Louise Blanchard Bethune

Louise Blanchard Bethune

Jennie Louise Blanchard Bethune , née Blanchard (born July 21, 1856 in Waterloo, Seneca County , † December 18, 1913 in New York City ), was the first professional architect in the United States and, among other things, the first female member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

biography

Blanchard was the daughter of the math teacher and local executive of Waterloo Dalson Wallace Blanchard and the teacher Emma Melona Blanchard , nee Williams . In 1864, Louise's siblings, Edwin Williams and Clara White , were born in Forestville .

As was common for girls at the time, Louise was homeschooled until she was eleven, but later successfully attended Buffalo High School until 1874 . She tried in vain to get a place at the newly founded architecture school at Cornell University , continued her education for two years, taught at the school and traveled around until she was offered a conventional training course as a draftsman in the architectural office of Richard Alfred Waite and Franklin W. Caulkins in Buffalo .

Buildings

With the Canadian architect Robert Armor Bethune , whom she had met during her apprenticeship at Waite and who married in December 1881, she had previously opened a joint architecture office in October of the same year. At the same time in Buffalo the IX. Congress of the Association for the Advancement of Women , attended by 975 women and 25 men. The opening of the architecture practice was mentioned at the event as a significant entry for women into the world of architects in the United States.

Blanchard designed, partly in cooperation, among other things a bank building, factories, hotels, residential buildings and 18 schools in western New York, including the Lockport Union High School , a large part of the Springville-Griffith Institute Central School District , the Iroquois Door Plant Company warehouse , the complex of Buffalo weaving Company in Chandler Street , the music store Denton & Cottier in innovative steel frame construction , women's prison Penitentiary Erie County and the East Buffalo Livestock Exchange . She also constructed the stands of the later Offerman baseball stadium , the military arsenal, which was later converted into the Elmwood Music Hall , and the Buffalo Kensington Church . In Buffalo, the Lafayette Hotel, built in 1904, still stands on Lafayette Square . Building the hotel, which was one of the 15 best in the country at the time, earned her $ 1 million.

On April 24, 1883, she gave birth to their son Charles Williams Bethune . In order to be able to find more time for their son, William L. Fuchs was accepted as the third architect and partner in the Blanchards' office as early as 1882 during pregnancy .

Blanchard was very committed to gender equality in professional life. In 1891 she refused to take part in a competition to design a woman's building for the World Columbian Exposition because the unequal pricing violated her principle of "equal pay for equal performance" because male applicants were also awarded the contract US $ 10,000 and only US $ 1,000 for women.

Due to her poor health, Blanchard moved in 1907 to the physical vicinity of her son, who was already practicing as a urologist at that time. Her husband followed her some time later. The information about the year of her retirement vary between 1905 and 1910. In her handwritten will of January 4, 1908, she herself gives the year 1908 as the date. The will also shows that at that time she was already the sole owner of the architecture office due to the financial insolvency of her partners.

By 1910 there were already 50 women architects in the United States.

Memberships and offices

At the Western Association of Architects (WAA) in Chicago , Blanchard's work met with enthusiasm and she was accepted into the association as early as 1885, after a decision there had previously been in favor of accepting female colleagues. At the WAA, she also got the office of Vice President. In addition, from 1886 she was the main organizer of the Buffalo Architects' Association, later the Buffalo Society of Architects , which became the Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1891 . She herself was accepted as a member of the AIA in April 1888 and received the degree of Fellow of the AIA (FAIA) at the time when the WAA was absorbed into the AIA in 1889 due to her traditional training course . At the AIA, she also worked with others to get a law through to regulate the professional requirements of architects in the United States.

Web links

• Louise Blanchard Bethune. In: arch INFORM .

swell

1. ^ Louise Blanchard Bethune. , Encyclopædia Britannica, September 18, 2007
2. ↑ 9878. Jennie Louise (9) Blanchard ( Memento of the original of September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), Descendants of Robert (-2) Williams - Eleventh Generation (Continued). 
3. ↑ Shonna L. Clark: Louise Blanchard Bethune, Architect ( Memento of the original of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English). 
4. ^ Danuta Bois: Louise Blanchard Bethune (1856-1913) (English), 1998
5. ↑ Adriana Barbasch: The AIA Accepts Its First Woman Member ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), new edition from 1989. 
6. ↑ Austin M. Fox: Louise Blanchard Bethune: Buffalo Feminist and America's First Woman Architect ( Memento of the original from January 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), new edition 1986.