Henry Temple Howard, son of noted architect John Galen Howard, was born in New York City in 1894. He moved to California with his family when he was eight years old, and attended high school at Berkeley High. From 1912 to 1917, Henry attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in architecture.

In 1917, before the United States joined World War I, Henry signed up with the French Army as an ambulance driver. After the U.S. entered the war, he joined the U.S. Army and was sent to officers’ training school in Meaux, France, but did not graduate in time to serve on the front lines. With the encouragement of his father, Henry stayed in France and attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris from 1919 to 1921. Upon returning from France, Henry worked with his father in California, participating in the design of the First Congregational Church of Oakland (1925) and LeConte School in San Francisco (1926). In 1927, Henry moved to New York City, where he worked for various architectural firms including Y. Matsui, Shreve and Lamb, and Cass and Gilbert.

In 1929, Henry married Jane Berlandina, an artist from France. After the death of John Galen Howard in 1931, Henry and Jane moved back to California with their newborn son David. From 1931 to 1934, Henry worked for Bakewell and Brown, specifically on the design of Coit Tower. For the rest of the decade, with the economy suffering from the depression, Henry designed houses and apartment houses around the Bay Area, including his own house. He also worked with the California Commission for the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco as the Senior Architect for the Sacramento Valley Counties Group, and with architect and landscape architect Mark Daniels on the design for the Ping Yuen Housing Project in San Francisco’s Chinatown. In 1942, during World War II, Henry closed his private practice and joined the partnership of Joslyn and Ryan, Marine Engineers and Naval Architects. He also applied for an architectural position in the U.S. Navy.

Henry moved back to New York City in 1947, where he lived until his death in 1967.