Eleanor Raymond
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Eleanor Raymond (March 4 1887 – July 24 1989) was an American architect. During a professional career spanning some sixty years of practice, mainly in residential housing, Raymond explored the use of innovative materials and building systems. Much of her work was commissioned by women from her social group in Boston and
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
. One client called her “an architect who combines a respect for tradition with a disrespect for its limitations.” The author of a monograph on her life praised her work for its "subtle simplicity without succumbing to architectural exhibitionism". She designed one of the first International Style houses in the United States in 1931, a plywood house in 1940, and the “Sun House”, in 1948. Raymond undertook one of her most ambitious works, the
Dover Sun House Dover Sun House was one of the world's first solar-heated houses. It was designed by architect Eleanor Raymond and had a heating system developed by physicist Mária Telkes. In 1948, Mária Telkes and architect Eleanor Raymond began working on the ...
, an innovative house with solar collectors, with scientist and inventor Maria Telkes from the MIT Solar Laboratory. Eleanor Raymond amassed more than 50 years of professional experience in the practice of architecture and in 1961 was made a fellow of the
American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...
.


Early life and education

Raymond was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1887, and graduated with a bachelor's degree from
Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...
in 1909. In 1927, Raymond traveled in Europe, visiting France, England, Germany and Italy. Here she saw the places that had formed the backdrop of her college studies, the parks, villas, churches, towns, and cities that were to quicken her interest in gardens and buildings. Inspired by her Wellesley landscape course and her travels to Europe, she now wished to continue her study of landscape architecture. After graduation, she enrolled in the
Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture The Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture—previously known as the Cambridge School of Architectural and Landscape Design for Women and then as Cambridge School of Domestic and Landscape Architecture for Women—was an educat ...
, a school that was then closely affiliated with Harvard’s School of Architecture. She was among five women architectural design students of
Henry Atherton Frost Henry Atherton Frost, (February 8, 1883 – May 26, 1952) was an American architect and instructor at Harvard University. He was largely responsible for inaugurating and overseeing an early graduate program in architecture and landscape architec ...
and
Bremer Whidden Pond Bremer Whidden Pond (June 23, 1884 – September 2, 1959) was an American landscape architect and professor at Harvard University. He was deeply involved with two early graduate programs in landscape architecture for women: the Cambridge School of ...
in 1915, the school's first year of operation. It was there that she developed her lifelong interest in the relationship between architecture and landscape architecture. She graduated from the school in 1919. In 1919 she opened an office in partnership with
Henry Atherton Frost Henry Atherton Frost, (February 8, 1883 – May 26, 1952) was an American architect and instructor at Harvard University. He was largely responsible for inaugurating and overseeing an early graduate program in architecture and landscape architec ...
and in 1928 she began her own office in Boston, Massachusetts. These offices produced a domestic architecture that was noteworthy at that time and is even more relevant to the concerns of architecture today.


Personal life

Raymond took part in a number of social movements of her day, including the
women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
movement and the
settlement house The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and s ...
movement. It was through a suffragist organization that she met her life partner, Ethel B. Power, who went on to attend and graduate from the Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture as well. Raymond and Power — who became a longtime editor for ''
House Beautiful ''House Beautiful'' is an interior decorating magazine that focuses on decorating and the domestic arts. First published in 1896, it is currently published by the Hearst Corporation, who began publishing it in 1934. It is the oldest still-publish ...
'' magazine — remained together for more than half a century, until Power's death in 1969. Raymond renovated a townhouse at 112 Charles St. in Boston as a group home for herself, Power, and other women. It was planned for the needs of businesswomen who required some work space at home and who needed the house to be as "self-running" as possible, which led to a reduction in the footprints of both dining room and kitchen.


