Louise Blanchard Bethune - Table of Contents
Louise Blanchard Bethune: Bio
Louise Bethune (1856-1913) was
very active both in advancing the stature of women in the architectural
profession and in promoting the profession in general. In 1885,
she became the first woman member of the Western Association of
Architects (WAA), a dynamic young group of practitioners that was
pressing for professional standards and challenging the supremacy of
the well-established American Institute of Architects (AIA).
Louise became the first woman member of the latter national profession
association in 1888. When the two groups merged in 1889 to form a
new AIA, all WAA members became AIA Fellows, another first for Louise
Bethune. She was also a founder of the Buffalo Society of
Architects in 1886, which became the local AIA chapter four years
later.
Bethune’s greatest impact was opening the doors in professional circles
for other women to enter the field of architecture, leading by way of
her commitment to the development of professional standards in the
profession and the promotion of “Equal Remuneration for Equal Services”
for women. In 1891, giving a speech titled “Woman and Architecture”
before an audience at the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union in
Buffalo, Bethune remarked about women in architecture, “The future of
women in the architectural profession is what she herself sees fit to
make it.[29]” Simultaneously to this speech she declined an invitation
to compete in the design of the Woman’s Building at the 1893 World’s
Columbian Exposition, citing the difference between the women’s prize
of $1,000 prize versus the men’s of $10,000.[30] In response to
questions about the Women’s Building competition, Bethune stated, “It
is an unfortunate precedent to establish right now, and it may take
years to live down its effects.” She was correct in her assumption, as
it would take generations of women years to gain full acceptance and
equal pay in the field of architecture. Her work to equalize the
disparities between men and women would be continued on by other
notable women in the profession throughout the Twentieth Century.
In the 1880s, the Bethune office became one of the most prominent in
Western New York, executing a wide variety of commissions. Among
the most substantial were the Seventy-fourth Regiment Armory (1886) and
the Livestock Exchange (1890) in Buffalo, and the high school (1890) at
Lockport, N.Y. (all demolished). The firm was especially noted
for its educational work, designing eighteen schools and additions in
Buffalo and the surrounding communities. Sadly, none of these are
extant. Bethune, Bethune & Fuchs also established a
reputation for the design of industrial buildings. But most of these
additionally have been lost. The former Iroquois Door Company at
Larkin and Exchange Streets in Buffalo is one of the few to survive.
The Hotel Lafayette, one of many notable buildings the firm designed in
downtown Buffalo, is the most significant work of Bethune, Bethune
& Fuchs still standing. Unfortunately, the last three decades of
the twentieth century saw the demolition of at least seven of their
other downtown buildings. Two of these went down despite being included
in the locally designated Theater Historic District. The most
intact structures by the firm to remain in the downtown area are a
former stable at 177-179 Elm Street (1891) and a richly embellished
commercial building at 621-623 Main Street (1908). Most of the firm's
surviving work are houses in the city of Buffalo, including the Kellogg
house at 211 Summer Street, personally designed by Louise.