James E. McLaughlin
canadian-American architect (1873–1966)
James Ernest McLaughlin (18 October 1873 – 17 February 1966) was a Canadian-American architect active primarily in Boston, Massachusetts, and the surrounding area from about 1905 through the 1950s. He designed Fenway Park—home stadium of the Boston Red Sox baseball team—among many other buildings in Massachusetts. Early in his career, McLaughlin collaborated on some designs with his maternal uncle and fellow architect James Mulcahy. From 1920 onward, McLaughlin was partnered with architect George Houston Burr under the name McLaughlin and Burr.
Early life
McLaughlin was born on 18 October 1873 (some sources say 1874 or 1875) in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
In 1885, at the age of 12, McLaughlin immigrated to Boston. On 4 April 1908, he married Mary Josephine Ratigan in Boston. Her parents were Thomas Ratigan and Ellen Heany. James and Mary's son, James Ernest McLaughlin, Jr., was born in 1912.
Professional career
The 1893 Boston Directory listed McLaughlin as a draftsman working at 43 Milk Street in Boston and boarding in Everett, Massachusetts.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “James E. McLaughlin” as canadian-American architect (1873–1966). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as canadian-American architect (1873–1966). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q107859054. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1873, 1966, 1905 and 1920.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “James E. McLaughlin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.