Architectural work

On graduating, Raymond joined Frost's practice as his sole partner (she had previously been working for him as a draftsperson while a student). Raymond opened her own office in 1928 after working with Frost for several years. She was drawn to the simple vernacular structures expressive of rural American life, avoiding the grand facades and the exclusively modern styles that were popular with her contemporaries. In 1931, after five years of work, Raymond published ''Early Domestic Architecture of Pennsylvania'', in which she explored what she called the “unstudied directness in fitting form to function” of very early American architecture. The book was one of the first systematic inventories of vernacular American architecture and defined Raymond’s career. Raymond became increasingly known for primarily residential designs that took cues from early American architecture, as well as for her restoration and remodeling work, which approached modern-day
adaptive reuse Adaptive reuse refers to the process of reusing an existing building for a purpose other than which it was originally built or designed for. It is also known as recycling and conversion. Adaptive reuse is an effective strategy for optimizing the o ...
. Raymond always worked within the “three fields” of a house — the exterior, interior, and landscape — and maintained that the architect must always know how the client will use the house. Much of her work was commissioned by women from her social group in Boston and
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
. One client called her “an architect who combines a respect for tradition with a disrespect for its limitations.” The author of a monograph on her life praised her work for its "subtle simplicity without succumbing to architectural exhibitionism". In her fusion of European and American influences, some scholars see Raymond as attempting to create a kind of regional modernism. The Rachel Raymond House (built for her sister in 1931 and demolished in 2006), for example, fuses the stark International-Style rectilinear forms of the exterior with an interior rich in traditional built-in cupboards, decorative wood trim, and antique hardware. The Rachel Raymond House was a manifestation of a Northeastern regional modernism that predates by six years a Lincoln, Massachusetts, house by
Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...
that is often singled out as the first manifestation of an American regional modernism. With physical chemist
Mária Telkes Mária Telkes (December 12, 1900 – December 2, 1995) was a Hungarian-American biophysicist and inventor who worked on solar energy technologies. She moved to the United States in 1925 to work as a biophysicist. She became an American citizen i ...
, Raymond designed the
Dover Sun House Dover Sun House was one of the world's first solar-heated houses. It was designed by architect Eleanor Raymond and had a heating system developed by physicist Mária Telkes. In 1948, Mária Telkes and architect Eleanor Raymond began working on the ...
in 1948 about 20 miles outside of Boston. The Dover Sun House was an "all-solar house" and had a bank of glass plate heat collectors. It used Telkes' phase-change system to collect and store solar energy. The project was funded by
philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
and
sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
Amelia Peabody Amelia Peabody Emerson is the protagonist of the Amelia Peabody series, a series of historical mystery novels written by author Elizabeth Peters (a pseudonym of Egyptologist Barbara Mertz, 1927–2013). Peabody is married to Egyptologist Radcliff ...
, and built on her property in
Dover, Massachusetts Dover is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,923 at the time of the 2020 United States Census. With a median income of more than $250,000, Dover is one of the wealthiest towns in Massachusetts. Located abou ...
. Raymond was a member of the
American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...
, and in 1961 was elected an AIA fellow. In 1977 her work was exhibited in Women in American Architecture at the Brooklyn Museum.


Death and legacy

Raymond died in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 4, 1989, at the age of 102. A collection of Raymond's blueprints, papers, diaries, letters, and scrapbooks documenting some 200 of her buildings are held by the Harvard Graduate School of Design. A portfolio of materials about her architectural work is held by the museum Historic New England and includes a number of articles by Power about Raymond.


Significant works

* Cleaves House ( 1919) * TZE House (1922) * 112 Charles St. (ca. 1923) * High Spruces House (1929) * Barnes House Renovation (1929) * Rachel Raymond House (1931) (demolished) * Peabody Farm Buildings (1934) * Sugarman House (1935) * Elliott House (1935-1936) * Frost House (1935) * Miller House (1936) * Glaser House, Cambridge, MA (1937) * Pillsbury House (1937) * Horace W. Frost House (1935) * Farnsworth House (1939) * Plywood House (1940) * Peabody Plywood House (1940-1941) (demolished) * Parker Plywood House (1941, 1945-1946) * Hammond Compound (1941-1942) * Peabody Sun-Heated House (1948) *
Dover Sun House Dover Sun House was one of the world's first solar-heated houses. It was designed by architect Eleanor Raymond and had a heating system developed by physicist Mária Telkes. In 1948, Mária Telkes and architect Eleanor Raymond began working on the ...
(1948) * Pope House (1949-1950) * Meyer House (1958) * Nichols Factory Addition (1959-1960) * Damon House (1961) * Baxter-Ward Antique Shop (1970) * Peabody Westville Sporthaus (1972) * Smith House (1973)


Publications

* Eleanor Raymond. ''Early Domestic Architecture of Pennsylvania''. 1931


Recent Scholarship on Eleanor Raymond

* Sarah Allaback, ''The First American Women Architects.'' Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008. * Murphy, Kevin D. "The vernacular moment: Eleanor Raymond, Walter Gropius, and New England Modernism between the Wars" in
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians The ''Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians'' () is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the University of California Press on behalf of the Society of Architectural Historians. It was established in 1941 as the ''J ...
, 2011 Sept., v.70, n.3, p. 308-329. DOI: 10.1525


Notes and references


External links


Pioneering Women of American Architecture, Eleanor Raymond
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raymond, Eleanor 1887 births 1989 deaths American centenarians Architects from Cambridge, Massachusetts Fellows of the American Institute of Architects American women architects Wellesley College alumni 20th-century American architects Women centenarians People from Beacon Hill, Boston 20th-century American women