Lois Howe

• Name — Lois Lilley Howe • Born — 25 September 1864 • Birthplace — Cambridge, Massachusetts • Died — 13 September 1964 • Place of death — Cambridge, Massachusetts • Awards — American Institute of Architecture Fellow • Practice — Howe, Manning & Almy, Inc.

• Illustration — Lois Lilley Howe House (1889-1964), 6 Appleton Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (National Register of Historic Places) 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

Originally, Howe founded her firm in Boston on Tremont Street in Boston taking commissions for renovations and new housing. One early renovation was the Hooper-Eliot House in 1902, where she "added the broken scroll–pedimented doorway." • Illustration — 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. The geography, design, and craftsmanship have resulted in "comfortable and attractive dwellings" whose value have appreciated, compared to similar properties in the region. 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. • Commission Number — Building Name — Year — Location — Other Information — 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

The canonical record carries the following identifying particulars.