Alfred Stone (1834-1908) studied surveying and drawing while attending high school in Salem , Massachusetts, after which he worked in several architectural offices until 1857 when he moved to Providence and joined the firm of Alpheus C. Morse. In 1864 Stone opened his own firm in Providence, in which both Charles E. Carpenter (1845-1923) and Edmund R. Willson (1856-1906) were partners. Carpenter, a painter and architect, was a charter member of the Providence Art Club and became a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1875. Willson, who studied at Harvard, MIT, and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, joined the firm upon his return to the U.S. after the completion of his studies. Stone, Carpenter and Willson is recognized as a leading firm at the turn of the century for the numerous contributions to the architecture of Providence including Union Station (1896-98), a number of buildings for Brown University, and many other commercial as well as residential buildings and houses around the city.