As America's first professional female architect, Louise Blanchard Bethune broke barriers in a male-dominated profession that was emerging as a vital force in a rapidly growing nation during the Gilded Age. Yet, Bethune herself is an enigma. Due to scant information about her life and her firm, Bethune, Bethune & Fuchs, scholars have struggled to provide a complete picture of this trailblazer. Using a newly discovered archival source of photographs, architectural drawings, and personal documents, Kelly Hayes McAlonie paints a picture of Bethune never before seen. A comprehensive biography of the first professional woman architect in the United States, who was also the first woman to be admitted to the American Institute of Architects, Louis Blanchard Bethune: Every Woman Her Own Architect serves as an important addition to New York and architectural history.
Read MoreThis guest blog post from Preservation Buffalo Niagara’s Preservation Planner Tabitha O’Connell shines a light on the Eliza Quirk House. PBN is working to restore the historic 1847 rowhouse in downtown Buffalo. In 2020, the League awarded PBN a Technical Assistance Grant to fund a Specialized Conservation Study focused on the building’s exterior brick, and they recently received a $500,000 Environmental Protection Fund grant from NYS to support the necessary rehabilitation work. PBN was also one of the League’s 2021 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award winners and we are excited to share this update from them about “the little brothel that could.”
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