Lois Howe

{{short description|American architect}} {{Infobox architect | name = Lois Lilley Howe | birth_date = {{Birth date|1864|09|25|mf=y}} | birth_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts | death_date = {{Death date and age|1964|09|13|1864|09|25|mf=y}} | death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts | alma_mater = {{ublist |Massachusetts Institute of Technology| Museum of Fine Arts School}} | awards = American Institute of Architecture Fellow | practice = Howe, Manning & Almy, Inc. }}

'''Lois Lilley Howe''' (September 25, 1864 – September 13, 1964) was an American architect and founder of the first all female architecture firm in Boston, Massachusetts.

==Biography== alt=view of colonial revival three story house with trees|thumb|Lois Lilley Howe House (1889-1964), 6 Appleton Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (National Register of Historic Places) Howe was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Howe studied at the Museum of Fine Arts School from 1882-1886 rather than attending Harvard Annex (later known as Radcliffe College).<ref name="Back Bay Houses"/><ref name="pioneeringwomen.bwaf.org">{{Cite web |title=Pioneering Women of American Architecture |url=https://pioneeringwomen.bwaf.org/lois-lilley-howe/ |access-date=2024-03-05 |website=pioneeringwomen.bwaf.org |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Lois Lilley Howe: Pioneer Career Woman, Architect, Cambridge Citizen |url=https://historycambridge.org/articles/lois-lilley-howe-pioneer-career-woman-architect-cambridge-citizen/ |access-date=2024-03-05 |website=History Cambridge |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-04-08 |title=Constructing a Place for Female Architects: Lois Lilley Howe, Class of 1890 (from Technology Review) |url=https://www.mitarcha.org/news/2019/4/8/constructing-a-place-for-female-architects-lois-lilley-howe-class-of-1890 |access-date=2024-03-05 |website=MITARCHA |language=en-US}}</ref> She later studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which, by virtue of its land grant status, was one of only six American schools of architecture that admitted women before 1910.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=The Lady Architects: Lois Lilley Howe, Elenaor Manning and Mary Almy, 1893-1937|last=Cole, Taylor|first=Doris, Karen Cord|publisher=Midmarch Arts Press|year=1990|isbn=1-187675-01-6|location=New York City, NY}}</ref> Howe graduated in 1890.<ref name="Allaback2008">{{cite book|author=Sarah Allaback|title=The first American women architects|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OpY0KmICqKYC&pg=PA104|access-date=12 December 2014|date=23 May 2008|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-03321-6|page=104}}</ref> In a class of only 66 students, she was the only woman.<ref name=":2" />

After graduation she worked in the offices of Allen and Kenway (later renamed Allen & Collens). She placed second, after Sophia Hayden, in a competition to design the Women's Building at the Chicago World's Fair.<ref name="NPS">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/pwwmh/ma69.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071101031415/http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/pwwmh/ma69.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 1, 2007|title=Lois Lilley Howe -- NRHP Travel Itinerary|last=Gilder|first=Karen Van|website=www.nps.gov|access-date=2018-10-19}}</ref> Howe opened her own architecture office in 1894. At first, her projects consisted of new or remodeled houses for friends and acquaintances, but her efforts soon began to pay off in more commissions. By 1900, she had enough work to set up an office in downtown Boston.<ref name=":2" /> In 1907, she advocated for an innovative use of plaster, authoring articles in ''Architectural Review'' and ''Architectural Record''.<ref name=NPS/> She had a passion for history and architecture details, which emerged not only in her work, but also in a book she published in 1913 with Constance Fuller, another MIT graduate, entitled ''Details of Old New England Houses''.<ref name=":2" /> In 1913, she partnered with Eleanor Manning and in 1926 Mary Almy joined the firm which then became Howe, Manning & Almy, Inc.<ref name="Back Bay Houses">{{cite web|title=Lois Lilley Howe|url=http://backbayhouses.org/lois-lilley-howe/|website=Back Bay Houses: Genealogies of Back Bay Houses|access-date=12 December 2014}}</ref> Architect Eliza Newkirk Rogers worked for Howe before starting her own practice in 1913.<ref name="Allaback2008" /> For a short time around 1920, the landscape architect Elizabeth Greenleaf Pattee worked for Howe.<ref name=Allaback2008/>

