships with architecture and construction firms upon graduation.
After MIT in spring 1890, Charles apprenticed first with the firm of Andrews, Jaques and Rantoul; but after four and a half months, moved to the office of R. Clipston Sturgis. By March 1891, he had moved again to work with Herbert Langford Warren; and by the following November, he had changed again to the firm of Winslow and Wetherell. He would stay there until the two brothers departed to join their parents in Pasadena, California. Henry apprenticed first with the firm of Chamberlin & Austin and then briefly went to work with Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge. All of the firms the brothers worked for were located in Boston, Mass.
In 1893 their parents requested that the sons move to Pasadena, where they had moved to a year before. The brothers agreed and, while traveling by train from Boston, they stopped at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and saw a few examples of Japanese architecture. This experience made a lasting impression on both of them, according to a late-in-life interview with Henry. There was actually very little Japanese influence upon their work until after Charles visited the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis.
In 1901 Charles Greene married Alice Gordon White, and they honeymooned in Europe and her native England.
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