Cox & Stevens began in 1905 as a yacht design and commercial brokerage in New York City.
The original principal partners were Daniel H. Cox, Irving Cox, and marine engineer Colonel Edwin Augustus Stevens Jr., son of renowned designer Edwin Augustus Stevens.
After the company reorganized in 1932, the firm of Gibbs & Cox, Inc., took on the larger commercial work, while Cox & Stevens continued the yacht design and smaller military and commercial projects.
During World War II, the military portion of the firm's work expanded.
After World War II, in 1947, Cox & Stevens was renamed Philip L. Rhodes Naval Architects and Marine Engineers and continued to do a great deal of commercial and military work.