Born in 1893, Ethel Bailey Madison Furman is listed as the first African American architect in the state of Virginia. Its seems that ground breaking achievements ran in her family, Ethel’s father Madison J. Bailey was the second licensed black contractor in the city of Richmond Virginia.   Ethel began her formal architectural education with a private tutor in New York arranged by her father. Private tutoring was an educational route that women chose to overcome gender discrimination. She later attended Chicago Technical College. Although she started her training in 1915 she finished it many years later after having raised a family.

Career in Architecture

In 1927 she was the only woman to attend the Negro Contractor’s Conference at Hampton Institute. She worked in partnership with her father while also raising three children and holding a variety of other jobs to supplement her family’s income. Ethel overcame the bias she faced as a black woman by submitting building plans to local administrators through the male contractors she worked with.

Major Buildings and Projects

Ethel is credited with designing more than 200 buildings including the childhood home of former Virginian governor Douglas Wilder – the first elected post recontstruction era black governor in the US, several Richmond churches including St. James Holiness Church completed in 1939 and several buildings in Liberia. While most of her buildings have been demolished, her most significant surviving work is an educational wing for the Fourth Baptist Church built in the International style in Richmond.  In 2000, the wing was recognized on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Church Hill North Historic District extension.

Press and Awards

Ethel was active in the Richmond community; she received the Walter Manning Citizenship Award and was named to the Richmond Afro-American’s Community Honor Roll in 1954 and 1959. She was recognized for her extensive civic work by the Richmnd Afro-American in 1958. In 1985, a small city park was dedicated to her memory in Richmond, Virginia.

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Institutional Affiliations

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Arcadia University Commons, Glenside, PA

Johns Hopkins University Gilman Hall Renovation, Baltimore, MD

St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York, NY

Orlando International Airport Rehabilitation & Restoration, Orlando, FL

Valencia College & University of Central Florida University Center, Orlando, FL

Career in Architecture

Henrietta Harney was an architect who was licensed in New York in 1958.  She was graduate of Howard University. For at least 15 years she was the senior architect in New York City’s Public Works department for hospital design. She was responsible for laying out guidelines for NYC hospitals and overseeing and reviewing the designs of the architects hired to design hospitals for the city.

 Her position was the highest level that was possible through the Civil Services system without being appointed by the mayor.

She was a senior architect at Coler memorial Hospital on Roosevelt Island, NY. She also worked for various correctional facilities in New York. She later worked for Montgomery Construction company located in Harlem.

Major Buildings and Projects

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Institutional Affiliations

Biographical information contributed by Roberta Washington, FAIA

Elizabeth Carter (Brooks) was an educator, architect, philanthropist and real estate developer. She was born in New Bedford, MA to freed slaves. Her mother, Martha Webb was a manumitted slave from a plantation owned by president William Harrison Tyler.

After attending high school, Elizabeth went on to attend the Harrington Normal Training School and the Swain Free School.  The Swain Free School taught the fundamentals of design and the practical application of design principles. Elizabeth was able to attend the school despite her race and gender due to the overall acceptance of blacks in New Bedford.

Elizabeth was dedicated to racial equality by providing African Americans with opportunities in social welfare. While in Brooklyn she became an active member of the Women’s Loyal Union, a Brooklyn organization of prominent African American women committed to teaching and “race uplift” efforts.

Around 1900, Elizabeth returned to New Beford and became the first black teacher at the William H Taylor school. She taught there for over 29 years.

Career in Architecture

Elizabeth’s childhood dream of providing a home for elderly was realized in 1897 with the opening of the New Bedford Home for the Aged. After a few temporary locations, Elizabeth designed a permanent location in 1908. The home was built by Henry W and Benjamin Tripp, contractors.

In 1918, Elizabeth was asked by the War Council of the Young Women’s Christian Association to supervise the construction of the Phyllis Wheatley Young Women’s Christian Association in Washington, DC, designed by Shroeder and Parish Architects. The building was for Black women and girls and was completed in 1920.

Elizabeth not only designed institutions for the betterment of black people but she was also involved in some of the earliest attempts to preserve historic Black sites.

Major Buildings and Projects

New Bedford Home for the Aged

• The home, which still stands today is Colonial in style, is 2.5 stories, topped with a hip roof. There are 6 dormers, the front façade features a flat roofed portico and balustrade supported by four Doric columns. The home is clad with clapboard and rests on a sturdily built granite block foundation.

Early life and education

Born in Long Beach, California

Master of Environmental Design, Yale University, 1974

Bachelor of Arts - Architecture, Washington State University, 1970

Major Buildings and Projects

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Institutional Affiliations

American Institute of Architects Associate member
Advisory Board for the School of Architecture, Washington State University

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Career in Architecture

Carmen Demspter was licensed in New York in 1964. She worked for the Department of Public Works for more than 30 years. She received the Sloan Public Service award from the New York Fund, given to individuals for 30 years of service. She worked for the city for 33 years in many different positions from an architect in the Department of General Services to Assistant Director of Architecture.

Major Buildings and Projects

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Press and Awards

• 1980 recipient of the Sloan Public Service Award from the New York Fund for giving more than 30 years of service to New York City

Writings

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Institutional Affiliations

• Member of CANA (Council for the Advancement of the Negro in Architecture)
• Member of the Association of Black Women in Architecture and Design Professionals

Biographical information contributed by Roberta Washington, FAIA

Amaza Lee Meredith was born in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1895. Her mother Emma and father Samuel, a carpenter, also had three younger children, two daughters and one son. Because her father was white and her mother black, Amaza’s parents could not be legally married in Virginia. The two traveled to Washington, DC, in racially segregated railroad cars to wed. Samuel Meredith lost much of his business as a result of his controversial marriage and took his life in 1915. That was also the year Amaza completed her early schooling and graduated at the top of her class. She went on to get her teaching certificate from Virginia State University.

