Having first worked in the office of McKim, Mead and White in New York City in 1879, he established his own firm in 1884 and hired a young Willis Polk as a draftsman.
Roger A. Pryor became a successful attorney, active in Democratic Party politics, and later was appointed as justice to the New York State Supreme Court.
[9] With his newly established office, his highly regarded upper-class social contacts, a developed East Coast portfolio, and a talented staff that included not only Willis Polk, but Bernard Maybeck[5] and A. C. Schweinfurth,[10] Brown was the favored architect of San Francisco society.
His reputation for bringing the most contemporary design aesthetic from the East Coast created the perception that he led the "reorientation of San Francisco architecture from the Victorian to the academic sphere," popularizing the Beaux-Arts style.
Prior to the 1930s (when both the Golden Gate and Bay bridges were completed), the Ferry Building was the second busiest transportation terminal in the world, seeing an average of 50,000 commuters a day.
[11] In 1894, Brown introduced the Mission Revival style to Santa Barbara, where it became popular for a variety of building types, shaping the visual identity of the city to this day.
[13] In 1896 Arthur Page Brown died at his home in Burlingame, California of severe injuries suffered in a runaway horse and buggy accident.