A prolific church architect in his own right, Murphy continued his mentor’s work designing ecclesiastical buildings in New England for more than half a century.
James Murphy was born in County Tipperary, Ireland in 1834 and immigrated to the United States around the age of 18 with his brother, Michael. Upon landing in Brooklyn, New York, Murphy took up work as an apprentice to fellow Irishman, Patrick Keely. Like Keely, as an aspiring church architect, Murphy found himself in the right place at the right time with a high demand for Catholic construction on the rise due to the rapid growth in congregation numbers.
In the 1860s, Murphy and Keely entered into a partnership that lasted for nearly a decade. One of the last projects the two appeared to have worked on together was St. Mary Church in New Haven, CT completed in 1874. According to the St. Mary parish archives, the first set of drawings is stamped from the office of Keely & Murphy and dates to the mid-1860s. However, later drafts show James Murphy finished the design and carried out the construction without the collaboration of Keely.
(left) Patrick Keely’s St. Mary Church, Newport, RI 1848 (right) James Murphy’s Our Lady Help of Christians, Newton, MA 1878
Around the time that Murphy and Keely dissolved their partnership, in 1876, Murphy applied to the American Institute of Architects. On his application, it states that he had been in the architectural practice for 24 years, confirming his early start in architecture upon arrival in America. In 1885, AIA elevated Murphy to Fellowship status.
Not much is known about Murphy’s personal life other than that he married Patrick Keely’s sister-in-law. The two settled in Providence, RI; however, Murphy’s work brought him all throughout New England. In the later years of his practice, Murphy trained and employed his nephew, Ambrose Murphy (1869-1949). Upon James Murphy’s death on April 18, 1907, Ambrose Murphy took charge of the Murphy architectural firm and garnered impressive success as an ecclesiastical architect in Rhode Island into the 1940s.
The result of James Murphy’s creative genius remains with us to this day in the many incredible churches he designed.
