Jennie Louise Blanchard was born in Waterloo, New York back in 1856. She graduated from Buffalo Central High School in 1874. She wed Robert in 1881, that union produced one son Charles in 1883. She was the first woman to purchase a woman’s bicycle when they went on sale in Buffalo.
In 1876, she was working in the office of Richard Waite in Buffalo. By 1881, she opened an independent office with her husband Robert. That company is still in operation to this day.
What you may not know about Louise Blanchard Bethune is that she was the first American woman known to have worked as a professional architect. She was elected a member of the Western Association of Architects in 1885, later serving as vice president of that origination. Her best-known design was the Hotel Lafayette, completed in 1904. Three of the buildings she designed are still standing to this day. The Witkop and Holmes Headquarters (1901) is on the National Register of Historic Places. She retired in 1908 and died in 1915, she was 59.
Until tomorrow give someone the free gift of a smile
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