Louise Blanchard Bethune, Architect

By Shonna L. Clark

 an you imagine being the first women to enter an all-male profession? It would be pretty difficult, wouldn’t it?  Now imagine being the first professional female Architect in the late 1800’s (even more difficult).  Louise Blanchard Bethune was not only the first female Architect, she was also the first woman to be elected a member of the American Institute of Architects!  

Jennie Louise Blanchard was born July 21, 1856 in Waterloo, New York.  She was the daughter of Dalson M. Blanchard who was Principal of the Waterloo Union School and Emma Melona Blanchard, a teacher.  Her father, a mathematics teacher, is where she apparently got her proficiency in mathematics. As was common for girls of the time, Jennie Louise was educated at home until she was eleven. With her parents' undivided attention she received a very comprehensive education. At an early age she showed an interest and talent for drawing houses and various other structures

In 1874, she graduated from Buffalo high school. Hoping to prepare herself for the recently opened architectural school at Cornell, for the two years after graduating, she taught school, traveled, and studied. At age twenty she accepted a job as a draftsman in the office of the prominent Buffalo architectural and building firm, Richard A. Waite and F.W. Caulkings.  Although she had plans to study at Cornell, Louise abandoned the idea and learned architecture as a draftsman. She soon advanced to become Waite's assistant and mastered technical drafting, construction detailing, and the art of architectural design. She had received a man's education and had proven her ability in a man's profession. She worked with the firm for five years and then partnered with Architect Robert Bethune.  In 1881, they opened an independent office in Buffalo.    Two months later, at the age of 25, Louise married Bethune.  Together they had a son as well as a flourishing architecture business.

In October 1881, the Association for the Advancement of Women met in Buffalo, with 975 women and 25 men voicing their beliefs and examining the scientific, artistic, and professional fields for their acceptance of women. The opening of Bethune's office, announced during this Congress, marked what is considered the entry into the field of the first professional woman Architect in the United States.

Louise stayed clear of working on private home plans because they didn’t challenge her and they also didn’t pay well.  Instead she designed several different types of buildings, many of them industrial and public facilities.   She was well known for some of Buffalo’s best schools and hotels.  Louise was able to show her true talent when she designed the Lafayette Hotel, which earned her a million-dollar commission.  This Renaissance styled 256-room hotel opened in 1904 and in its day, it was considered one of the 15 finest hotels in the country.  She also designed a music store that was one of the first steel-framed buildings in the United States.   Louise designed other buildings in Buffalo that still stand today; the Iroquois Door Plant Company warehouse and the large Chandler Street complex for the Buffalo Weaving Company.

In 1885 Louise was unanimously elected a member of the Western Association of Architects of which she later served a term as vice president.  In April 1888 she became the first woman to be elected a member of the American Institute of Architects and in 1889 she was named a fellow of the AIA.  In 1891 she published an article "Women of Architecture".

A woman of strong professional principles, she consistently supported the Architects' Licensing Bill, which, after twenty-five years of debate, became the law to enforce very difficult preliminary tests for the practice of architecture.

In 1892-93 Bethune was invited to compete in the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus's voyage to the New World.[i]  She refused the offer and was outraged because females were only offered a prize of $1,000 for the honor of designing the building, while men were being paid $10,000 to design other buildings for the fair.

In 1907 Louise moved close to her son, who was a doctor, due to her failing health.  She retired in 1908 and died in 1913 at the age of fifty-seven.

Louise Blanchard Bethune had been a pioneer and a highly devoted professional.  By 1910, there were 50 women in the architectural profession.  Today, thanks to the trailblazing of audacious women, such as Louise Bethune, innumerable women are entering the architectural profession.