Howe, Lois (c. 1864–1964)

American architect. Born around 1864; died in 1964; graduated from a two-year course in architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1890.

Lois Howe had a long and prolific career in architecture, unlike her fellow MIT graduate Sophia Hayden . Howe was primarily a designer and renovator of private homes, and she served as architect for buildings that are scattered throughout the Boston suburbs of Arlington, Cambridge, Concord, and Wellesley. After graduating from MIT's special two-year course in architecture in 1890, Howe went to work in the offices of Francis Allen and designed her first house in association with Joseph Prince Loud in 1894. A year later, she opened her own office on Clarendon Street in Boston's Back Bay. In 1913, Howe went into partnership with Eleanor Manning , another MIT graduate (1905), establishing one of the most successful women's architectural firms in the country. It was in business until 1937.

Lois Howe became well-known for her experiments using plaster as an exterior finishing material, as well as for her interest in architectural history. Her measured drawings of New England-style architecture were published in collaboration with Constance Fuller in 1913. Howe became a member of the American Institute of Architects in 1901 and was made a fellow in 1931. She died in 1964, just shy of her 100th birthday.

sources:

Torre, Susan, ed. Women in American Architecture. NY: Whitney Library of Design, 1977.