Lois Howe

{{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

| nationality = American

| 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

File:Howe House, 6 Appleton Street, Cambridge, MA - IMG 4701.JPG

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).{{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}}{{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}}{{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}} 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.{{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}} Howe graduated in 1890.{{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}} In a class of only 66 students, she was the only woman.

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.{{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}} 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. In 1907, she advocated for an innovative use of plaster, authoring articles in Architectural Review and Architectural Record. 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. In 1913, she partnered with Eleanor Manning and in 1926 Mary Almy joined the firm which then became Howe, Manning & Almy, Inc.{{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}} Architect Eliza Newkirk Rogers worked for Howe before starting her own practice in 1913. For a short time around 1920, the landscape architect Elizabeth Greenleaf Pattee worked for Howe.

During her career, Howe was president of the Business Women's Club of Boston and president of the MIT Women's Association. 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. Howe was 73 when she retired in 1937; Howe, Manning & Almy, Inc. dissolved and her partners launched independent practices.{{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}} 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. Howe died in 1964, just short of her one-hundredth birthday.

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.

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

Many of their designs were featured in articles and books of House Beautiful and Architecture, extolling the best small houses.

Projects

Originally, Howe founded her firm in Boston on Tremont Street in Boston taking commissions for renovations and new housing.{{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}} One early renovation was the Hooper-Eliot House in 1902, where she "added the broken scroll–pedimented doorway."{{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}}

File:Hooper-Eliot House.jpg

With her firm partners, Howe, Manning & Almy completed over 426 commissions, 500 projects (most of which are still in existence) over 43 years of practice. Lasting designs, careful craftsmanship, first-rate materials, and desirable locations have made their houses some of the most comfortable and attractive dwellings, as well as some of the most exceptional investments, in these geographic areas today.

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.{{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}}{{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}}{{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}}

class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: center;"

!Commission Number

!Building Name

!Year

!Location

!Other Information

! class="unsortable" |Reference

243

|Walnut Hill School

|1913

|12 Highland St, Natick, Massachusetts 01760

398

|Suffrage Coffee House

|1917

408

|Lucy Stone Hospital

|1918

414

|Boston Army and Navy Canteen

|1918

537

|The College Club of Boston

|1923

574

|McCall's Magazine

|1923-24

586

|Chec-R Shoe Store

|1923

596

|Women’s Republican Club

|1924

640

|Simmons University

|1925-26

|300 Fenway, Boston, MA 02115

Legacy

Lois Lilley Howe's papers reside in the collection for Howe, Manning, and Almy at MIT.{{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}} The Lois Lilley Howe photographic collection is housed at the Cambridge Historical Society.