Frances Henley

The Hope Building of the Wheeler School in Providence, Rhode Island, designed by Franklin J. Sawtelle and Frances E. Henley and completed by Henley alone in 1913. Frances E. Henley (1876 – 1955) was an American architect. She was the first woman to study architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design and the first woman to independently practice architecture in Rhode Island.

Early life and education Frances Evelyn Henley was born in 1876 in Crompton, Rhode Island to Charles A. and Mary E. Booth Henley. She grew up in Providence, Rhode Island. Henley's parents wanted her to become a school teacher. She disagreed and became the first woman to study at the Rhode Island School of Design for architecture. 1910 — Residence, 59 Ridge Rd, Highland Beach, Warwick, Rhode Island 1913 — Wheeler School Hope Building, 216 Hope St, Providence, Rhode Island 1927 — Thomas E. O'Donnell residence, 196 President Ave, Providence, Rhode Island 1934 — Alterations to residence, Diamond Hill, Cumberland, Rhode Island 1937 — Alterations to Trinity Episcopal Church, 139 Ocean Ave, Pawtuxet, Cranston, Rhode Island

Later life and legacy In 1936, she quit her Providence firm and relocated to Pawtuxet in Cranston, Rhode Island. In Pawtuxet she lived with her partner, Nellie Evelyn Livermore, her former assistant. The couple broke up over health problems in 1952. She died in 1955 at home in Pawtuxet.

Henley's papers are held in the collection of the Rhode Island Historical Society.