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On the day of his death, leading American architect Henry Hobson Richardson left instructions that his practice should be continued by his three chief assistants: George Foster Shepley, Charles Hercules Rutan and Charles Allerton Coolidge, to whom he had delegated in his declining health greater and greater responsiblity. Shepley was then engaged to Richardson's daughter, and Coolidge soon married Shepley's sister. Following these instructions, and with the legal and financial backing of Richardson's friends and clients Edward W. Hooper and Frederick Lothrop Ames, they organized the firm of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge in June in Richardson's Brookline studio. They were first primarily engaged on the completion of Richardson's many unfinished works, including the Allegheny County Courthouse in Pittsburgh and the John J. Glessner House in Chicago.Jay Wickersham and Christopher Milford, "Richardson's death, Ames's money, and the birth of the modern architectural firm" in Perspecta 47 (2014): 114-127. By 1887 they had relocated from suburban Brookline to downtown Boston and were soliciting new work."Shepley, George F." in [https://archive.org/details/bostonoftodaygla01herna/page/n9/mode/2up Boston of To-day: A Glance at its History and Characteristics], ed. Richard Herndon (Boston: Post Publishing Company, 1892): 389. They three partners quickly settled into their new roles: Shepley and Coolidge as designers and Rutan as superintendent and office manager. Coolidge also emerged as the firm's promoter and rainmaker and quickly began to win major projects for the firm.

By the time of Richardson's death, the Richardsonian Romanesque style with which he is associated had become widely imitated and was seen as old-fashioned by the most progressive American architects. Richardson himself was moving away from explicitly Romanesque detail, as at the New London Union Station (1887). Shepley and Coolidge initially continued as Richardsonian imitators. Later historians such as Henry-Russell Hitchcock have found their Richardsonian work to be of a higher quality than other imitators, though in their hands, without Richardson's imagination, it became stale. Their Richardsonian works included the Ames Building (1889) in Boston, the Shadyside Presbyterian Church (1890) in Pittsburgh and the new campus of Stanford University (1891) near San Francisco. They kept their offices in the Ames Building until 1972.Henry-Russell Hitchcock, The Architecture of H. H. Richardson and his Times (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1961): 287-289.

After a few years Shepley and Coolidge embraced the Neoclassical and other contemporary revival styles, following the lead of McKim, Mead & White, who after Richardson's death had taken his position as the leading American architects. Their embrace of Neoclassicism first appeared in their unexecuted proposal for the Rhode Island State House (1891), a competition they lost to McKim, Mead & White."Shepley, George Foster" in The National Cyclopedia of American Biography 22 (New York: James T. White & Company, 1932): 99. Their first built Neoclassical works included the Art Institute of Chicago (1893) and the Chicago Cultural Center (1897). During this time they also became known for their Colonial Revival work, especially that at Harvard University. Their first Harvard building was Conant Hall (1894) and they held a near monopoly on design work at Harvard during the presidency of A. Lawrence Lowell.Bainbridge Bunting, Harvard: An Architectural History, ed. Margaret Henderson Floyd (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1985): 124. They were very successful in Chicago, where competing local architects began to jealously refer to them as "Simply Rotten & Foolish." In 1892 Coolidge consolidated all of the firm's field offices into a Chicago branch office, with himself as resident partner until 1900."Personal" in Inland Architect and Building News 18, no. 6 (January 1892): 79. If this move was in part an attempt to allay the Chicagoans' concern that they were architectural carpetbaggers, it was likely unsuccessful as additional important work, including the master plan and buildings of the University of Chicago, went into their office. In 1893 a second branch office was established in St. Louis, Shepley's hometown, under the management of John Lawrence Mauran. In 1900, as Coolidge returned to Boston, the firm chose to withdraw from St. Louis, and Mauran and two associates bought out the local business to form the firm of Mauran, Russell & Garden."Architects' Removals, etc." in [https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_American_Architect_and_Building_News/hqMDAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 American Architect and Building News] 69, no. 1281 (July 14, 1900): x.

