Peabody & Stearns created several of Boston’s landmark buildings, including Park Square Station (1872, demolished), and the Custom House Tower (1909-1911). The R.H. White Warehouse (1883) and the Exchange Building in Boston’s financial district were as significant in commercial design as Kragsyde (1883, demolished) and Vinland (1882-1884) were standards of residential beauty.

Following H. H. Richardson’s death in 1886, many considered Peabody & Stearns as Boston’s leading architectural design firm, both for the number and the quality of its designs, and for its role as a training ground for young architects. Arthur Little, Henry Ives Cobb, Edmund Wheelwright and William Edward Barry are counted among those who once worked for Peabody & Stearns. The partners’ legacy then, was as much in the building of the next generation of architects as in the bricks and mortar of Boston’s Back Bay.