Leila Ross Wilburn
Leila Ross Wilburn (born November 18, 1885 in Macon (Georgia) , † 1967 ) was an American architect of the early 20th century. She was one of the first women in Georgia to practice this profession. Along with Henrietta Cuttino Dozier, she was one of only two women registered as an architect in Atlanta in 1920 .
life and work
Wilburn was the eldest of five children of Leila Ada Ross and the accountant Joseph Gustavus Wilburn. Her mother had studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia after graduating from Wesleyan Female College in 1871 . The family moved to Atlanta between 1884 and 1888, and from 1902 to 1904 Wilburn attended the Agnes Scott Institute (now Agnes Scott College ) in Decatur . She developed a keen interest in architecture and hired private tutors to teach her architectural drawing. When she was 21, she traveled with a notebook and Kodak camera documenting the architectural style of family homes and the burgeoning arts and crafts movement. She collected 5000 photographs of houses with design elements that interested her as an architect.
On her return she worked as an apprentice at Benjamin R. Padgett and Son in Atlanta. At the age of 22 she received her first commission for a three-story building, in 1906 she worked as a draftsman for Benjamin R. Padgett and Son and in 1908 she opened her own office as an architect. In 1909 her father died and she was the main breadwinner for her mother and her younger siblings. She became one of the pioneering architects in the United States, and she insisted that the design and construction of the American home shouldn't be reserved for those who could afford an architect. In half a century of work, it left a legacy of homes, apartments and commercial buildings in the southeast. She has focused on residential architecture throughout her career.
Wilburn developed strong relationships with contractors, developers, brokers and home builders in Atlanta, including the Randall Brothers. In return for recommending the Randall Brothers building materials, the company agreed to publish their first plan book, Southern Homes and Bungalows, in 1914. Their plan books joined a tradition popularized by the Ladies Home Journal in the 1880s of publishing plans for homes at moderate prices. Builders and contractors across Georgia used Wilburn's design books, and their plans were featured nationwide in publications such as Ideal Homes of Today and Southern Homes. According to architectural historian Robert Craig, her plans became widespread in Atlanta and Georgia, where there are more Wilburn homes than any other architect from any period. She designed at least 80 houses, 20 apartment buildings and 24 maisonettes in Atlanta.
Many of the houses in the MAK Historic District in Decatur were also designed by her. The MAK neighborhood preserves many of the Wilburn-designed homes and shows excellent examples of homes that were popular in the first three decades of the 20th century. Wilburn homes can also be seen in Florida , North Carolina , South Carolina , Mississippi, and Michigan . Throughout her career, she kept up with current home design fashions, moving to ranch house design after they became popular during and after World War II . Most of their ranch designs were carried out in the 1950s. The Atlanta Historical Society's Leila Ross Wilburn Papers document over three hundred house plans drawn by Wilburn and contain several plan books and numerous photographic negatives. Wilburn was the 29th architect registered under 188 when the State of Georgia introduced an architecture firm license in 1920.
Honors
In 1961 Wilburn was accepted into the Society of American Registered Architects and in 2003 into the Georgia Woman of Achievement as "one of the pioneering architects in the USA". Every year Decatur presents the Leila Ross Wilburn Award to those who distinguish themselves through monument preservation.
literature
- Jan Jennings: Leila Ross Wilburn: Plan-Book Architect. In: Woman's Art Journal , Vol. 10, No. 1, 1989.
- Sara Hines Martin: Georgia's Remarkable Women: Daughters, Wives, Sisters, and Mothers Who Shaped History. Rowman & Littlefield, 2015, ISBN 978-0-7627-7879-9 .
Web links
- Designing Decatur: Leila Ross Wilburn , Georgia Public Broadcasting
Individual evidence
- ↑ Leila Ross Wilburn, Architect , decaturga.com, accessed August 4, 2020
- ↑ a b c d Leila Ross Wilburn , Georgia Women of Achievement, accessed August 4, 2020
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wilburn, Leila Ross |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American architect |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 18, 1885 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Macon (Georgia) |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1967 |