During her career, Howe was president of the Business Women's Club of Boston and president of the MIT Women's Association.<ref name="Obit"/> She served on the Boston Society of Architect's Small House Bureau, the AIA Committee on Small Houses, and was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Housing Association of Metropolitan Boston.<ref name=":1" /> Howe was 73 when she retired in 1937;<ref name="Obit" /> Howe, Manning & Almy, Inc. dissolved and her partners launched independent practices.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://cambridgehistory.org/research/lois-lilley-howe-photographic-collection-1884-1912/|title=Lois Lilley Howe Photographic Collection, (1884-1912) {{!}} Cambridge Historical Society|website=cambridgehistory.org|language=en-US|access-date=2017-09-30}}</ref> Long after she finished practicing architecture, she continued to practice history, giving talks at the Cambridge Historical Society, trying to recall for younger members Cambridge as it was in her girlhood.<ref name=":2" /> Howe died in 1964, just short of her one-hundredth birthday.<ref name=NPS/>

==Awards and recognition== She received her first acclaim in 1893 where she was a second place winning in the national competition for the Woman's Building at the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago.<ref name=":2" />

In 1901, Howe became the second woman member of the American Institute of Architecture (AIA).<ref name="hays">Hays, Johanna. ''Louise Blanchard Bethune: America's First Female Professional Architect''. McFarland, 2014, pp. 20-21.</ref> In 1931, she was elected the first female Fellow of the AIA.<ref name="Obit">{{cite news|title=Lois Howe, 99, Dies; Early Woman Architect|publisher=Boston Globe|date=15 September 1964|id={{ProQuest|275950161}}}}</ref>

Many of their designs were featured in articles and books of ''House Beautiful'' and ''Architecture'', extolling the best small houses.<ref name=":2" />

== Projects == Originally, Howe founded her firm in Boston on Tremont Street in Boston taking commissions for renovations and new housing.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pioneering Women of American Architecture |url=https://pioneeringwomen.bwaf.org/lois-lilley-howe/ |access-date=2023-03-21 |website=pioneeringwomen.bwaf.org |language=en-US}}</ref> One early renovation was the Hooper-Eliot House in 1902, where she "added the broken scroll–pedimented doorway."<ref>{{Cite web |last=pls4e |date=2018-07-17 |title=Hooper-Eliot House |url=https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-BS20 |access-date=2023-03-21 |website=SAH ARCHIPEDIA |language=en}}</ref> alt=view of house through the trees|thumb|Hooper-Eliot House, ''1872, Sturgis and Brigham; 1902, Lois Lilley Howe. 25 Reservoir St.''

With her firm partners, Howe, Manning & Almy completed over 426 commissions and 500 projects (most of which are still standing) over 43 years of practice.<ref name=":0" />The geography, design, and craftsmanship have resulted in "comfortable and attractive dwellings" whose value have appreciated, compared to similar properties in the region.<ref name=":2" />

