[1] When Richardson died in April 1886 Rutan and two other senior employees, George Foster Shepley and Charles Allerton Coolidge, took charge of the studio and its uncompleted work.

In June 1886 the three formed a formal partnership, Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, to succeed to Richardson's practice, and in 1887 moved the office to Boston.

[2] Rutan withdrew from active practice later in life, but remained a partner in the firm until December 1, 1914, shortly before his death.

[1] Rutan was married in 1874 to Sarah Ellen Brower of Bloomfield, New Jersey, with whom he had one son and two daughters.

[3] There had, however, been a breakdown in the relationship between Mrs. Rutan and Coolidge, and when she built a new home in 1916, at 37 Hedge Road in Brookline, it was designed by her son-in-law.