Howe was born in Philadelphia in 1868 to a family with deep roots in Bristol, Rhode Island.

[1] Howe's father began his duties of bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania in January 1872, and moved his family to Reading the following year.

In about 1896 he joined the office of Providence architects Martin & Hall, though he continued to accept commissions in Bristol.

He quickly gained a high level of responsibility in the office, and was given design duties on several projects.

[1] Clarke & Howe became one of Rhode Island's leading firms, beginning in 1903, when they won the commission for the U. S. Federal Building in Providence.

Church retired in 1938, and Earle F. Prout, the firm's chief draftsman, became partner.

Howe also died that year, and the firm was succeeded by Donald J. Prout & Associates.

Howe chose a Romanesque Revival style that gave a medieval flavor to the armories built at that era.

In 1895 he designed a house (60 Church) for Frank M. Dimond, and in 1896 one (40 Woodlawn) for Andrew Lynch.

[10] Circa 1896, Howe joined the Providence office of Martin & Hall as a designer where he quickly gained a high level of responsibility.

[11] The following year he also designed a harborside residence called Wyndstowe, for Isoline and Hattie Barns.

During this period, Clarke & Howe emerged as one of the city's chief architectural firms, with Jackson, Robertson & Adams as their biggest competitor.

Designs include: In 1928 Prescott Clarke retired and was replaced by long-time employee Samuel W. Church.

The newly established firm had few opportunities to design commercial buildings, due to the Great Depression.

[17] For this, the last tall building built until the 1950s, Howe chose to reuse one of his favorite motifs, the ogee gable.

With the exception of this distinctive element, the building is otherwise a plain, conservative example of the Colonial Revival in limestone.

The next building was the Empire Street headquarters of the Old Stone Safe Deposit and Trust Company, a newly established subsidiary of the Providence Institution for Savings.

These were to be based on the prototype Clarke & Howe had developed in the '20s, but that design proved impractical for the chosen sites.

The church built its new building in a Byzantine revival style, at Cranston and Ford Streets.

[20] In 1935 Howe planned a second major hospital, the main building at the Rhode Island State Sanitorium at Wallum Lake.

While that was under construction, Howe designed the new Cranston City Hall, which replaced a 19th-century building that was considered a firetrap.

[24] In 1930 in Providence, the architects designed a house for Elizabeth G. Wood, Samuel Church's widowed daughter.

[10] Other designs include: Samuel Church retired from the firm in 1938, and head draftsman Earle F. Prout became a partner.

[6] During this period of Howe's career, the firm lost individual residential commissions, but regained commercial work.

1940 marked the beginning of the firm's relationship with the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company, a Boston-based utility.

[34] Howe & Prout were commissioned to design the whole complex, but the original architects were dead by the time funds were raised.

Ekman began to trickle modernism into his work, and brought this to the Howe office.

[12] They also built the clubhouse at the Rhode Island Country Club in Barrington that year.