Career in Architecture

Amaza’s artistic endeavors included interior design and architecture. She coordinated color schemes and created blueprints for buildings at Virginia State. In 1939 she completed a house in Richmond, Virginia for her family in the International Style and named it Azurest South. In 1993 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. International Style is attributed with a complete break with architectural traditions. Her work on the modern home is most notably praised for its success in the overwhelmingly traditional architectural environment of Virginia. She also designed homes for friends and family in Virginia, Texas and New York.  Along with her sister, Amaza created with a development of 120 vacation and year-long homes for blacks in Sag Harbor, NY named Azurest North.

In 1984, Amaza Lee Meredith died.

Major Buildings and Projects

• Azurest South -  A five-room, single-story dwelling; can be classified with other residences designed in the International Style: a place for living, devoid of applied ornament or historic references. Azurest South has clean lines and a strong geometry emphasizing regularity rather than symmetry. The flat roof, designed as a terrace, is highlighted by plain metal coping, and by steel pipe rails, all painted a bright turquoise or “Azurest blue.” Dramatic use of color; vivid patterning of walls, floors, and ceilings; and the use of inventive lighting fixtures characterize the interior design.

Press and Awards

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Writings

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Institutional Affiliations

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Biographical information contributed by Roberta Washington, FAIA

Alma was born in Alexandria, Virginia in July 1927. Her father worked for the United States Post Office and her mother was an elementary school teacher. Alma had one sister who was 10 years older than her.

She was drawn to architecture and architectural history in high school. Her high school aptitude tests proved that her interests and potential ability would prove to be successful. Her interests were further nurtured by family members who owned real estate and had built their own homes, including her father who owned multiple rental properties in Washington, DC.

Alma graduated cum laude from Howard University in 1950 with a bachelors degree in architecture. She worked for various professors and for a commercial art studio where she designed brochures.

She met and married her husband David Kay Carlisle and they had three children, one boy and two girls.  Alma was a housewife and raised the children in the 1950s and 1960s.

Career in Architecture

She returned to work in the 1960s when she was employed by the Office of Facilities at the Washington, DC public schools. She was a project manager whose duties were to coordinate the work of architects hired to design new schools and she planned and coordinated the renovations of some of the district’s schools.  She specialized in historic preservation which has always been and continues to be her primary interest.

She relocated to Los Angeles in 1975. She began a career with the city of Los Angeles that lasted from 1975-1996.

From 1975 to 1981, Alma was in the Department of Public Works as an architectural assistant in the architectural division. She prepared contract documents, drawings and specifications for improvements to buildings owned by the City of Los Angeles and monitored federally funded construction projects for compliance with construction schedules and disbursements.

From 1981 to 1994, Alma was an architectural associate in the environmental management division of the City of Los Angeles. She surveyed 27 neighborhoods which resulted in the designation of 4 historic preservation overlay zones. She also surveyed more than 50 City of Los Angeles historic and cultural monuments. She wrote and reviewed California environmental quality act documents

In 1994 Alma returned to the Department of Public Works as an architectural associate in the architectural division remaining there until 1996. She prepared architectural design specifications and contract documents for the adaptive reuse of municipally owned historic buildings such as the former Eagle Rock Branch Library

Alma joined the firm of Myra L Frank and Associates in Los Angeles as a senior architectural historian. She is a credentialed and certified architectural historian who researches and documents the architectural and cultural history of buildings and gathers biographical information on owners and architects. Her work also includes environmental review and research.

She currently lives in Los Angeles and is pursuing her interests in gardening travel and American history.

Major Buildings and Projects

• Eagle Rock Branch Library

Press and Awards

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Writings

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Institutional Affiliations

• Member and past president of the Los Angeles City Historical Society
• Member of the West Adams Heritage associations
• Member of Tau Beta Phi, the national engineering honor society

Biographical information contributed by Roberta Washington, FAIA

Alberta Jeannette Cassell (Butler) was one of two sisters who became successful black female architects. Her mother, Martha Ann was a public school teacher and her father Albert was a famed architect in the Washington, DC area. He attended Cornell University and graduated in 1919 with a degree in architecture.  He is most well known for being the university architect for Howard University. Her uncle, Oliver Cassell also attended Cornell and received a degree in Civil Engineering. He became a successful building contractor.

Alberta attended Cornell University like her father, uncle and two siblings, Charles and Martha did before her.  She enrolled in 1944 and in 1948 she became the second African American woman to graduate from the College of Architecture, behind her sister Martha.

Alberta married a mechanical engineer and went on to have two children. Her son became an aircraft designer in California and her daughter worked as a computer analyst at the National Center for Disease Control.

Career in Architecture

After graduating, Alberta worked for her father’s firm as he started to move into real estate development.  In 1951 she took a job as an architectural engineer at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. In 1961 she became an engineering draftsman with the Military Sea Lift Command. From 1971-1982 she was a naval architect with the US Naval Sea Systems Command. In 1982 she retired due to a disability.

After her retirement, Alberta focused her energy on writing children’s stories and photography.

Major Buildings and Projects

• Military Sea Lift Command

• US Naval Sea Systems Command

Press and Awards

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Writings

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Institutional Affiliations

Alberta was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority incorporated, the Alpha Alpha Gamma Society for Women Architects, the Association of Scientists and Engineers (US Navy) and the Association of University Women.

Biographical information contributed by Roberta Washington, FAIA