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. Born in 1856 in Waterloo and raised in Buffalo, New York, Bethune wanted to be an architect from childhood. In fulfilling her dream, she challenged the nation to reconsider what a woman could do. A bicycle-riding advocate for coeducation, Bethune believed in women's emancipation through equal pay for equal work. This belief would be tested during the design competition for the Woman's Building for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, where female entrants were not paid for their work. Bethune refused to participate on principle, but nonetheless her career thrived, culminating in the most important commission of her life, Buffalo's Hotel Lafayette. 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, this book serves as an important addition to New York and architectural history.

Louise Blanchard Bethune, the subject of this biography, was America's first female professional architect. She belonged to the influential group of pioneer architects--Daniel Burnham, John Root and Louis Sullivan--who supported her in becoming a fellow of the American Institute of Architects. In the booming industrial city of Buffalo, she preceded Frank Lloyd Wright and Alfred Kahn in factory design and was the key designer of the modern urban public school building, developing standards still used today. During her career (1881-1905) Bethune was consistently one of the most successful architects practicing in Buffalo and the driving force behind New York State's professional organizations for architects. Beyond setting standards for public schools, she was the go-to architect for factories, warehouses, police stations, a Nikola Tesla power transfer station, and the largest luxury hotel of the early 1900s. Bethune moved from a small town on the Erie Canal--the economic and technological marvel of the antebellum period--to a rapidly industrializing major American city, following the urban migration of many Americans. Unlike many women of her day she seized the promise of the growing nation to pursue life, liberty, and happiness in an occupation of her choice and succeeded.

At its height of greatness, the Hotel Lafayette was considered one of the 15 finest hotels in the country.

Originally planned to greet the visitors to the Pan- American Exposition in 1898, the red brick and white terra cotta French Renaissance-style building boasted seven stories of rooms with hot and cold water in all bathrooms, and telephones in all rooms, saw financial problems delay its opening until 1904.

This proud edifice, once considered "the best that science, art and experience can offer for the comfort of the traveling public," boasts notoriety for a second reason.

Louise Blanchard Bethune, The Hotel Lafayette's designer, was the first professional woman architect in the country. She was also the first female member of the American Institute of Architects and the first woman to be made a Fellow of the A.I.A.

After years of neglect, Buffalo developer Rocco Termini undertook a massive project to bring one of Buffalo's grandest historic beauties back to life.

The restoration, undertaken by hundreds of highly skilled craftspeople, artists and contractors using many of the Old World techniques used in the original construction, has become a painstaking and patient labor of love to restore each breath-taking architectural detail, from restoring crystal chandeliers in the ballroom to recasting ornate plaster beams.

Buffalo's award winning documentary maker, Jackie Albarella, followed the restoration process from the beginning, and captured every minute detail.


The Hotel Lafayette, Restoring Louise Bethune's Masterpiece dramatically captures the energy and excitement surrounding this momentous event in the rebirth of one of Buffalo's true landmarks. Full color photographs taken throughout the restoration along with comments from the craftspeople involved, give the full story of this remarkable accomplishment.

This book focuses on the lives and works of two of the very first women of European American ancestry to practice architecture in North America during the 19th century. Mother Joseph du Sacre-Coeur, a Sister of Providence - born Esther Pariseau, in St. Elzar, Quebec - is credited with works built in the present states of Washington, Idaho, Montana, northern Oregon, and in the province of British Columbia. For her contributions, Mother Joseph was honored by the State of Washington as one of two people to represent it in the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, DC. Louise Blanchard Bethune designed and built works in the Buffalo, New York area. Storming the Old Boys' Citadel follows the evolving histories of two Revival-styled multiuse public buildings considered to be these women's major works. Listed on the United States' National Register of Historic Places, they have both continued to function, with extensive additions and other changes made to each architect's original structure, for the communities where their architects lived. The book addresses issues of lost or hidden North American history.