Architect, artist, former Harvard resident
Bayard Underwood at his 60th Princeton University reunion in 1998. (Courtesy photos)
The artist as a young man in 1949.
Bayard Underwood, 93, longtime resident of Groton and Harvard, died at Emerson Hospital in Concord on March 13, after a year-long struggle with debilitating illness.
Bayard was born in Washington, D.C., May 27, 1916, to Norman and Anne (Bayard) Underwood. His parents predeceased him in 1974 and 1975, respectively, as did his sister, Anne Underwood White, in 1989.
Bayard spent his early years in Washington, D.C. He attended St. Albans School in Washington and graduated in 1934 from the Hill School, in Pottstown, Penn.
He enrolled at Princeton University and graduated in 1938 with a BS in chemistry, intending to continue to medical school. Instead, he decided to pursue art, and moved to New York City to study painting at the Art Students League.
In 1939, Bayard married Rosalind Spiller and relocated to Mexico City, where their first child was born. They returned to the U.S. in 1940, settling in New York City. As the U.S. entered World War II, the family moved to southern California, where Bayard studied at the University of Southern California School of Architecture. He built his first home in the Los Angeles hills. The marriage ended in 1951.
Bayard moved to Cambridge, Mass., and enrolled in the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. There he studied architecture under Walter Gropius and Jose Luis Sert, who succeeded Gropius as dean of the school. Bayard received his master’s degree, became a licensed architect, and worked for several firms before establishing his own practice in 1963, initially in Cambridge and then in Concord.
In 1956, Bayard married Lois (Londagin) DiNoto. He built his second house in Concord and moved there in 1957. In 1959, the Underwoods bought land in Harvard, where Bayard built his third house, the glass and steel “cupcake house” near Shaker Village on Sheehan Road, among the woods and wetlands on former Shaker community lands.
In 1963, Bayard’s interest in Shaker art and architecture prompted him to found the Shakerton Foundation Inc. to promote Shaker art and architecture. For the last 45 years, he held exhibitions and lectures at locations throughout the commonwealth. Bayard also worked with the National Parks Service Historical American Buildings Survey (HABS). His research included former Shaker communities in Harvard and Shirley, where he documented surviving Shaker buildings with measured drawings and renderings.
In 1983, Bayard and Lois moved from Harvard to Groton center, and in 1995 opened a gallery, Studio 1, attached to their home, which provided exhibition opportunities for area artists and festive openings for the community.
Bayard regarded his most important architectural work to be the restoration of the former U.S. Patent Office building in Washington, D.C., for the Smithsonian’s National Collection of Fine Arts, from 1965 to 1970. His architectural work on churches was of great significance to him, and included the remodeling of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul’s in Boston, the Ascension Memorial Church in Ipswich, and St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Ayer.
Bayard was a communicant of St. Andrew’s Church in Ayer since the 1960s. He was active in town affairs and served on town boards and was involved with many organizations and activities throughout the Nashoba Valley. He participated in the Loaves and Fishes Good Friday walk for many years, often walking the full 20 miles, and raising thousands of dollars. Eventually, when in his 90s he could no longer participate as a walker, he continued to raise money for the organization by soliciting donors who paid him not to walk.
Throughout his life Bayard continued to paint and draw, his sketchbook accompanying him to all manner of gatherings and events, and on vacations to favorite haunts such as Vieques, Puerto Rico; Venice, Italy; and Squam Lake, N.H.; and in Harvard, Groton, and surrounding communities. Many area residents have been the subject of his keen eye and adept hand.
Bayard is survived by his wife of almost 54 years, Lois H. (Londagin) of Groton; his children (and their families): Anne Sroka of Monson; Sarah Underwood of Westfield; step-daughter Donna Cordisco of East Boston; Sally McFarland of Sacramento, Calif.; Kathleen Malarky of Seattle, Wash.; Consuelo Marshall of Huntington Beach, Calif.. He is also survived by 11 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren; and two nieces and a nephew.
Visiting hours will be at the Badger Funeral Home, 45 School St., Groton on Friday, March 19, from 4 to 7 p.m. A funeral service will be held at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 7 Faulkner St. in Ayer, Saturday, March 20, at 10 a.m. Burial will follow at Bellevue Cemetery in Harvard, with a gathering for family and friends at St. Andrew’s Parish Hall thereafter.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Loaves and Fishes, P.O. Box 1, Ayer, MA. 01432 (www.loavesfishespantry.org) or to St. Andrews Episcopal Church, 7 Faulkner St., Ayer, MA. 01432 (www. standrewsayer.org).