Shepley died in 1903, and Rutan became disabled in 1912, leaving Coolidge as the only active partner. Coolidge dissolved the partnership effective December 1, 1914, followed shortly by Rutan's death."Sarah E. Rutan, executrix, vs. Charles A. Coolidge" in [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Massachusetts_Reports/iwVCAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 Massachusetts Reports] 241 (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1923): 584-600. By this time, Coolidge had found that the firm's two offices acted largely independently, and organized new partnerships to operate both: Coolidge & Shattuck with George C. Shattuck in Boston and Coolidge & Hodgdon with Charles Hodgdon in Chicago with Charles Hodgdon. Both Shattuck and Hodgdon were long-time employees.[https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Economist/rkROAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 Economist] 53, no. 6 (February 6, 1915): 239."Personals" in [https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_American_Architect/Vv4zAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 American Architect] 108, no. 2066 (July 28, 1915): 62. Though they were both directed by Coolidge, the two firms operated independently of one another. In 1923, Shattuck died, and in 1924 Coolidge formed a new Boston partnership with Henry R. Shepley, Francis V. Bulfinch and Lewis B. Abbott, known as Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch & Abbott. Shepley was the son of his former partner and his own nephew, and Bulfinch was the great-grandson of Charles Bulfinch."Coolidge, Charles Allerton" in The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography C (New York: James T. White & Company, 1930): 521. In 1930, Coolidge retired from the Chicago partnership, which was thereafter known as Charles Hodgdon & Son.Architectural Record 67, no. 5 (November 1930): 200.

Coolidge was active as the senior partner of the Boston firm until his death in 1936, leaving the younger Shepley as senior partner. The name of the firm was not changed until 1952, when, with the addition of Joseph P. Richardson, it was renamed Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson & Abbott. Richardson was the great-grandson of H. H. Richardson and Shepley's first cousin. Other principals were added to the partnership over the next twenty years: in 1960 by James Ford Clapp Jr., son of the former partner of Clarence H. Blackall, in 1961 by Sherman Morss, in 1963 by Jean Paul Carlihan and Hugh Shepley, son of Henry R. Shepley, and in 1969 by Otis B. Robinson. In 1972 the firm was incorporated and the partnership was dissolved. In 1973 the American Institute of Architects awarded the firm their prestigious Architecture Firm Award. Since 2000 the firm has been known as Shepley Bulfinch.

Richardson's studio was known as a training ground for young architects, many of whom would become notable in their own right. This continued under the leadership of Shepley and Coolidge. Their employees included:

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• John Scudder Adkins
• David Robertson Brown
• Herbert C. Burdett
• James Edwin Ruthven Carpenter Jr.
• Frank Irving Cooper
• John Robert Dillon
• Edward T. P. GrahamCambridge Tribune, July 9, 1904, 5.
• Alfred Hoyt Granger
• Henry Mather Greene
• Edwin Hawley Hewitt
• John Galen HowardSally B. Woodbridge, [https://www.google.com/books/edition/John_Galen_Howard_and_the_University_of/wP0rR_x0KFEC?hl=en&gbpv=0 John Galen Howard and the University of California] (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002)
• Myron Hunt
• Paul V. Hyland
• Arthur S. Keene"Keene, Arthur Simpson" in American Architects Directory (New York: R. R. Bowker Company, 1956): 290.
• Samuel Abraham Marx
• Victor Andre Matteson
• John Lawrence Mauran
• Edward Maxwell
• Louis Christian Mullgardt
• Charles Nagel
• Joseph Ladd Neal
• William G. Perry
• Roy Place
• Ernest John Russell
• Edward Durell Stone"Stone, Edward Durell" in American Architects Directory (New York: R. R. Bowker Company, 1956): 540.
• James Sweeney
• Hermann V. von Holst

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After Coolidge's death, fewer notable architects appear to have emerged from the firm. Those who did include:

• Robert T. Coles
• Eliot Noyes"Noyes, Eliot Fette" in American Architects Directory (New York: R. R. Bowker Company, 1956): 408.
• Francis Sargent

"Year" refers to date of completion. This list excludes works begun after 1978, the year control of the firm left the greater Richardson-Shepley-Coolidge family.

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