Willard Thomas Sears was a prominent New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

 architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who worked primarily in the Gothic Revival

Gothic Revival architecture

The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

 and Renaissance Revival styles.

In 1861, Sears opened an architectural studio with Charles Amos Cummings

Charles Amos Cummings

Charles Amos Cummings , is a nineteenth century American architect and architectural historian who worked primarily in the Venetian Gothic style. Cummings followed the precepts of British cultural theorist and architectural critic John Ruskin...

. Together as Cummings and Sears

Cummings and Sears

Cummings and Sears was an architecture firm in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts, established by Charles Amos Cummings and Willard T...

, they designed many significant buildings, primarily ecclesiastical and academic, in and around Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, including Brechin Hall and the Stone Chapel at Phillips Academy

Phillips Academy

Phillips Academy is a selective, co-educational independent boarding high school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year...

 in Andover

Andover, Massachusetts

Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was incorporated in 1646 and as of the 2010 census, the population was 33,201...

, the Old South Church on Copley Square

Copley Square

Copley Square is a public square located in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, named for the donor of the land on which it was developed. The square is named for John Singleton Copley, a famous portrait painter of the late 18th century and native of Boston. A bronze statue of...

 (1875), and the Cyclorama (1884).

The firm of Sears and Cummings were also capable of designing utilitarian projects and did the design of a number of aqueducts and railroad bridges. They formed a development company which intended to construct an elevated railway in Brooklyn, New York Kings County Elevated Railway

Kings County Elevated Railway

The Kings County Elevated Railway Company was a builder and operator of elevated railway lines in Kings County, New York, now coextensive with the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. Its original services were operated with steam locomotives....

 but being out of towners were not able to get political co-operation and sold off the design and rights. The executive in charge was Judge Hiram Bond.

In 1896, Sears was hired by Isabella Stewart Gardner

Isabella Stewart Gardner

Isabella Stewart Gardner – founder of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston – was an American art collector, philanthropist, and one of the foremost female patrons of the arts....

 to design her home, Fenway Court, in Boston's Fenway

Fenway-Kenmore

Fenway–Kenmore is an official neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. While it is considered one neighborhood for administrative purposes, it is composed of numerous distinct sections and in casual conversation are almost always referred to as "Fenway," "Kenmore Square," or "Kenmore."...

 neighborhood. Upon her death Fenway Court became the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum or Fenway Court, as the museum was known during Isabella Stewart Gardner's lifetime, is a museum in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located within walking distance of the Museum of Fine Arts and near the Back Bay Fens...

.
In 1897, he designed what would become the Roosevelt Cottage for Mrs. Hartman Kuhn at what would become (in 1964) the Roosevelt Campobello International Park

Roosevelt Campobello International Park

Roosevelt Campobello International Park preserves the house and surrounding landscape of the Roosevelt summer retreat where, in August 1921, future president Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with poliomyelitis at the age of 39. The park occupies most of the southern end of Campobello Island, New...

 in New Brunswick

New Brunswick

New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

..
In 1898, Sears was commissioned to design the Pilgrim Monument

Pilgrim Monument

For the monument in Plymouth, Massachusetts formerly known as the Pilgrim Monument see National Monument to the ForefathersThe Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown, Massachusetts was built between 1907 and 1910 to commemorate the first landfall of the Pilgrims in 1620 and the signing in Provincetown...

 in Provincetown, Massachusetts

Provincetown, Massachusetts

Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,431 at the 2000 census, with an estimated 2007 population of 3,174...

.