Architect Edward Tuckerman Potter designed the Clemens house in Hartford. Potter was mainly known for his church architecture, including the Church of the Good Shepherd in Hartford and for an octagonal Moorish-style building in the midst of the Union College campus in Schenectady, New York, complete with a mosque-like dome. His work on the Church of the Holy Shepherd in the city’s South Meadows, was commissioned by Elizabeth Colt, the widow and business successor of six-gun manufacturer Samuel Colt. The building still displays carved bas-relief decorations featuring the weapons that brought the Colts their fame and wealth.

Edward Potter was born in Schenectady, New York, where his father was a bishop in the Episcopal Church. Potter studied architecture under Richard Upjohn, one of the foremost church architects of the time, who in turn was inspired by the English art critic John Ruskin. Ruskin called for rooting current architecture in England’s own Gothic traditions rather than the Roman-inspired architecture of the 18th century. Potter went on to design churches throughout Northeast and Midwest America influenced by European architecture. Potter’s interest in churches led him to write church music as well. He was described by contemporaries as a gentle man with a good singing voice and a love of fine food and literature.