One of Howes first original designs was 1 Kennedy Road in Cambridge, MA. This home was dates to 1894 and was created by Howe for her newlywed friends. While the original building showed Howes untested design skills, in 1913 she renovated the home to the one still found today.<ref name="pioneeringwomen.bwaf.org"/><ref>{{Cite web |title=Original Designs |url=https://historycambridge.org/online-exhibits/lois-lilley-howe/original-designs/ |access-date=2024-03-05 |website=History Cambridge |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-11-18 |title=Cambridge History Minute: The Story Behind the 'Potter House' |url=https://patch.com/massachusetts/cambridge/cambridge-history-minute-story-behind-potter-house |access-date=2024-03-05 |website=Cambridge, MA Patch |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Damme |first=Marieke Van |date=2021-01-25 |title=Lois Lilley Howe pioneered as female architect, and her homes are still found throughout city |url=https://www.cambridgeday.com/2021/01/25/lois-lilley-howe-pioneered-as-female-architect-and-her-homes-are-still-found-throughout-city/ |access-date=2024-03-05 |website=Cambridge Day |language=en-US}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: center;" !Commission Number !Building Name !Year !<small >Location</small> !Other Information ! class="unsortable" |Reference |- |243 |Walnut Hill School |1913 |12 Highland St, Natick, Massachusetts 01760 | |<ref name=":1" /> |- |398 |Suffrage Coffee House |1917 | | |<ref name=":1" /> |- |408 |Lucy Stone Hospital |1918 | | |<ref name=":1" /> |- |414 |Boston Army and Navy Canteen |1918 | | |<ref name=":1" /> |- |537 |The College Club of Boston |1923 | | |<ref name=":1" /> |- |574 |McCall's Magazine |1923-24 | | |<ref name=":1" /> |- |586 |Chec-R Shoe Store |1923 | | |<ref name=":1" /> |- |596 |Women’s Republican Club |1924 | | |<ref name=":1" /> |- |640 |Simmons University |1925-26 |300 Fenway, Boston, MA 02115 | |<ref name=":1" /> |}

==Legacy== Lois Lilley Howe's papers reside in the collection for Howe, Manning, and Almy at MIT.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://libraries.mit.edu/archives/research/collections/collections-mc/mc9.html|title=Guide to the Records of Howe, Manning & Almy, Inc. and the Papers of Lois Lilley Howe, Eleanor Manning O'Connor, and Mary Almy MC.0009|website=libraries.mit.edu|access-date=2017-09-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190701172149/https://libraries.mit.edu/archives/research/collections/collections-mc/mc9.html|archive-date=2019-07-01|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Lois Lilley Howe photographic collection is housed at the Cambridge Historical Society.<ref name=":0" />

== Further reading == Howe, Lois Lilley and Constance Fuller. ''Details from Old New England Houses''. The Architectural Book Publishing Co., 1913.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Year 53 – 1913: Details from Old New England Houses, measured and drawn by Lois L. Howe and Constance Fuller {{!}} 150 Years in the Stacks |url=https://libraries.mit.edu/150books/2011/02/28/1913/ |access-date=2023-03-21 |language=en-US}}</ref>

Maycock, Susan E. and Charles M. Sullivan. ''Building Old Cambridge: Architecture and Development''. The MIT Press, 2016.

Merrett, Andrea Jeanne. “[https://pioneeringwomen.bwaf.org/lois-lilley-howe/ Lois Lilley Howe].” ''Pioneering Women of American Architecture'', Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, Oct. 2014

Nathanson, Larry. “Lois Lilley Howe: America’s First Woman Architect.” ''A City’s Life and Times: Cambridge in the Twentieth Century'', edited by Daphne Abeel, Cambridge Historical Society, 2007, pp. 80–93.

==References== {{Reflist}}

== Further reading == *[https://pioneeringwomen.bwaf.org/lois-lilley-howe/ Pioneering Women of American Architecture, Lois Lilley Howe] * {{Cite journal|last=Howe|first=Lois|date=December 1963|title=An Alumna's Architectural Career|journal=Technology Review|volume=66|pages=21, 38}} * [https://historycambridge.org/history-hubs/lois-lilley-howe-hub/ Lois Lilley Howe History Hub - History Cambridge]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Howe, Lois}} Category:1864 births Category:1964 deaths Category:American women architects Category:Architects from Cambridge, Massachusetts Category:Architects from Boston Category:20th-century American architects Category:20th-century American women