Lois Howe

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

Howe was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Howe studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from 1882-1886 rather than attending Harvard Annex (later known as Radcliffe College). 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. Howe graduated in 1890. In a class of only 66 students, she was the only woman. 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. Architect Eliza Newkirk Rogers worked for Howe before starting her own practice in 1913. 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. In 1931, she was elected the first female Fellow of the AIA.

Many of their designs were featured in articles and books of House Beautiful and Architecture, extolling the best small houses. One early renovation was the Hooper-Eliot House in 1902, where she "added the broken scroll–pedimented doorway." 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. Commission Number Building Name Year Location Other Information

243 Walnut Hill School 1913 12 Highland St, Natick, Massachusetts 01760 The Lois Lilley Howe photographic collection is housed at the Cambridge Historical Society.

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

Merrett, Andrea Jeanne. “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.