{{Short description|American architect, educator (1901–1987)}} {{Infobox person | name = Howard Hamilton Mackey Sr. | birth_date = {{Birth date|1901|11|25}} | birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1987|08|20|1901|11|25}} | death_place = Washington, D.C., U.S. | education = University of Pennsylvania | occupation = Architect, painter, printmaker, educator, academic administrator | years_active = 1924–1973 | known_for = Tropical housing architecture | movement = Tropical Modernism | spouse = Matilda Eleanor Kendricks | children = 1 | awards = Whitney Young Award (1983) }} '''Howard Hamilton Mackey Sr.''', {{post-nominals|list=FAIA}} (1901–1987), was an American architect, painter, educator, and academic administrator.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Dreck Spurlock |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k5r5cXC67igC |title=African-American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945 |date=2003-12-12 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-203-49312-0 |pages=367–381 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=August 21, 1987 |title=Obituaries: Howard Mackey, 85, Dies; Former Dean at Howard U. |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1987/08/21/obituaries/9c45214e-c60a-48e5-9e7a-20323936896b/}}</ref> For 50 years he worked at Howard University, from 1924 until 1973; including serving as the department head, and associate dean.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Howard. H Mackey, Sr. |url=https://www.beyondthebuilt.com/howard-h-mackey-sr |access-date=2023-07-27 |website=Beyond the Built |language=en}}</ref>
== Early life and education == Howard Hamilton Mackey was born on November 25, 1901, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Black parents Anna Willis and Henry Bardon Mackey.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /> His father was a butler for a White family and his mother was a domestic worker.<ref name=":2" /> From 1916 to 1920, Mackey attended South Philadelphia High School.<ref name=":2" /> The summer after high school graduation, he worked as a junior draftsman for architect William Augustus Hazel.<ref name=":2" />
Mackey received a bachelor of architecture in 1924 from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Architecture.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite news |date=1954-08-14 |title=Assign Mackey To British Guiana Post |pages=8 |work=The New York Age |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-age-assign-mackey-to-britis/128945399/ |access-date=2023-07-27}}</ref> In 1936, he took a teaching sabbatical to work on a master's degree at the University of Pennsylvania.<ref name=":0" />
== Career == He worked at Howard University for 50 years, from 1924 until 1973; as a faculty member (1924–); department head (1929–); and later an associate dean of the School of Architecture and Engineering (1937–).<ref name=":1" /> When Mackey joined Howard University in 1924, there were only two other full time instructors in the architecture department at the time, Hilyard Robert Robinson and Albert Irvin Cassell.<ref name=":2" /> Under Mackey's leadership, Howard University became the first HBCU to have an accredited architecture program.<ref name=":2" />
From 1954 to 1957, Mackey took a sabbatical from Howard University in order to teach at the University of Maryland's Civil Engineering Department.<ref name=":2" /> During his time at the University of Maryland, he received a contract from the U.S. Department of State to develop housing plans in Suriname and British Guiana (now known as Guyana) for the Foreign Operations Administration.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=1955-03-26 |title=American Architect In British Guiana |pages=12 |work=The New York Age |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-age-american-architect-in-b/128945362/ |access-date=2023-07-27}}</ref><ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=1954-08-28 |title=Howards H. Mackey, Sr. |pages=4 |work=The Detroit Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-detroit-tribune-howards-h-mackey-s/128945520/ |access-date=2023-07-27}}</ref> He also was a U.S. delegate to a Pan-American housing conference in Bogotá, Colombia.<ref name=":1" /> Because of these experiences abroad, Mackey became known for his tropical housing architectural designs.<ref name=":1" />
He was a member of the College of Fellows of the AIA starting in 1962, and was awarded the Whitney Young Award in 1983.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1962-05-11 |title=Dallas, Tex. |pages=12 |work=The Call |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-call-dallas-tex/128945322/ |access-date=2023-07-27 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> He was the second African-American to be elected to the College of Fellows of the AIA, after Paul R. Williams.<ref>{{Cite web |title=1983 Mackey, W. Young Award |url=https://www.50yearsafterwhitneyyoung.org/howard-mackey-whitney-young-award |access-date=2023-07-27 |website=AIA and Whitney Young |language=en}}</ref> Mackey was a chairman of the D.C. Board of Zoning Adjustments, a member of the D.C. Board of Architectural Examiners, and he served on the National Capital Planning Commission's committee on Landmarks of the Nation's Capital.<ref name=":1" /> Additionally, Mackey was a painter and exhibited his artwork at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Howard University Gallery of Art, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art.<ref name=":0" />
In 1925, he married Matilda Eleanor Kendricks, and together they had one son.<ref name=":2" /> His son, Howard Jr. also worked as an architect.<ref name=":2" /> Mackey died on August 20, 1987, in the hospital in Washington, D.C., from pneumonia, a complication of Parkinson's disease.<ref name=":2" />
Mackey's profile was included in the biographical dictionary ''African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865–1945'' (2004).
== See also == * African-American architects
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackey, Howard Hamilton}} Category:1901 births Category:1987 deaths Category:African-American architects Category:African-American history of Washington, D.C. Category:20th-century African-American painters Category:20th-century American painters Category:American male painters Category:Architects from Washington, D.C. Category:Howard University faculty Category:Architects from Philadelphia Category:Educators from Philadelphia Category:United States Department of State officials Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni