"A specialist in ecclesiastical design, Edward Tuckerman Potter was born at Schenectady, son of Bishop Alonzo Potter, a former president of Union College in that city. The young man began architectural study in New York under Richard Upjohn, then the foremost church architect in the country. After thorough training in the Upjohn office, Potter returned to his native city to open an office for architectural practice.

"One of his early works was the Mott-Potter Memorial in Schenectady, New York, built about 1858, a Romanesque structure resembling the Baptistery in Pisa, Italy. Potter also designed churches in New England, New York state, and elsewhere, all in the same style. Probably the most important of these were the Dutch Reformed Church in Schenectady, c. 1862, and the Church of St. James in Lewiston, Illinois. Potter also designed the Church of the Good Shepherd in Hartford."