Hepburn studied at the Institute in Freehold, New Jersey, and at the West Nottingham Academy in Colora, Maryland. He received a B.S. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1904. Two years later, he formed the firm of Taylor and Hepburn in Norfolk, Virginia, and in 1908 he became associated with Guy Lowell in Boston. In 1921 he formed a partnership with William Perry and Thomas Mott Shaw. The firm was awarded contracts for the restoration of colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1927 and for the restoration of the colonial section of New Castle, Delaware. The firms other works include buildings at Brown University and Phillips Academy, Andover; and the Industrial Village in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Helpburn also painted watercolors and made etchings that were exhibited in Boston.
